Myriam Soumaré
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Myriam Soumaré (born 29 October 1986) is a retired French
track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping eve ...
sprinter., beijing2008.cn, ret: Aug 30, 2008 She announced her retirement from athletics in February 2016.


Athletics career


2008–2009

Soumaré made her Olympic debut at the 2008 Summer Olympics in
Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...
. She competed in only one event – the 4 × 100 meters relay together with
Muriel Hurtis-Houairi Muriel Hurtis-Houairi (born 25 March 1979) is a French track and field athlete.Lina Jacques-Sébastien Lina Jacques-Sébastien (born 10 April 1985 in Créteil, France) is a French Sprint (running), sprint athlete who specializes in the 100 metres and 200 metres. Biography She finished sixth in the 100 metres at the 2004 World Junior Ch ...
and
Carima Louami Carima Louami (born 12 May 1979 in Tourcoing) is a track and field sprint athlete who competes internationally for France. Louami represented France at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. She competed at the 4 × 100 metres relay together wit ...
. In their first round heat they did not finish and were eliminated, due to a mistake with the baton exchange. In her debut
World Championships A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...
appearance at 2009, Soumaré took part in only one event – the
100 metres The 100 metres, or 100-meter dash, is a sprint race in track and field competitions. The shortest common outdoor running distance, the dash is one of the most popular and prestigious events in the sport of athletics. It has been conteste ...
. She was eliminated in the quarter-finals of that event.


2010 – three medals at the European Championships

At the 2010 European Championships – her debut appearance in the European Championships – in
Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...
, Soumaré won the gold medal in the
200 metres The 200 metres, or 200-meter dash, is a sprint running event. On an outdoor 400 metre racetrack, the race begins on the curve and ends on the home straight, so a combination of techniques is needed to successfully run the race. A slightl ...
with a time of 22.32 seconds in lane 8, shaving her previous personal best time by 0.69 second in doing so. She also won the
4 × 100 metres relay The 4 × 100 metres relay or sprint relay is an athletics track event run in lanes over one lap of the track with four runners completing 100 metres each. The first runners must begin in the same stagger as for the indiv ...
silver medal and the
100 metres The 100 metres, or 100-meter dash, is a sprint race in track and field competitions. The shortest common outdoor running distance, the dash is one of the most popular and prestigious events in the sport of athletics. It has been conteste ...
bronze medal with a personal best time of 11.18 seconds, which was an improvement of 0.16 second over her previous personal best time.


2011

At the 2011 World Championships in Daegu, Soumaré participated in three events – the
100 metres The 100 metres, or 100-meter dash, is a sprint race in track and field competitions. The shortest common outdoor running distance, the dash is one of the most popular and prestigious events in the sport of athletics. It has been conteste ...
,
200 metres The 200 metres, or 200-meter dash, is a sprint running event. On an outdoor 400 metre racetrack, the race begins on the curve and ends on the home straight, so a combination of techniques is needed to successfully run the race. A slightl ...
and
4 × 100 metres relay The 4 × 100 metres relay or sprint relay is an athletics track event run in lanes over one lap of the track with four runners completing 100 metres each. The first runners must begin in the same stagger as for the indiv ...
. She was eliminated in the semi-finals of the 100 and 200 metres events. Her 4 × 100 metres relay team finished in fourth place in the final.


2012 – 7th in the 200m Olympic final

Soumaré represented France in three events at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London: 100m, 200m and 4 × 100 m relay. She finished seventh in the 200m final in a time of 22.63 sec. She achieved the 11th fastest time in the 100m semi-finals and thus did not qualify for the final. In the first round heats of the
4 × 100 m relay 4 (four) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 3 and preceding 5. It is the smallest semiprime and composite number, and is considered unlucky in many East Asian cultures. In mathematics Four is the smallest c ...
, her team botched its last two baton exchanges and was disqualified for out-of-zone baton exchange. Soumaré was the 200 metres runner-up of the
2012 IAAF Diamond League The 2012 IAAF Diamond League (also known as the 2012 Samsung Diamond League for sponsorship purposes) was the third edition of the Diamond League, an annual series of fourteen one-day track and field meetings. The series began on 11 May in Doha, Q ...
, behind Charonda Williams.


