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Sifan Hassan said on Monday that the London Marathon was “in my heart” as she prepares to return to the scene of her extraordinary debut over the distance two years ago.
The Dutch athlete, born in Ethiopia, marked her first marathon by winning the 2023 race in London with a stunning performance.
Hassan triumphed despite two stops on the streets of the British capital and being 28 seconds behind the leader at one point.
The 32-year-old has since proven that victory was no fluke, winning gold at the Paris Olympics last year in a women’s Games record of two hours, 22 minutes and 55 seconds – a feat that she achieved barely 36 hours after winning bronze in the 10,000 meters.
Now, Hassan, who did not participate in the 2024 London Marathon, is looking forward to a journey full of happy memories when this year’s edition takes place on April 27.
“If you look back, London is in my heart,” she told reporters. “It’s incredible, it’s almost a bit like Paris.
“I thought I don’t know what I’m going to do, but sometimes it’s a miracle, sometimes a miracle happens.”
She added: “I was so scared of the marathon, thinking, ‘Am I going to finish, is it going to hurt, what is going to happen?’. Everyone is going to say : ‘Oh, she’s no good, why did she try?’ that?’.”
Hassan won three Olympic medals at Tokyo 2020, winning gold in the 5,000m and 10,000m as well as bronze in the 1,500m and added three more to his collection in Paris, including bronze in the 5,000m.
But she still has career goals she wants to achieve before the 2028 Games in Los Angeles.
“I want to run four marathons in a year, four major marathons,” Hassan said. “I want to see how far I can go.”
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