Talk about being a team player.
A Belgian shot putter made headlines at the 2023 European Team Championships after she filled in for an injured teammate during the 100-meter hurdles event on Saturday.
Jolien Maliga Boumkwo, a Belgian shot putter, stepped up for her country, competing in the event after two of her teammates could not do so.
Anna Zagr and Hanne Claes’s injuries prevented them from running the hurdles, leaving Belgium without experienced runners. Boumkwo, who placed seventh in the shot put on Friday, took their place.
As potentially expected, Boumkwo finished last in the event. However, her participation not only helped avoid a disqualification in the event but earned Belgium two points, which gave the country a fighting chance to remain at the top level of the European Team Championships (each year, the bottom three teams at the meet are relegated to the second division).
Boumkwo ran the 100-meter hurdles without knocking over a hurdle and finished in 32.81 seconds, 19 seconds slower than race winner Teresa Errandonea—but despite the difference in time, her efforts were rewarded with a roar from the crowd upon finishing.
“I really love it,” the 29-year-old wrote on Instagram on Sunday after Saturday’s race. “I thought I would take one for the team,” she told BBC Radio 5 Live. “I didn’t think about it, I just went for it.”
According to Boumkwo, it had been 10 years since the last time she had run hurdles, though she regularly uses them as part of training to help with mobility and flexibility. “It is not a new movement, but to do it here [at the European Team Championships] is a whole new world, but I really enjoyed every second of it,” she told the BBC.
While she’ll probably be happy to go back to the shot put, we have to applaud Boumkwo’s dedication and willingness to step up when her team needed her. Her efforts, however, didn’t end up being enough to save Belgium from relegation. The Belgians finished in 14th place out of 16 countries, four-and-a-half points behind Greece.
Laura Ratliff is a New York City-based writer, editor, and runner. Laura's writing expertise spans numerous topics, ranging from travel and food and drink to reported pieces covering political and human rights issues. She has previously worked at Architectural Digest, Bloomberg News, and Condé Nast Traveler and was most recently the senior editorial director at TripSavvy. Like many of us, Laura was bitten by the running bug later in life, after years of claiming to "hate running." Her favorite marathon is Big Sur.