2013 – European Indoor Championships 60m silver medal

Soumaré won her first European Indoor Championships medal at the 2013 European Indoor Championships – a silver for the
60 metres 60 metres, or 60-meter dash, is a sprint event in track and field. It is a championship event for indoor championships, normally dominated by the best outdoor 100 metres runners. At outdoor venues it is a rare distance, at least for senior ath ...
. She had initially won the bronze. But the initial winner of the 60m final, Tezdzhan Naimova, was stripped of her gold medal after being found guilty of doping during the competition. Soumaré was thus elevated to receive the silver medal. At the 2013 World Championships in Moscow, Soumaré took part in three events – the
100 metres The 100 metres, or 100-meter dash, is a sprint race in track and field competitions. The shortest common outdoor running distance, the dash is one of the most popular and prestigious events in the sport of athletics. It has been conteste ...
,
200 metres The 200 metres, or 200-meter dash, is a sprint running event. On an outdoor 400 metre racetrack, the race begins on the curve and ends on the home straight, so a combination of techniques is needed to successfully run the race. A slightl ...
and
4 × 100 metres relay The 4 × 100 metres relay or sprint relay is an athletics track event run in lanes over one lap of the track with four runners completing 100 metres each. The first runners must begin in the same stagger as for the indiv ...
. She was eliminated in the semi-finals of the 100 and 200 metres events. Her 4 × 100 metres relay team finished the third fastest among the 19 national teams taking part in the heats, and thus qualified for the final. In the final, the French team – consisting of Céline Distel-Bonnet, Ayodelé Ikuesan, Soumaré and Stella Akakpo running in the first, second, third and fourth legs respectively – finished the race in second position (42.73 seconds) behind
Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...
. The French relay team members were duly presented their silver medals during the medal ceremony. After the medal ceremony, the British team filed a protest against the French team, claiming that the latter had an out-of-zone baton handover between Ikuesan and Soumaré. More than two hours after the race, the French relay team was officially disqualified. The French delegation appealed against their disqualification, but it was in vain. Consequently, the American team was upgraded to the silver medal and the British team received the bronze medal. Bernard Amsalem, the president of the
Fédération française d'athlétisme The French Athletics Federation (french: Fédération française d'athlétisme - ''FFA''), is the governing body for the sport of athletics in France. History FFA is the heir to the Union des Sociétés Françaises de Sports Athlétiques (USFSA), ...
, called the French team's disqualification "an outrage". He explained that normally the decision to disqualify a team had to be made before the medal ceremony and teams had to file protests within thirty minutes from the end of the race.


2015

Soumaré took a year off from athletics in 2015.


Retirement

On 24 February 2016, Soumaré announced her retirement from athletics, while leaving open the possibility of making a comeback in the future.


Personal life

Soumaré's parents are of Mauritanian origin. She has four siblings and is a Muslim. She lives with them in the northern Paris suburb of
Villiers-le-Bel Villiers-le-Bel is a Communes of France, commune in the France, French Departments of France, department of Val-d'Oise, in the northern suburbs of Paris. It is located from the Kilometre Zero, center of Paris. History A tragedy occurred in the ...
. Soumaré works as a
childcare Child care, otherwise known as day care, is the care and supervision of a child or multiple children at a time, whose ages range from two weeks of age to 18 years. Although most parents spend a significant amount of time caring for their child(r ...
assistant in a childcare centre. She wears a
headscarf A headscarf is a scarf covering most or all of the top of a person's, usually women's, hair and head, leaving the face uncovered. A headscarf is formed of a triangular cloth or a square cloth folded into a triangle, with which the head is cov ...
in her daily life but takes it off when she is on the track. Soumaré gave birth to her first child, a boy, in June 2015.


Results in the finals of international competitions

*Note: Only the position in the final is indicated, unless otherwise stated : Disqualified in the final.


Medal record

*
2007 European Athletics U23 Championships The 6th European Athletics U23 Championships was held between 12 and 15 July 2007 in the Gyulai István Athletic Stadium in Debrecen, Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Car ...
in
Debrecen Debrecen ( , is Hungary's second-largest city, after Budapest, the regional centre of the Northern Great Plain region and the seat of Hajdú-Bihar County. A city with county rights, it was the largest Hungarian city in the 18th century and ...
: ** bronze in the 100 m in 11 s 68 *
2009 Mediterranean Games The 2009 Mediterranean Games, officially the XVI Mediterranean Games ( it, XVI Giochi del Mediterraneo) and commonly known as Pescara 2009, was a multi-sport event held in Pescara, Italy, from 26 June to 5 July 2009. It was governed by the Inter ...
in
Pescara Pescara (; nap, label= Abruzzese, Pescàrë; nap, label= Pescarese, Piscàrë) is the capital city of the Province of Pescara, in the Abruzzo region of Italy. It is the most populated city in Abruzzo, with 119,217 (2018) residents (and approxim ...
** gold in the 4 × 100 m relay in 43 s 79 ** silver in the 100 m in 11 s 46 *
2010 European Athletics Championships The 2010 European Athletics Championships were the 20th edition of the European Athletics Championships, organised under the supervision of the European Athletic Association. They were held at the Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys in Barcelona, C ...
in
Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...
: ** gold in the 200 m in 22 s 32 (personal best) ** silver in the 4 × 100 m relay in 42s 45 ** bronze in the 100 m in 11 s 18 *
2012 European Athletics Championships The 2012 European Athletics Championships were held in Helsinki, Finland between 27 June and 1 July 2012. This edition marks the beginning of a new two-year cycle of the European Athletics Championships which were previously held every four years. ...
in
Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the capital, primate, and most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of Uusimaa in southern Finland, and has a population of . The city ...
: ** bronze in the 200 m in 23 s 21 * 2013 European Athletics Indoor Championships in Gothenburg : ** silver in the 60 m in 7 s 11


References


External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Soumare, Myriam 1986 births Living people Athletes from Paris Olympic athletes for France Athletes (track and field) at the 2008 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2012 Summer Olympics French female sprinters French sportspeople of Mauritanian descent French Muslims European Athletics Championships medalists Mediterranean Games gold medalists for France Mediterranean Games silver medalists for France Athletes (track and field) at the 2009 Mediterranean Games Mediterranean Games medalists in athletics Olympic female sprinters