Fast Women: Sifan Hassan makes history
Dakotah Lindwurm leads the U.S. women in the Olympic marathon.
Issue 310, sponsored by SOAR Running
After winning two bronze medals, Sifan Hassan outdoes herself with marathon gold
On Sunday morning, Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands kicked to win the Paris Olympic marathon in an Olympic record of 2:22:55. It’s mind-blowing that Hassan won the marathon after earning bronze medals in the 5,000m and 10,000m earlier in the week. But also, of course she did. The more outrageous something sounds, the more likely Hassan is to pull it off.
At the end of May, when Hassan finished an unremarkable seventh in the Prefontaine Classic 5,000m, I wrote that we still shouldn’t count her out. That’s rule number one when it comes to Sifan Hassan. She said the event she was really targeting, as an Olympic test run, was the FBK Games 10,000m, in early July. But when she decided not to start that race, reportedly because it was too windy, and then she finished fifth in the 1500m the following day, running 4:04.83, I started to wonder if maybe this was the year things wouldn’t come together in time for her.
But I should have known. Despite having no results this season that would have forecasted any Olympic medals, Hassan showed up in Paris looking like herself again. And she made history, becoming the first woman to win medals in the 5,000m, 10,000m, and marathon at a single Olympic Games. And she is the first person to medal in all three since Emil Zátopek won the triple at the 1952 Olympic Games. (It’s not fair to compare for a slew of reasons but, fun fact, Ken Stone pointed out that Hassan’s marathon time was a little faster than Zátopek’s.)
"When I finished, the whole moment was a release,” Hassan told reporters afterwards. “It is unbelievable. I have never experienced anything like that…I couldn’t stop celebrating. I was feeling dizzy. I wanted to lie down. Then I thought, ‘I am the Olympic champion. How is this possible?'"
A pack of about 20 athletes hit halfway in 1:13:22–1:13:26. The race didn’t really get going until the steep climb that began in the 29th kilometer, which caused the lead group to splinter. Hassan dropped back to 10th place at that point, but as the course flattened out, and then started to go downhill, the lead pack swelled to nine again, and Hassan was back in it.
In the 32nd kilometer, defending champion Peres Jepchirchir of Kenya was among the athletes who started to drop back.
By the time they hit 33K, there were five runners remaining in the lead pack. From Ethiopia, the world record holder, Tigst Assefa, and reigning world champion Amane Beriso Shankule. From Kenya, reigning Boston and New York City Marathon champion Hellen Obiri and 2022 New York City Marathon champion Sharon Lokedi. And Hassan.
The group of five remained intact until about 40.5K, when Beriso Shankule began to drop back. With about 600 meters remaining, Lokedi was the next to go. And then about 300 meters from the finish, Hassan moved up to challenge Assefa, and the race for gold was on as they dropped Obiri.
It was fitting that the race came down to an all-out sprint between two former 800m runners. Both Assefa and Hassan ran the 800m at their first Olympic Games, in 2016, with similar results. With about 200m to go, the two briefly made contact, when Hassan tried to pass on the inside of a turn, just as the course narrowed. (Broadcast view | Fan view) Fortunately both stayed upright, and it didn’t seem to have any bearing on how the race went from there. And it was Hassan who, despite running on tired legs, had the extra gear. She kicked to win by three seconds, 2:22:55 to 2:22:58.
Obiri finished third (2:23:10), Lokedi was fourth (2:23:14), and Beriso Shankule was fifth (2:23:57). I was also impressed by Japan’s Yuka Suzuki, who finished sixth in a seven-second PR of 2:24:02. Jepchirchir dropped to 15th, in 2:26:51.
Hassan said afterward that mid-race, she regretted doing the 5,000m and 10,000m. “From the beginning to the end, it was so hard,” she said. “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.’”
She started feeling better around 20K, and she knew then that she wanted to win the race. “I was never more focused in my life, until that moment,” she said. “For two hours, I was focused every step.”
Although Hassan almost certainly would have felt better without racing three times in the six days leading up to the race, I imagine that already having two medals helped take some of the weight off of this one race. She also didn’t cover all of the moves early on, which likely helped her as well.
When asked at the post-race press conference if the contact with Hassan destroyed her chances of gold, Assefa said through a translator, “Yes, for sure.” I’m taking all of her post-race comments with a grain of salt, because I know that things can get lost in translation. “Because I was an 800m runner I was sure that I could sprint in the last kilometers,” she said. “But Sifan pushed me so I could not control the sprint. I was shocked but at least I took the silver medal.”
