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

Sifan Hassan just wanted to finish.

“It’s my crazy thing,” she said. “I just want to complete it. I’m very curious. Could I podium? Could I even complete? Am I strong enough?”

Hassan, 31, has been full of questions all week.

It’s no wonder — what she attempted at the Paris Olympics is a bit crazy, to use her language. In Olympic history, only Emil Zátopek of Czechia has earned a medal in the Games’ three longest races: the 5000m, 10,000m and marathon.

Hassan calls herself a Zátopek fan. She has studied his career intensely. In Paris, she decided to copy him, enlisting herself in a 38.6-mile gauntlet over nine days by competing in all three events.

After taking bronze in the first two races, the women’s marathon loomed on Sunday morning, and the thought of it made the Dutch star feel woozy.

“To finish the marathon is a kind of hell,” Hassan said on Friday.

Hassan just wanted to finish. Then, she won.

In an Olympic record time of 2:22.55, Hassan won gold in the women’s marathon on Sunday. She came to Paris with a stomach-turning “crazy” plan, and she’ll head home with three Paris Olympic medals — and a record to top it off.

“I have so many emotions,” Hassan said moments after her marathon victory. “I was scared of this race.

I was never more focused in my life, until that moment. For two hours, I was focused every step. 

As if the first 37 miles of her Olympics weren’t grueling enough, it was Hassan’s final kick that delivered one of the Games’ signature moments. With just one turn to go in the marathon, Hassan and world record holder Tigst Assefa of Ethiopia ran alone in the lead: Hassan in her bright orange Dutch kit, Assefa sporting the Ethiopian green.

Assefa led by a step. But Hassan, known as one of the best race finishers in history, summoned a burst of prodigious strength from within. She veered to Assefa’s left. Assefa stepped toward Hassan to block her path. Then with 150 meters to the finish line, Hassan countered with an elbow, shooing the Ethiopian away and bursting past her to take the lead by herself.

“At the end I thought, ‘This is just a 100-meter sprint,’ Hassan said, recalling her exact thoughts in the pivotal moment:

Come on, Sifan. One more. Just feel it.

Hassan then ran all alone as she made that final turn onto the blue-carpeted final stretch under the sun-soaked Esplanade des Invalides.

It was happening. Hassan was finishing. She was also winning gold.

Hassan pointed both pointer fingers to the sky and let out a primal and jubilant scream as she broke the blue Paris 2024-branded tape to etch her name into Olympic history.

Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands celebrates her Olympic gold medal in the women’s marathon, which she finished in record-setting time.

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In Paris, Hassan has collected marathon gold, 5,000m bronze and 10,000m bronze. In Tokyo, she won gold in the 5,000m and 10,000m, plus a bronze in the 1,500m. It’s a lot to keep track of, but put it all together, and she is the first athlete in history with Olympic medals across those four distance races. Hassan is her own category now.

“I feel like I am dreaming,” Hassan said. “I only see people on the TV who are Olympic champions. 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.”

Hassan’s time just edged the previous Olympic record, set by Ethiopia’s Tiki Gelana at the 2012 London Games in 2:23.07.

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

Hellen Obiri of Kenya claimed the bronze medal with a time of 2:23.10, adding to her Olympic medal collection. The 34-year-old took silver in the 5000m finals at the Rio and Tokyo Games.

Americans Dakotah Lindwurm (2:26.44) and Emily Sisson (2:29.53) placed 12th and 23th, respectively. Fiona O’Keeffe, the 2024 U.S. Marathon Trials champion, dropped out early and didn’t finish.

The final track and field event of the Paris Olympics fittingly serves as a celebration of Hassan, who deserves some rest — and maybe a spa day — more than most of the thousands of athletes filtering out of Paris this week.

Hassan isn’t even a marathoner by trade. She had never run in a professional marathon until last April, when she won her debut at the 2023 London Marathon — while fasting during Ramadan.

“It was really amazing,” Hassan said in London last year. “I never thought I would finish a marathon.”

Finishing is always the goal. It was the goal today — and Hassan achieved that. Adding to the burn on her quads, calves, cardio system and mental framework was a historically ruthless course in Paris. Competitors trudged up and down more than 1,430 feet of elevation, featuring an astonishing 13.5% climb. For context, the Boston Marathon’s notorious Heartbreak Hill barely clears 3%.

The Paris marathon route is truly a burner. Yet Hassan steamrolled her way through it and into some mind-boggling history.

“I always think, ‘Why the hell do I do this to myself?’” Hassan said a few days after the Opening Ceremony, nerves building as her tremendous task approached.

This is why. Hassan’s accolades are unmatched in the sport. She has become a hero to many, and it’s easy 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, living in a youth center in the city of Eindhoven. Hassan was so lonely that she likened herself to “a flower that didn’t receive sunlight.”