Women’s Marathon Preview
I know that most distance running events end up being a fight between Kenya and Ethiopia, but the women’s marathon at this year’s Olympics truly embodies this incredible rivalry. All three women from both countries can stake a claim to the title, which means we are about to witness an absolute masterclass in East African dominance. If you have ever wanted a visual representation of just how much better these two nations are compared to the rest of the world, tune in next Sunday to watch this race.
Ethiopia
Tigst Assefa
Assefa started her career as a 400m runner of all things, even picking up a national medal in the event back in 2009. By 2012, she had graduated to the 800m, and in 2016, she represented her country over the two-lap distance at the Rio Olympics. However, an Achilles problem meant she didn’t make it out of the heats, and that was the last time we ever saw her run on the track.
Assefa’s injury also meant she could no longer train in spikes, and so she was forced to turn her attention to the roads in order to continue her career as a professional runner. After a handful of decent 10km races, yet another injury forced the Ethiopian out of the sport at the end of 2019. Three years and one global pandemic later, Assefa burst back onto the international running scene with a 2:15:37 victory at the 2022 Berlin Marathon, beating the rest of the field by more than two and a half minutes, breaking the Ethiopian record, and moving to number three on the all-time list.
The following year, she returned to the streets of the German capital and destroyed the marathon world record by more than two minutes, becoming the first woman to break 2:12 (and 2:13, and 2:14). Clearly, the longer distances suit her.
Earlier this year, Assefa headed to the London Marathon as the world waited to see what she would do for an encore. Despite her 400m/800m background, she lost to reigning Olympic champion Peres Jepchirchir in a sprint finish, coming home for second in 2:16:23. While still a very impressive performance, it showed her competitors that she is beatable and that her experience on the track is not as useful in a finishing kick as perhaps some would have anticipated. She may not be the favourite heading to Paris, but she will certainly be competitive. Assefa has never run on a hilly marathon course, nor has she competed in hot conditions, but it’s difficult to ignore the fact that she is the world record holder.
Tigst Assefa crosses the line at the 2023 Berlin Marathon to break the women’s marathon world record
Amane Beriso
Last year, Beriso showed us two important things:
She can perform well on a hilly course (she was second in Boston)
She knows how to win championship races (she won the marathon at the World Athletics Championships)
Combine that with her 2:14:58 personal best (fifth on the all-time list), and she may be the strongest runner in Paris that nobody is talking about.
Unlike Assefa, Beriso never raced on the track. After a handful of podiums at some low-key international marathons, Beriso stamped her authority on the marathon world with a dominant sub-2:15 win in Valencia in 2022. As mentioned, she finished second in Boston the following year and picked up her maiden World Championship title, and earlier this year she made it to the podium in Tokyo. Her combination of strength, speed, and championship experience has certainly put her in the conversation for the gold, which, if she can achieve, would make her just the second woman in history to simultaneously hold the world and Olympic Marathon titles.
Amane Beriso wins the marathon at the 2023 World Athletics Championships
Megertu Alemu
Alemu had a strange early career. Her first six marathons were all split between Morocco and China (which no doubt included some very nice paydays that kept her professional athletics career alive), but it wasn’t until she stepped out of these two locations that she picked up her first win with a 2:22:52 personal best in Rome back in 2019. She has broken 2:19 in her last five marathons, which included three World Marathon Major podiums. Her most recent outing came in London earlier this year, where she came home for fourth in a new lifetime best of 2:16:34.
Alemu is the most consistent Ethiopian of the three and has run more marathons than both her teammates combined. She rounds out one of the strongest and most diverse teams in recent memory, which is almost guaranteed to produce a medal after the country failed to make the podium in 2021.
Kenya
Peres Jepchirchir
Unfortunately for Ethiopia, Kenya is also sending one of the strongest teams in Olympic Marathon history. Headlining that team is reigning Olympic champion Peres Jepchirchir.
