March 19, 2008

By Joe Battaglia, NBCOlympics.com

Carolina Kluft of Sweden announced Wednesday that the she would not compete in the heptathlon at the Olympics this summer in Beijing, and was instead choosing to focus on the long jump, and perhaps the triple jump.

While Kluft has hinted for a while that this day was coming, few believed she would actually make the decision this year.

She hasn’t lost a heptathlon competition in more than five years; is coming off a dominant performance at the World Championships in Osaka, where she scored 7,032 points, second most all-time; and would have been a heavy favorite to repeat as Olympic gold medalist, a feat accomplished only by Jackie Joyner-Kersee in 1988 and 1992.

In an interview at the Boston Indoor Games in February Kluft explained why she was pondering the change. It was evident that she had genuinely become tired of competing in the seven-event discipline.

“After Osaka, I felt empty,” Kluft said. “One of my biggest goals was to break my personal record, and I did that. I felt like I have accomplished so much in the heptathlon. I’ve had so many experiences and I’ve challenged myself for a long time in a lot of different circumstances. Now I feel a little bit empty and still do. I need a new challenge. I really would like to put more effort in one event and be a single-event competitor and try that before I quit.”