Nafissatou Thiam at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games (© Dan Vernon)
As the year draws to a close, we look back at the key moments of 2024 in each area of the sport.
The series continues with a review of the combined events and will be followed over the coming days by reviews of other event groups.
Women’s heptathlon
Season top list
| 6880 | Nafissatou Thiam (BEL) | Paris | 9 August |
| 6844 | Katarina Johnson-Thompson (GBR) | Paris | 9 August |
| 6707 | Noor Vidts (BEL) | Paris | 9 August |
| 6642 | Anouk Vetter (NED) | Gotzis | 19 May |
| 6639 | Annik Kalin (SUI) | Paris | 9 August |
World Athletics rankings
| 1 | Nafissatou Thiam (BEL) | 1440 |
| 2 | Katarina Johnson-Thompson (GBR) | 1411 |
| 3 | Noor Vidts (BEL) | 1378 |
| 4 | Anna Hall (USA) | 1344 |
| 5 | Annik Kalin (SUI) | 1335 |
Olympic medallists
| 🥇 | Nafissatou Thiam (BEL) | 6880 |
| 🥈 | Katarina Johnson-Thompson (GBR) | 6844 |
| 🥉 | Noor Vidts (BEL) | 6707 |
| Full results | ||
Major winners
Olympic Games: Nafissatou Thiam (BEL) 6880
World Indoor Championships (pentathlon): Noor Vidts (BEL) 4773
World Athletics Combined Events Tour: Michelle Atherley (USA) 3466
African Championships: Odile Ahouanwanou (BEN) 5777
European Championships: Nafissatou Thiam (BEL) 6848
Oceanian Championships: Camryn Newton-Smith (AUS) 6070
World U20 Championships: Jana Koscak (CRO) 5807
Season snapshot
- Belgium’s Nafissatou Thiam retained her Olympic heptathlon title for a second time at the Paris 2024 Games, despite the monumental extended challenge of Britain’s world champion Katarina Johnson-Thompson. Thiam finished just 36 points clear of the Briton, 6880 points to 6844, to become the first combined events athlete to win three Olympic gold medals. It was just one point more than her smallest winning margin, set when she beat another Briton, defending champion Jessica Ennis-Hill, to gold at the Rio 2016 Games.
Paris 2024 medallists Katarina Johnson-Thompson, Nafissatou Thiam and Noor Vidts (© Dan Vernon)
- The lead in Paris swapped throughout between the two principal contenders. Johnson-Thompson went ahead after matching Thiam’s 1.92m in the high jump. Thiam took over after an outdoor personal best of 15.54m in the shot, but Johnson-Thompson stayed within 50 points after adding half a metre to her personal best with 14.44m, and a 23.44 clocking saw her regain the lead overnight by 48 points. The Briton maintained a 45-point lead after a long jump of 6.40m, with Thiam managing one centimetre more. But in the penultimate event of the javelin the Belgian took the initiative with her first throw, recording the top effort of 54.04m, a season’s best. Johnson-Thompson hung in doggedly, however, with a season’s best of 45.49m on her third and final effort.
- It all came down to the 800m. Thiam went into the final event with a 121-point lead, which translated to around 8.3 seconds. Her personal best was only six seconds slower than Johnson-Thompson’s. In an excruciating finale, Johnson-Thompson took almost a second off her best with 2:04.90 but Thiam also produced the race of her life, clocking a personal best of 2:10.62 to reach her highest Olympic total. It was just enough. Johnson-Thompson claimed her first Olympic medal with her second-best score behind the British record of 6981 she set in winning the 2019 world title. Thiam’s compatriot Noor Vidts earned her first major outdoor medal as she took bronze with a personal best of 6707.
- For the first time, five women bettered 6600 as Annik Kalin finished fourth with a Swiss record of 6639 and Anna Hall of the United States was fifth with 6615.
- At the World Indoor Championships in Glasgow, Vidts had become the first woman to retain the pentathlon title. Her time of 2:12.99 for third place in the concluding 800m saw her win convincingly with 4773 points, a 2024 world lead. Finland’s 20-year-old rising talent Saga Vanninen took silver with a national record of 4677, with Sofie Dokter of the Netherlands beating Italy’s Sveva Gerevini to bronze by 12 points. Earlier the promising title bid of Spain’s 22-year-old Maria Vicente had ended traumatically when she ruptured her achilles tendon in the high jump.
- The gold, silver and bronze medallists at Paris 2024 finished respectively first, second and third in the 2024 overall list. Thiam had warmed up for the Olympics by winning her third consecutive European title in a championship record of 6848, with Vidts taking bronze. Michelle Atherley of the United States won the overall women’s title in the World Athletics Combined Events Tour from fellow US athlete Taliyah Brooks, by 3466 points to 3421.
