Sifan Hassan

Sifan (R) at the 2012 Gouden Spike meeting held in Leiden (NL).

Affiliated with Eindhoven Atletiek,[15] Hassan entered the Eindhoven half marathon in 2011 and won the race with a time of 77:10 minutes. She was also runner-up at two cross country races (Sylvestercross and Mol Lotto Cross Cup). She won those races in 2012, as well as the 3000 m at the Leiden Gouden Spike meet.[16]

Hassan made her breakthrough in the 2013 season. She ran an 800 metres best of 2:00.86 minutes to win at the KBC Night of Athletics and took wins in the 1500 m at the Nijmegen Global Athletics and Golden Spike Ostrava meets. On the 2013 IAAF Diamond League circuit she was runner-up in the 1500 m at Athletissima with a personal best of 4:03.73 minutes and was third at the DN Galan 3000 m with a best of 8:32.53 minutes—this time ranked her the fourth-fastest runner in the world that year.[16][17]

Hassan became a Dutch citizen in November 2013, too late for competing at the 2013 World Championships, and the following month she made her first appearance for the Netherlands. At the 2013 European Cross Country Championships she won the gold medal in the under-23 category and helped the Dutch team to third in the rankings.[18] She also won the Warandeloop and Lotto Cross Cup Brussels races that winter.[19]

At the beginning of 2014 she ran a world leading time of 8:45.32 minutes for the 3000 m at the Weltklasse in Karlsruhe,[20] then broke the Dutch indoor record in the 1500 m with a time of 4:05.34 minutes at the Birmingham Indoor Grand Prix.[21]

Women's 1500 m podium at the 2015 World Championships in Beijing (L–R): Faith Kipyegon, Genzebe Dibaba and Sifan Hassan.

At the 2015 World Championships in Beijing, Hassan won the bronze medal in the 1500 metres. She became the second female Dutch athlete ever to win a medal at the World Championships, after Dafne Schippers. She was the third female Dutch winner at the 2015 European Cross Country Championships, following in the footsteps of fellow African migrants Hilda Kibet and Lornah Kiplagat.[22]

Hassan won her heat in the 1500 m in the 2016 Rio Olympics in 4:06.64 before Faith Kipyegon. In the semifinals she placed second in 4:03.62 after Genzebe Dibaba who won in 4:03.06. In the final Kipyegon took the Olympic gold medal with 4:08.92, Dibaba was the runner up with 4:10.27 and Jennifer Simpson took the bronze medal in 4:10.53. Hassan placed fifth in a time of 4:11.23.[23]

She finished fifth in the 1500 m at the 2017 World Athletics Championships and won the bronze medal in the 5000 metres event.[1]

On 13 July, she broke the European record for 5000 metres by finishing second at the Rabat Diamond League in 14:22.34.[24] A few days later, Hassan won the first Millicent Fawcett Mile at the 2018 London Anniversary Games in a time of 4:14.71, the fourth-fastest result at the time.[25]

At the 2018 European Championships, she won a gold medal in the 5000 m with the time 14:46:12, setting a new championships record.

On 16 September, she broke the European record for the half marathon with a time of 65:15, winning the Copenhagen Half Marathon.[26]

On 17 February, Hassan set the world record for a 5 km road race stopping the clock at 14:44 in Monaco.[27] The 5 km road race has been a world record event since 1 November 2017.[28] At the Prefontaine Classic in June, she broke the European 3000 m record with a time of 8:18.49.[29]

Hassan races 10,000 m at the Payton Jordan Invitational in Palo Alto, CA in 2019.

On 12 July, Hassan entered the mile run at the Herculis meet in Fontvieille, Monaco. Olha Lyakhova was the pace setter, taking the field through the first two laps (measured at the start line, not the quarter-mile splits) in 64.26 and 63.94 (2:08.20). As is typical for Hassan, she was last off the start line, but over the next 150 metres, slowly eased herself around the field on the outside into the marking position behind Lyakhova. Gabriela DeBues-Stafford soon moved through the field in between Hassan and Lyakhova for the next lap before Hassan and Gudaf Tsegay separated from the field as the only chasers. Between 800 and 1000 metres, Lyakhova strained to keep on pace, but Hassan and Tsegay were moving forward. After Lyakhova stepped out, the two found themselves 15 metres ahead of the pack. At 1200 metres, Hassan was looking back at her close chaser Tsegay in 3:10.13 (a 61.93 lap). Hassan accelerated, opening a 5-metre gap over the next 100 metres. Continuing at this pace, she passed 1500 metres in about 3:55. Hassan covered the last 409.344 metres in 62.20, her final time of 4:12:33 breaking Svetlana Masterkova's almost 23-year-old world record.[30] The athletes trailing Hassan rewrote the all-time top 25 list, with Laura Weightman moving into position #15, DeBues-Stafford into #17, and after #5 all-time Tsegay faded into the pack she was followed by Rababe Arafi, Axumawit Embaye, Winnie Nanyondo and Ciara Mageean moving into positions #20–23.

