Paris 2024: Sifan Hassan wins women’s marathon, completing one of the greatest Olympic achievements ever

PARIS — In less than a week, Sifan Hassan has achieved one of the most remarkable triple victories in Olympic history.

The supernatural Dutch long-distance runner became the first woman to win a medal in the 5,000 meters, the 10,000 meters and the marathon at the same Olympic Games.

The leading group in the women’s marathon had been whittled down to two by Sunday morning when Hassan unleashed her trademark devastating final kick. Hassan shrugged off an elbow from Tigst Assefa as the Ethiopian tried to block her move, caught Assefa with about 250 meters to go and then sprinted past her to the finish to win gold in an Olympic record 2:22:55.

Once she won, Hassan felt dizzy and had to lie down.

Lying flat on her back, she said she thought to herself, “I’m an Olympic champion. How is this possible?”

Hassan’s dramatic victory will be remembered as one of the greatest distance running performances of all time because of what came before it. She had already run 50 laps of the purple track at the Stade de France this week en route to bronze in the women’s 5,000 meters on Monday night and the women’s 10,000 meters on Friday night.

Speaking to reporters earlier this week, Ethiopian-born Hassan admitted she was “really scared to death of the marathon.” She had accomplished the near-impossible before, winning medals in the 1,500, 5,000 and 10,000 meters in Tokyo. But the prospect of running 26.2 miles against women who were still young intimidated even Hassan.

Those feelings continued to haunt Hassan even as she walked a course that looped from the center of Paris to Versailles, recreating key moments from the French Revolution.

“When I started this morning, I regretted every moment of running the 5,000 and the 10,000,” she said. “From start to finish, I felt so hard with every step. I thought, What have I done? What is wrong with me?”

And yet in the end it was Hassan who sprinted away from Assefa for a remarkable gold medal, which she considers a far cry from her previous Olympic victories in Tokyo.

“I challenged myself and I’m so grateful for it,” she said.