If anyone deserves an award for range, it’s three-time Olympic champion Sifan Hassan. The Dutch athlete seems limitless, holding 10 national records and nearly as many European ones–spanning everything from the 1,500m to the marathon.
Now, as she trains for the Sydney Marathon in August, the London Diamond League has announced that Hassan will return to the track for a mile race on July 19 at London Stadium. The mid-marathon-build speed tune-up will be her first run over the distance in nearly four years.
Can Hassan’s marathon fitness help her improve on her 4:12.33 European record, which has stood since 2019?
The news comes less than two weeks after Hassan confirmed her Sydney start, where’s she’ll line up as one of the event’s headliners in its first year as an official Abbott World Marathon Major. It’ll be her second marathon of the year; she opened her 2025 season in London in April, where she placed third in 2:19:00.
Can’t wait to race another Major. Sydney, you’re next! 🇦🇺 pic.twitter.com/1UETPJ9v5s
— Sifan Hassan (@SifanHassan) June 25, 2025
After years of dominating in 1,500m, 5,000m and 10,000m distances, Hassan won her debut at the London Marathon in 2023. Later that year, in her second-ever attempt at 42.2K, Hassan took another victory, clocking a ridiculous 2:13:44 to win Chicago–then the second-fastest women’s marathon of all time. While the record books have since shifted, with Ruth Chepngetich setting a new world record of 2:09:56, Hassan’s mark still stands as the third-best performance.
Her versatility as an athlete shone brightly last year at the Paris Olympics, where she tackled the 5,000m, 10,000 and the marathon, walking away with two bronze medals and a gold in the marathon. The marathon win makes her the only woman in history to win Olympic titles in all three events.
The upcoming mile in London will be Hassan’s first track appearance since her 10,000m Olympic final in Paris last August. It’s also her first mile since 2021’s Brussels Diamond League, where she won in 4:14.74. While she raced the 1,500m twice last summer, her season’s best of 4:04.83 was well off her 3:51.95 personal best–proof that her focus has firmly shifted to the long distances.
But we can never count Hassan out–so don’t be surprised if she stirs things up in the middle-distance world once again.
