Zuzana Hejnová (; born 19 December 1986) is a retired Czech

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 ...

who specialised in the

400 metres hurdles The 400 metres hurdles is a track and field hurdling event. The event has been on the Summer Olympics, Olympic Sport of athletics, athletics programme since 1900 Summer Olympics, 1900 for men and since 1984 Summer Olympics, 1984 for women. On a ...

. She won the silver medal in the event at the

2012 London Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

. Hejnová is a two-time World Champion, having claimed titles at the

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

and

2015 World Championships in Athletics The 2015 IAAF World Championships ( zh, 第十五届世界田径锦标赛), the fifteenth edition of the IAAF World Championships, were held from 22 to 30 August at the National Stadium in Beijing, China. Forty-three nations won medals, 144 of ...

. She won bronze at the 2012 European Championships and silver for 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 ...

at the 2017 European Indoor Championships. At age 16, Hejnová earned the gold medal in her specialist event at the 2003 World Under-18 Championships to take a silver at the 2004 World U20 Championships. She also won bronze and gold at the

2003 2003 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Fresh water, Freshwater. In 2003, a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, invaded Iraq, starting the Iraq War. Demographic ...

and 2005 European U20 Championships respectively. She is a two-time

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 ...

400 m hurdles winner. Hejnová is the Czech record holder for the 400 m hurdles, and also holds national best in the 300 m hurdles. She is a four-time Czech outdoor champion ( 400 m, 400 m hurdles) and an eight-time national indoor champion (

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 slight ...

, 400 m,

pentathlon A pentathlon is a contest featuring five events. The name is derived from Greek language, Greek: combining the words ''pente'' (five) and -''athlon'' (competition) (). The first pentathlon was documented in Ancient Greece and was part of the Anci ...

). Her sister,

Michaela Michaela (Hebrew מיכאלה) is a female given name. It is a female form of the Hebrew name Michael (מִיכָאֵל), which means "Who is like God". As of 2008, it was 357th in rank for newborn girls in the United States, and 325th in Engla ...

, is also an Olympic athlete.

Junior

In 2003, Zuzana Hejnová competed at the

2003 World Youth Championships in Athletics The 2003 World Youth Championships in Athletics was the third edition of the international athletics competition for youth (under-18) athletes organised by the IAAF. It was held in Sherbrooke, Canada from the 9–13 July at the Université de Sh ...

Sherbrooke Sherbrooke ( , ) is a city in southern Quebec, Canada. It is at the confluence of the Saint-François River, Saint-François and Magog River, Magog rivers in the heart of the Estrie administrative region. Sherbrooke is also the name of a territ ...

, Canada and won the gold medal in the 400-metre hurdles with a time of 57.54. A year later, she returned at

Grosseto Grosseto () is a city and a ''comune'' in the central Italian region of Tuscany, the capital of the province of Grosseto and the main city of the Maremma region. The city lies from the Tyrrhenian Sea, at the centre of an alluvial plain on the ...

, Italy at the 2004 World Junior Championships. This time she won the silver with a time of 57.44 in the 400 m hurdles, defeated by the Russian, Ekaterina Kostetskaya, who won gold by a large margin at 55.55 seconds. Her current personal bests are 14.11 in the 100 m achieved at

Ostrava Ostrava (; ; ) is a city in the north-east of the Czech Republic and the capital of the Moravian-Silesian Region. It has about 283,000 inhabitants. It lies from the border with Poland, at the confluences of four rivers: Oder, Opava (river), Opa ...

on 3 September 2005; 13.77 in the 100 metres hurdles at Stará Boleslav on 13 June 2003; 53.04 in the 400 m at

Kladno Kladno (; ) is a city in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 70,000 inhabitants. It is the largest city in the region and has a rich industrial history. Administrative division Kladno consists of six municipal parts ...

on 28 June 2008; and 54.90 in the 400 m hurdles recorded at Monaco on 28 July 2009.

Career

2008

In early March 2008 Hejnová competed in the 400 metres at the

2008 IAAF World Indoor Championships The 2008 IAAF World Indoor Championships in Athletics were held at the Luis Puig Palace in Valencia, Spain, March 7–9, 2008. Bid Valencia was announced the winning bidder by the IAAF on November 13, 2005 at an IAAF Council meeting in Moscow, Rus ...

and reached the semi-finals but did not qualify to reach the final. She did however, reach the final with the Czech relay team in the

4 × 400 metres relay The 4 × 400 metres relay or long relay is an athletics track and field, track event in which teams consist of four runners who each complete 400 metres or one lap, totaling 1600 meters. It is traditionally the final event of ...

in a team which included her, Zuzana Bergrová, Denisa Ščerbová, and Jitka Bartoničková. They finished 4th, with a time of 3:34.53, but were over 5 seconds slower than the Americans who took bronze with a time of 3:29.30. On 21 June 2008, she competed for the Czech Republic at the 2008 European Cup in Athletics. Hejnová competed in the 400 metres hurdles at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. She qualified for the second round with the thirteenth fastest overall time of 55.91 seconds and for the final with 55.17. In the final she finished seventh with 54.97, only one hundredth behind her personal best at the time.

2011

She won the 400 metres hurdles at the European Team Championships with a new national record of 53.87 seconds. On 8 July 2011 she improved her national record to 53.29 seconds.

