Sifan Hassan remembers it well, three years ago in Tokyo as she attended the Olympics closing ceremony after pulling off a famous treble of medals in the 1500m, 5,000m and 10,000m. The Dutch athlete had completed a herculean effort, yet she quickly found herself gazing over at men’s marathon champion Eliud Kipchoge.
The Kenyan great was reminiscing with Hassan’s compatriot Abdi Nageeye, who had just won silver, and Hassan found herself in awe of the pair. There was “jealousy” even, and despite her own athletic greatness, she wondered, “how do these people do the marathon? It’s just crazy to push human endurance this much.”
Fast forward to 2024 and Kipchoge’s mantra, “no human is limited,” has clearly rubbed off on Hassan after her historic achievement in Paris. She confessed to being “curious” ahead of the daunting and “impossible” treble of the 5,000m, 10,000m and marathon. It would mean 50 laps of the track and just 35 hours to recover upon completing the 10,000m final before tackling 26.2 miles. Not any old marathon, either – this was the hardest Olympic marathon course in history, with several menacing hills and a combined elevation to surpass both the Boston and New York marathons.
“I’m really crushed,” Hassan tells The Independent a couple of hours after outsprinting Tigst Assefa, the world record holder, in a gripping final 400m dash for the line, edging out the Ethiopian in an Olympic record of 2hr 22min 55sec. There was even a gasp around the idyllic gardens that surrounded the golden dome of Les Invalides at the finish line. Hassan had bumped shoulders with Assefa after squeezing between her rival and a barrier in a move Tom Pidcock would have been proud of, delivering an engrossing finale rarely seen across the longest distance.
“I was so disappointed [with my 10,000m performance], I’m grateful to get a [bronze] medal, but I come from a speed background, my coaches told me to push the last 400m, I was more fresh, and ready, but I held myself back for the marathon,” Hassan explains.
“I just focused on the marathon really and destroyed the other races. I was going back to sleep, on Saturday at 10pm, I couldn’t, the time kept changing after returning from the stadium. I slept from 2am until 5am.
“I was so regretful that I did the 5,000m and the 10,000m, everybody else was fresh but I was telling myself, I don’t feel fresh, I don’t feel good, why didn’t you just run the marathon? From the beginning to the end, I felt uncomfortable. But it’s not about who runs fast, it’s about who wins the gold medal. I don’t want to disappoint myself. I want to give everything. That’s what I did. It feels like a dream.”
And it appeared to be just that in one of the most extraordinary athletic achievements in sports history. The 31-year-old is the first woman to win Olympic gold medals in the 1500m, 5,000m, 10,000m and marathon across multiple Games. So how has Hassan done it? She had joked that she had “brain issues” in the build-up to Paris 2024 for daring to accept the challenge. Now, she explains, pairing mental resilience and an ability to manage her heart rate had enabled her to land gold and two bronze medals over a staggering 38.65 miles of racing in just 10 days.
“I think I’m not too much different, but I am curious,” Hassan adds. “I also recover very quickly, whenever I do a session, my heart rate drops like crazy. When I was younger during track sessions, I was dying on the ground. But after a minute, I jump back up and I’m ready to do another.
“I recover great, that’s good, but the rest is the challenge, I love the extra challenge. I like to try things out. I’m not scared… I mean, I am scared but I like to try things. Does it work or does it not? That’s what makes me better than others, I try.”
An alarming performance in Hengelo, finishing fifth in a 1500m, set alarm bells off four weeks before Paris. Hassan struggled to spike her heart rate and admits she was ready to “wave goodbye” to the Olympics, only to “sleep like a baby” for 10 days and regain her confidence.
“I really wanted to cry before the race, I am so under pressure,” she admitted after winning bronze in the 5,000m. But this nervous energy is part of Hassan’s mentality and drives her on to greatness.
“Yes, I’m still scared of the marathon, I’ve only done four and they’re all different,” she explains. “You’re uncomfortable for two hours or more and the brain wants to protect you
“I’ll still get nervous, but I’m not finished yet, I think I’ll do marathons until I die. I’m not going to stop. It’s a lot of fun.”
So after leaving an indelible mark on the Games, her next audacious challenge awaits with a run at Assefa’s world record of 2:11:53 likely to be on the horizon. However, the London Marathon appears to be a priority for next year, having missed this year’s edition after discovering an affinity with the race with an iconic victory in 2023.
“I hope to run it next year,” Hassan concludes. “I never dreamed before London I would even run the Olympic marathon, let alone win the gold medal.
“I love London. It’s like home. It’s history, it’s where I dream about the marathon. I can’t stop doing the London Marathon.”
