Françoise Mbango Etone
Françoise Mbango Etone ( born April 14, 1976 in Yaoundé ) is a Cameroonian triple jumper and Olympic gold medalist.
During high school, she tried out several sports, played football for a while. At the age of 16, she was then Cameroonian champion in the high jump and reached the following year the second place. On the advice of their coach they finally focused on the triple jump. Among the African Championships in 1996 in Cameroon, she won the bronze medal. In 1998, she finished second at the Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur. In the same year they improved the African record at 14.02 meters, but lost it after only one week.
With a length of 14.70 meters she won the 1999 Africa record back and stood 6.55 meters, also a new national record in long jump. At the 1999 World Championships she came not on the qualifications addition ( 14.12 m) in the triple jump.
In 2000, she was again second in the African Championships in Algiers. At the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney she could indeed qualify for the final, but ended up only in tenth place.
At the 2001 World Championships in Edmonton she finished second behind the Russian Tatjana Lebedeva. At the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester she was again second. In the same year they improved at the African championship in the Tunisian city of Radès the African record at 14.95 meters and also won the long jump competition.
Outside Africa, sat her series of second places continued, so at the World Indoor Championships in 2003 in Manchester ( behind Ashia Hansen) and the 2003 World Championships in Paris / Saint -Denis ( behind Lebedeva ), where she improved her African record of 15.05 meters.
Shortly before the 2004 Olympics she had lost her African record for the native of Cuba and is now starting for Sudan Yamilé Aldama. In the Olympic final in Athens she corrected herself and jumped 15.30 meters. She brought not only their record back, but also became the first Cameroonian Olympic champion ever and the first African woman who won in other than a running race.
In the 2008 Olympics she won with the new personal best of 15.39 meters gold medal.
Françoise Mbango Etone has a competition weight of 60 kg at a height of 1.72 m.