Anna Hall (athlete)

Hall attended Valor Christian High School in her hometown Highlands Ranch, Colorado near Denver, where she was a three-time New Balance Nationals pentathlon champion between 2017–19 and 2018 New Balance Nationals high jump champion.[5] In 2018, she set her first pentathlon (junior class) and heptathlon national high school records. The following year, she improved both records with 4,302 and 5,847 points at the USATF Indoor Championships (third place in senior division at age 17) and Pan American Under-20 Championships (first place) respectively.[5] She was also back-to-back heptathlon U-20 national champion.

In 2019–2021, Hall represented Georgia Bulldogs. In 2021, after finishing second in the NCAA indoor pentathlon and third in the high jump, she was a NCAA high jump All-American to help the Bulldogs earn their NCAA Outdoor third place team finish.[5][7]

During her 100 meters hurdles heat at the 2020 US Olympic trials in June 2021, she hit the eighth barrier and crashed hard on the track, breaking the navicular bone in her left foot. She later posted, "my heart is broken that I didn’t get to put up the score I know I was ready for and my Olympic dreams (for this year) were shattered before my eyes".[8] Hall had a surgery to insert a screw into this foot and wasn’t cleared to walk until October. In the meantime, she transferred from University of Georgia to University of Florida following a Bulldogs coaching change.[8][4]

In 2022, representing Florida Gators, Hall won the pentathlon and heptathlon titles at the indoor and outdoor NCAA Division I Championships respectively. Outdoors, she was also the 400 m hurdles silver medallist to help the Gators earn their first women's NCAA Outdoor team championship title.[9][10] She shattered her heptathlon personal best with a score of 6,412 points at the Texas Relays, breaking the collegiate record of 6,390 set by Jackie Joyner-Kersee in 1983 and setting an American record in the heptathlon 800 meters with a time of 2:04.61.[8] Hall improved both marks to take the title at the USATF Combined Event Championships, with a score of 6458 points and the third-fastest heptathlon 800 m time in world history (2:03.11). She was named USTFCCCA Outdoor National Women’s Field Athlete of the Year.[11]

In July that year, the 21-year-old won the heptathlon bronze medal at the World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon with a new personal best by almost 300 pts of 6755 points, becoming the third-best female heptathlete in American history and setting a new NCAA record. It was the first world medal for the United States in the event in over 20 years – since Shelia Burrell earned also bronze in 2001.[12]

In August 2022, Hall turned professional, signing a contract with Adidas.[13]

On February 16, 2023, she obliterated the North American pentathlon record with a score of 5004 points at the USATF Indoor Championships in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Becoming the third athlete in history to achieve 5000 points or more and moving up to second place on the world all-time list, Hall just missed the world record of 5013 pts, set by Nataliya Dobrynska in 2012.[13][14] At the same meet, she later claimed the 400 meters title, running a new personal best time of 51.03 seconds.[15]

Sources:[18][19]