Mujinga Kambundji (born 17 June 1992) is a Swiss sprinter. She won the bronze medal in the

200 metres The 200 metres, or 200-meter dash, is a sprint running event. On an outdoor 400 metre racetrack, the race begins on the curve and ends on the home straight, so a combination of techniques is needed to successfully run the race. A slightl ...

at the 2019 World Championships. Kambundji is the

60 metres 60 metres, or 60-meter dash, is a sprint event in track and field. It is a championship event for indoor championships, normally dominated by the best outdoor 100 metres runners. At outdoor venues it is a rare distance, at least for senior ath ...

2022 World indoor champion, becoming the joint fourth-fastest woman of all time in the event, after earning a bronze in

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

. She is a three-time

European Championships The European Championships is a multi-sport tournament which brings together the existing European Championships of some of the continent's leading sports every four years. The inaugural edition in 2018 was staged by the host cities of Berlin, ...

medallist, with gold for the 200 m and silver for the

100 m The 100 metres, or 100-meter dash, is a sprint race in track and field competitions. The shortest common outdoor running distance, the dash is one of the most popular and prestigious events in the sport of athletics. It has been conteste ...

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretariat; The global monkeypo ...

, and bronze for the 100 m in

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. At the

European Indoor Championships The European Indoor Championships was a men's tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that ...

, she earned gold in the 60 m in

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and bronze in

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a s ...

. Kambundji is the Swiss record holder for the 100 m and 200 m, and the Swiss indoor record holder for the 60 m. She won almost 30 national titles.

Early life and family

Born in Bern to a Congolese father, Safuka, and a

Bernese Bernese is the adjectival form for the canton of Bern or for Bern. Bernese may also refer to: * Bernese German, a Swiss German dialect of Alemannic origin generally spoken in the canton of Bern and its capital, and in some neighbouring regions * ...

mother, Ruth, Mujinga Kambundji is the second of four children. Her younger sister Ditaji is also an international athlete and has represented Switzerland at the

2020 Tokyo Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the ...

Career

In 2009, Kambundji won the silver medal in the

100 metres The 100 metres, or 100-meter dash, is a sprint race in track and field competitions. The shortest common outdoor running distance, the dash is one of the most popular and prestigious events in the sport of athletics. It has been conteste ...

and the gold medal in the 4 × 100 m relay at the

European Youth Olympic Festival The European Youth Olympic Festival (EYOF) is a biennial multi-sport event for youth (14 to 18 years old) athletes from the 50 member countries of the association of European Olympic Committees. The festival has a summer edition, held for the fi ...

, and gold medals in the 100 and

at the Swiss championships. For this, she was elected Swiss Athlete of the Year by the Swiss Athletics Association. In 2010, she won the 200 m in the Second League of the European Team Championships, and broke the Swiss U20 record in the event at the U20 World Championships. Kambundji trained with the ST Bern athletics club and was coached by Jacques Cordey. In the autumn of 2013 she moved to

Mannheim Mannheim (; Palatine German: or ), officially the University City of Mannheim (german: Universitätsstadt Mannheim), is the second-largest city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg after the state capital of Stuttgart, and Germany's ...

to train under coach Valerij Bauer alongside former European champion

Verena Sailer Verena Sailer (born 16 October 1985 in Illertissen) is a retired German sprinter, who specialised in the 100 metres. Her personal best time is 11.02 seconds, achieved in August 2013. She won the gold medal at the 2010 European Athletics Champions ...

. At the

2014 European Athletics Championships The 2014 European Athletics Championships was held in Zürich, Switzerland, between 12 and 17 August 2014. It was the first time that Switzerland had hosted the European Athletics Championships since 1954. Great Britain headed the medal table, wi ...

Zürich , neighboring_municipalities = Adliswil, Dübendorf, Fällanden, Kilchberg, Maur, Oberengstringen, Opfikon, Regensdorf, Rümlang, Schlieren, Stallikon, Uitikon, Urdorf, Wallisellen, Zollikon , twintowns = Kunming, San Francisco Z ...

, she broke her own national record in the heats and semi-finals of the 100 metres competition before finishing fourth in the final. She subsequently finished fifth and broke Regula Aebi's 26-year-old national record in the

final. Kambundji qualified for the Swiss team at the

2016 Summer Olympics ) , nations = 207 (including IOA and EOR teams) , athletes = 11,238 , events = 306 in 28 sports (41 disciplines) , opening = 5 August 2016 , closing = 21 August 2016 , opened_by = Vice President Michel Temer , cauldron = Vanderlei Cordeiro de ...

