Before her name is announced at the Stade de France, Sifan Hassan seems a little breathless, but when she is introduced to the public as the reigning champion, she breaks into a smile. She is ready to write a new trilogy, starting with the 5,000 metres.
After the starting shot, Hassan looks for a place at the back of the pack. She lets the others set the pace and prefers to simply watch. It is only halfway through that she breaks out of last place and into the middle of the pack of 16 riders.
With one more lap, she moved up to third place while Faith Kipyegon, the favourite, increased the pace. But the Kenyan was overtaken in the last 100 metres by her compatriot Béatrice Chebet, the new Olympic champion with 14.28.56.
Kipyegon disqualified
Kipyegon looked set to take silver with 14:29.60, but was disqualified shortly after the race due to an obstruction. Hassan (14.30.61), who finished behind Kipyegon, won silver. Bronze went to Nadia Battocletti (14.32.23).
About the Author
Erik van Lakerveld is a sports journalist from of Volkskrant and writes mainly about Olympic sports such as skating, athletics and rowing.
“I want to do crazy things,” said Hassan on Friday after having easily made it through the preliminary round and qualified second for the final with a sure-fire sprint finish. The 5,000 metres is only the first of three events she will compete in at the start. The 10,000 metres and the marathon are also still on her menu.
The track components, the 5,000 and 10,000 meters, are in some ways simpler than the marathon, Hassan said. “The question is how long you can endure the pain.” In that sense, he preferred the 5,000 meters. “That’s the shortest one,” he joked when announcing his Olympic program.
‘Crazy things’
Her announcement caused a stir in the athletics world. Hassan has already done something that seemed almost impossible in Tokyo, with gold in the 5,000 and 10,000 metres and bronze in the 1,500 metres. In 2023, she won the 42,195-metre race in London on her marathon debut. Although she had stopped to stretch at the start of the race. The world now knows that if Hassan wants to do “crazy things”, it better pay attention.
‘Project Emil Zatopek’ is what Hassan’s manager called the idea of including the marathon in his Olympic programme alongside the 5,000 and 10,000 metres. Zatopek was a legendary Czech runner who won gold in all three events at the 1952 Olympics. He remains the only one to have done so.
Could Hassan really keep up? She already had her doubts. Today’s training methods are much better than back then. The top of the world is much closer. Zatopek won 261 of the 334 matches she took part in during her career. These figures are no longer feasible. Hassan has much tougher competition. ‘I’m competing against the world record holders. I want three medals, but I can’t promise they will be gold.’
Modern Zatopek
The media covered Hassan’s story as the modern Zatopek, but she largely ignored it. ‘I don’t understand any of that, I don’t read social media on my phone. So I don’t know what people say about me. In the athletes’ village they often want to take a photo with me, but they don’t ask me anything. Maybe I should have chosen four distances.’
For the moment, she is on track to achieve her version of the ‘Emil Zatopek Project’, which might better be called the ‘Sifan Hassan Project’: three medals in the three longest distances. The next two should follow next weekend. The 10,000 metres will be contested on Saturday afternoon and the marathon on Sunday morning. That will be tough, painful. But that does not deter her.