Henriette Jæger
Henriette Jæger is a Norwegian track and field athlete. She is a multiple time national champion, and former U18 world record holder. In 2023, she became the Norwegian record holder over 400 metres. In 2025, she won the silver medal at that distance at the 2025 European Athletics Indoor Championships, and bronze at the 2025 World Athletics Indoor Championships.
Career
Young heptathlete
From Aremark, Jæger was 14 years-old when she came third at the Norwegian senior indoor championships over 200 metres, in February 2018. As a 14-year-old at the Baltic Athletics Championships in 2018, she broke the Norwegian record for girls aged 15 in the heptathlon, that had stood since 1986, with a score of 5352 points. Competing in Fagernes in 2020 she broke 6000 points for the heptathlon for the first time. In September 2020, she broke the world U18 Heptathlon record with 6301 points, surpassing María Vicente’s record score from 2018. Jæger set a new Norwegian U20 heptathlon record in Gotzis in May 2021 of 6154 points.2022–2023: Junior 400m medalist
Jæger finished in fourth place in the 400 meters at the 2022 World Athletics U20 Championships held in Cali, Colombia with a time of 52.23 seconds.Competing at the 2023 European Athletics U23 Championships held from in July 2023 in Espoo, Finland, she won a silver medal in the 400m after a close battle with Yemi Mary John, with Keely Hodgkinson in third. Her time of 51.06s set a Norwegian record over the distance.
2024: Olympic and World Indoor finalist
In January 2024, she set a new national record in the 200 metres indoors running 22.99 in Baerum. At the 2024 Copernicus Cup in February 2024, she set a new 400m personal best, and a new national record, running 51.05. She competed in the 400 metres at the 2024 World Athletics Championships in Glasgow and reached the semi-finals. She ran as part of the Norwegian relay team which qualified for the 2024 Paris Olympics, at the 2024 World Relays Championships in Nassau, Bahamas.In June 2024, in Rome, she became the first Norwegian woman to reach the final of the 200 metres at the European Athletics Championships for 78 years winning her semi final in 22.71 seconds. She finished fourth in the final having run 22.83 seconds. Later that month, she won both the 200m and 400m at the Norwegian Athletics Championships. She ran a new 400m personal best of 49.85 seconds in La Chaux-de-Fonds in July 2024.
She qualified for the final at the 2024 Summer Olympics over 400 metres in August 2024, finishing in eighth place.
2025
She ran under 51 seconds for the 400 metres for first time indoors with a Norwegian indoor record of 50.44 at the Copernicus Cup on 16 February 2025. The following weekend, she completed a 200m/400m double at the Norwegian Indoor Championships. On 8 March 2025, she ran 50.45 seconds to win the silver medal in the 400 metres at the 2025 European Athletics Indoor Championships in Apeldoorn. She won the bronze medal in the final of the 400 metres at the 2025 World Athletics Indoor Championships in Nanjing, running 50.92 seconds.She placed third in the 200 metres at the 2025 Shanghai Diamond League. She helped the Norwegian women's 4 x 400 metres relay team set a new national record in finishing fourth overall at the 2025 World Athletics Relays in China. In June 2025, she ran 49.62 seconds to set a new Norwegian national record for the 400 metres at the 2025 Bislett Games, Oslo. Three days later she was runner-up in the 400 metres at the 2025 BAUHAUS-galan event in Stockholm, both part of the 2025 Diamond League. On 29 June 2025 she anchored the Norwegian mixed 4x400 metres team to victory to help Norway achieve promotion from the 2025 European Athletics Team Championships Second Division in Maribor. She ran a championship record of 49.74 seconds to win the gold medal in the 400 metres at the 2025 European Athletics U23 Championships in Bergen in her native Norway. She also won the silver medal in the 200 metres at the championships. The following month she recorded a Diamond League victory winning in 50.09 seconds over 400 metres at the 2025 Athletissima event in Lausanne in wet conditions. She placed third in a national record 49.49 seconds for the 400 metres at the Diamond League Final in Zurich on 28 August.
Competing at the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, she qualified for the final and placed seventh overall in the women's 400 metres.