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

, reaching the semi-finals of both the

and the

200 m The 200 metres, or 200-meter dash, is a sprint running event. On an outdoor 400 metre racetrack, the race begins on the curve and ends on the home straight, so a combination of techniques is needed to successfully run the race. A slightl ...

events. Earlier in the same year, she had won bronze in the 100 m competition at the

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

. At the 2017 World Championships in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, Kambundji finished 10th in the 100 m competition. In the 4 × 100 m relay event, she and her teammates

Ajla Del Ponte Ajla Del Ponte (born 15 July 1996) is a Swiss sprinter. She competed in the women's 4 × 100 metres relay event at the 2016 Summer Olympics and at the 2017 World Championships in London. She won the women's 60 metres at the 2021 European Ath ...

, Sarah Atcho and Salomé Kora improved the national record in the semi-finals and finished fifth in the final. At the end of the year, Kambundji announced that she will work with Dutch coach Henk Kraaijenhof in the future. Their working relationship was terminated after only two months, however. At the 2018 World Indoor Championships in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the We ...

, Kambundji finished third in the 60 m final to win bronze. At the

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitu ...

, she finished fourth in the

as well as in the

and in the 4 × 100 m relay (with

, Sarah Atcho and Salomé Kora). At the 2019 World Championships held in

Doha Doha ( ar, الدوحة, ad-Dawḥa or ''ad-Dōḥa'') is the capital city and main financial hub of Qatar. Located on the Persian Gulf coast in the east of the country, north of Al Wakrah and south of Al Khor (city), Al Khor, it is home to m ...

, Qatar, Kambundji finished third in the 200 m competition. At the delayed

, Kambundji qualified for the finals in both 100 m and 200 m sprints, finishing sixth in the

former A former is an object, such as a template, gauge or cutting die, which is used to form something such as a boat's hull. Typically, a former gives shape to a structure that may have complex curvature. A former may become an integral part of the ...

and seventh in the latter event. She was also part of the Swiss 4 x 100 m relay team that finished fourth in the final. She won the gold medal in the 60 m at the 2022 World Indoor Championships held in

Belgrade Belgrade ( , ;, ; names in other languages) is the capital and largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and the crossroads of the Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. Nearly 1,166,763 mi ...

in a time of 6.96 seconds, putting her joint-fourth on the world all-time list; a rare feat racing from lane eight. No woman had run faster over the distance since 1999. On 19 August 2022, Kambundji won the gold medal in the 200 m at the

European Athletics Championships The European Athletics Championships is a biennial (from 2010) athletics event organised by the European Athletics Association and is recognised as the elite continental outdoor athletics championships for Europe. Editions First held, for men ...

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and ...

with a time of 22.32 s, after winning silver in the 100 m in 10.99 s behind Germany's Gina Lückenkemper three days earlier.

Miscellaneous

ETH Zurich (colloquially) , former_name = eidgenössische polytechnische Schule , image = ETHZ.JPG , image_size = , established = , type = Public , budget = CHF 1.896 billion (2021) , rector = Günther Dissertori , president = Joël Mesot , a ...

student organization Swissloop's entry to the 2018 edition of the Hyperloop competition was a transport capsule named Mujinga, after Kambundji.

Achievements

Personal bests

International competitions

¹Did not finish in the final

National titles

* Swiss Athletics Championships **

: 2009, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2021, 2022 **

: 2009, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2019 * Swiss Indoor Athletics Championships **

indoor: 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2022, 2023 **

indoor: 2011

References

External links

* * *
Competition records of Mujinga Kambundji, European Athletics AssociationCompetition records of Mujinga Kambundji, ST Bern
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kambundji, Mujinga Living people Swiss female sprinters Sportspeople from Bern 1992 births Athletes (track and field) at the 2012 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2016 Summer Olympics Olympic athletes for Switzerland Swiss people of Democratic Republic of the Congo descent World Athletics Championships athletes for Switzerland World Athletics Championships medalists World Athletics Indoor Championships winners European Athletics Championships winners Athletes (track and field) at the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic female sprinters 20th-century Swiss women 21st-century Swiss women