Fiona May

Fiona May Iapichino (born 12 December 1969 in Slough, England) is a retired British-born Italian track and field athlete who competed in the long jump. She won the World Championships twice and two Olympic silver medals. Her personal best jump was 7.11 metres, which was her silver medal result at the 1998 European Championships.

Biography

She also competed briefly in triple jump, and her career best of 14.65 metres from 1998 was good enough to place fifth in the world that season. May originally competed for Great Britain, but married Gianni Iapichino and became an Italian citizen in 1994. Iapichino, a former pole vaulter whose best achievements were a fifth and sixth place at the European Indoor Championships in 1992 and 1994, was her coach as well. May gave birth to a daughter in 2002, and missed the whole season as a result. Her last significant competition was the 2005 World Championships, where she failed to reach the final.

May attended Leeds Trinity & All Saints College, a college affiliated with the University of Leeds, studying economics, business management and administration. In 2006, she retired from competitions and started a new successful career in show business. After some modelling, she became the spokeswoman of the Kinder snacks and she won the Italian version of Dancing with the Stars in 2006. Later that year her acting debut was broadcast on Rai Uno as the protagonist of Butta la luna, a miniseries about racism and social integration.

Family

May's parents are Jamaican. She is also rugby player Marcel Garvey's cousin. Her daughter, Larissa Iapichino, is following her parents' footsteps and is currently the 300 metres hurdles Italian and European champion.

Achievements