Jepchirchir is not the fastest on paper, but she thrives in tactical, competitive races. Not only is she the reigning Olympic champion, but she is also the world record holder in the women’s-only marathon and half-marathon. Women-only world records can only be achieved in races without male pacemakers, meaning they require more competitive intelligence than the overall world records, which have been reduced to time trials in recent years. In April, Jepchirchir won the deepest marathon in history to set that women’s only marathon world record in London, outkicking most of the favourites that will be in Paris. She is also a two-time World Half Marathon Champion and a five-time World Marathon Major winner, which includes a 2022 victory at the Boston Marathon (the hills in Boston make it a great indicator for success on the Paris course). Jepchirchir will head to Paris in the form of her life and has an excellent chance at becoming the first woman in history to win consecutive Olympic Marathon titles.
Peres Jepchirchir wins the marathon at the 2021 Olympics
Hellen Obiri
Earlier this year at the Boston Marathon, Obiri reduced a group of 21 to just four by hammering out a sub-five-minute mile late in the race. She followed that up with a 4:41 – the fastest mile split ever run in a women’s marathon – to secure the win.
Since coming sixth in her debut back in 2022, Obiri hasn’t lost a marathon. Relying on her track pedigree to outkick her opponents, her first win came in Boston in 2023, followed by a victory in New York later that year. Her successful title defence in Boston in April makes her the only woman to have won three consecutive marathons in the lead-up to the Olympics.
Obiri has enjoyed a glittering career thus far. As early as 2011, she represented Kenya at the World Championships on the track. Now, some 13 years later, she is headed to her fourth Olympics in search of the gold medal that has so far eluded her. A victory in Paris would complete her sweep of every major achievement in our sport: she would become the first woman to claim a World Marathon Major victory, a world indoor title, a world outdoor title, a world cross country title, a world record, and an Olympic title. Kenenisa Bekele is the only person to have all these accolades to his name, and he is considered to be the greatest distance runner of all time on the men’s side. If Obiri can win gold in the French capital, she may very well rise to that same status among women.
As I’ve mentioned, the Boston Marathon is the best indicator of success in Paris, as it blends international depth with a hilly course. Obiri has won the last two editions of that race, and when you throw in her win in New York last year, her five world championships, and her two Olympic silvers, she becomes my pick for the Olympic title. Nobody has found a way to beat her since she brought her sit-and-kick strategy to the roads, and I don’t think they’ll work it out in time for Paris. That being said, such is the depth this year that she could just as easily finish off the podium.
Hellen Obiri wins her first marathon at the 2023 Boston Marathon
Sharon Lokedi
Heading into Tokyo, Brigid Kosgei was one of the favourites: in the two years prior, she had won the London Marathon, set a world record in Chicago, and then successfully defended her title in London in 2020. At the Olympics, she trailed her compatriot Jepchirchir to the line for silver, which marked the first time any country had won more than one medal in a women’s Olympic Marathon. The following year, she won the Tokyo Marathon in 2:16:02 to become the first woman to ever break 2:17 twice in their career.
But Kosgei has struggled since then. She withdrew from the London Marathon in 2022 and dropped out of it in 2023 before missing the podium in New York later that year. Most recently, she was fifth in London. Meanwhile, Sharon Lokedi has made the podium in every marathon of her career and beat Kosgei in New York last year. So, when Kosgei made the Olympic team, and Lokedi was named as a reserve, it raised some questions about the fairness of the Athletics Kenya (AK) selection criteria.
AK and Kosgei are both sponsored by Nike, so whenever a Nike athlete is controversially picked over a non-Nike one (Lokedi is sponsored by Under Armour), it’s bound to spark some suspicion. In 2012, AK picked Moses Mosop (Nike) over three much better Adidas athletes in Geoffrey Mutai, Patrick Makau, and Emmanuel Mutai. Ahead of the Rio Olympics, Mary Keitany (Adidas) was snubbed in favour of Visiline Jepkesho (Nike), and Wesley Korir (Nike) was selected despite having gone four years without a podium finish.
One would at least hope that the financial incentives AK received from Nike for making these poor selection choices were substantial, because their Olympic campaign certainly didn’t benefit: Mosop pulled out before the race even started, Jepkesho finished 86th, and Korir dropped out halfway through the race. While Kosgei isn’t quite as controversial a pick as those who have gone before her, it’s pretty clear that Nike had some sort of input here.
What Nike does not have a say in is who gets hurt. Unfortunately for Kosgei, an unspecified injury has forced her to withdraw from the event, which means Lokedi will be racing in Paris. In my opinion, Lokedi is the better choice anyway, and recent form suggests she has a far greater chance of making the podium.
