Malaika Mihambo: Greatness in the defeat at the European Championships in Birmingham

She started well, with 6.94 meters, then had three invalid attempts in a strong tailwind, the fifth attempt was 6.70 meters. She was now only in fifth place. But Mihambo is considered the champion of the sixth and final attempt. She would rock the thing, wouldn't she? Mihambo then landed at 6.86 meters. And stayed fifth.

Mixed in with all the happy stories of the many German medals on the final day of this European Championship was the rather sad story of Mihambo, who only made it to the final with the last attempt at qualification. A competition that was one of the most exciting that the long jump has had to offer in recent times: The Italian Larissa Iapichino won gold with 7.00 meters ahead of the British Jazmin Sawyers, who jumped 6.99 meters. Bronze winner Hilary Kpatcha from France was also just one centimeter behind her.

"That's exactly what sport is. Win, lose, learn from it and move on," says Mihambo

Mihambo struggled in this competition, with her run-up, with the jump, with the technique. "In the 6.70, I did a huge ass bomb, lost a lot of landing, I was also in front of the board. I was unlucky, ran stupidly," she said. She missed a medal by a few centimeters, cried, and the others hugged her. And then she showed what she can perhaps do even better than winning: greatness in defeat.

"I know what a privilege it is to be here today and cry and be sad that I only came fifth at a European Championship. Because I know that I have struggled with so much harder tasks in recent years," said Mihambo. She is a person who sees sport as a means of processing things, moving on, and tackling the next goal. And she said in Birmingham, deeply touched: "I'm back on the path to moving forward, focused, motivated. I'm glad that I'm back at that point now, after the hard and ongoing grieving process I'm in."

In her autobiography “Spring dich frei” she not only reported on her less privileged childhood and racism against her, but also on personal strokes of fate. The fact that Mihambo is now leaving the European Championships in Birmingham beaten, without a medal, which is completely unusual for her on the big stage, is not how she sees it, she sees it this way: She was allowed to be part of an exciting competition and was annoyed that she simply didn't do better, even though she tried her best. On Monday night she made an Instagram post, thanking her fans, friends, family, coach - and even the organizer of this European Championship. She also wrote: "That's exactly what sport is. Win, lose, learn from it and move on." And that's exactly what life is for Malaika Mihambo.