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| Birth Name(s) : Carolina Kluft |
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Full Carolina Kluft Biography
Carolina Evelyn Klüft (Swedish IPA: ) (born February 2, 1983) is a Swedish athlete competing in heptathlon, long jump and pentathlon. She is the current Olympic, World (three-time) and European (twice) heptathlon champion and is regarded as one of the best female athletes in the world. She is also the European record holder for heptathlon with a personal best of 7,032 points. This score ranks her second on the all-time heptathlon points score list, only behind Jackie Joyner-Kersee who set the world record of 7,291 points. Since 2002-09-16, Klüft has been continuously ranked as the world's leading heptathlete, by the IAAF. She is the only athlete ever to win three world titles in heptathlon.
Klüft has a perfect physique for multi-events - tall and lean for the running and jumping events but also powerful enough to perform well in the shot put and javelin. She has always had natural ability in the jumping events, sprinting and hurdles, and has steadily improved in the throwing events and 800 m and now has no weaknesses across the seven events. This is demonstrated by her finishing in the top six in all disciplines of the 2007 World Championship heptathlon.
She is also normally a member of the Swedish 4 x 100 m relay team at international competitions, and was part of the team that set the national record.
When she's not training or competing she is a student at the University of Växjö, studying Peace and Development. She has visited areas of Sri Lanka hit by the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami to make a film for Swedish TV and also sponsors children in Africa.
She is part of Reebok's "I am what I am" advertising campaign along with several other sports stars. She has been the focus of poster photography for Reebok, taken by celebrity photographer Jason Bell.
A massive score of 4933 points secured the pentathlon title at the 2003 World Indoor Championships. Klüft followed this with personal bests and victories in the heptathlons in Götzis and Tallinn.
She excelled even more by winning her first major outdoor title, the heptathlon at the 2003 World Championships in Athletics in Paris with a score of 7,001 points, ahead of Eunice Barber, who had 6,755 points. Klüft thus became the third woman ever to break the 7,000 point barrier in the heptathlon. She set six personal bests in the seven disciplines including a 1.94m high jump and an exceptional 200m of 22.98s. At one stage she was on the brink of elimination from the competition after overstepping on the first two of her three long jump attempts but ended up recording the best jump of the competition with 6.68m. She was later awarded Waterford Crystal European Athlete of the Year Trophy 2003. That same year, Klüft also received the Svenska Dagbladet Gold Medal.
She went on to win the heptathlon gold medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens with a score of 6,952 points. She took the lead after the high jump and extended her lead after every event from then on. With Eunice Barber absent through injury, Klüft won by an Olympic record margin of 517 points, ahead of Austra Skujyte. She also entered the long jump, qualifying for the final but finishing 11th.
The day before the 2005 World Championships in Athletics in Helsinki, Klüft injured her foot. The injury affected her performance, particularly in the high jump which was a clearance of only 1.82m. Klüft fell well behind Eunice Barber but made a comeback with a personal best shot put of 15.02 m and then took the lead after the 200 m. She then stretched her lead with a good long jump effort of 6.87 m, and held on to an advantage of only 18 points after the javelin. She overtook Barber at the end of the 800m to retain the title. Klüft totaled 6,887 points, finishing ahead of Barber who took the silver medal with 6,824 points.
She chose not to compete at the 2006 World Indoor Championships in order to prepare for the European Championships, to be staged on home soil in Sweden. Klüft won again in Götzis, and in Arles but without showing good form.
She managed to defend her title at the 2006 European Athletics Championships with a score of 6,740 points, despite having been hampered by injuries throughout her preparation. She performed well below her best but still won comfortably following the withdrawal of her rival Barber after the high jump. Klüft went on to compete in the individual long jump but again struggled for form, finishing 6th.
Chances were good that Klüft would be able to make history at the World Championships in Osaka, becoming the only woman to win three world titles in the heptathlon. However, she faced strong competition from Lyudmila Blonska of Ukraine, who had, earlier in the year, set the world best heptathlon score of 2007.
Klüft started the first day by equalling her Personal Best of 13.15 in the 100 m Hurdles and a new Personal Best of 1.95 in the High Jump. Solid performances of 14.81 in the shot put and 23.38 in the 200 m followed, for Klüft to hold the lead from Blonska after day one, with 4162 points.
On the second day, Klüft recorded a long jump of 6.85, threw 47.98m in the javelin and ran 2:12.56 in the 800 metres to claim her third World Championship gold. She posted a personal best points score of 7,032, putting her second on the all time list, and beating Larisa Turchinskaya's 18 year old European record. |
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