PARIS – There was just one more turn to go, around the side of Les Invalides, the French national military museum whose lawn is lined by cannons. Sifan Hassan, arguably the greatest distance runner in the world, was scraping the fence and barely behind. Tigst Assefa, the sport’s world record holder, was desperately clinging to the lead.
As the finish line came into view, Hassan surged through the smallest of openings. Assefa’s body turned. After more than two hours of a grueling race along the Seine, past the palace of Versailles and back again, they were both at sprint speeds.
They tangled. They jostled. They were one false move away from taking each other out. Then, in the blink of an eye, Hassan was gone; a blur of Netherlands orange leaving Assefa behind and streaking to the gold medal. And when she crossed the wire in an Olympic record 2 hours, 22 minutes and 55 seconds, there was just one question left.
How is it possible for a human to do this?
‘She’s incredible,’ American Emily Sisson said after finishing 23rd. ‘Generational talent. I think she might be solidified as the (greatest distance runner of all-time now) if she wasn’t already. So that’s pretty amazing.’
Anyone who wins an Olympic marathon is as tough and hardcore of an athlete as exists in the world. But Hassan has taken it to levels at the Paris Olympics that defy all common sense.
Three years ago in Tokyo, she won gold in the 5k and 10k, adding a bronze in the 1,500 meters. This year, after winning the London and Chicago marathons last fall, she decided to one-up herself by adding the ultimate test to her plate.
It was unprecedented. It was potentially dangerous. Her competitors thought it was nuts. Even Hassan thought it was a little crazy.
But six days ago, she finished third in the women’s 5k at Stade de France, running a season-best 14:30.61. Two days ago, she won bronze in the 10k, posting another season-best 30:44.12. She thought she left something in reserve for the marathon, but she couldn’t be sure.
Would she have the legs not just to run a marathon, not just to win another marathon but to out-kick one of the best in the world when it was up for grabs in the final half-kilometer?
She didn’t know – until she pulled it off Sunday. And the only thing we can possibly ask is how?
How? Seriously, how? The answer is a pain that none of us mere mortals will ever understand.
‘Every moment in the race I was regretting that I ran the 5,000 meters and 10,000 meters,’ Hassan said. ‘I was telling myself if I hadn’t done that, I would feel great today. From beginning to end, it was so hard. Every step of the way, I was thinking, ‘Why did I do that? What is wrong with me?’’
With all necessary respect to Michael Phelps, Mark Spitz, Katie Ledecky, Missy Franklin, Simone Biles, Carl Lewis or whoever else you want to put into the conversation, you can argue what Hassan did in Paris is the greatest accomplishment in the history of the Summer Games.
At this elite level of distance running, athletes’ bodies are finely tuned to be in peak form for one particular day. The marathon is the ultimate test of endurance, and thousands of hours of sport science have been devoted to the ideal amounts of training, rest, calorie consumption and hydration necessary to last the 26.2 miles.
All that goes out the window when you run a 5k, a 10k and a marathon – all within about 142 hours – against the best in the world.
Merely trying it is an audacious test of human endurance. It’s pushing one’s body past limits that even the best would not dare to attempt. It’s almost impossible.
‘To finish the marathon is a kind of hell,’ Hassan said after the 10k.
And it burned. Goodness, did it burn, as much or more than she imagined. She kept going anyway.
Then she won.
‘Every single step is so hard and so painful,’ Hassan said. ‘I was never more focused in my life. Every step I challenged myself, and now I am so grateful I didn’t push myself too much on the track. I was scared of this race.’
Hassan was not running among those at the front until more than halfway through the race. At the 40-kilomter mark, as the packs started to separate, Hassan was officially in fifth place.
How easy would it have been to accept that just getting to the finish line was worth as much as an Olympic medal? What was that torment like between her legs and her lungs and her mind to get them all in agreement for those final strides when Hassan pushed past the pain and shoved her way by Assefa?
‘At the end I thought, ‘This is just a 100 meter sprint – come on, Sifan,’’ she said.
That’s where the controversy comes in, to the extent that there is any.
The pushing and shoving at that stage of a race is unusual. The Ethiopian delegation protested the finish, claiming obstruction. It took more than an hour for the protest to be rejected and the results to become official. Assefa said she was happy with the silver medal.
‘I didn’t expect that at that moment,’ she said through a translator but didn’t elaborate much more when pressed for details about the incident and how it impacted her chances.
But at the end, we all saw what we saw. They were on even terms. Then somehow, against all human logic given everything she had put her body through this week, Hassan had left Assefa behind.
It was a triumph of talent, audacity and pushing human limits.
‘She has shown the world she can do everything,’ third-place finisher Helen Obiri said.
We’ve seen a lot of amazing things over the two-plus weeks of the Paris Olympics. But on the final day of these Games, Hassan pulled off a feat we may truly never see again.
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