by Larry Eder
Part 3 of 3
Sifan Hassan is one of the world’s most popular and fascinating athletes! In all of our social media for Paris 2024, Sifan Hassan was the most popular global athlete from Paris 2024!
Sifan Hassan and her family moved to the Netherlands in 2008 at age 15 as a political refugee from Ethiopia. She became a citizen of the Netherlands in 2013. This writer first saw her at the 2014 European Athletics Outdoor Championships in August 2014 in Zurich. At the EAC, Sifan took bronze in the 5,000m and won the 1,500m! It was always fun watching Sifan race, and her emotional response to her racing and obvious enjoyment of the sport made it even more fun!
Sifan has always raced across the spectrum. Early in her career, she ran from 800 meters to the half marathon to cross country. In December 2013, Sifan Hassan won gold in the European Athletics U 23 Cross Country championship and helped the Netherlands team win the bronze medal! That was the first time she represented her new country, the Netherlands.
Sifan held the world record in the mile from 2019 to 2023 (4:12). She also had the 10,000m world record for two days and still holds the World record for the hour run (18,930 meters is 11.7623 miles), which is brutal!
In terms of European records? Sifan Hassan holds European records at 1,500m, 3,000m, 5,000m, 10,000m, half marathon and marathon!
Sifan Hassan is a tremendously talented athlete who works hard, laughs, and races with abandon. On RunBlogRun’s global audience, she is one of our most popular, judging by social media response, and the article reads.
Her European record at the 2023 Bank of America Chicago Marathon, the current European record of 2:13.44, is quite impressive. Still, her one-hour run world record blows my mind, as she is one-quarter mile from having run perfectly five-minute miles for one hour! Sifan’s mental strength is something to behold!
We reached out to Brett Holts at NIKE sports marketing and asked if he could help us reach Sifan Hassan. Not only did Brett Holts get it done, but the speed with which the interview came back was incredible!
We hope you enjoy these insights into Sifan Hassan, who just won bronze at the 5,000 meters, 10,000 meters, and then gold in the marathon! Those are her fourth, fifth, and sixth Olympic medals.
Part 3/3
9. RunBlogRun: Your marathon in Chicago was spectacular, and you seemed to have so much fun in the presser. Post-event, you thanked the media for covering you; how do you look at racing? What is your philosophy?
Sifan Hassan: My coach and I already had the Paris 2024 Olympic marathon on target in our mind. London was great, but I wanted to see whether I could run a fast marathon before Paris. So yeah, I was very pleased after that.
Legacy
10. RunBlogRun: If you were speaking to a room of young women from around the world who want to run, what would you tell them?
Sifan Hassan: Please, please, please inspire the people around you to run as well. Exercise is so important. It makes you healthier, it makes you live longer, it
helps you to set goals in all areas of your life, etc. So, try to inspire the people around you to run, too.
photo by Kevin Morris
Training
11. RunBlogRun: What workout do you dislike but that is always good for you?
Sifan Hassan: Ugh, any 5k-specific workout. I hate kilometer reps, but they are so important!
Gear
12. RunBlogRun: What shoes do you train in?
Sifan Hassan: I switch between different Nike models, but I use the Nike Infinity the most.
13. RunBlogRun; What shoes do you race in (track and road)?
Sifan Hassan: Nike Victory & Dragonfly (track), Nike Alphafly 3 (road).
Special thanks to Sifan Hassan for taking the time for the interview. Simon Barieu (Go Badgers) was very critical to this interview. Thanks to Johnny Nielsen and Brett Holts.
As this article was published, Sifan Hassan announced that the Qatar Foundation had recognized Sifan as a global role model for young women. Sifan will also be an ambassador for track & field for the QF foundation; more here: https://www.qf.org.qa/stories/qf-launches-the-creating-pathways-program-to-develop-local-girls-sporting
To read the complete interview, please click here: https://www.runblogrun.com/2024/09/sifan-hassan-the-runblogrun-interview-speaks-on-her-running-origins-her-experiences-and-her-recent-olympic-medals.html?swcfpc=1
