Sifan Hassan completes ‘crazy’ challenge, wins Olympic marathon in record time

Sifan Hassan simply wished to complete.

“It is my loopy factor,” she stated. “I simply need to full it. I’m very curious. May I podium? May I even full? Am I sturdy sufficient?”

Hassan, 31, has been stuffed with questions all week.

It’s no surprise — what she tried on the Paris Olympics is a bit loopy, to make use of her language. In Olympic historical past, solely Emil Zátopek of Czechia has earned a medal within the Video games’ three longest races: the 5000m, 10,000m and marathon.

Hassan calls herself a Zátopek fan. She has studied his profession intensely. In Paris, she determined to repeat him, enlisting herself in a 38.6-mile gauntlet over 9 days by competing in all three occasions.

After taking bronze within the first two races, the ladies’s marathon loomed on Sunday morning, and the considered it made the Dutch star really feel woozy.

“To complete the marathon is a sort of hell,” Hassan stated on Friday.

Hassan simply wished to complete. Then, she received.

In an Olympic file time of two:22.55, Hassan received gold within the ladies’s marathon on Sunday. She got here to Paris with a stomach-turning “loopy” plan, and she or he’ll head dwelling with three Paris Olympic medals — and a file to prime it off.

“I’ve so many feelings,” Hassan stated moments after her marathon victory. “I used to be terrified of this race.

I used to be by no means extra targeted in my life, till that second. For 2 hours, I used to be targeted each step. 

As if the primary 37 miles of her Olympics weren’t grueling sufficient, it was Hassan’s remaining kick that delivered one of many Video games’ signature moments. With only one flip to go within the marathon, Hassan and world file holder Tigst Assefa of Ethiopia ran alone within the lead: Hassan in her vibrant orange Dutch package, Assefa sporting the Ethiopian inexperienced.

Assefa led by a step. However Hassan, often called among the best race finishers in historical past, summoned a burst of prodigious energy from inside. She veered to Assefa’s left. Assefa stepped towards Hassan to dam her path. Then with 150 meters to the end line, Hassan countered with an elbow, shooing the Ethiopian away and bursting previous her to take the lead by herself.

“On the finish I believed, ‘That is only a 100-meter dash,’ Hassan stated, recalling her precise ideas within the pivotal second:

Come on, Sifan. Yet one more. Simply really feel it.

Hassan then ran on their lonesome as she made that remaining flip onto the blue-carpeted remaining stretch below the sun-soaked Esplanade des Invalides.

It was taking place. Hassan was ending. She was additionally successful gold.

Hassan pointed each pointer fingers to the sky and set free a primal and jubilant scream as she broke the blue Paris 2024-branded tape to etch her identify into Olympic historical past.

In Paris, Hassan has collected marathon gold, 5,000m bronze and 10,000m bronze. In Tokyo, she received gold within the 5,000m and 10,000m, plus a bronze within the 1,500m. It is so much to maintain monitor of, however put all of it collectively, and she or he is the primary athlete in historical past with Olympic medals throughout these 4 distance races. Hassan is her personal class now.

“I really feel like I’m dreaming,” Hassan stated. “I solely see folks on the TV who’re Olympic champions. The marathon is one thing else, you realize. If you do 42 kilometers in additional than two hours and 20 minutes, then each single step you’re feeling so exhausting and so painful.”

Hassan’s time simply edged the earlier Olympic file, set by Ethiopia’s Tiki Gelana on the 2012 London Video games in 2:23.07.

Assefa, 27, took silver in 2:22.58, securing her first Olympic medal. She’s additionally a two-time Berlin Marathon champion, which is the place she set the world file in 2023 (2:11.53).

Hellen Obiri of Kenya claimed the bronze medal with a time of two:23.10, including to her Olympic medal assortment. The 34-year-old took silver within the 5000m finals on the Rio and Tokyo Video games.

People Dakotah Lindwurm (2:26.44) and Emily Sisson (2:29.53) positioned twelfth and 23th, respectively. Fiona O’Keeffe, the 2024 U.S. Marathon Trials champion, dropped out early and didn’t end.

The ultimate monitor and area occasion of the Paris Olympics fittingly serves as a celebration of Hassan, who deserves some relaxation — and possibly a spa day — greater than many of the 1000’s of athletes filtering out of Paris this week.

Hassan isn’t even a marathoner by commerce. She had by no means run in an expert marathon till final April, when she received her debut on the 2023 London Marathon — whereas fasting throughout Ramadan.

“It was actually wonderful,” Hassan stated in London final yr. “I by no means thought I might end a marathon.”

Ending is at all times the purpose. It was the purpose immediately — and Hassan achieved that. Including to the burn on her quads, calves, cardio system and psychological framework was a traditionally ruthless course in Paris. Opponents trudged up and down greater than 1,430 ft of elevation, that includes an astonishing 13.5% climb. For context, the Boston Marathon’s infamous Heartbreak Hill barely clears 3%.

The Paris marathon route is actually a burner. But Hassan steamrolled her manner by means of it and into some mind-boggling historical past.

“I at all times suppose, ‘Why the hell do I do that to myself?’” Hassan stated just a few days after the Opening Ceremony, nerves constructing as her great job approached.

Because of this. Hassan’s accolades are unmatched within the sport. She has grow to be a hero to many, and it is simple to see why. Born and raised in Ethiopia, Hassan fled to the Netherlands as a 15-year-old refugee. When she arrived, she was lonely, dwelling in a youth heart within the metropolis of Eindhoven. Hassan was so lonely that she likened herself to “a flower that didn’t obtain daylight.”