Tia Hellebaut

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Tia Hellebaut (2012)

Tia Hellebaut (born February 16, 1978 in Antwerp ) is a former Belgian high jumper and all-rounder . She was European Champion in 2006 and Olympic Champion in high jump in 2008.

Life

Hellebaut was a heptathlete before she specialized in her best individual discipline, the high jump. She holds the Belgian heptathlon record with 6201 points. She was twelfth in the high jump at the 2004 Olympic Games and sixth at the 2005 World Championships . At the European Championships in Gothenburg in 2006 , she sensationally won gold with a jumped height of 2.03 m. With that she also improved the Belgian high jump record. She also won the high jump competition at the 2007 European Indoor Championships . With 2.05 m it set a new Belgian indoor record.

At the World Indoor Championships in 2008 , Hellebaut started again in the all-around competition and became world champion in the pentathlon. At the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing , Hellebaut surprisingly won the gold medal by jumping the 2.05 m in the first attempt. The favorite Blanka Vlašić , on the other hand, failed once at this height, so that after three unsuccessful jumps over 2.07 m she only won the silver medal.

At the end of 2008, Tia Hellebaut announced the end of her career as a competitive athlete and named her pregnancy as the main reason. In June 2009 she became the mother of a daughter. Surprisingly, she announced her return to competitive sports in February 2010, but only as a high jumper and not in an all-around competition. At the European Championships in Barcelona in 2010 , she finished fifth with a jumped height of 1.97 m.

In 2011 Hellebaut became a mother for the second time. This time, too, she returned to the sport. At the World Indoor Championships in 2012 , she was fifth. Also at the Olympic Games in London, where she was the flag bearer of the Belgian team at the opening ceremony, she came in fifth. After the European Indoor Championships in 2013 , where she finished eighth, Hellebaut ended her sports career.

Tia Hellebaut is very nearsighted and does not tolerate contact lenses. Because of an inflammation of the eyes, she has been wearing glasses since 2005, which have become her trademark. In 2007 she advertised the products of a Belgian optics manufacturer. With a height of 1.82 m, her competition weight was 62 kg.

Web links

Commons : Tia Hellebaut  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Olympic champion Tia Hellebaut declares the end of her career , www.tagesspiegel.de, accessed on June 16, 2009
  2. ↑ http://www.deredactie.be/cm/vrtnieuws.deutsch/sport/090609_Hellebaut_Mutti (link not available)
  3. ↑ Tia Hellebaut to return to the High Jump ( Memento from July 26, 2011 in the Internet Archive ), www.european-athletics.org, accessed on February 16, 2010.
  4. ^ Christian Fuchs: Tia Hellebaut ends career , www.leichtathletik.de March 6, 2013
  5. ↑ Tia Hellebaut - With glasses since 2005 , Leichtathletik.de, accessed on January 18, 2013
personal data
SURNAME Hellebaut, Tia
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Belgian high jumper and all-rounder
DATE OF BIRTH February 16, 1978
PLACE OF BIRTH Antwerp , Belgium