Once they started sprinting, it seemed pretty clear who was going to win. The AP reported that the Ethiopian team filed a protest, but it was rejected by the Jury of Appeal. Assuming that’s accurate, the rejection was the right call. Assefa had some kind words about Hassan as well, saying, “I am so happy for her to get a gold medal.”
Obiri had a rough race and a rough buildup, but she fought her way onto the podium. She told reporters that she fell around 2K because the race was crowded and around 30K when everyone was going for their bottles. She also missed her bottle at two of the fluid stations and threw up once. “But I thought, ‘This is sport. I must push myself to the end,’” she told reporters. “And it was great for me.’
Her coach, Dathan Ritzenhein, said afterwards that Obiri came off of the Boston Marathon with an injury. She threw herself into cross training and was only able to start running on the ground at the end of June. Considering the circumstances, she had a fantastic race.
And Lokedi did an excellent job as a late sub for Brigid Kosgei, who was too injured to run. Lokedi said she was proud of her effort, but she really wanted a medal. “I’ll go back and train, and get ready for another championship, then maybe another Olympics in four years,” she said. “Being fourth is so close, so close. I know I can do it.”
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Dakotah Lindwurm leads the U.S. women
The race was a mixed bag for the U.S. women. It was unfortunately clear from the gun that Fiona O’Keeffe was the runner Jess McClain had been brought in to potentially replace. O’Keeffe limped through about 30 seconds of running before dropping out of the race.
Dakotah Lindwurm and Emily Sisson were together at 15K, but then Lindwurm pulled ahead and stayed there. After letting the lead pack go for a bit, Lindwurm reeled the leaders back in when the hills began, and she even took the lead for a while during the middle miles of the race.
“By the time we turned to Versailles, I was like, ‘Did I just take a Mario Kart shortcut or something?’ Because I was in the lead,” she said afterwards. “I didn’t know how. So that was pretty cool. And then, man, I mean, they closed hard.”
Around 27K, Lindwurm lost contact with the lead pack, but she held on well. After hitting halfway in 1:13:25, she ran a slight negative split to finish 12th in 2:26:44. It was a really solid showing for Lindwurm, who just keeps working her way up in the sport.
Sisson hit 10K in 23rd place, and that’s where she finished as well, running 2:29:53. There was some movement in the middle, but she stayed in that vicinity throughout. Sisson said afterwards (Runner’s World) that she was pretty disappointed, and that she went into the race feeling pretty fatigued. She has run three marathons in the past 10 months: Chicago, the Olympic Trials, and the Olympics, and she thinks that was too much.
“I’m going to give my body what it has been asking for and take some down time,” she wrote on Instagram.
After a day of seeing some pretty harsh comments about O’Keeffe deciding to start the race, I was glad to hear her side of things via Instagram. She said she was feeling good until just over a week before the race, when she started having tightness and then pain in her hip. “The decision to start is not one I take lightly and was all mine,” she wrote. “Unfortunately, by the time I had enough information to make a call, it was past the deadline to sub in an alternate. But I couldn’t let go of that sliver of hope that I’d wake up this morning and be good to go.”
O’Keeffe earned the right to make the decision, and she can now call herself an Olympian. It’s just heartbreaking that she had to miss out on giving the race a real shot. And McClain is a saint for being as flexible as she was with all of it and being such an enthusiastic supporter of the women who ran. What an emotional rollercoaster. (Marathon highlights | Results | Results PDF with splits)
Other Olympic marathon notes
My favorite thing to come out of this race so far is this video of last-place finisher Kinzang Lhamo of Bhutan being urged on by the crowd. Sound on. She ran 3:52.59 and you can read more about her here. NBC also posted a touching clip of her finish. The crowds in Paris were so good, both in and out of the stadium.
Sunday’s results were good news for any American marathoners who didn’t race in Paris but are hoping to represent the U.S. in the marathon at next summer’s world championships. Because no one finished in the top 10, the rankings will be used to determine all three spots. (Selection criteria)
I was interested to hear Tigst Assefa say afterwards that she was more affected by the heat than the challenging course.
Australia’s Sinead Diver also dropped out of the race very early on, well before 5K. Athletics Australia said that she was experiencing bilateral cramping in both of her quads.
