Anouk Vetter (; born 4 February 1993) is a retired Dutch track and field athlete who competes 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.
She is the Dutch record holder for the heptathlon with a score 6867 points, and won eight national titles (mostly for the long jump).
Early life Anouk Vetter was on born 4 February 1993 in Amsterdam in the Netherlands.
Vetter was exposed to athletics at a very young age. Her father, Ronald Vetter, is a long-standing athletics coach and her mother, Gerda Vetter-Blokziel a two-time Dutch javelin champion. "I grew up on the track, running around from the age of four and five playing on the high jump mat," she recalls.Patience reaps dividends in Vetter's rise through the heptathlon ranks, International Association of Athletics Federations - IAAF, 19 December 2017
Career Her passion became the heptathlon. However, her frail body was susceptible to injury. She failed to finish a heptathlon at either the 2011 European Athletics Junior Championships, 2012 World Junior Championships in Athletics and the 2013 European Athletics U23 Championships. After replacing her coach in 2012 with her father, she decreased her training to 80 per cent compared to the other women in the combined event group to protect her fragile body. She won the Multistars Firenze Trofeo Zerneri Acciai, the opening meeting of the 2013 IAAF Combined Events Challenge with 5872 points.Krauchanka and Vetter triumph in Florence – IAAF Combined Events Challenge, International Association of Athletics Federations - IAAF, 3 May 2013
Her breakthrough came in 2014 when she improved her previous personal best by a massive 444 points to 6316 points at that year's prestigious Hypo-Meeting in Götzis, Austria to place ninth. "Gotzis was really special," she remembered. "It is always fantastic to compete there because the crowd is so close to the track."That moment when… Vetter broke through, International Association of Athletics Federations - IAAF, 7 October 2017 Later that year she finished seventh at the Zürich European Championships.
In 2015, Vetter finished sixth at the Hypo-Meeting with a new personal best with 6458 points, Brons voor meerkampster Broersen in Götzis, NOS News, 31 May 2015 and won the heptathlon at the Mehrkampf-Meeting in Ratingen, Germany.Schrader and Vetter take the honours in Ratingen, International Association of Athletics Federations - IAAF, 28 June 2015 Despite an injury, she also competed in the heptathlon event at the 2015 World Championships in Athletics in Beijing, where she reached the 12th place with 6267 points. "Bearing in mind I didn’t think I could even start the competition, mentally it was a really big step for me," she reflected later.
European champion She started the 2016 season with an eighth place at the Hypo-Meeting. In July, Vetter took a surprise victory at the European Championships heptathlon in her home town Amsterdam, with a score of 6626 points, an improvement of the national record of Dafne Schippers.Vetter betters Schippers with third Dutch gold of the Championships, European Athletics, 9 July 2016Vetter claims European heptathlon title with Dutch record, International Association of Athletics Federations - IAAF, 9 July 2016 "To win that European title was amazing," she remembered. "Suddenly I was out of the shadow of the big girls." At the 2016 Rio Olympics, however, she finished on a disappointing 10th place. Vetter tiende op zevenkamp, Team NL, 14 August 2016
