The Dutch runner already earned the bronze medal in the 5,000 and 10,000 meters—now she adds a historic gold.
BY BRIAN DALEK
After a total 20 kilometers on the Stade de France track and collecting a bronze medal in each of the women’s 10,000 and 5,000 meters, Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands completed her own Tour de France by winning the Paris Olympics women’s marathon on Sunday in an Olympic record time of 2:22:55.
Tigist Assefa, the world record holder from Ethiopia, finished second in 2:22:58 to earn the silver medal. (Hassan and Assefa tangled in the final chute before the final kick to the finish.) Kenya’s Hellen Obiri, winner of the last two Boston Marathons, came across in 2:23:10 for bronze.
“I have no words. Every moment in the race I was regretting that I ran the 5000 meters and 10,000 meters,” she said afterward. “I was telling myself if I hadn’t done that, I would feel great today. From the beginning to the end, it was so hard. Every step of the way. I was thinking, ‘Why did I do that? What is wrong with me?’ If I hadn’t done it, I would feel so comfortable here.”
To deal with the rising temps on the course (the race began at about 18 degrees celsius, and the sky was crystal clear on the final day of Olympics), Hassan mirrored a handful of her competitors in wearing a headband cooling device seen on the heads of men like Eliud Kipchoge on Saturday.
By the 20K mark, Hassan had chipped away at the lead pack and hung off the back of them on the first block of uphills on course. By the 30K mark and final major climb, Hassan was still in the chase and used the large downhill to move up with them—Assefa, Obiri, Sharon Lokedi, and Amane Beriso Shankule—on their way back to central Paris.
“The moment I started to feel good at 20K, I felt so good. Then I knew I wanted gold,” she said. “But everybody else was fresh and all I was thinking was, ‘When are they going to break? They’re going to go hard, they’re going to go hard.’”
Within the final 5K, it was still down to five runners as they approached the finish line at Esplanade des Invalides. The podium and the gold medal would likely be decided by a sprint at the end between five of the best marathoners of all time.
Eventually, Hassan and Assefa separated themselves from the pack, even making contact with each other in the final sprint to the finish. Ultimately it was Hassan—with her strong track resume and patented kick—who won the race to the finish line.
“I feel like I am dreaming. I only see people on the TV who are Olympic champions,” Hasson said. “The marathon is something else, you know. When you do 42 kilometers in more than two hours and 20 minutes, then every single step you feel so hard and so painful.”
With the pressure, the 31-year-old Dutch wonder said she probably over-trained throughout the year to get ready, causing her to take extra recovery time. Throughout the week with media she regularly brought up how the marathon on Sunday was looming on her mind.
“To finish the marathon is a kind of hell. It’s not easy,” she said after the 10,000 meters. “The real one will start Sunday.”
Hassan is truly an adaptive runner who has won international medals in every distance from the 1500 meters up through the 10,000. In Tokyo, she ran the 1500-, 5,000-, 10,000-meter triple, earning three medals (bronze, gold, gold, respectively).
When she made the jump to the marathon in 2023, she instantly took to 42.2 kilometres as well. She debuted at the 2023 London Marathon with a win in 2:18:33. By the time she ran the 2023 Chicago Marathon, she had seemingly mastered the craft of the distance, winning with a 2:13:44—the second fastest women’s marathon time ever.
Hassan had an incredible week of racing. With the marathon (42 kilometers) and her 10,000 meter run and two rounds of the 5,000 meters, she did just over 62 kilometers in Paris. If you ever wondered “is there a difference between 5K pace, 10K, pace, and marathon pace” for your own workouts, you could look at Hassan’s average pace per mile in each event to see that there’s not one pace for every hard run.
- 5,000-meter final: 2:54 per kilometre
- 10,000-meter final: 3:04 per kilometre
- Marathon: 3:23 per kilometre
