Sifan Hassan’s schedule on the Olympic track looks more like a list of punishments drawn up by an angry physical education teacher.
She has six distance races in eight days, consisting of three 1,500m runs, two 5,000m races and a 10,000m to top it off, with two of the races on the same day, and two others on back-to-back days.
And do them all in the sapping heat and humidity of the Tokyo summer.
Photo: AP
“Crazy ideas,” Hassan said, acknowledging that the track itinerary she is considering verges on insanity. “But sometimes I’m just careless and I don’t care.”
“Right now ... if you can see inside my mind, you will think I’m crazy or something,” she said.
The proposed schedule is not the result of a whole lot of long-term planning either from the world champion in the 1,500m and 10,000m who was born in Ethiopia, but competes for the Netherlands. Rather, it was conceived after some unexpected late form in the 1,500m a few weeks ago.
Hassan, who holds world records in the mile and 5km road race, and held the 10,000m record for two days last month, had initially planned to do a more reasonable, but still ridiculously hard 5,000m-10,000m double at the Tokyo Olympics.
She got to thinking when she ran the second-fastest time this year in the 1,500m last month, even if it was in a loss to Olympic favorite Faith Kipyegon of Kenya.
There was still enough from that performance in Monaco to suggest to Hassan that she might have a chance at a medal in all three in Tokyo.
She is also second-fastest in the world in the 10,000m and is in the mix in the 5,000m.
“This year I’m healthy, I’m in the best shape of my life, I have big dreams,” she said.
“I’m in such good shape with these three events I don’t know what to do, and that’s amazing for me,” she added.
Hassan might reconsider taking on the terrible triple by the time track and field starts at the Olympics today, when she is due up in the 5,000m heats on the first evening of action at the Olympic Stadium.
“I’ll see where I am,” she said.
A medal in all three track events would be one of the feats of the Tokyo Olympics, or any Olympics.
Three golds would be fantasy land.
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