With Femke Bol poised to make her 800m debut at the Meeting Metz Moselle on Sunday, European Athletics takes a look at the exploits of seven other athletes who have successfully switched events, all of whom have gone on to win major titles in the secondary events.
And don't miss Bol's first ever 800m on Sunday. The Meeting Metz Moselle will be streamed live on the European Athletics website (some geoblocking restrictions will apply) from 2.35pm CET.
Patryk Dobek | 400m hurdles to 800m
If Femke Bol needed any proof that 400m hurdlers can make good 800m runners, she only needs to turn the clock back five years to look at the medal-winning exploits of Poland’s Patryk Dobek in 2021.
While Bol won the 400m at the 2021 European Athletics Indoor Championships, Dobek shocked a field replete with talent and experience - including 2017 world champion Pierre Ambroise Bosse and six-time European champion Adam Kszczot - by winning the 800m in his just his third competition at the distance, by far Dobek’s greatest career achievement at that point.
But just a few months later, Dobek left the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games with a bronze medal in the 800m, only finishing 0.33 behind the champion Emmanuel Korir. This was a stark improvement on his showing five years prior at the 2016 Olympic Games when Dobek finished last in his 400m hurdles heat.
Lamont Marcell Jacobs | Long jump to 100m
Lamont Marcell Jacobs didn’t look like the 2020 Olympic 100m champion in waiting when he exited in the qualifying round of the long jump at the 2017 and 2019 European Athletics Indoor Championships.
A fringe world class long jumper in the late 2010s with a lifetime best of 8.07m, Jacobs had demonstrated some nascent promise in the sprints alongside his stuttering long jump career which he wholly fulfilled in his first season in his new discipline in 2021.
After winning the European indoor 60m title in Torun in 6.47, Jacobs filled the void left by the now-retired three-time Olympic champion Usain Bolt by blazing to Olympic 100m gold in a wide-open race in Tokyo in a European record of 9.80, breaking his mark of 9.84 which he had set in the semifinals.
Jacobs has unfairly been labelled as a one-hit wonder in some corners of the internet but the Italian went on to win the world indoor 60m title in 2022 and the 100m title at the 2022 and 2024 European Athletics Championships. He has his sights set on completing the hat-trick of 100m titles in Birmingham 2026.
Mattia Furlani | High jump to long jump
By contrast, the long jump has been Mattia Furlani’s calling and he became the event’s youngest ever world champion last year when he won gold in Tokyo at the age of 20.
But how far - or more fittingly, how high - could Furlani have gone if he had stuck with the high jump? He cleared 2.10m at the age of 15 before reaching the European U20 final in 2021 at the age of 16, finishing seventh despite being the youngest in the final by almost two years.
But Furlani left an immediate mark in his first season as a long jumper in 2022. He flew over the 8.00m-barrier to win gold at the 2022 European Athletics U18 Championships with a European U18 best of 8.04m in his just his fourth competition in the discipline.
The following day, Furlani showed his all-round versatility by winning the high jump title but the long jump would eventually take precedence.
Agathe Guillemot | Heptathlon to 1500m
Agathe Guillemot’s CV makes for colourful reading: an international heptathlete, a double SPAR European Cross Country Championships medallist, an Olympic finalist, a European indoor 1500m champion among many other accolades.
The Frenchwoman’s first exposure to international competition came in the combined events, qualifying for the heptathlon at the 2018 World U20 Championships - unsurprisingly Guillemot was the fastest in the 800m - before eventually finding her niche in the middle distances.
But despite moving away from the heptathlon, Guillemot has kept her zeal for competing in multiple events. A prolific racer, Guillemot won team silver at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships, silver again in the mixed relay at the World Cross Country Championships and smashed her French indoor mile record with 4:23.27 in the last two months alone.
Karsten Warholm | Decathlon to 400m hurdles
"My coach Leif Olav Alnes, who is a very clever guy, came to the conclusion the 400m hurdles might be an event I could do well at," said Karsten Warholm at the end of 2017.
This proved to be a huge understatement as Warholm has gone up to rack up three world and European titles and an Olympic title. He remains the only athlete to have broken the 46 second-barrier in the 400m hurdles, clocking 45.94 to win his first Olympic title in Tokyo.
But Warholm initially found success in the combined events before moving to the 400m hurdles in 2016 via the 400m. Warholm won the octathlon title - the decathlon was not yet part of the U18 programme - at the 2013 World Athletics U18 Championships before winning a brace of silver medals in the 400m and decathlon at the 2025 European Athletics U20 Championships, his last hurrah as a combined eventer.
Nadine Visser | Heptathlon to 100m hurdles
Like Warholm, Nadine Visser had significant early success as a combined eventer. By the age of 22, Visser had already finished seventh in back-to-back heptathlons at the World Athletics Championships but sensing she was reaching the limit of her potential, the Dutchwoman made a successful switch to the sprint hurdles in 2018.
“It’s some years ago now that I quit heptathlon and I have never felt regrets…I have been way more happy as a hurdler. I like the competitions and the sessions way more. My boyfriend always says, 'When you finish your career, you should end with a heptathlon.' But I don’t see that happening!" said Visser on changing events.
Alexis Miellet | 1500m to 3000m steeplechase
Alexis Miellet won a gold medal at the 2024 European Athletics Championships in Rome in an event he had never contested as recently as six weeks before the championships.
Primarily a 1500m specialist prior to 2024, Miellet contested his first ever 3000m steeplechase on 4 May, clocking a promising 8:24.94 in his first attempt at the distance. Five weeks later, Miellet stormed to the European 3000m steeplechase title in Rome in a lifetime best of 8:14.01 before making the French team in his newfound event at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.
"It’s unbelievable, it’s incredible. I’m going to have trouble believing it even on the podium," said an incredulous Miellet after striking for steeplechase gold in Rome.
