In my mind, the women’s 1,500 meters in Rio was a seminal event. Faith Kipyegon versus Genzebe Dibaba was a beautiful thing, and the supremacy that Dibaba displayed in 2015 was gone. Kipyegon’s beautiful last lap, covered in a bit under 57 seconds showed that, for that day, Ms. Dibaba was merely a human, like the rest of us, reaching for the stars. To me, the supreme battle was Jenny Simpson who had won in 2011, taken silver in 2013, and had a nightmare in 2015, was back and racing supremely.
I have my doubts regarding Genzebe Dibaba. And that is sad. I do not doubt Faith Kipyegon nor Jenny Simpson. But, that is for another column.
Simpson and Hassan battle, Rio Olympic 1500 meter final, photo by PhotoRun.net
In this final Olympic Moments with Larry, I spoke of the wonderful battle that ensued in for gold and silver and how Jenny Simpson ran down Sifan Hassan, who had won over Jenny Simpson a few times in the past. But, the Rio 2016 Olympic women’s 1,500 meters was a wonderful race, with the top athletes from Africa, Europe, North America battling on a fairly even basis, thanks to drug testing by WADA and USADA. Drug testing is imperfect, because some of the humans trying to stop it are imperfect beings, and because IOC wants it to go away, but it is improving the efficacy of racing.
