# Cyréna Samba-Mayela

Cyréna Samba-Mayela (born 31 October 2000) is a French athlete who competes in the 60 metres hurdles and 100 metres hurdles. She won the gold medal in the 60 m hurdles at the 2022 World Indoor Championships, a silver medal at the 2024 World Athletics Indoor Championships where she lowered the current French national record to 7.73 seconds, and the gold medal at the 2024 European Athletics Championships, where she established a new personal best, national record and championship record at 12.31 seconds. At the 2024 Summer Olympics, Samba-Mayela won a silver medal in the 100 m hurdles event.
Samba-Mayela holds European under-18 bests in the 60 m and 100 m hurdles (76.2 cm). She won silver medals for the 100 m hurdles at the 2017 World U18 Championships and 2021 European U23 Championships.

## Career
### Junior career

Samba-Mayela won the gold medal in the medley relay at the 2016 European Youth Athletics Championships, running the 100 metres leg in Tbilisi.
In 2017, she was the World U18 Championship 100 m hurdles silver medallist in Nairobi.

### 2020–present

She was crowned French senior champion in the 60 m hurdles indoors in 2020 in Liévin. On 12 September that year, she won the French outdoor championship at the Stadium Municipal, Albi, running the 100 m hurdles in a time of 12.73, the fastest ever time by a European teenager, and the eighth-fastest French woman ever. In 2020 it was the fourth-fastest time by a woman in the world. Shortly prior to this, she had claimed victories over quality international line-ups in Chorzów and Marseille.
In Madrid, on June 19, 2021, Samba-Mayela took victory in 12.80 seconds in the 100 m hurdles to meet the Olympic minimum standard for the delayed 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Unfortunately, an injury during the warm-up pre-race prevented her Olympic debut.
In 2022, she won the gold medal for the 60 m hurdles at the World Indoor Championships held in Belgrade, Serbia, setting a French national record of 7.78 seconds. Devynne Charlton took silver in 7.81 s while the third-placed Gabbi Cunningham clocked 7.87 s.
In August 2023, she competed at the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest and qualified for the semi-finals.
She was a silver medalist at the 2024 World Athletics Indoor Championships in Glasgow in the 60 metres hurdles.
In April 2024, she ran a personal best and national record time of 12.55 at the 2024 Xiamen Diamond League. She ran 12.52 to win the 2024 Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Oregon on 25 May 2024.
She won the 100m hurdles at the 2024 European Athletics Championships in Rome, breaking the championship record and setting a personal best time of 12.31 seconds.
She won the silver medal in the 100m hurdles at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
In September 2024, it was announced that she had signed up for the inaugural season of the Michael Johnson founded Grand Slam Track.

## Achievements
### International competitions

Representing  France :
| Year | Competition | Venue | Position | Event | Time |
| 2016 | European U18 Championships | Tbilisi, Georgia | 1st | Medley relay | 2:08.48 PB |
| 2017 | World U18 Championships | Nairobi, Kenya | 2nd | 100 m hurdles | 12.80 |
| 2018 | World U20 Championships | Tampere, Finland | 8th | 100 m hurdles | 14.11 |
| 2021 | European U23 Championships | Tallinn, Estonia | 2nd | 100 m hurdles | 12.80 |
| 2022 | World Indoor Championships | Belgrade, Serbia | 1st | 60 m hurdles | 7.78 NR |
| 2022 | World Championships | Eugene, United States | 28th (h) | 100 m hurdles | 13.15 |
| 2022 | European Championships | Munich, Germany | 7th | 100 m hurdles | 13.05 |
| 2023 | European Indoor Championships | Istanbul, Turkey | 8th (sf) | 60 m hurdles | 8.00 |
| 2023 | World Championships | Budapest, Hungary | 17th (sf) | 100 m hurdles | 12.95 |
| 2024 | World Indoor Championships | Glasgow, United Kingdom | 2nd | 60 m hurdles | 7.74 |
| 2024 | European Championships | Rome, Italy | 1st | 100 m hurdles | 12.31 CR |
| 2024 | Olympic Games | Paris, France | 2nd | 100 m hurdles | 12.34 |

### National titles

* French Athletics Championships
** 100 m hurdles: 2020, 2021
* French Indoor Athletics Championships
** 60 m hurdles: 2020

## Personal life

Samba-Mayela was born in Champigny-sur-Marne, in the Île-de-France region. She is of Congolese descent.