She was the double 2019 Diamond League champion, winning both the 1500 and 5000 metres Trophies.[31]

On 28 September, she became the 2019 World Champion in the 10,000 metres in her second race for that distance. Her first race at the event was in Stanford in a time of 31:18.12, just fast enough to achieve the qualifying standard for the World Championships. The winning time of 30:17.62 was the best time of the year on the track. Alina Reh (Germany) led the field after 3000 m in 9:29.69. The front runner reached the halfway point in 15:32.70. Letesenbet Gidey finished in 30:21.23, with Agnes Tirop (Kenya) coming in third place in 30:25.50. The second half of the run was covered in 14:45.[32] Hassan also won the 1500 metres race with a time of 3:51.95 (sixth place on the 1500 m all-time list), setting a new championships and European records. The second-placed finisher was Faith Kipyegon in 3:54.22, a new Kenyan national record, and the third place went to Gudaf Tsegay with 3:54.38.[33]

On 10 October, Hassan set a European record for the women's 10,000 metres in a time of 29:36.67, breaking the best set by Great Britain's Paula Radcliffe in 2002 by more than 24 seconds.[34]

On 6 June 2021, she bettered her performance at the event to set a world record of 29:06.82 in Hengelo, beating 2016 record of Ethiopian Almaz Ayana by more than 10 seconds. Hassan lost the record two days later, however, when Ethiopia's Letesenbet Gidey achieved a time of 29:01.03 at the same stadium.[35][36]

Hassan won gold in the 5000 metres and 10,000 metres at the delayed 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. She also won bronze in the 1500 metres. She became the only athlete ever to medal in the 1500, 5000, and 10,000 metres events at the same Olympics. Her 5000 m winning time was 14:36.79 ahead of Hellen Obiri from Kenya with 14:38.36, while Gudaf Tsegay won a bronze medal in a time of 14:38.87. Her gold medal win made her the first Dutch woman with an Olympic athletics medal in a long-distance event. She was the first non-Kenyan or Ethiopian athlete to win the event since Gabriela Szabo won in the 2000 Sydney Olympics.[37]

This season was worse for Hassan as competing at the World Championships in Eugene, Oregon she finished sixth in the 5000 metres and fourth in the 10,000 metres.[1]

On 23 April, on her debut over the classic 26.2-mile distance, the 30-year-old won the London Marathon with a time of 2:18:33. She lost contact with the leaders after stopping to stretch her leg twice about 19 km into the race, and was 28 seconds behind at the 25 km mark. Despite this, Hassan caught up with the slowing lead quartet with four kilometres to go and prevailed in a sprint finish on the final straight, four seconds ahead of Alemu Megertu. "It was really amazing. I never thought I would finish a marathon", said Hassan.[38][39]

Beginning in 2016, Hassan was coached by Alberto Salazar at the Nike Oregon Project.[40][41] In 2019 Salazar began serving a four-year ban from athletics for doping violations dating from before he started coaching Hassan.

Hassan's current coach is Tim Rowberry who began coaching her in July 2018. Rowberry was also the coach of runner Yomif Kejelcha, Hassan's training partner until his departure to Adidas.[42][43][44]

• Diamond League Overall 1500 m winner: 2015[45]
• Diamond League 1500 m champion: 2019[46]
• Diamond League 5000 m champion: 2019[47]
  • 2014 (2): Paris Meeting Areva (1500 m), Glasgow Grand Prix (1500 m)
  • 2015 (2): Birmingham British Grand Prix (1500 m), Lausanne Athletissima (1500 m)
  • 2017 (3): Rome Golden Gala (1500 m), Paris (1500 m), Birmingham (3000 m)
  • 2018 (2): London Anniversary Games (One mile), Birmingham (1500 m)
  • 2019 (4): Palo Alto Prefontaine Classic (3000 m), Monaco Herculis (One mile, MR DLR WR), Zürich Weltklasse (1500 m), Brussels Memorial Van Damme (5000 m)
  • 2020 (1): Brussels (One hour)
  • 2021 (3): Rome Golden Gala in Florence (1500 m), Eugene Prefontaine Classic (5000 m), Brussels (One mile)
  • 2022 (1): Chorzów Kamila Skolimowska Memorial (3000 m)

• Dutch Indoor Athletics Championships
  • 800 metres: 2016
  • 1500 metres: 2015