She already holds three world records, in the 10,000 meters, 5,000 meters, and half marathon. Now, Letesenbet Gidey, 24, Inside Sifan Hassans Attempt at an Olympic Triple.
Gidey won the 10,000 meters in a world-leading 30:09.94. She summoned an uncharacteristic finishing kick to hold off challenges down the final stretch from Kenya’s Hellen Obiri, who took silver in 30:10.02, and Margaret Chelimo Kipkemboi, who won bronze in 30:10.07.
Olympic champion Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands also made a late charge, nearly taking bronze. But she couldn’t quite hang on, and finished fourth in 30:10.56.
“This was the biggest aim I had. The dream came true. This victory is even more important to me than a world record, I am so happy about this performance,” Gidey said after the race. “I was thinking about winning this gold since 2019. But Hassan was always there. I was also watching Obiri.
“This time, I was really watching them and I knew I had to be very fast in the last 300 meters. I managed to stay in front and kept the pace until the finish line. I have the next dream now—to win the gold at 5,000 meters.”
Allyson Felixs Storied Career Comes to an End Karissa Schweizer, who placed ninth in 30:18.05—a personal best by nearly 30 seconds. She’s now the third-fastest American woman at the distance, behind Molly Huddle (30:13.17) and her teammate Elise Cranny (30:14.66). “This is just a world of difference from last year,” she said; she ran 31:19.96 to place 12th in this event in the Olympics, then had surgery on her Achilles.
Team USA’s Alicia Monson finished 13th in 30:59.85; she’d hoped to place at least in the top eight, but the effort felt hard from the beginning. “It just didn’t feel quite as smooth as it usually does, so I was just kind of trying to stay calm, even though I knew I wasn’t quite there,” she said afterward. Natosha Rogers ran a personal-best 31:10.57 to finish 15th; she said was proud of her performance and plans to move up to the marathon distance in the spring.
—Results: 2023 World Athletics Championships.
Cindy is a freelance health and fitness writer, author, and podcaster who’s contributed regularly to Runner’s World since 2013. She’s the coauthor of both Breakthrough Women’s Running: Dream Big and Train Smart and Rebound: Train Your Mind to Bounce Back Stronger from Sports Injuries, a book about the psychology of sports injury from Bloomsbury Sport. Cindy specializes in covering injury prevention and recovery, everyday athletes accomplishing extraordinary things, and the active community in her beloved Chicago, where winter forges deep bonds between those brave enough to train through it.
