By Citius Mag Staff
August 1, 2024
Photo: Johnny Zhang
Reigning 5000m and 10,000m Olympic champion Sifan Hassan has announced which events she will contest at the Paris Olympics. Hassan is scheduled to hold a virtual press conference explaining her decision on Wednesday, July 31st.
Here’s what you need to know:
–Hassan has decided to run the 5000m, 10,000m, and marathon in Paris. She’d initially been quadruple-entered in the 1500m as well.
– At the Tokyo Olympics, Hassan attempted to win gold in the 1500m, 5000m and 10,000m and nearly pulled off the triple crown but finished with a bronze in the 1500m. She is the only athlete in Olympic history to medal in those three events at a single Games.
– This spring, Hassan kept her cards close to her chest when deciding which events she planned to run in Paris. At the Prefontaine Classic in May, she told reporters that she had yet to make a decision.
“I have to do everything,” Hassan said when asked whether she was marathon training.
When I asked her how long her long runs were at the time, she smiled and said, “33K but I think I’m going to go higher.”
– Hassan made her marathon debut last year at the London Marathon and won despite stopping to stretch. She also lowered her personal best and became the second-fastest woman in history with a 2:13:44 victory at the Chicago Marathon. This qualified her for the Olympic marathon and added another possible event choice for the Games. Hassan was not announced in last week’s Chicago Marathon elite field.
– In her post announcing the decision, Hassan said: “I am a curious person looking forward to the challenges, and trying to find out what is possible. I love the journey as much as the challenge. Did I balance speed on the track with enough endurance in the marathon? Let’s find out together. It’s not easy to face the unknown but my curiosity has driven all my training towards this goal. I will try my best to succeed.”
Hassan’s Choice:
– The 5000m: Hassan came away from last summer’s world championships with a bronze medal in this event but her build-up to Budapest included a flashy 14:13.42 personal best at the London Diamond League. She has only run 14:34.38 this season and finished a distant seventh in that race at the Prefontaine Classic. The performance puts her at No. 11 on the season list. However, removing five Ethiopians ahead of her, she may have a better chance at the medals here than in the 1500m.
Schedule:
Heats – Friday, Aug. 2 at 6:10 p.m. Paris local time, 12:10 p.m. ET
Final – Monday, Aug. 5 at 9:10 p.m. Paris local time, 3:10 p.m. ET
– The 10,000m: We have not seen Hassan run a 10,000m race this season but she is qualified for the Games with her 29:37.80 from June 2023. At last summer’s world championships in Budapest, Hassan was battling Ethiopia’s Gudaf Tsegay down the home straight but fell just meters before the finish line and then crossed the finish line in 11th. Hassan’s medal chances also get better with the longer distances. She will be up against Tsegay and Beatrice Chebet, who broke the world record in 28:54.14 at the Prefontaine Classic in May.
Tsegay is triple-entered in the 1500m, 5000m, and 10,000m and earlier reports from her camp indicated she may not run the longest event, but this morning her husband and coach indicated that she’d be running the 10,000m after all.
Hassan was slated to run the 10,000m in Hengelo earlier this month but withdrew due to the windy conditions.
Schedule:
Final – Friday, Aug. 9th at 8:55 p.m. Paris local time, 2:55 p.m. ET
Photo: Kevin Morris
– The marathon: Hassan had a perfect start to her marathoning career with two wins in her first two races. In March, she finished fourth at the Tokyo Marathon in 2:18:05 but later revealed that she missed a bottle at 25K and turned back to get it before being unable to close the gap with the leaders. Hassan has only run relatively flat, fast courses in her marathoning career, but a course with a high point of 183m (438m in elevation gain, 436m descent) and a maximum grade of 13.5% awaits in Paris.
Schedule: Aug. 11th at 8 a.m. Paris local time (2 a.m. ET)
Here’s what she said:
On matching Emil Zátopek’s triple from the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki, where the Czech legend won gold in all three events: “I remember in 2018 after I ran the 800m in 1:56 and then that year I ran 65:00 in the half marathon and somebody told me, ‘You’re going to be like Zátopek.’ I was like, ‘Who is that?’ I started searching and it was really inspiring and so amazing. I became a big fan of him. Even I watched his movie…I remember I was very stressed for Tokyo and wanted to make myself better watching everything. I never really thought I would become like him… The time I’m in and the time he’s in is not the same. I’m running in all the events against the world record holders. Female running is amazing right now. They’re breaking 29 minutes for 10,000 meters. They usually ran 30 minutes and breaking 30 minutes was crazy. Now in the marathon, for everyone it’s easy to run 2:16/2:15. I remember four or five years ago when somebody broke 2:18, they were like, ‘Ooooh!’ … I’m curious what will happen. My biggest goal is to complete the events.”
Hassan will square up against 5000m world record holder Gudaf Tsegay, 10,000m world record holder Beatrice Chebet and marathon world record holder Tigist Assefa in Paris.
In 1952, Zatopek was the 10,000m world record holder and then only raced the marathon world record holder Jim Peters (DNF) in Helsinki.
Her thoughts on the Olympic marathon course: “I told myself, ‘I’m freaking doing the Tour De France.’…I think maybe they want to torture us. I think we have to really suffer.”
Citius Mag Staff