Heptathlon, women

What to remember

Seven events over two days, and a single total at the end: the heptathlon turns each performance into points and adds them up. The record, 7,291 points, was put together by American Jackie Joyner-Kersee at the Seoul Olympic Games on September 24, 1988.

She had already scored 7,215 points that same year. In 1979, the record stood at 5,878 points (Silvia Barlag). Between those two marks the total rose by 24% in 9 years, a sizeable climb for a women's event introduced in the 1980s and first held at the Olympics in 1984.

A specialist of combined events and the long jump, Joyner-Kersee won both the heptathlon and the long jump in Seoul. She took the Olympic heptathlon again in 1992 and became world champion four times, twice in each discipline (heptathlon in 1987 and 1993, long jump in 1987 and 1991). Over four Olympic Games she collected three gold, one silver and two bronze medals.