#hellen obiri

So, listen. Listen. I said to the long-suffering @parrishsrubberplant that if the men’s marathon race was THAT good (and seriously, it was among the greats) the women’s races was going to be—I quote myself—“off the motherfucking chain.”

Holly cats was I right about that one. I could end this post right here with a string of head exploding and fire emojis, but instead I’m gonna write a bit about what I followed.*

(*still too cheap to pay for streaming, so this comes entirely from being glued to newspaper live text updates and the Olympics own race tracker, which gives the 5k splits. I WISH I HAD PAID. I wish I had *been there* in Paris.)

Things about this race that made my brain hurt, a numbered list:

1. Sifan Hassan (Netherlands): You have to be a pretty big nerd about running to remember the last person to medal in the 5k / 10k / marathon triple in the Olympics, so storytime.

Emil Zapotec, won gold in all three events at the 1952 Olympics. His marathon time was 2:23:03, and before you dismiss that, remember that training and shoe tech were different then, and also it was his first marathon. Hassan, as far as I know, is the second to try this triple, and her marathon time was 2:22:55, which is an Olympic record.

*and* she won bronze in the 5k and 10k earlier THIS WEEK. And we talked yesterday about the hilly Paris course, right?

Hassan, I need to add, made history in her last Olympics, Tokyo 2021, for getting Gold in the 5k and 10k, and bronze in the 1500m; she’s the first Olympic athlete to do that, ever, so it’s not like it was impossible to imagine she could medal in her triple this time (for Paris, she was initially also entered in the 1500, and decided not to.) Just, really hard to get your head around.

I’ve been listening to Kara Goucher and Des Linden do an amazing recaps podcast on Olympic track and field this week (go listen to Nobody Asked Us, they’re hilarious), and one of the things they stressed is that, from their own Olympic—both are double Olympians for the USA—and championship racing experience—the training you do for a hilly marathon vs for a track 5k is super, super different. Just to put in perspective the absolutely BATSHIT INSANITY of what Hassan just did by winning the Olympics. And setting an Olympic record. After the all the racing she did this week.

2. The race at 40k Sprint, do not run, to find a video of the finish. Here’s the one from Eurosports. Up until 2k to go, FIVE ATHLETES were in it: Sharon Lokedi (Kenya), Hellen Obiri (Kenya), Amane Beriso Shankule (Ethiopia), Tigst Assefa (Ethiopia), and Hassan.

Again, a comparison to Zapotec: a sportswriter once described his running style as “a man wrestling an octopus on a conveyor belt” and I couldn’t help but think of that when the commentators were desperately assuring us that Obiri is not struggling, she just Runs Like That. Obiri has one of the greatest CVs in women’s distance running history, and honestly, she looks like a woman wrestling an octopus on a conveyor belt. Often the octopus is winning. It’s so fun to watch.

Also, seeing Hassan, lurking at the back of the pack like a goddam shark, as Beriso and Lokedi got dropped. I was there and SEATED. You could almost see her scent blood in the water. It was EPIC.

3. The finish: Hassan and Assefa finished 3 seconds apart (and we had some good track style elbow throwing! The drama! Love to see track and field the contact sport!) Obiri was 15 seconds back from gold. I actually cried a little, like you do when you see something overwhelming beautiful and can’t help it. Lokedi, who is an athlete I love following, was fourth, 19 seconds back.

5. Yuka Suzuki (Japan): can we just scream together for a moment about how impressive Team Japan’s young marathoners were in this Olympics? Suzuki is 24 years old. She had, according to the information I could find about her, never raced in world championship race (not sure what a world university games is but I don’t think that counts). She went from being 13th at 25k to 8th at 30k, to 5th at 35k, to 6th at 40k…and finished 6th. Most of her running, for the last 10k of the race, was alone, with the lead pack in sight but not in actual distance to catch. Can you imagine how hard that it is, mentally? To be so close and yet so far at the end of a hilly marathon that just happens to be the motherfucking Olympics? I can barely get my head around it. Just. Holy cats people. Holy cats. So excited to see where she goes next.

6. Checked and Wrecked, the Honor Roll: It was super frustrating to follow this race because the Olympic tracker wasn’t working properly for past splits: it automatically updates them to show the state of the current race. Which made it very hard to follow changes in the race and spectulate strategy, and this didn’t happen with the men’s tracker, UGH, but anyway. Flowers to Jessica Stentson (Australia), Dakotah Lindwurm (USA) and Melody Julien (France), and also Lornah Chemutai Salpeter (Israel), who all, at various points in the first half, seem to have Went For It. I’m sure there’s plenty of other people who belong on this roll of honour, but that’s just who I noticed. I would rather see an athlete wreck themselves than check themselves, because sports are entertainment.

7. Lastly, because repeat Olympians Are Cool: Fionnula McCormick (Ireland)! Her fifth Olympics! Ridiculously cool.

Guys (gender neutral), women’s distance running is so fucking lit right now. There’s so many great athletes in the sport and that was such an epic, epic marathon.

Once again, a link to the end of the race for everybody in Europe / with vpns, because that was racing that makes me glad to be alive. Off the chain, indeed.