Melissa Bishop-Nriagu

Melissa Bishop-Nriagu (born August 5, 1988) is a Canadian runner who specializes in the 800 metres. She competed at the 2012, 2016 Olympics and 2020 Olympics. She won a silver medal at the 2015 World Athletics Championships. Her World Championship medal was a Canadian woman's first-ever medal in the 800 m. Bishop-Nriagu graduated from University of Windsor and was only the third Canadian woman to achieve a time under 2:00 minutes in the 800 m. She is currently the national record holder for this distance.

Melissa Bishop-Nriagu
Bishop at the 2016 Rio Olympics
Personal information
Birth nameMelissa Bishop
NationalityCanadian
Born (1988-08-05) August 5, 1988
Eganville, Ontario, Canada
Height173 cm (5 ft 8 in)[1]
Weight56 kg (123 lb)[1]
Spouse(s)
Osi Nriagu
​
(m. 2017)​
Sport
CountryCanada
SportAthletics
Event(s)800 metres
University teamUniversity of Windsor
Achievements and titles
Personal best(s)400 m: 56.21 (Ottawa 2011)
800 m: 1:57.01 NR (Monte Carlo 2017)
1000 m: 2:38.75 (Amsterdam 2014)[2]
Medal record
Women's athletics
Representing  Canada
World Championships
Silver medal – second place2015 Beijing800 m
Pan American Games
Gold medal – first place2015 Toronto 800 m
Jeux de la Francophonie
Silver medal – second place2013 Nice4x400 m relay
Bronze medal – third place2013 Nice800 m

Career

At the 2012 Summer Olympics, Bishop-Nriagu placed sixth in her heat and did not advance to the semi-finals.

Her next major sporting event was the 2015 Pan American Games located in her home country of Canada. There, Bishop-Nriagu competed in the 800m in Toronto; in the final, she ran a time of 1:59.62 to win the gold and the title of Pan Am champion. Of the home crowd Bishop-Nriagu said, "I knew the crowd was going to be loud no matter what, so I was just trying to put myself in a good position to be able to run through. I'm really happy it worked out. It's so nice to win a gold medal at home."[3]

Bishop-Nriagu finished second in the 800 meters at the 2015 World Championships in Athletics in Beijing. She set a national record in the semi-finals while winning in 1:57.52, beating a record set by Diane Cummins which had stood for 14 years.[4] The final, a race characterized by several pace changes up and down, saw Bishop-Nriagu in a three-way sprint to the medals where she finished in second place. After the race, she said, "It's really a dream come true. Our training has been really consistent over the last few years. This year, we've really worked on a few things, and I've been waiting for the right race. I'm really happy that it came here at the [world] championships."[4]

The 2016 Rio Olympics saw Bishop-Nriagu compete as a part of Canada's Olympic team.[5] She was ranked third in the world as of July 27, 2016, after posting a national record of 1:57.43 in Edmonton, on July 16. Bishop-Nriagu finished fourth in the 800 m final in Rio de Janeiro, again setting a new national record for the 800 m with a 1:57.02 finish. Caster Semenya would win gold, while Francine Niyonsaba took silver and Margaret Wambui would pass Bishop-Nriagu for bronze in the final 50 m, beating her by 0.13s. Many, including the fifth and sixth place finishers from Poland and Britain, believed that all three podium finishers are intersex and were competing with elevated testosterone levels, which was later proven true.[6][7] A teary-eyed Bishop-Nriagu said after the race that "It's really kind of hard to describe this right now. This is what we work for for a decade and to be that close...this is tough."[8]

Following her pregnancy in 2018 and injury struggles in 2019, Bishop-Nriagu resumed competition and qualified to her third consecutive Canadian Olympic team, this time for the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. Bishop aimed to improve on her prior result in the 800 m, but placed fourth in her heat with a time of 2:02.11 and did not qualify to the semi-finals. Speaking afterward she said she was disappointed while noting that she had been dealing with a hamstring injury and that, ultimately, she was proud of what she had accomplished in returning to the Games.[9]

Personal life

Born in Eganville, Ontario, Bishop-Nriagu lives by Lake Dore with her parents, Alison and Doug Bishop.[1] She married fellow Canadian athlete Osi Nriagu in October 2017.[10] The couple announced they were expecting their first child in February 2018 with the baby due in June 2018.[11] Their daughter was born on Monday, July 2, 2018. [12] A second daughter was born to the couple July 25, 2022.[13]

Achievements
  • 2nd, 800 meters; 2015 Beijing, World Championships, China
  • 2nd, 2012 National Championships, Calgary, Canada (Olympic "A" Standard).
  • Personal Best: 1:57.01 – Canadian record (800 m outdoor); Monaco (MON), World Athletic Championships, Final, July 21, 2017

References
  1. "Melissa Bishop". olympic.ca. Canadian Olympic Committee. Retrieved July 23, 2015.
  2. "IAAF Profile". IAAF. Retrieved July 22, 2015.
  3. "Melissa Bishop gives Canada gold in 800m". CBC Sports. July 22, 2015. Retrieved August 30, 2015.
  4. "Melissa Bishop grabs silver in women's 800m at Beijing worlds". CBC Sports. August 29, 2015.
  5. Hossain, Asif (July 11, 2016). "Athletics Canada nominates largest squad to Team Canada for Rio". Canadian Olympic Committee. Retrieved July 11, 2016.
  6. "Is Caster Semenya playing fair?". CBC Sports. February 24, 2019.
  7. "'Intersex' athletes to learn if they will be forced to take drugs to suppress testosterone". the Telegraph. February 24, 2019.
  8. "Melissa Bishop heartbroken after missing 800 podium". CBC Sports. August 21, 2016. Archived from the original on October 17, 2016. Retrieved August 21, 2016.
  9. Dichter, Myles (July 29, 2021). "Canada's Melissa Bishop-Nriagu knocked out early in women's 800m heats".
  10. "Melissa Bishop shares wedding day photo". Canadian Running. October 7, 2017. Retrieved February 2, 2018.
  11. "Running star Melissa Bishop trading track for diaper changing this summer". Windsor Star. February 2, 2018. Retrieved February 2, 2018.
  12. "It's a girl! Melissa-Bishop-Nriagu's baby born July 2". Running Magazine. July 4, 2018. Retrieved August 10, 2021.
  13. "Melissa Bishop-Nriagu and her husband welcome their second child". Running Magazine. July 27, 2022. Retrieved August 7, 2022.
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