Francine Niyonsaba
Sign in to saveBurundian distance runner
Key facts
- Born
- ( 1993-05-05 ) 5 May 1993 (age 33) , Nkanda Bweru, Ruyigi Province , Burundi
- Height
- 1.66 m (5 ft 5 in)
- Weight
- 60 kg (132 lb)
- Country
- Burundi
- Sport
- Athletics
- Event s
- Middle- , Long-distance running , 800 meters (–2019)
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- human
- Citizenship
- Burundi
- Occupation
- athletics competitor
- Languages spoken
- French
- Native language
- Kirundi
- Sport
- athletics
- Country for sport
- Burundi
- Mass
- 56
- Image
- Francine Niyonsaba Rio 2016.jpg
- Height
- 161
Show 4 more facts
- Commons category
- Francine Niyonsaba
- date of birth
- 1993-05-05
- start of work period
- 2012-00-00
- personal best
- 3037
Sources (3)
via Wikidata · CC0
~5 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Francine Niyonsaba (born May 5, 1993) is a Burundian runner who specialized in the 800 metres and shifted to longer distances in 2019. She was the 2016 Rio Olympics silver medalist in the women's 800 metres. Her silver medal was the first Olympic medal for Burundi since 1996. Niyonsaba won a silver in the event at the 2017 World Championships.
She is a two-time 800 m world indoor champion, having won 800 m in 2016 and 2018. After her move to longer distances, Niyonsaba finished fifth over the 10,000 metres at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. With a time of 5:21.56, Niyonsaba holds the African record in the 2000 metres, set in 2021, along with seven Burundian records. Her 2000 metres time was previously the world record until it was broken by Jessica Hull in 2024, who ran 5:19.70.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Francine Niyonsaba” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.