Jacqueline Joyner-Kersee is a retired American track and field athlete, ranked among the all-time greatest athletes in the heptathlon as well as long jump. She won three gold, one silver, and two bronze Olympic medals in those two events at four different Olympic Games. Sports Illustrated for Women magazine voted Joyner-Kersee the Greatest Female Athlete of All-Time. She is on the board of directors for USA Track & Field (U.S.A.T.F.), the national governing body of the sport.
The women's heptathlon competition at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens was held at the Olympic Stadium on 20–21 August.
Marla Lee Runyan is an American track and field athlete, road runner and marathon runner who is legally blind. She is a three-time national champion in the women's 5000 metres.
Sabine John is a retired East German heptathlete. She broke the world record in 1984 with a score of 6946 points, and won silver medals at the 1983 World Championships, and the 1988 Olympic Games.
Svetla Stefanova Dimitrova is a former Bulgarian athlete who started out competing in heptathlon, and later specialized as a sprint hurdler. She represented her country four times at the Summer Olympics, from 1988 to 2000. Her best Olympic placing was fifth in the heptathlon at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.
Antoinette Nana Djimou Ida is a Cameroonian-French heptathlete and pentathlete. She has won two European Athletics Championships heptathlon gold medals and two European Athletics Indoor Championships pentathlon gold medals. Her heptathlon personal best result is 6576 points, achieved at the 2012 Olympics in London.
Harry Hunter Lott was an American rower who competed in the 1904 Summer Olympics, winning the gold medal in the men's eight. He was born in Philadelphia.
Kim Hagger is a female retired English athlete who competed mainly in the heptathlon and the long jump. She represented Great Britain at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics and the 1988 Seoul Olympics.
Cynthia Greiner is a retired female heptathlete and long jumper from the United States, who won the gold medal at the 1987 Pan American Games in Indianapolis, United States. She is a two-time U.S. champion. Greiner set her personal best in the heptathlon during the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain.
Diane Claire Guthrie-Gresham is a retired female track and field athlete from Jamaica, who specialized in the Long Jump and Heptathlon during her career.
Carolin Schäfer is a German athlete who specialises in the heptathlon. She won the silver medal in the event at the 2017 World Championships in Athletics. Schäfer took bronze at the 2018 European Athletics Championships.
Odile Ahouanwanou is a Beninese heptathlete, who also specialises in the 100 metres hurdles; she holds Beninese records in both events. She competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics, 2015 African Games and two African Championships in Athletics, and won a silver medal in the heptathlon at the 2015 African Games.
Jacquelyn Kate "Jackie" Johnson is an American heptathlete. She is a four-time NCAA outdoor champion, and a three-time NCAA indoor champion (2006–2008) while competing for Arizona State University. She also set a personal best of 6,347 points by placing second at the 2008 U.S. Olympic Trials in Eugene, Oregon, which guaranteed her a qualifying place for the Olympics. Johnson was a member of the track and field team for the Arizona State Sun Devils, where she wa coached and trained by Dan O'Brien, gold medalist in the decathlon at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia. In 2008, she won the Honda Sports Award as the nation's best female collegiate track and field athlete.
Nafissatou "Nafi" Thiam is a Belgian athlete specializing in multi-event competition. She is a two-time Olympic gold medalist, winning the heptathlon event at the 2016 Rio and 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Thiam is the only Belgian athlete, male or female, to successfully defend an Olympic title and only the second woman after Jackie Joyner-Kersee to win back-to-back Olympic titles in the event.
Combined events at the Summer Olympics have been contested in several formats at the multi-sport event. There are two combined track and field events in the current Olympic athletics programme: a men's decathlon and a women's heptathlon.
Anouk Vetter is a Dutch athlete competing in the combined events. She won the silver medal in the heptathlon at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Vetter claimed bronze and silver in the event at the 2017 and 2022 World Athletics Championships respectively. She took the gold medal at the 2016 European Championships.
Magdalena Szczepańska is a retired Polish heptathlete. She won a silver medal at the 2004 European Combined Events Cup in Hengelo, Netherlands, and then represented her nation Poland in heptathlon at the Olympics in Athens a few months later, finishing in twenty-first place. Szczepańska trained under the tutelage of head coach Jerzy Skucha for the national team, while competing at AZS AWFiS Gdańsk.
Maria Lambrou, also known by her diminutive and married name Maroula Lambrou-Teloni, is a Greek-Cypriot athlete, best known as a long jumper. Lambrou is regarded by many as the greatest female athlete in Cypriot sports. Her personal best of 6.80 m in the long jump, achieved on 24 May 1985 and personal best of 5319 points in heptathlon achieved on 3–4 September 1984 in Cyprus, are the national records.
Angela Caroline Thorp is a female British 100 metres hurdler and sprinter.
Tiffany Snow is an American field hockey player. She competed in the women's tournament at the 2008 Summer Olympics.
