11-Aug-2024 – Paris Oympics – 2:22:55 – Nike Air Zoom Alphafly Next% 3
Date of birth: 1-Jan-1993
Nationality: Dutch
Olympic Record Duration: 2 months, 6 days (as of 16 October 2024)
The athlete:
Sifan Hassan emigrated to the Netherlands as a refugee when she was just 15 year’s old. It was an incredibly difficult time for her, but opportunities began presenting themselves when she moved to the city of Eindhoven to undertake nursing studies.
She met fellow Ethiopian refugees there and took up running again, having done so recreationally in Ethiopia. Soon joining Eindhoven Atletiek, her talents were fostered and she began winning events in global competition including medals at several World Athletics Championships.
Her Olympic debut would come in 2016, but it was in the following years where she truly cemented her status in running. In 2018 she set the European half-marathon record with her 65:15 win at the Copenhagen half-marathon. Hassan then went on to set the world records in the 5km road category and the mile, proving her strength over many distances.
At the 2019 World Athletics Championships she won gold in the 10000 metres, only her second race at the distance. She would do even better at the Olympics in Tokyo, winning gold in both the 5000 metres and 10000 metres. Even more incredibly she would still take bronze in the 1500 metres, the first time any athlete to medal in the three disciplines at the one Olympic Games.
It seemed somewhat inevitable that she would try her hand at the marathon distance, entering the 2023 London Marathon. During the race she had to stop twice to stretch an injured hip, and was almost taken out by an official on motorcycle when collecting her drink. Her track skills came into play, Hassan closing the gap and sprinting away with the finish line in sight to win.
Her next race was the 2023 Chicago Marathon. In between her marathon debut and Chicago she competed in the World Athletics Championship where she came 3rd in the 1500 metres, 2nd in the 5000 metres and would have likely won gold in the 10000 metres had she not tripped in the final stretch. Even with this interlude, she won the Chicago Marathon in 2:13:44, the second fastest time ever behind Tigst Assefa.
Although she did not win the 2024 Tokyo Marathon her place in the Dutch Olympic squad was assured. Unbelievably, Hassan had initially planned to take on a quadruple medal program: 1500 metres, 5000 metres, 10000 metres, and the marathon. She would drop the 1500 metres closer to the Olympics, and would proceed to make history.
Bronze medals in both the 5000 metres and 10000 metres reiterated that she was still one of the best runners in the world at any distance, but Hassan herself said her focus was on the marathon. The event itself featured one of the most difficult courses in Olympics history, with 438 metres of overall elevation and 436 metres of overall descent.
Hassan did what she had done in her other two races, hanging towards the rear of the pack and slowly starting to move forwards. She was on the tail of the leaders coming into the mile of 16 percent incline roads approaching kilometre 29. As the pack dwindled, Hassan was left with fewer challengers until the last few hundred metres beckoned, only Assefa with her as the two began sprinting. Despite nearly colliding in the final few turns it was Hassan who came out ahead, winning by mere seconds and setting the new Olympic Record of 2:22:55.
The shoes:
Hassan was wearing the Nike Air Zoom Alphafly Next% 3, just like she has at all of her marathons to-date. It is the latest evolution of the carbon-fibre plate racing shoes Nike first started developing in 2018 before Eliud Kipchoge sensationally used them to break the two-hour marathon barrier in 2019 (albeit outside of official competition).
It changed the formula used for the VaporFly by adding airpods beneath the forefoot, modifying the geometry of the plate to suit this new configuration. The cushioning was still the same highly responsive Pebax foam, the formulation used by Nike dubbed ZoomX.
The third generation of this shoe made one significant change which was to link both parts of the outsole, which had previously been seperated between the midfoot and the forefoot. This may well make the shoe even more responsive, and given that the late Kelvin Kiptum set the men’s world record in them it must have had some effect. Hassan clearly finds them effective as well, hers in the distinctive Olympic Safari colourway.
References:
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/11/world/olympics/sifan-hassan-marathon-olympics.html
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2023/apr/23/london-marathon-sifan-hassan-kelvin-kiptum-race-report-athletics
https://olympics.com/en/news/sifan-hassans-reflections-rollercoaster-life-sport
https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1147459/hassan-from-refugee-to-chasing-a-l
https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1136241/london-marathon-hassan-kiptum-winners
https://www.runnersworld.com/races-places/a45444172/chicago-marathon-2023-womens-winner/
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sifan_Hassan
https://worldathletics.org/athletes/netherlands/sifan-hassan-14489606
https://www.letsrun.com/news/2022/10/hilly-paris-2024-olympic-marathon-course-revealed-that-goes-from-paris-to-versailles-and-back/
https://believeintherun.com/shoe-reviews/nike-alphafly-3-first-look/ https://www.runnersworld.com/uk/gear/shoes/a45481094/war-of-the-super-shoes/