Men’s decathlon
Season top list
| 8961 | Leo Neugebauer (GER) | Eugene | 6 June |
| 8796 | Markus Rooth (NOR) | Paris | 3 August |
| 8764 | Johannes Erm (EST) | Rome | 11 June |
| 8732 | Ayden Owens-Delerme (PUR) | Walnut | 18 April |
| 8711 | Lindon Victor (GRN) | Paris | 3 August |
World Athletics rankings
| 1 | Leo Neugebauer (GER) | 1414 |
| 2 | Markus Rooth (NOR) | 1398 |
| 3 | Lindon Victor (GRN) | 1390 |
| 4 | Johannes Erm (EST) | 1370 |
| 5 | Sven Roosen (NED) | 1361 |
Olympic medallists
| 🥇 | Markus Rooth (NOR) | 8796 NR |
| 🥈 | Leo Neugebauer (GER) | 8748 |
| 🥉 | Lindon Victor (GRN) | 8711 |
| Full results | ||
Major winners
Olympic Games: Markus Rooth (NOR) 8796
World Indoor Championships (heptathlon): Simon Ehammer (SUI) 6418
World Athletics Combined Events Tour: Johannes Erm (EST) 3661
European Championships: Johannes Erm (EST) 8764
African Championships: Larbi Bourrada (ALG) 7447
Oceanian Championships: Ashley Moloney (AUS) 8182
World U20 Championships: Tomas Jarvinen (CZE) 8764
Season snapshot
- Markus Rooth, 22, won gold at the Paris 2024 Olympics with a Norwegian record of 8796 points ahead of Germany’s Leo Neugebauer on 8748 and Lindon Victor of Grenada on 8711. Canada’s world champion Pierce LePage did not make it to Paris due to injury, and on the eve of competition home hope Kevin Mayer, the two-time world champion and world record-holder, also withdrew injured. There was more drama to come in a decathlon where all three medallists exceeded 8700 for only the second time in Olympic history – and which saw 10 men break 8400 for the first time ever.
Markus Rooth in the decathlon 1500m at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games (© Getty Images)
- Neugebauer led overnight on 4650 ahead of Puerto Rico’s Ayden Owens-Delerme on 4608, Rooth’s 22-year-old compatriot Sander Skotheim – who had produced a first 8.00m-plus effort of 8.03m to top the long jump – on 4588 and Canada’s defending champion Damian Warner on 4561. Rooth stood seventh on 4459 – his best ever day-one score. An Olympic decathlon best discus throw of 53.91m moved Victor up to fourth behind Neugebauer, Warner and Skotheim – before calamity befell the latter two athletes in the pole vault. First Skotheim failed at his opening height of 4.50m, then Warner did likewise at 4.60m. Rooth, meanwhile, added 20cm to his personal best to finish on the top height of 5.30m.
- The javelin – topped by Germany’s Niklas Kaul with an Olympic decathlon best of 77.78m – saw Rooth register a personal best of 66.87m to go into the final 1500m event 16 points clear of Neugebauer and 60 points ahead of Victor. As the fastest runner of the three, Rooth could feel confident of finishing ahead of his rivals for the title. And his chances were further improved as he was effectively paced by Skotheim, who had continued in competition despite losing all medal hopes. He clocked 4:39.56, with Neugebauer confirming silver in 4:44.67 and Victor finishing in 4:43.53. Skotheim received the International Fair Play Award in December as part of the World Athletics Awards 2024.
- Skotheim’s Olympic preparations had seen him win silver at the World Indoor Championships in Glasgow behind Switzerland’s Simon Ehammer and in the European Athletics Championships in Rome behind Johannes Erm of Estonia. With a personal best of 8.45m and a world bronze medal from 2022, Ehammer had expectations of major long jump gains in Glasgow. But he had failed to register a mark the previous year at the Gotzis meeting and the European Indoor Championships. This time he topped the event with 8.03m. A best of 5.20m in the pole vault – where Rooth’s medal chances ended as he injured himself – saw Ehammer go into the concluding 1000m with a 140-point lead. A personal best of 2:46.03 ensured gold as he finished with a Swiss indoor record of 6418. Erm took bronze.
- Neugebauer finished the season topping the decathlon list thanks to his score of 8961 at the NCAA Championships in Eugene on 6 June. Rooth was second with his Paris 2024 total of 8796, with Erm third in a personal best of 8764, set when winning the European title in Rome on 11 June. Erm, sixth in the Olympics, finished his season by winning the overall World Athletics Combined Events Tour. A third-place finish at Gotzis in the third of the six featured meetings – behind winner Warner and Sven Roosen of the Netherlands – was followed by victory in the concluding Decastar meeting in Talence. That was enough for him to top the standings with 3661 points, with Skotheim second on 3624 and Heath Baldwin of the United States third on 3614.
Mike Rowbottom for World Athletics
