Meet Tanzanian Malaika who lightens German in Paris

PARIS, FRANCE: MALAIKA Mihambo put up a battling defence of her Olympic long jump title but the German had to give way to Tara Davis-Woodhall from the United States on Thursday evening.

Davis-Woodhall was the only jumper to surpass the seven-metre line, taking the lead in the second round with 7.05m before embellishing her advantage with a fourth-round mark of 7.10m.

Mihambo, who only qualified by virtue of a third-round jump in qualifying, responded to her American rival with 6.95m in the second round before improving marginally with 6.98m in the fifth round to move ahead of Olympic triple jump bronze medallist Jasmine Moore who led after the first round with 6.96m.

Mihambo famously won the Olympic title in Tokyo three years ago with her sixth-round jump of 7.00m but the German – who has been weakened by a bout of coronavirus after winning gold at the European Athletics Championships in Rome with a world lead of 7.22m – couldn’t quite rouse herself to another final round flourish, running through on her last attempt.

As Tanzania’s sights turned to athletics Alphonce Simbu and Gabriel Geay who compete in the men’s Marathon in Paris today, things could be a bit different if Mihambo who was born 3 February 1994 could represent her father’s native country Tanzania.

Her father Mihambo is Tanzanian and her mother Petra Mihambo-Fichtner is German.

This displays how Tanzania is blessed with the finest athletes in and outside the country who could turn it into medal-winning country at the Olympic Games.

The only missing link is a desire to utilise them or put in place a strategic plan to prepare strong athletes for the individual and country’s benefit.

The country has vast talent in and outside the country who can put the country into the spotlight.

However, Henry Tandau, a Tanzania Olympic Committee (TOC) vice chairman commenting about utilised talent living abroad, said it is necessary to know what the Olympic ‘movement’ is and how it works.

He said the responsibility to promote the respective game first belongs to the sports association of the respective discipline being close and identifying athletes.

“But how do they start scouting the player who is outside Tanzania? when he/she is young or when is already an accomplished athlete?

“When he/she has citizenship of another country and is not ready to shift to Tanzania citizenship as our Immigration laws require, how do you involve him in the national team? It is always going to be difficult,” he said.

However, Tandau said that many other questions need answers from all of us, (all stakeholders) before moving forward and ensure we recruit those who can highlight the country at the Olympics and other international assignments.

Career

Mihambo’s athletic career began around 2009, when at the age of 15 she became the German under-16 champion with the heptathlon team as well as setting a best performance with the 4×100 meters relay team that lasted until 2018.

In the long jump, she finished ninth at the 2011 World Youth Championships, then competed at the 2012 World Junior Championships and the 2013 World Championships, without reaching the final.

She also won the gold medal at the 2013 European Junior Championships and finished fourth at the 2014 European Championships.

Her first senior major event Mihambo won at the 2014 European Team Championships, setting a new championship record with a jump of 6.90 meters. In 2015, she won the gold medal at the European U23 Championships and finished sixth at the World Championships.

She narrowly missed a medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics, finishing fourth, but won the bronze medal at the 2016 European Athletics Championships.

Then a serious foot injury ruined her preparations for the 2017 World Championships. After difficult months with an uncertain sporting future, the injury was overcome, and she finished fifth at the World Indoor Championships.

With the gold medal at the 2018 European Athletics Championships, Mihambo’s star began to rise into the world’s top long jump. In 2019, she had her most successful season so far with a series of jumps over 7 metres.

She won the IAAF Diamond League and became world champion for the first time. In 2021 Mihambo was crowned Olympic champion at the Summer Olympics in Tokyo with a jump of 7.00 metres, [9] beating Brittney Reese and Ese Brume, both with 6.97 metres.

Mihambo experienced the preliminary highlight of her career as the first European to become a world champion in the long jump at least twice in a row – at the 2022 World Athletics Championships she defended her world title from 2019 with an SB of 7.12 meters and won the gold medal again.

This also makes her the first long jumper ever to win at the world’s most important track and field competitions four times in consecutive years.

The streak came to an end during the 2022 European Championships – ailing in health but with the huge support of the home crowd, Mihambo managed a 7.03m leap to finish silver, while Ivana Vuleta (SRB) became the new European champion with 3cm more; Jazmin Sawyers (representing England) won the bronze medal (6.80m).

Mihambo’s personal best in the long jump is 7.30 meters, achieved on October 6 at the 2019 World Championships in Doha; since then, this distance has not been surpassed by any female jumper.

The foundations of their success are essentially due to a kind of symbiotic interaction with physics and sports teacher Ralf Weber, who had been accompanying her as a coach since she was ten years old. Both developed their extensive skills together by supporting each other within a manageably small family environment, as well as permanently incorporating international experience into their training.

Personal life

She grew up and went to school in the municipality of Oftersheim.

Mihambo studied political science at the University of Mannheim on a sports scholarship, graduating in 2016.

Since April 2019, she has been studying in the postgraduate master’s programme in environmental sciences at the University of Hagen and is involved in a social project for children.

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On December 15, 2020, Mihambo was named “Germany’s Sportswoman of the Year “for the third time in a row; a world best of 7.03 meters on the athletic level was followed by special recognition for her social commitment to helping children and families get into athletics on the one hand and social contacts