The women's heptathlon competition at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, was won by Nafissatou Thiam of Belgium.

Katarina Johnson-Thompson had one of the highest personal best scores, though her fitness for the two-day event was in question, ranking 17th in the world.

Other strong entrants included 2016 European Champion Anouk Vetter and world medallist Laura Ikauniece-Admidiņa (ranked third and fourth for the season).

[2][3] While South American Champion Evelis Aguilar from Colombia did not reach the top 10 she improved her personal best in 5 events during the competition.

[4] World heptathlon bests came in the high jump, courtesy of Belgium's Nafissatou Thiam and Johnson-Thompson's clearances of 1.98 m (the latter setting an outright British record).

Her weakest event, Johnson-Thompson slid to out of the lead and into sixth place after a poor 11.68 m. Germany's Carolin Schäfer moved into the top five with a personal best.

[8] Despite carrying an elbow injury, Thiam excelled in the javelin with a personal best of 53.13 m. Ennis-Hill remained in second through her throw of 46.06 m, while Theisen-Eaton's 47.36 m put her ahead of fourth-placed Schäfer.

[9][10] At the start of the seventh event, Thiam had a 142-point lead worth nearly ten seconds for the 800 m. In the final race, Ennis-Hill took to the front and was on for a personal best at the halfway point, trailed by Theisen-Eaton, Johnson-Thompson and Ikauniece-Admidina.

The heptathlon consists of seven track and field events, with a points system that awards higher scores for better results in each of the seven components.