By Evelyn Watta
Picture by Reuters
Hellen Onsando OBIRISifan HASSAN
“What just happened!?!”
That question proved iconic after Sifan Hassan was crowned Olympic women’s marathon champion after an astonishing round of runs at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
A journey that took her 62km over 10 days. A feat many felt was impossible and even by her own admission simply “crazy”.
“It still feels like a dream,” she says shortly after lowering the Olympic record with a time of two hours, 22 minutes and 55 seconds on Sunday [10 August], the final day of these incredible Games.
“I became Olympic Champion [in] the marathon. I completed my mission with three medals, two bronze and gold on my favourite distance. I am speechless.”
The Dutch woman had a lot though to say as the first woman to ever complete the distance treble. Before her, only Czech long-distance runner Emil Zatopek in 1952 had medalled over 5000m, 10,000m and marathon at the 1952 Helsinki Games.
Legendary Olympic track moments.
“I am no legend,” she maintains.
“I'm just some crazy, curious person that does everything."
- All results, as Sifan Hassan wins women’s marathon gold in new Olympic record
- The mindset behind Sifan Hassan's historic treble at Paris 2024
How Sifan Hassan overcame the fear of the marathon
When the women’s marathon race started at the Hotel de Ville, the neo-renaissance City Hall of Paris, there was almost disbelief among the fans and journalists to see Sifan Hassan lining up among the starters.
Surely, she wouldn’t go the full distance on the gruelling course. The hilly route that broke one of the best marathon runners of all time, Eliud Kipchoge, just a few hours earlier.
But this was the determined Hassan.
No matter what it took, she was going to go back home to the Netherlands, where she has lived since relocating from Ethiopia as a teenage refugee, with as a winner. And she did it in stupendous fashion.
It did help that she had an idea of what to expect from those hills. But feeling it on her quads must have been different, as her coach Tim Rowberry explained.
“She came to the course sometime during the year, and she saw how steep it was right after getting over that last hill,” he told journalists of how they simulated her training base in Utah.
“Utah is a very hilly place. And so she had an idea of what she had to do.”
Interestingly, Hassan decided just two years ago that she would add the marathon to her list of events in Paris. Then began the gruelling preparations for this stunning mission, which she admitted she "overtrained" for.
“We don’t always agree on the workouts, but in the end we always came to some compromise,” her coach admitted.
“She was so scared of the marathon that she definitely pushed on the endurance part at times. Other times, I was able to push back and get her to push back and get her to do the speed stuff.
"So, I mean, when we're trying to do the track stuff and then do a marathon after, then we tried to recreate that as close as possible in training.”
Marathoners on Sifan Hassan's achievement: "Even if the world thinks it's crazy, just do it!”
Sunday’s slow marathon pace suited her tired legs, saving the 31-year-old for the predicted sprint finish with four women chasing for the medals about two kilometres to go.
She trusted her lethal kick perfected on track over a decade, that was quite crucial in winning the first two of only four marathons in London and Chicago to secure her desired gold in Paris.
“I'm really still nervous. I was scared,” said Hassan, who cheered loudly in jubilation on the blue carpet at the finish area at Invalides.
“When we approached the finishing line, and I was like they were still there chasing me. I was like, ‘what if they catch me?’ I couldn't believe, until I crossed it.”
A ‘crazy’ and awe-inspiring performance that earned her a lot of admiration from fellow marathoners and coach.
“You saw me when I walked up here, I just emotional because it's been tough,” offered American Rowberry who has coached her since around 2018.
“And as a coach, there were so many times I thought, ‘I need to quit this job’. So this is just great!”
"She’s amazing, and I am so happy for her. Three medals in 10 days or so? She gives us hope, knowing we can all do it,” added Sharon Lokedi, fourth in Sunday’s race.
“I didn’t expect her to run like that, honestly after those track runs,” added bronze medallist Hellen Obiri who interestingly Hassan was worried most about her sprinting at the end. “She’s worked so hard for it and inspiring a lot of us athletes to be like her.”
“She shows everyone that you have to do what you want,” her teammate Anne Luijten picked up on her extraordinary treble.
“And even though the rest of the world thinks it's crazy, if your heart is in it, just do it!”
So what’s the next challenge for Hassan?
“I want to run a fast time in the 1500m, a PB. I just want to go hard, do it and get out of the comfort zone. Thinking of winning gold, challenge myself and have fun” she bares in typical Sifan Hassan fashion.
All that building up to Los Angeles 2028, which at the moment ‘if the program allows', we could only see her dropping the marathon and chase another track treble.
“I want to see if I can run a marathon and go back to track. I want to be everywhere.”
Related content
