After Noah Lyles grabbed the headlines with a cinematic-photo finish in the 100m, it is time to shift our attention to the long-distance events. While the Jamaicans and USA sprinters dominate the short distance, history shows Africa’s rich success in long-distance running events. Representing the Netherlands from Ethiopia, Sifan Hassan enters the picture. Although she represents the Orange army, Hassan clawed her way to the sports picture after early life struggles.

The 5000 and 10000m gold medalists from the Tokyo Olympics look to claim another gold medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics. But her way to the top became a rocky path in the yesteryears. She was born in Ethiopia and headed to the Netherlands to fight for better opportunities. Out there, she found the best coaching facilities, eventually developing into a superstar for her country.

With her mother and grandmother always by her side, Hassan’s story is yet to finish. Let’s explore her life, career, and coaches.

Who is Sifan Hassan? Who is her mother? All you need to know about them

After her journey from Africa to Europe, she arrived at the youth center in the municipality of Zuidlaren. Hassan had earlier opened up on sobbing for most days until people saw her potential. “It was like a flower that didn’t receive sunlight,” she said during those times. After arriving from Ethiopia, she intended to take a nursing course to kick-start her career. But it all changed when Ad Peeters, president of the Eindhoven Atletiek coaching team, saw her brimming with potential.

By meeting other Ethiopian athletes, her inspiration for the sport took a right turn. Peeters exclaimed how Hassan shied away from her counterparts who adapted the sport like duck to water. He mentioned, “She still didn’t have the necessary discipline to train, which was understandable, considering she was a 17-year-old girl who was alone and whose future was rather uncertain.”

With a limited lack of coordination of her legs and arms, coaches took to Hassan to develop her into a talented runner. Yet for a young girl like Hassan, safety and security remain key when one moves to another country. Like most of us, Peeters didn’t make her feel overwhelmed. He said, “We made sure she didn’t do the wrong things, either in training or in her personal life. We kept her safe, picked her up by car to go to training, and took her to competitions.” 

And yes, her personal life at the start sounded like a struggle for a better tomorrow!

How did her mother and grandmother help her rise to the world athletics stardom? 

She was born in Adama, Oromia, Ethiopia, and grew up in the rural area of Kersa, which is situated in the Munesa district of the Arsi Zone in Oromia. She acquired Dutch citizenship in the year 2013. Her mother and grandmother raised her on a farm, nurturing her in Africa. But for unknown reasons, Hassan shifted to the Netherlands to start a fresh life and better opportunities.

With her hard upbringing in Africa, sports aided her in escaping from reality. Her parents remained married but they stayed on separate farms during her childhood. Later, her mother sent her to the Netherlands in 2008.

Yet, she had a fair share of fun in her childhood, although they couldn’t afford luxury fast cars. According to France24, she mentioned, “We didn’t have a car. But we could eat, it was fun, and we could buy clothes. We actually had everything.” But soon after all the training, Hassan brought glory to her country. Upon receiving the Dutch Olympic passport, she traveled to the elite Olympic training center in Papendal.

Under top coaches like Honore Hoedt and Tim Rowberry, Hassan turned a new leaf in her chapter. And the rest, as they say, is history!

Who is the current coach of Sifan Hassan? Meet Tim Rowberry

After recognizing her talent in 2012, she landed in the hands of Honore Hoedt. He saw her raw potential and took her under his wing. Hoedt initially mentions Hassan as a ‘lanky’ young woman who worked hard for success. While arriving in the Netherlands to be a nurse, she won races doing her nursing job side-by-side. Understanding her psyche, Hoedt detailed her character, enabling her to take no for an answer and work harder.

He mentioned, “She can be recalcitrant. She couldn’t handle a loss. Then she locked herself up for days. A fire is ignited in her that sometimes blows in the wrong direction.”

However, she soon faced a roadblock when she joined hands with coach Alberto Salazar. The former American long-distance runner saw his career tarnished after various accusations arose and he received a ban for life from coaching in 2021 by the United States Center for SafeSport for sexual and emotional misconduct violations, according to France 24.

Salazar received a four-year ban during the 2019 World Championships in Doha. Even when she joined Salazar, she insisted on wanting to run with British distance running legend Mo Farah, which appealed to her to join the now-disbanded Nike-funded Oregon Project in 2016. Despite this, Hassan did not take active measures to resolve those queries when she opted for Tim Rowberry, who used to be Salazar’s assistant, as her coach.

In the hindsight, she found success with him. Tim Rowberry is one of the esteemed coaches in the USA. Despite representing the Netherlands, Sifan Hassan resides in the USA. Under the long-distance running expert coach Rowberry, the Dutch runner grasped the intricacies of the track and field.

Rowberry is in his sixth year as an assistant to Utah Valley cross country head coach, Scott Houle. He was hired as an understudy in 2010 but now coaches long-distance, middle-distance, and cross-country runners. Nominated as the Freshman Athlete of the Year, he won multiple titles and qualified for the NCAA Outdoor Track Championships, 2x. The American is the current record holder for UVU’s DMR and Indoor 800m races. On top of that, he holds a Top 10 All-Time performance ranking in 9 other track and field events. When he finished his collegiate career, he paced workouts for the Nike Oregon Project.

All in all, Sifan Hassan trained under some of the best coaches in the world. When she aims to take the track at the Stade de France, the Netherlands holds its breath to see if she can repeat her Tokyo Olympics heroics. Do you think she can do it?