Fiona May

Fiona May (born 12 December 1969) is a retired track and field athlete who competed for the United Kingdom and later Italy 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.

Early life Born in Slough and raised in Derby, May studied A-levels in Communications and Economics at South East Derbyshire College. She trained at Derby Ladies Athletics Club.

May attended Leeds Trinity & All Saints College, a college affiliated with the University of Leeds, studying economics, business management and administration.

Career She left her British coach in December 1992. May originally competed for Great Britain, but became an Italian citizen upon her marriage to her coach Gianni Iapichino in 1994. She left the British team due to lack of money provided. In the 1996 Summer Olympics she damaged her ankle and knee.

She also competed briefly in the triple jump, and her career best of 14.65 metres from 1998 was good enough to place fifth in the world that season.

May missed the whole 2002 season as a result of her pregnancy and childbirth. Her last significant competition was the 2005 World Championships, where she failed to reach the final. May and Iapichino were married until 2011.

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.

Other ventures In 2019, Fiona May become the testimonial of the Italian Salesians of Don Bosco's missions in Africa and particularly of their Ethiopian activities for mothers.

Family May's parents are Jamaican, and she is also rugby player Marcel Garvey's cousin.

She married her coach Gianni Iapichino, a former pole vaulter whose best achievements were a fifth and sixth place at the European Indoor Championships in 1992 and 1994, on Saturday 9 October 1993 at St Peter's in Littleover.

She gave birth to their daughter Larissa in 2002. Larissa is following her parents' footsteps, winning the Italian and European titles for the 300 metres hurdles , the long jump silver medal at the 2023 European Indoor Championships, and the long jump gold medal at the 2026 European Athletics Championships in Birmingham, United Kingdom.

Achievements