Sifan Hassan, versatile over 1500m, 5000m, 10,000m and now the marathon, with a special Paris kick for gold

During her first few weeks as a teenage asylum seeker in Zuidlaren in The Netherlands, a 15-year-old Sifan Hassan broke down many times. She’s never shared details of why she left home, Adama in Ethiopia, as a refugee. She once used an analogy to describe her desolation when she reached the new country. “I was a flower that got no sun,” Hassan told Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant.

A move to Eindhoven to pursue a course in nursing made her feel better. There she met fellow Ethiopians, trainees at the Eindhoven Atletiek club. The girl with failing arms started to blossom as an athlete once taken under the wings by coaches. The Dutchwoman is now the brightest tulip in the field of the greatest distance runners.

On Sunday morning, Sifan Hassan capped a remarkable Olympic Games by winning gold in the women’s marathon, to add to bronze medals in the 5,000 metres and the 10,000 metres. The last time any man or woman won medals in these three events was in 1952. Emil Zátopek was called the Human Locomotive after the Helsinki Olympics.

Sifan Hassan needs a worthy sobriquet but that may take a while as the world is still wrapping its head around the scale of her achievements.

Sifan Hassan is also the first woman to win Olympic gold in the marathon, the 5,000 metres and the 10,000 metres, the last two wins coming in Tokyo three years ago, where she also finished third in the 1,500 metres. Six Olympic medals in all.

Winning the marathon this Sunday was special. There was a thrilling sprint finish. Remarkably Sifan Hassan, at 31, despite more race kilometres clocked than any other athlete at these Olympic Games, did produce the kick which her competitors feared she would after being challenged on the toughest marathon course with three steep uphill points.

Runners who did a dry run of the course concluded that it was tougher than the toughest; New York and Boston. A legend had looked human the previous day in the men’s marathon.

Eliud Kipchoge, one of the greatest, did not finish a race for the first time ever. The two-time Olympic gold-medal winner called Paris his ‘worst marathon’. He’s done with the Olympic Games, he said.

Despite the brutal course, Sifan Hassan set an Olympic record of two hours, 22 minutes and fifty-five seconds.

There were three key moments that shaped Sifan Hassan’s win.

As the runners crossed the 28 kilometres mark, Sifan fell behind the leading group by over 50 metres when running uphill. The gap wasn’t enough to keep her at bay. Sifan caught up as they moved to flat ground.

The next critical point was at the final bend. With less than 300 metres to go, Sifan tapped into her speed gained from training for the shorter races. This was an all-out sprint between Sifan and world record holder Tigst Assefa of Ethiopia. A sub-2 minute 800 metre runner like Sifan, Assefa wasn’t going to roll over.

Assefa even put out her elbow at one point and there was jostling but Sifan burst through to win by three seconds.

Sifan Hassan was suffering on the course but a chance to make history kept her going.
“I have no words. Every moment in the race I was regretting that I ran the 5000m and 10,000m. I was telling myself if I hadn’t done that, I would feel great today. The moment I started to feel good at 20km, I knew that I wanted gold. But everybody else was fresh and all I was thinking was: ‘When are they going to break? They’re going to go hard’. At the end I thought: ‘This is just a 100m sprint’. Come on, Sifan.”

The significant podium moment from Sifan Hassan was wearing a pretty red print hijab at the victory ceremony when the host nation had banned its athletes from doing so at the opening ceremony. The moment was not lost on the world watching the Closing ceremony at Stade de France, as she stepped up on the podium, asserting her right to wear whatever she felt like, with the gorgeous confidence of an Olympic champ.

Dash on the dot

Bronze medallist Kenyan Hellen Obri had summed up why Sifan Hassan was special despite running her first marathon only last year.

“In the end, I knew she would carry the day because of her sprint finish. She has done so well in the 5000m, 10,000m and 1500m and so she was capable of winning in a sprint finish. She is so amazing, doing track and the marathon. So many people can’t do that but Sifan has shown the world that she can do that,” Orbi was quoted by the NRG Radio website.

The first time she competed in a marathon, London 2023, there was drama that’s oftentimes the case when Sifan is running and pushing the boundaries of human-endurance. She was nearly run over by a motorcycle when she veered across towards a water station to hydrate. She also stopped twice to stretch, lost time as the leading pack surged ahead but despite mini breaks won by four seconds. A few months later in Chicago she won again which was followed by a fourth-place in the Tokyo Marathon in March this year.

Still, she could not shake off the fear of running 42.195 kilometres. “I am scared of the marathon,” she had said on reaching Paris.

Worried she was, but Sifan Hassan didn’t choke or run with jelly legs. The Olympic gold is in the bag so what next for barrier-breaking Sifan Hassan. 400 metres? Expect the unexpected from the craziest and bravest woman to have worn running shoes.

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