2012

At the

, Hejnová won originally the bronze medal for the women's 400 m hurdles, behind the winner, Russia's

Natalya Antyukh Natalya Nikolayevna Antyukh (, born 26 June 1981) is a Russian sprinter who specializes in the 400 metres and 400 metres hurdles. She won the bronze medal in the 400 metres and a silver for the 4 × 400 m relay at the 2004 Summer Olympics ...

, and

Lashinda Demus Lashinda Demus (born March 10, 1983, in Inglewood, California) is a retired American hurdler who specialized in the 400 meter hurdles, an event in which she was the 2011 world champion and 2012 Olympic gold medalist, becoming the first woman from ...

of the United States. In 2019, following a re-test of doping samples, Antyukh was disqualified with all her results 2013 onward deleted but her 2012 Olympic results were not affected. In October 2022, Antyukh's results from 15 July 2012 on were retroactively voided. In December, it was announced that she had been stripped of her title and Demus would be upgraded to gold in her place, with Hejnová then second.

2013

Hejnová won

races over 400 m Hurdles in Shanghai (53.79), Eugene (53.70), Oslo (53.60), Paris (53.23 NR), and London (53.07 NR). She also won races in Des Moines (54.41), Prague (54.55) and Ostrava (53.32). She secured maximum points for Czech Republic in the European Team Championships First League in Dublin by winning the 400 m in 51.90 seconds. On 15 August 2013 in Moscow, Hejnová became World Champion over 400 m hurdles with a new Czech record (52.83 NR).

2016

Despite winning her semi-final, Hejnová came fourth in the 400-metre hurdles at the 2016 Olympic Games in

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro, or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of Rio de Janeiro. It is the List of cities in Brazil by population, second-most-populous city in Brazil (after São Paulo) and the Largest cities in the America ...

. She threatened to sue

Czech Post Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus *Czech (surname ...

for 1 million koruna over the use of her likeness on a stamp celebrating the

2016 Olympic Games The 2016 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Rio 2016, were an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with preliminary events i ...

. The Court of Appeal found in favour of Hejnová, leading to Czech Post paying her an undisclosed settlement. After the Olympic Games, Hejnová switched to the German coach

Falk Balzer Falk Balzer (born 14 December 1973 in Leipzig) is a former German hurdler and the son of former East German hurdler Karin Balzer. He is best known for winning the silver medal at the 1998 European Championships in Budapest, Hungary and the br ...

2017

In 2017, Hejnová won the silver medal in the 400 meters at the

European Indoor Championships The European Indoor Championships was a men's tennis tournament played in Berlin, Germany. The event was played as part of the ATP Tour in 1990 and 1991. It was played on indoor carpet court A carpet court is a type of tennis court. The Intern ...

in Belgrade with a time of 52.42 seconds, finishing second behind the French athlete

Floria Gueï Floria Gueï (; born 2 May 1990) is a French sprint athlete of Ivorian origin specialising in the 400 metres. A 2016 European Championships silver medallist and a 2017 European Indoor Championships gold medallist, she also won as a member o ...

. After the 2017 indoor season, Balzer ended their collaboration and she switched to Dana Jandová.

Achievements

All information from

World Athletics World Athletics, formerly known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation and International Association of Athletics Federations and formerly abbreviated as the IAAF, is the international sports governing body, governing body for the sport ...

profile.

International competitions

Circuit wins and titles

overall winner 400 m hurdles (2): Diamond blue

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

:: 400 metres hurdles wins, other events specified in parentheses :*

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

(2): Oslo Bislett Games, Paris Meeting ( ) :*

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

(1): Monaco Herculis () :*

(7):

Shanghai Golden Grand Prix The Shanghai Diamond League is an annual athletics event at the Shanghai Stadium in Shanghai, China, as part of the Diamond League. The meeting was founded as the Shanghai Golden Grand Prix in 2005. The meet assumed its current name in 2010. Fr ...

(WL), Eugene Prefontaine Classic (WL), Oslo (SB), Paris (NR), London Anniversary Games (WL NR), Stockholm DN Galan (), Zürich Weltklasse :*

(4): Paris, London, Stockholm, Zürich :*

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

(3): Rabat Meeting International (SB), Birmingham Grand Prix (SB), Zürich (SB)

National titles

* Czech Athletics Championships **

: 2006, 2009 ** 400 m hurdles: 2018, 2020 * Czech Indoor Athletics Championships **

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 slight ...

: 2011 **

: 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2015, 2016 **

Pentathlon A pentathlon is a contest featuring five events. The name is derived from Greek language, Greek: combining the words ''pente'' (five) and -''athlon'' (competition) (). The first pentathlon was documented in Ancient Greece and was part of the Anci ...

: 2007

References

External links

* * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hejnova, Zuzana 1986 births Living people Sportspeople from Liberec Athletes from the Liberec Region Czech female hurdlers Czech female sprinters Athletes (track and field) at the 2008 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2012 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2016 Summer Olympics Olympic athletes for the Czech Republic Olympic bronze medalists for the Czech Republic European Athletics Championships medalists Medalists at the 2012 Summer Olympics World Athletics Championships athletes for the Czech Republic World Athletics Championships medalists Olympic bronze medalists in athletics (track and field) European Athlete of the Year winners Diamond League winners World Athletics Indoor Championships medalists World Athletics Championships winners Czech Athletics Championships winners