Dafne Schippers

Dafne Schippers (born 15 June 1992) is a Dutch retired track and field athlete who competed in sprinting and the combined events.

She holds the European record in the 200 metres with a time of 21.63 seconds, making her the sixth-fastest woman of all time at this distance.

She also holds the Dutch records in the 100 metres and long jump, and shares the Dutch records in the 60 metres indoor and 4 × 100 metres relay.

Dafne Schippers was born on 15 June 1992 in Utrecht, the Netherlands.

She started competing in athletics at the age of nine at the track and field club Hellas in Utrecht.

Schippers originally competed in the heptathlon and won gold medals at the 2010 World Junior Championships in Athletics and 2011 European Athletics Junior Championships.

At the 2010 World Junior Championships she also won a bronze in the 4 × 100 metres relay with her teammates Loreanne Kuhurima, Eva Lubbers and Jamile Samuel.

In 2011 at the World Championships in Daegu, South Korea, Schippers broke the Dutch national record in the 200 m in the heats in 22.69, before finishing ninth in the semifinals, missing the final by 0.04 seconds.

The 4 × 100 metres relay team (Kadene Vassell, Schippers, Anouk Hagen and Samuel) were eliminated in the heats in a national record of 43.44 seconds.

In 2012, Schippers was invited to participate at the prestigious heptathlon Hypo-Meeting in Götzis, Austria, where she finished fifth.

She also competed at the 2012 European Athletics Championships in Helsinki, Finland, finishing fifth at the 200 metres.

The race was disappointing after she had won her heat in 23.01 s and recorded the fastest semi-final time of 22.70 s. The Dutch 4 x 100 m relay team (Kadene Vassell, Schippers, Eva Lubbers and Samuel) were second in 42.80 s, a national record, behind the German team.

A year later, she started with a third place at the Hypo-Meeting, with 6287 points.

Additionally, she won two silver and two bronze medals at world championships—heptathlon bronze in 2013; 100m silver in 2015; indoor 60m silver in 2016 and 100m bronze in 2017—and five (outdoor and indoor) European titles.

She won twenty-two Dutch titles (outdoor and indoor).

Next, she won gold in the 100 m and bronze in the long jump at the 2013 European Athletics U23 Championships.

At the subsequent 2013 World Championships in Moscow, Schippers won the bronze medal in the heptathlon, collapsing over the line after taking a massive seven seconds off her personal best in the 800 metres to see off Briton Katarina Johnson-Thompson and Germany's Claudia Rath for the bronze.

She became the first Dutch woman to win a medal in the heptathlon at the World Athletics Championships.

She was European Athlete of the Year in 2014 and 2015.

In 2023, Schippers announced her retirement as a professional athlete.

Schippers improved the 200 m record during the heptathlon at the 2014 Hypo-Meeting in Götzis, her time of 22.35 s being one of the best 200 m performances ever in a heptathlon.

She finished third at the hepthatlon with 6545 points, a new national record.

At the European championships of 2014, Schippers won gold medals in the 100 m and the 200 m.

The 4 x 100 m relay team, one of the favourites for the title, did not finish in the final due to a botched first baton change.

Her success at the 2014 European Athletics Championships prompted discussion over her long-term prospects and whether she should focus on sprinting, or continue her career in the heptathlon.

Schippers was the 200m world champion at both the 2015 and the 2017 World Athletics Championships, the silver medalist in the 200m at the 2016 Rio Olympics and the 200m champion in the 2016 Diamond League.

In June 2015, Schippers announced via Twitter that she would focus on sprinting in the run-up to the 2015 World Championships in Athletics in Beijing, China and the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil).

The 2015 season had started well with a win in the 60 m at the 2015 European Athletics Indoor Championships in Prague, Czechia.

At the 2015 Beijing World Championships, Schippers won the silver medal in the 100 m and gold in the 200 m, just before Elaine Thompson.

Her 200 m winning time of 21.63 seconds was a new European record and made her the third fastest woman in history over that distance.

The Dutch 4 × 100 m relay team (Nadine Visser, Schippers, Naomi Sedney and Samuel) finished fifth in 42.32 s, but was disqualified for a changeover infringement.

In the heats the team had also run 42.32 s, a new national record.

Her stunning victory opened her up to scrutiny about possible doping.

There were questions about the acne on Schippers back and face, which can be a sign of steroid abuse.

Most insiders, however, dismissed those claims, pointing out that the acne was hereditary in the family and the fast track in Beijing.

Next year, she won the 100 m at the 2016 European Athletics Championships in Amsterdam with time of 10.90 s, by 3 tenths of a second.

The Dutch team led by Schippers, with Samuel, Tessa van Schagen and anchor runner Naomi Sedney won the 4 x 100 m relay with a national record of 42.04 s.

At the 2016 Rio Olympics expectation was high that she would add an Olympic title to the gold medal at the 2015 World Championships, following in the footsteps of Fanny Blankers-Koen who had dominated the sprint events at the 1948 Summer Olympic Games, winning four golds.

However, she finished fifth in the 100 m final and won the silver medal in the 200 m behind Elaine Thompson, who became the first woman for 28 years to complete the Olympic sprint double.

After defeat in the 200 m, Schippers remained forlorn on the side of the track for a while, took off her spikes and hurled them to one side in frustration.