The end of the Olympic Games this Sunday, August 11, could not have started better than the women’s marathon run through the streets of Paris and the mythical triumph of the Dutch Sifan Hassan in what has been described as the most demanding Olympic marathon in living memory to date.

A lanky 31-year-old Sifan Hassan, who had just won bronze in the 5,000 m and 10,000 m, waited for the right moment to break away from the leading group to make an epic sprint and overtake world record holder Tigist Assefa, whose energy was not enough (with elbows included) to stop Hassan’s determination to win her third Olympic medal at the Paris 2024 Games.

Sifan Hassan thus claimed the last gold medal in athletics at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, winning the women’s marathon with an Olympic record of 2:22:55, completing an impressive medal hat-trick.

The 31-year-old Dutchwoman, who had already won bronze medals in Paris at 5,000 and 10,000 meters, beat Ethiopia’s Tigist Assefa in a sprint finish. Assefa took silver in 2:22:58, while the bronze went to Kenya’s Hellen Obiri, with a personal best of 2:23:10.

Remarkably, she prevailed despite the course’s difficulty and the hot conditions. Three of the top six athletes achieved personal bests, and both Hassan and Assefa finished below the previous Olympic record of 2:23:07, set by Tiki Gelana in 2012.

After Hassan, Assefa, and Obiri left Kenya’s Sharon Lokedi behind in the home straight, the medals seemed decided, but Hassan was determined to make her last race her best.

Hassan achieved this just 37 hours after taking bronze in the 10,000m. Six days after her first medal of the Paris Games—bronze—in the 5,000m, Hassan claimed the marathon title.

“I have no words. At every moment of the race, I regretted running the 5,000m and 10,000m. I kept telling myself that I would feel great today if I hadn’t done it,” Hassan declared after finishing the race.

Who is Sifan Hassan?

There is a determination in Sifan Hassan that has been part of her since childhood. Born in Ethiopia, as a teenager, a friend challenged her to compete in a race. Although she disliked the idea, Hassan accepted the challenge, and many things began to change from then on.

In 2008, Hassan emigrated to the Netherlands, settling as a refugee in Eindhoven. Although she initially aimed to pursue a career in nursing, her natural talent for athletics soon came to the fore. After winning several local races, she dedicated herself entirely to the sport.

After obtaining Dutch nationality in 2013, she began competing internationally. Her first significant achievement came that same year when she was crowned European cross-country champion in the junior category. Two years later, in 2015, she repeated her success in this championship, but this time in the senior category. However, her greatest triumphs have come on the track, where she has consolidated her place among the best runners in the world.

Sifan Hassan won the women’s marathon after adding two bronzes in 5,000 and 10,000 m at these Games, 72 years after Emil Zatopek won all three events at the Helsinki Games.

Source: El País Newspaper

An above-average runner

Sifan Hassan is not just an exceptional runner but an unstoppable force in world athletics. Since she first came to prominence, she has demonstrated her versatility with world-class performances at distances ranging from 800 meters to the marathon, including several European and world records. His achievements speak for themselves: two European championships, the first at 1500 meters in 2014 and then at 5000 meters in 2018, plus a world indoor championship at 1500 meters in 2016 and a European indoor championship in 2015 at the same distance. And if that wasn’t enough, in 2015, he took the final win in the 1500 meters at the Diamond League.

But his success story did not stop there. In the following years, Hassan continued to excel. In 2019, she made history at the World Championships in Doha, becoming the first athlete to win the 1500m and 10,000m titles in the same event. Then, at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics (held in 2021 due to the pandemic), Sifan again shone with an impressive performance, taking gold in the 5,000m, bronze in the 1,500m, and another gold in the 10,000m.

Hassan now has a total of six Olympic medals, adding to the gold in the 5,000m and 10,000m and bronze in the 1,500m she won at the Tokyo Games. Thus, she becomes the first woman to win medals in the 5,000 m, 10,000 m, and marathon at the same Games and the first woman to win a medal in the 1,500 m at the Tokyo Games.

“When I finished, the whole moment was a release. It was unbelievable. I had never experienced anything like that. Even the other marathons I’ve run haven’t come close to this,” said Hassan, who won in his debut London Marathon in April 2023 with a time of 2:18:33 and improved to 2:13:44 to win in Chicago in October.

“As soon as I started feeling good at mile 20, I wanted the gold. But everyone else was fresh, and I was thinking, ‘When will they break? They’re going to go for it,'” she confessed.

But Hassan was more challenging and was rewarded with the ultimate track and field title at the Paris Games.

This achievement in the French capital undoubtedly cements her place among the sport’s elite and inspires runners worldwide to dream big and never give up, no matter the challenges.

Photos: AP/Getty Images World Athletics
Source: ESPN; Olympics Games; World Athletics

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