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Tia Hellebaut
	Hellebaut in 2012
Personal information
Born	16 February 1978 (age 46); Antwerp
Height	1.82 m (6 ft 0 in)
Weight	62 kg (137 lb)
Sport
Country	Belgium
Now coaching	Wim Vandeven
Achievements and titles
Olympic finals	1st (Beijing, 2008)
Personal best	High jump (outdoor & indoor): 2.05 m
Medal record
Representing Belgium
Olympic Games
World Indoor Championships
European Championships
European Indoor Championships
World Athletics Final
	Updated on 28 July 2022

Tia Hellebaut (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈtijaː ˈɦɛləbʌut]; born 16 February 1978 in Antwerp) is a retired Belgian track and field athlete, as well as a chemist, who started out in her sports career in the heptathlon, and afterwards specialized in the high jump event. She has cleared 2.05 metres both indoors and outdoors.

Hellebaut was the 2008 Olympic champion in the high jump. She was previously the European Champion in 2006 and then the European Indoor Champion in 2007. She won the gold medal in the pentathlon at the 2008 IAAF World Indoor Championships. In addition to these medals, she has participated at the World Championships in Athletics on four occasions.

She held the Belgian records indoor long jump and indoor pentathlon until they were broken by Nafissatou Thiam and still holds the Belgian record in both indoors and outdoors high jump.^[2]

Career

Hellebaut started as a professional athlete with Atletiek Vlaanderen in the period from 2001 to October 2005. From 1 November 2006 she again became a professional athlete, this time at Bloso. During her most successful period, Hellebaut was trained by her partner, Wim Vandeven, at her club, Atletica 84.

At the 2006 European Championships and 2007 Indoor European Championships Hellebaut won the gold medal in high jump. The 2006 victory became especially notable, when just a couple of minutes later her close friend and compatriot Kim Gevaert completed a historical sprint double. The images of both athletes celebrating their victory together, wrapped in a national flag, became part of Belgian sports history.

In 2007 Hellebaut set the then fourth best pentathlon score of all time,^[3] but chose not to contest the European Indoor Championships because of illness, choosing instead to compete only in the high jump, which she later won. Most of the remainder of her 2007 high jump season was hampered by an ankle injury. A shoulder injury, which made it difficult for her to throw the javelin, ended her career in heptathlon around this time.

For the 2008 indoor season, Hellebaut returned her focus to multi-events and became world champion of pentathlon at the World Indoor Championships in Valencia, where she set a record for the best high jump result in a women's multi-event competition, clearing 1.99 m.^[4]

At the 2008 Summer Olympics, held in Beijing, Hellebaut reached her pinnacle thus far by winning the gold medal in the high jump, ahead of the favorite, Blanka Vlašić of Croatia, with a new outdoor personal best of 2.05 m. Her achievement represented the first-ever athletics gold medal in the Olympics for a Belgian woman, and only the second of any color, one day after Belgium won their first (silver) medal in the 4 × 100 m relay (which later was upgraded to gold after the Russian team was disqualified because of a doping rules infraction by one of their athletes).

Retirement and comebacks

On 5 December 2008 Hellebaut announced her pregnancy and retirement from professional athletics and that she would start working for a sports marketing company. The following year, on 9 June, her daughter Lotte was born.

Inspired by fellow Belgian Kim Clijsters' comeback to the WTA as a young mother, she unexpectedly announced her return to athletics on 16 February 2010, her 32nd birthday. Hellebaut also announced that she would be concentrating exclusively on the high jump and aimed to participate in the 2012 Summer Olympics.^[5]

Shortly after placing fifth at the 2010 European Athletic Championships in Barcelona by clearing 1.97 metres, her first major championships after her comeback, it was reported that Hellebaut was pregnant again. During a press conference on 17 August she confirmed that she had been pregnant for three months already, and that this had been a conscious choice. Although Hellebaut did not participate in any further 2010 events, she never officially announced that the new pregnancy would definitively end her career.^[6]

On 16 June 2011, 4 months after the birth of her second daughter Saartje, Hellebaut announced her second return, confirming that she aimed to defend her title at the London Games.^[7] She was Team Belgium national flag bearer at the 2012 Summer Olympics Parade of Nations. She ended fifth in the high jump competition.