She started the 2017 outdoor season with a seventh place in Götzis.IAAF Combined Events Challenge Gotzis, International Association of Athletics Federations - IAAF, 28 May 2017 In August 2017, Vetter set a new national heptathlon record of 6636 points at the World Championships in London, where she won the bronze medal, behind 2016 Olympic champion Nafissatou Thiam (gold) and Carolin Schäfer (silver). Mark van Driel, "WK-brons mét Nederlands puntenrecord voor zevenkamper Anouk Vetter", de Volkskrant, 6 August 2017 She concluded the season with a win at the heptathlon at the Décastar in Talence, France.Vetter concludes season with heptathlon victory in Talence, European Athletics, 18 September 2017 For the second year in a row she finished second in the IAAF Combined Events Challenge.Freimuth and Schäfer win 2017 IAAF Combined Events Challenge, International Association of Athletics Federations - IAAF, 20 September 2017
At the 2018 Hypo-Meeting in Götzis, Vetter finished fourth behind Nafissatou Thiam, Yorgelis Rodriguez and Erica Bougard.World leads for Thiam and Warner in Gotzis, International Association of Athletics Federations - IAAF, 27 May 2018 At the European Championships in Berlin she finished fifth place. The year 2019 was a difficult period in her career, due to injuries and doubts with the sport. She did not finish the combined events competitions at the European Indoor Championships in Glasgow, the Decastar in Talence and the World Championships in Doha. Depressed she did not start at the final event, the 800 meters. "I had physical injuries with my knee," she later explained. "But it was more than that. I was putting too much pressure on myself. I had a hard time enjoying athletics, and I had a battle inside my head."Vetter: little goals, big results, World Athletics, 14 March 2021
Come back
In 2021, Vetter made her come back winning the silver medal at the postponed 2020 Tokyo Olympics in Japan, with a new national record, behind Nafissatou Thiam who successfully defended her 2016 Olympic title.Thiam cements legendary status by retaining Olympic heptathlon title, World Athletics, 5 August 2021 She led through the first day before Thiam and after world champion Katarina Johnson-Thompson had to leave the competition due to an injury.Athletics-World champion Johnson-Thompson out injured, Vetter leads heptathlon, Reuters, 4 August 2021
In May 2022, she won the Hypo-Meeting in Götzis with a new national record after setting a meet record in the javelin throw of 59.81 m.Warner wins again, Vetter victorious in Götzis, World Athletics, 29 May 2022 Later that year, she won silver at the World Championships in Eugene (USA) with yet another national record. She led the contest until the last event, when Thiam surpassed her.Thiam regains world heptathlon title in Oregon, World Athletics, 18 July 2022 In August at the Munich European Championships she had to withdraw from the competition due to an Achilles tendon injury.
Statistics
International competitions 2009European Youth Olympic FestivalTampere, Finland– (f)4 × 100 m relayDNF– (f)Javelin throwDNS2011European Junior ChampionshipsTallinn, Estonia–HeptathlonDNF2012World Junior ChampionshipsBarcelona, Spain–HeptathlonDNF2013European U23 ChampionshipsTampere, Finland–HeptathlonDNF2014European ChampionshipsZürich, Switzerland7thHeptathlon6281 pts2015European Indoor ChampionshipsPrague, Czech Republic8thPentathlon4548 ptsWorld ChampionshipsBeijing, China12thHeptathlon6267 pts2016European ChampionshipsAmsterdam, Netherlands1stHeptathlon6626 pts Olympic GamesRio de Janeiro, Brazil10thHeptathlon6394 pts2017World ChampionshipsLondon, United Kingdom3rdHeptathlon6636 pts 2018European ChampionshipsBerlin, Germany5thHeptathlon6414 pts2019European Indoor ChampionshipsGlasgow, United Kingdom–PentathlonDNFWorld ChampionshipsDoha, Qatar–HeptathlonDNF2021Olympic GamesTokyo, Japan2ndHeptathlon6689 pts 2022World ChampionshipsEugene, OR, United States2ndHeptathlon6867 pts European ChampionshipsMunich, Germany–HeptathlonDNF2023World ChampionshipsBudapest, Hungary3rdHeptathlon6501 pts2024Olympic GamesParis, France–HeptathlonDNF
