Sifan Hassan will miss the New York Marathon

Olympic champion Sifan Hassan will miss the New York Marathon on November 1 due to a delay in training after a long-term absence with an Achilles injury. The 33-year-old Dutch athlete is the 5,000m and 10,000m gold medalist at the 2021 Tokyo Games and the marathon champion at the 2024 Paris Games. However, she has not competed since last year in New York, when she finished sixth.

“I was so excited to come back stronger, but illness has delayed my training and I’m not where I want to be. Sometimes things don’t go as you plan”, said Sifan Hassan.

The Dutchwoman is one of two high-profile athletes to announce she will not compete in the final major marathon of the year, after American Fiona O’Keefe.

Sifan Hassan is an Ethiopian-Dutch middle- and long-distance runner widely considered one of the most versatile and greatest distance athletes of all time. Renowned for her ability to dominate widely disparate distances, she is the only athlete in Olympic history to win medals in middle-distance and both long-distance track races at a single Games (Tokyo 2020), as well as the only woman to win Olympic gold in the 5,000m, 10,000m, and the marathon.

Sifan Hassan pulled off an extraordinary feat at the Paris 2024 Olympics by competing in the 5,000m, 10,000m, and the marathon within the span of one week. She captured gold in the marathon in an Olympic record time of 2:22:55 alongside bronze medals in both track distances. She famously won two gold medals (5,000m and 10,000m) and a bronze medal (1,500m) at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Her legendary comeback in the 1,500m opening round—where she fell at the final lap bell, got back up, and won the heat—remains iconic.

At the 2019 Doha World Championships, she became the first athlete, male or female, to win the 1,500m and 10,000m double gold at a single major championship.

After moving to road racing, Sifan Hassan won her debut at the 2023 London Marathon, followed by a blistering 2:13:44 European record at the 2023 Chicago Marathon. In August 2025, she secured a major victory at the Sydney Marathon, breaking the women’s course record.