On 6 March 2013, after the European Indoor Championships in Gothenburg, she announced her second retirement, saying that she could no longer challenge herself mentally in competition.^{[citation needed]}

Sport consultancy

In March 2019, Belgian football club Beerschot Wilrijk announced the take-over of amateur side Rupel Boom and lifetime Beerschot supporter Hellebaut was appointed advisor at Rupel Boom's football academy.^[8]

Awards and honours

Belgian National Sports Merit Award: 2006 (with Kim Gevaert) ^[9]
Golden Spike - Best female athlete: 2006, 2008, 2012 ^[10]
Flemish Sportsjewel: 2006 ^[11]
Vlaamse Reus: 2008 ^[12]
Belgian Sportswoman of the Year: 2008 ^[13]
Belgian Sports Personality of the Year: 2008 ^[14]
Honorary Citizen of Tessenderlo: 2008 ^[15]
Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the Crown, by Royal Decree of H.M. King Albert II: 2009 ^[16]
World Sports Legends Award: 2016 ^[17]

International achievements

Year	Competition	Venue	Position	Event	Notes
Representing Belgium
1995	European Youth Olympic Festival	Bath, United Kingdom	9th	High jump	1.75 m
1997	European Junior Championships	Ljubljana, Slovenia	11th	Heptathlon	5157 pts
1999	Universiade	Palma, Spain	14th (q)	High jump	1.80 m
1999	European U23 Championships	Gothenburg, Sweden	6th	Heptathlon	5548 pts
2000	European Indoor Championships	Ghent, Belgium	—	Pentathlon	DNF
2001	World Championships	Edmonton, Canada	14th	Heptathlon	5680 pts
2003	World Championships	Paris, France	—	Heptathlon	DNF
2004	World Indoor Championships	Budapest, Hungary	5th	Pentathlon	4526 pts
2004	Olympic Games	Athens, Greece	12th	High jump	1.85 m (o)
2005	World Championships	Helsinki, Finland	6th	High jump	1.93 m
2006	World Championships Indoor	Moscow, Russia	6th	High jump	1.96 m (xo)
	European Championships	Gothenburg, Sweden	1st	High jump	2.03 m (o)
	World Athletics Final	Stuttgart, Germany	2nd	High jump	1.98 m
	IAAF World Cup	Athens, Greece	2nd	High jump	1.97 m
2007	European Indoor Championships	Birmingham, England	1st	High jump	2.05 m (o)
2007	World Championships	Osaka, Japan	14th	High jump	1.90 m (xo)
2008	World Indoor Championships	Valencia, Spain	1st	Pentathlon	4867 pts
	Olympic Games	Beijing, China	1st	High jump	2.05 m (o)
	World Athletics Final	Stuttgart, Germany	3rd	High jump	1.97 m
2010	European Championships	Barcelona, Spain	5th	High jump	1.97 m (xxo)
2012	World Indoor Championships	Istanbul, Turkey	5th	High jump	1.95 m (o)
2012	Olympic Games	London, United Kingdom	4th	High jump	1.97 m (o)
2013	European Indoor Championships	Gothenburg, Sweden	8th	High jump	1.87 m (xo)

Statistics

Personal records
Event	Result	Year	Extra
100 metres hurdles	13.91 seconds	2006
60 metres hurdles	8.50 seconds	2006
Triple jump	13.05 metres	2001
Shot put	13.85 metres	2008
Javelin throw	44.37 metres	2001
200 metres	24.65 seconds	2006
800 metres	2:14.75 seconds	2006
Long jump (indoor)	6.42 metres	2007	NR
Long jump (outdoor)	6.44 metres	2007
High jump (indoor)	2.05 metres	2007	NR
High jump (outdoor)	2.05 metres	2008	NR
Heptathlon	6201 points	2006
Pentathlon	4877 points	2007	NR

Belgian record marks
Event	Result	Year	Location
Pentathlon indoor	4268 points	17 February 1999	Ghent, Belgium
	4436 points	25 February 2001	Ghent, Belgium
	4560 points	1 February 2004	Zuidbroek, the Netherlands
	4589 points	21 February 2004	Aubière, France
	4877 points	11 February 2007	Ghent, Belgium
High jump (outdoor)	1.95 metres	20 June 2004	Plovdiv, Bulgaria
	1.95 metres	27 August 2004	Athens, Greece
	1.98 metres	2 June 2006	Oslo, Norway
	2.00 metres	8 July 2006	Paris, France
	2.00 metres	15 July 2006	Rome, Italy
	2.01 metres	11 August 2006	Gothenburg, Sweden
	2.03 metres	11 August 2006	Gothenburg, Sweden
	2.05 metres	23 August 2008	Beijing, China
Long jump indoor	6.36 metres	19 February 2006	Ghent, Belgium
Long jump indoor	6.42 metres	11 February 2007	Ghent, Belgium
High jump indoor	1.96 metres	26 February 2006	Ghent, Belgium
	1.97 metres	28 February 2006	Tallinn, Estonia
	2.00 metres	27 January 2007	Brussels, Belgium
	2.05 metres	3 March 2007	Birmingham, England
Heptathlon outdoor	6201 points	28 May 2006	Götzis, Austria