Dakotah Lindwurm got engaged to her partner, Montana Popehn, after the race. I opted not to share any of the posts about it on social media because I know that people on the internet often have very strong feelings about other people’s proposals. What matters is that they are happy.
Sifan Hassan now has six Olympic medals: 5,000m and 10,000m gold, plus 1500m bronze, from Tokyo 2021, and marathon gold plus 5,000m and 10,000m bronze from Paris. The only distance race in which she is missing a medal is the steeplechase.
Hassan’s success in the marathon made me wonder if there are any other athletes who raced on the track who could have hopped in the marathon and been successful. Like what could Beatrice Chebet do?
I loved the commentary on the NBC broadcast from Kara Goucher, Des Linden, and Paul Swangard. They have no control over what is on the screen, but whoever was in control of the world feed made some questionable decisions. Too many slow motion replays of people’s feet. Too many aerial shots. For once, there were no competing races to show, but they still somehow managed to not show the lead pack as much as I would have liked.
Other News
I appreciated Elise Cranny’s thoughts on her Olympic race. “Not going to let the last 800m of this race stop me from continuing to race with joy, boldness and an unwavering belief that my time is coming,” she wrote.
This post, from Allie Wilson, was also good. “If I can inspire even one person who maybe feels a little too ordinary to achieve their wildest dreams to go after them anyway then that’s still a win in my book,” she wrote.
This is a good article about the M11 Track Club, the group that both Keely Hodgkinson and Georgia Bell run for, from The Telegraph.
I’m glad that things have gone well enough for Athing Mu since her injury that she feels ready to start racing at a high level again. She’s entered in the Lausanne Diamond League 800m, as are Kenya’s Mary Moraa and Great Britain’s Jemma Reekie. She didn’t make the press release, but Nia Akins said she’s running, too. The race takes place on August 22.
While the Olympic Games were full of magical moments for the U.S. men in the middle-distances and distances, I wouldn’t say that was the same for the women. Many of them produced really solid performances, but there weren’t a lot of breakthrough performances. I think there’s a variety of reasons for that, and I don’t think it means anything is broken. Some things just didn’t fall the U.S. women’s way this time out. But I think Juliette Whittaker produced the biggest wow of the meet among the middle-distance and distance crew, when she ran 1:57.76 and qualified for the 800m final.
Correction: In yesterday’s newsletter, I meant to write that Nadia Battocletti’s mother, Jawhara Saddougui, was a 2:01 800m runner for Morocco. I just left out the word mother.
Additional Results
Australia’s Lisa Weightman won the Sunshine Coast Marathon Festival half marathon in 1:10:23. (Results)
Australia’s Leanne Pompeani won the City2Surf 14K in 45:38. (Results)
Great Britain’s Hannah Nuttall won the British Milers Club Grand Prix 1500m in 4:07.16. (Results)
Addy Wiley won the West Chester Mile, held in the rain, in 4:30.19. (Results)
According to iRunFar, Kenya’s Joyline Chepngeno had never run a trail race before, but she got off to a great start by winning Sierre-Zinal, one of the world’s most competitive trail races, in 2:54:06. Anna Gibson was the top American finisher, taking sixth in 3:08:39.
Podcast Highlights
On Pablo Torre Finds Out, U.S. diving coach Drew Johansen talked about why Olympic sports in the U.S. will never be the same, with the changes coming to the NCAA. This is a recommendation from Victoria Jackson (the 2006 NCAA 10,000m champion), who makes a brief appearance. The episode is mostly about swimming and diving, but much of it applies to cross country and track & field. And it won’t just be the U.S. that is affected, because many of the world’s best track athletes come through the NCAA.
It was good to get an update from Alexi Pappas on I’ll Have Another. She said she’s writing another book, about change. After this episode was recorded, I was so sorry to see that she broke her collarbone while she was in Paris.
Additional Episodes: Valarie Allman on In the Village | Laurel James on Starting Line 1928
I have no more words left in me. I was up at 2:00 a.m. to watch the marathon, and now it’s past midnight and somehow I’m still working. (There was some sleeping in there, but not much.) The Olympics were fun, but it will be great to get back to a more normal schedule. I hope you have a great week.
Alison
Thank you for your amazing coverage!!
Thanks for the great journalism, Alison. Women’s athletics is so much more enjoyable because of your insights and commitment.