Detailed heptathlon scores Key: Competition100 m hurdlesHigh jumpShot put200 metresLong jumpJavelin throw800 metresHeptathlon2014 Hypo-Meeting13.56 1.78 m14.63 m 23.91 5.90 m52.18 m2:23.536316 pts 2014 European Championships13.681.79 m14.16 m24.616.04 m52.49 m2:22.27 6281 pts2015 Hypo-Meeting13.53 1.77 m15.41 m 23.82 6.21 m50.09 m2:21.18 6458 pts 2015 Erdgas Mehrkampf-Meeting13.551.72 m15.50 m 24.12 6.07 m52.75 m2:20.38 6387 pts2015 World Championships13.611.77 m14.24 m24.536.11 m51.78 m2:23.716267 pts2016 Hypo-Meeting13.361.71 m15.05 m23.70 6.15 m45.30 m2:21.39 6282 pts2016 European Championships13.29 1.74 m15.69 m 23.896.38 m 55.76 m 2:21.506626 pts NR2016 Olympic Games13.471.77 m14.78 m23.936.10 m48.42 m2:17.71 6394 pts2017 Hypo-Meeting13.321.71 m15.54 m24.216.19 m55.43 m2:20.206497 pts2017 World Championships13.311.77 m15.09 m24.366.32 m58.41 m 2:19.43 6636 pts NR2017 Décastar-meeting13.601.73 m14.86 m24.216.18 m52.49 m2:20.996363 pts2018 Hypo-Meeting13.461.71 m15.91 m23.896.25 m51.27 m2:23.41 6426 pts2018 European Championships13.551.76 m14.79 m23.976.30 m51.25 m2:22.846414 pts2019 Décastar-meeting13.591.72 m15.29 m24.356.15 m2019 World Championships13.551.74 m14.10 m24.436.20 m54.17 m2021 Hypo-Meeting13.351.74 m15.28 m23.65 6.23 m54.77 m2:22.336536 pts2021 Olympic Games13.09 1.80 m15.29 m23.816.47 m51.20 m2:18.726689 pts NR2022 Hypo-Meeting13.281.74 m14.88 m23.766.47 m59.81 m 2:21.566693 pts2022 World Championships13.301.80 m16.25 m 23.736.52 m 58.29 m2:20.096867 pts NR2022 European Championships13.371.71 m15.68 m24.006.27 m2023 Hypo-Meeting13.291.71 m14.88 m23.712023 World Championships13.421.71 m15.72 m24.285.99 m59.57 m2:20.496501 pts2024 Hypo-Meeting13.641.74 m15.37 m23.736.47 m57.91 m2:21.376642 pts2024 Olympic Games13.491.74 m15.07 m24.366.12 m
Personal bests
+OutdoorEventPerformancePointsVenueDateNotes100 m hurdles13.09 s (. -0.8)1111Tokyo, Japan4 August 2021High jump1.81 m991Tampere, Finland13 July 2013Shot put16.25 m945Eugene, OR, United States17 July 2022200 metres23.65 s (. +0.5)1015Götzis, Austria29 May 2021Long jump6.52 m (. +0.3)1014Eugene, OR, United States18 July 2022Javelin throw59.81 m1051Götzis, Austria29 May 2022800 metres2:17.71 min855Rio de Janeiro, Brazil13 August 2016Heptathlon6867 ptsPB total: 6982Eugene, OR, United States18 July 2022100 metres11.61 s (. +0.9)Mannheim, Germany9 June 2016
+IndoorEventPerformancePointsVenueDateNotes60 m hurdles8.15 s1095Apeldoorn, Netherlands27 February 2022High jump1.77 m941Prague, Czech Republic6 March 2015Shot put15.45 m891Apeldoorn, Netherlands27 February 2016Long jump6.42 m981Apeldoorn, Netherlands20 February 2021800 metres2:24.48 min764Prague, Czech Republic6 March 2015Pentathlon4548 ptsPB total: 4672Prague, Czech Republic6 March 201560 metres7.46 sAmsterdam, Netherlands6 February 2016
Circuit wins World Athletics Combined Events Tour 2013: Multistars 2015: Mehrkampf-Meeting 2017: Décastar 2022: Hypo-Meeting ()
National titles Dutch Athletics Championships Long jump: 2017, 2019, 2020, 2021 Javelin throw: 2019, 2025 Dutch Indoor Athletics Championships Long jump: 2016, 2021, 2022
References
External links