PARIS — Sifan Hassan ended her mammoth week with a gold in the women's marathon on Sunday, completing her remarkable treble bid to medal in the 5,000-metres, 10,000-metres and marathon.
The one other athlete to have achieved the feat was the great Czech runner Emil Zátopek, who swept all three golds in Helsinki in 1952 when distance running was vastly different than it is today.
The Dutch athlete broke the Olympic record in the marathon with a timing of 2:22:55. Hassan entered the race having already run 50 laps of the Stade de France track this week, earning bronze medals in the women's 5,000 and 10,000-metres — the latter coming just 36 hours before the 26-mile race.
The 31-year-old had spoken all week of her fear of the Olympics' longest race, even thinking about the race while she competed on the track. «I'm freaking scared for the marathon,» she said on Monday.