Floria Gueï (; born 2 May 1990) is a French sprint

athlete An athlete is most commonly a person who competes in one or more sports involving physical strength, speed, power, or endurance. Sometimes, the word "athlete" is used to refer specifically to sport of athletics competitors, i.e. including track ...

of Ivorian origin specialising in the

400 metres The 400 metres, or 400-meter dash, is a sprint event in track and field competitions. It has been featured in the athletics programme at the Summer Olympics since 1896 for men and since 1964 for women. On a standard outdoor running track, it is ...

. A 2016 European Championships silver medallist and a 2017 European Indoor Championships gold medallist, she also won as a member of women's 4 × 400 m relays a bronze at the 2013 World Championships and medals at several other international competitions. Gueï is known for her remarkable last leg at the 2014 European Championships relay final, when she went from fourth to first in the last 50 metres of the race.

Career

Gueï has won 4 medals in the 4 × 400 metres relay at the consecutive

European Championships A European Championship is the top level international sports competition between European athletes or sports teams representing their respective countries or professional sports clubs. In the plural, the European Championships also refers t ...

in 2012-18; three silver and a gold in 2014. She was first selected for the event's French A team in 2010, when she ran in the heats. In August 2014 at the

in Zurich Floria Gueï ran one of the most remarkable final legs of a 4 × 400 m relay ever seen. She took the baton in fourth place approximately a second behind the three leading runners from the UK, Russia and Ukraine, each of whom had run faster than Gueï in the individual 400 m event at the Championships. With 200 m remaining she still appeared out of medal contention but finished with a sprint in which she passed all the other athletes in the last 50 m to win the race for France at the last stride by 0.05 seconds. Her time for the leg was 49.71, almost two seconds faster than her personal best of 51.42 at the time, prompting the exclamation from an ecstatic French TV commentator "but that is not possible!" (mais ce n'est pas possible!). In July 2016, Gueï won a silver medal in the 400 metres at the

. She won a gold medal in the event at the 2017 European Indoor Championships. In July 2017, Gueï announced her withdrawal from the 2017 World Championships due to medical issues. In July 2018, she finished second in the 400 metres at the

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the name is ...

, and returned later that evening to anchor the 4 × 400 metres relay with remarkable run, pulling France from a distant fifth to take a bronze medal. In February 2019, Gueï announced her pregnancy on her Instagram account, and gave birth to a boy on 23 April. She then returned to training, and took part in two competitions in 2020. She qualified for the 4 × 400 m relay at the 2021's

2020 Tokyo Olympics The officially the and officially branded as were an international multi-sport event that was held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some of the preliminary sporting events beginning on 21 July 2021. Tokyo ...

Achievements

International competitions

Circuit wins

Diamond League The Diamond League is an annual series of elite track and field athletic competitions comprising fifteen invitational athletics meetings. The series sits in the top tier of the World Athletics one-day meet competitions. The inaugural season was ...

meetings **

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

(1) (400 m): Birmingham British Grand Prix

National titles

French Athletics Championships The French Athletics Championships () is an annual outdoor track and field competition organised by the Fédération française d'athlétisme (FFA; French Athletics Federation), which serves as the French national championships for the sport. The ...

** 400 m (4): 2013, 2015, 2016, 2018
Four-times runner-up in the distance (2012, 2014, 2017, 2021). ** 400 m indoor (1): 2011

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Guei, Floria 1990 births Living people French sportspeople of Ivorian descent French female sprinters Sportspeople from Nantes Athletes from Pays de la Loire Emlyon Business School alumni Athletes (track and field) at the 2012 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2016 Summer Olympics Olympic athletes for France European Athletics Championships medalists World Athletics Championships athletes for France Black French sportspeople Athletes (track and field) at the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic female sprinters 21st-century French sportswomen