Heptathlon - Women's Heptathlon

Women's Heptathlon

Women's heptathlon is the combined event for women contested in the Athletics program of the Olympics and in the IAAF World Championships in Athletics. The IAAF World Combined Events Challenge determines a yearly women's heptathlon champion. The women's outdoor heptathlon consists of the following events, with the first four contested on the first day, and the remaining three on day two:

• 100 m hurdles
• High jump
• Shot put
• 200 m
• Long jump
• Javelin throw
• 800 m

The heptathlon has been contested by female athletes since the early 1980s, when it replaced the pentathlon as the primary women's combined event contest (the javelin throw and 800 m were added). It was first contested at the Olympic level in the 1984 Summer Olympics. In recent years some women's decathlon competitions have been conducted, consisting of the same events as the men's competition in a slightly different order, and the IAAF has begun keeping records for it, but the heptathlon remains the championship-level combined event for women. Tatyana Chernova is the current World Champion, having defeated Jessica Ennis of Great Britain, who placed second in the 2011 world championships. Jessica Ennis representing Great Britain is the 2012 Summer Olympic Gold Medalist.

There is also a Tetradecathlon, which is a double heptathlon, consisting of 14 events, seven events per day.