 Kambundji at the2022 World Athletics Championships inEugene | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1992-06-17)17 June 1992 (age 32) Bern, Switzerland[1] |
| Height | 1.68 m (5 ft 6 in) |
| Weight | 65 kg (143 lb)[2] |
| Lifepartner | Florian Clivaz |
| Sport | |
| Country | Switzerland |
| Sport | Athletics |
| Event(s) | 60 m,100 m,200 m |
| Club | ST Bern |
| Coached by | Florian Clivaz (2022—) Adrian Rothenbühler (2017—2022) Valerij Bauer (2013–2017) |
| Achievements and titles | |
| Personalbests | |
Medal record | |
Mujinga Kambundji (German pronunciation:[muˈʒɪŋakamˈbʊndʒi];[3] born 17 June 1992) is a Swisssprinter. She won the bronze medal in the200 metres at the2019 World Championships. Kambundji is the60 metres2022 World indoor champion, becoming the joint fourth-fastest woman of all time in the event, after earning a bronze in2018. She is a three-timeEuropean Championships medallist, with gold for the 200 m and silver for the100 m in2022, and bronze for the 100 m in2016. At theEuropean Indoor Championships, she earned gold in the 60 m in2023 and bronze in2017.
Kambundji is theSwiss record holder for the 100 m and 200 m, and the Swiss indoor record holder for the 60 m. She won almost 30 national titles.
Mujinga Kambundji was born on 17 June 1992 in Bern[1] to aCongolese father, Safuka, and aBernese mother, Ruth. Mujinga is the second of four children. Her younger sisterDitaji is also an international athlete, specializing in the sprinthurdles, who represented Switzerland at the2020 Tokyo Olympics.[4] Her older sister, Kaluanda, was the first to enroll in a track programme, followed by Mujinga, then Muswama, and finally Ditaji.
In 2009, Kambundji won the silver medal in the100 metres and the gold medal in the4 × 100 m relay at theEuropean Youth Olympic Festival, and gold medals in the 100 and200 metres at the Swiss championships. For this, she was elected Swiss Athlete of the Year by theSwiss Athletics Association.
In 2010, she won the 200 m in the Second League of theEuropean Team Championships, and broke the Swiss U20 record in the event at the U20 World Championships.[5]
Kambundji trained with the ST Bern athletics club and was coached by Jacques Cordey. In the autumn of 2013 she moved toMannheim to train under coach Valerij Bauer alongside former European championVerena Sailer.[6][7]
At the2014 European Athletics Championships inZürich, she broke her own national record in the heats and semi-finals of the100 metres competition before finishing fourth in the final.[6] She subsequently finished fifth and broke Regula Aebi's 26-year-old national record in the200 metres final.[8]
Kambundji qualified for the Swiss team at the2016 Summer Olympics inRio de Janeiro, reaching the semi-finals of both the100 m and the200 m events.[9] Earlier in the same year, she had won bronze in the 100 m competition at theEuropean Championships inAmsterdam.[10]
At the2017 World Championships inLondon, Kambundji finished 10th in the 100 m competition.[11] In the 4 × 100 m relay event, she and her teammatesAjla Del Ponte,Sarah Atcho andSalomé Kora improved the national record in the semi-finals[12] and finished fifth in the final.[13] At the end of the year, Kambundji announced that she will work with Dutch coach Henk Kraaijenhof in the future.[14] Their working relationship was terminated after only two months, however.[15] She switched coaches again to Adrian Rothenbühler who trained her for five years until November 2022 when her partner Florian Clivaz, a former sprinter, replaced Rothenbühler as Kambundji's coach.[16][17]
At the2018 World Indoor Championships inBirmingham, Kambundji finished third in the 60 m final to win bronze. At theEuropean Championships inBerlin, she finished fourth in the100 m as well as in the200 m and in the4 × 100 m relay (withAjla Del Ponte,Sarah Atcho andSalomé Kora).
At the2019 World Championships held inDoha, Qatar, Kambundji finished third in the 200 m competition.[18] Later, she was named theSwiss Sports Personality of the Year.
At the delayed2020 Tokyo Olympics, Kambundji qualified for the finals in both 100 m and 200 m sprints, finishing sixth in theformer and seventh in thelatter event. She was also part of the Swiss 4 x 100 m relay team that finishedfourth in the final.
She won the gold medal in the 60 m at the2022 World Indoor Championships held inBelgrade in a time of 6.96 seconds, putting her joint-fourth on the world all-time list; a rare feat racing from lane eight. No woman had run faster over the distance since 1999.[19] She received another award for being the Swiss Sportswoman of the Year in December.
On 19 August 2022, Kambundji won the gold medal in the 200 m at theEuropean Athletics Championships inMunich with a time of 22.32 s, after winning silver in the 100 m in 10.99 s behind Germany'sGina Lückenkemper three days earlier.[20][21]
ETH Zurich student organization Swissloop's entry to the 2018 edition of theHyperloop competition was a transport capsule named Mujinga, after Kambundji.[22]
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| Event | Time (m:)s | Wind (m/s) | Venue | Date | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 60 metres indoor | 6.96 | — | Belgrade, Serbia | 18 March 2022 | NR |
| 100 metres | 10.89 | +0.6 | Zurich, Switzerland | 24 June 2022 | NR |
| 200 metres | 22.05 | +2.0 | Eugene, OR, United States | 19 July 2022 | NR |
| 4 × 100 m relay | 42.05 | — | Tokyo, Japan | 5 August 2021 | NR |
| 4 × 200 m relay | 1:31.75 | — | Nassau, Bahamas | 25 May 2014 | NR |
1Did not finish in the final.
2019
2022
| Awards and achievements | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Swiss Sportswoman of the Year 2019 | Succeeded by Incumbent |
| Preceded by | Swiss Sportswoman of the Year 2022 | Succeeded by Incumbent |
| Olympic Games | ||
| Preceded by | Flagbearer for Switzerland(withMax Heinzer) Tokyo 2020 | Succeeded by Incumbent |
European Athletics Championships champions in women's200 metres | |
|---|---|
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| International | |
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| National | |
| People | |