Obiri agrees with me. The Boston Marathon champion was surprised to see Lokedi so close to her at the finish line earlier this year and endorsed her selection in a post-race interview.
“She [Sharon Lokedi] really pushed me throughout the race, every time I looked back, I saw her, and I had to press on and make sure I don’t lose focus. The Paris course is a tough course. It’s even tougher than Boston. If we have Sharon as my teammate in Paris, we will have a fantastic women’s race. Me and Sharon gave it a fight and ran well, so for Kenya to complete a podium sweep shows we are capable of making Paris easy for us.”
Who Else?
Lonah Salpeter
While she no longer represents Kenya, Lonah Salpeter was born and raised in the country and grew up as part of a Swahili warrior tribe. She didn’t leave her village until she was 20, at which point she went to Israel to work as a live-in nanny for the three children of a Kenyan Ambassador. It was here that she met her now husband and running coach, Dan Salpeter, who encouraged her to take up the sport.
As is the case with many East Africans who change national allegiance, Salpeter quickly became the best runner in the country. In 2016, she won the Tel-Aviv Marathon on debut and qualified for the Rio Olympics representing Israel, but was unfortunately forced to drop out due to chest pain.
In 2018, Salpeter won her first international marathon, which she followed with another victory and the first sub-2:20 performance of her career in Prague. In 2020, she won the Tokyo Marathon with the sixth-fastest time in history, clocking 2:17:45 to win by almost a minute. As if simply to prove her incredible range, she won the 800m at the Israeli National Championships a few months later.
Severe menstrual cramps derailed her Tokyo Olympic campaign, causing her to fall from third to 66th in the final four kilometres, but she’s since found remarkable consistency in the marathon. She’s finished third and fourth at the last two World Athletics Championships, as well as second in New York and third in Boston. Salpeter will be 35 in Paris, meaning this will likely be her last chance to pick up that Olympic medal she so thoroughly deserves.
Lonah Salpeter after finishing third at the 2023 Boston Marathon
Sifan Hassan
The elusive distance treble was made famous in 1952 by Emil Zatopek when he won the 5000m, 10,000m, and marathon at the same Olympics. However, in the seven decades since Zatopek’s triumph, the sport has become more professional, and the idea of someone emulating that historic feat has grown more far-fetched with each passing year.
That being said, the idea of Sifan Hassan winning three Olympic medals – two of them gold – across the 1500m, 5000m, and 10,000m at the last Olympics also seemed far-fetched at the time, but that’s exactly what she did. The Ethiopian-born Dutchwoman was initially entered in four events for Paris, but on Wednesday announced that she would drop the 1500m from her schedule and *only* race the 5000m, 10,000m, and marathon.
Hassan’s most impressive asset is her range. At one point during the last Olympic cycle, she was the third-fastest 800m runner in the world, and she has times in the top ten for every Olympic-distance event from 1500m and up. However, her position at second on the marathon all-time list is her highest and most impressive ranking.
Hassan made her marathon debut in London last year, winning the race in a sprint finish after stopping multiple times on the course to stretch. Four months after that, she came third in the 1500m at the World Championships and won the 5000m. She returned to the roads just six weeks later to win the Chicago Marathon by almost two minutes in 2:13:44, the second fastest time in history. After seeing what she could do off barely any marathon-specific training, the running world was eager to see what she could do with a proper marathon block in her legs. Unfortunately, Hassan’s opening marathon of 2024 in Tokyo didn’t go quite to plan. She was dropped from the group just after halfway and eventually crossed the line in 2:18:05 for fourth, some two minutes behind a winner who didn’t even make her national Olympic team.
Hassan’s inconsistent form has continued throughout 2024, and she’s finished off the podium in two-thirds of her races. Contrast that to last year, when she medalled in all 11 of her races except the 10,000m World Championship final (during which she was tripped while leading in the home straight), and it’s clear that her historic medal haul from Tokyo is unlikely to be repeated. Still, she is one of the greatest distance runners of all time, a double Olympic champion, a double world champion, and a world record holder, so it would be foolish to count her out.
Sifan Hassan wins the 2023 Chicago Marathon
You can access the full start lists for the women’s Olympic Marathon here.