Margaret Simpson is one of Ghana’s most decorated athletes. She was born on 31st December 1981 in Krapa.
She was a heptathlete, a seven-event track and field combined events contest.
Heptathlon is a composite contest for female athletes that consists of the 100-meter hurdles, the high jump, the shot put, the 200-meter dash, the long jump, the javelin throw, and the 800-meter run.
In one of her earliest international senior performances, she placed fourth at the 1999 All-African Games.
She took the bronze medal at the 2002 Commonwealth Games and then won the heptathlon gold medal at the 2002 African Championships in Athletics.
In 2004, Simpson became African Champion for a second time and followed this result with a ninth place at the 2004 Athens Olympics.
Simpson reached the global podium for the first time at the 2005 World Championships in Athletics, taking third place with the second-best performance of her career with a tally of 6375 points.
She had set a personal best of 6423 points at the Hypo-Meeting earlier that season. She missed the 2006 season but returned the year after with a gold medal performance at the 2007 All-African Games.
She failed to finish at the 2007 World Championships later that season. She missed all of the 2008 season after being off form in 2009 and registered a season’s best of 5872 points at the Meeting International d’Arles.
She was back to good form at the 2010 African Athletics Championships, where she won a third heptathlon title with a score of 6031 points.
She also managed to be eighth in the high jump for Africa at the 2010 IAAF Continental Cup.
With her hard work and determination, she was able to achieve a lot in the twenty years she competed in the Ghanaian colours.
The three-times All-African Games winner and a four times African Champion, also won a Commonwealth bronze medal in 2002 at Manchester and was a silver medalist at the African U-20 Championships, a one-time current African Record Holder of Heptathlon, and among the top 8 at the World (Continental) Cup.