Why I Love… Femke Bol
What makes the Dutch multi-tasking hurdler and 4x400m relay linchpin worthy of our admiration and adoration, asks Helen M Jerome.
As an athletics fan, I already loved watching Femke Bol strut her stuff over the hurdles, leaving everyone in her wake in the Diamond League. Then the summers of 2023 and 2024 happened, and the Dutch track star showed a depth of character and resilience that made everyone rise to applaud her. So in anticipation of the 400m hurdles final in Tokyo this week, let’s rewind.
The last major athletics meet before the 2024 Paris Olympics came at the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest. Leading up to this, 23-year-old Bol was on top form in everything. Even her pre-race rituals like slapping her own face (see below, just like Karsten Warholm in the men’s 400m hurdles) somehow made her even more endearing.
She was acing the hurdles, and she’d also tried her hand at 500m and 200m flat racing, with perhaps 800m in her future sights (look out Keely!) Plus her favourite team events, the 4x400m mixed and 4x400m women’s relay.
Immediately before Budapest, the London Diamond League meet in the Olympic Stadium saw Bol break the European record, with the third-fastest time ever at 51.45.
The Dutch mixed 4x400m relay team were aiming not just for gold but also the world record in Budapest. All was going to plan when Bol set off on the final, anchor leg. Then disaster happened. In the final 100m she was distracted by the USA athlete, Alexis Holmes, lost focus momentarily and hit the deck, falling hard on the track. Even more painfully, she was distressed that she’d let the rest of the relay team down.
Things could have gone awry right then. But with her tight-knit inner circle, including her fiancé, Belgian hurdler, Ben Broeders, Bol regrouped, refocused and looked ahead to Paris.
Stepping Up
Her Swiss coach, Laurent Meuwly, had already spotted that although she was at her peak physically, there seemed no way to improve her time. So they’d done the unthinkable and changed her hurdling stride pattern. Crucially Bol had always gone for 15 steps between barriers. Now that plan had being ripped up and she was going for 14 steps between the initial seven hurdles, then back to 15 steps for the last three. These longer strides pushed her on and made all the difference. Her personal bests kept coming.
Having mastered her own hurdling technique, Bol has also single-handedly made the 4×400 a must-watch event at any meet. Mainly because of the calm exterior and then that massive kick at the end.
In Paris 2024, with the memories of Budapest still reverberating, it looked like the mixed relay race was well and truly out of Bol’s grasp when she took the baton. Then she pulled out one of the all-time great finishes of any Olympic Games. With the Dutch team in fourth place, she got the front runners in her sights. One by one she tracked them down. Inside the Stade de France, the sold-out stadium crowd witnessed her ease past Belgium, then Team GB, then getting ever closer to the leader, the USA. Just 40 metres out, she put on the afterburners and burst past to cross the line to gain gold for her team and redemption for Budapest.
Even now, when I watch it back (frequently), knowing the end result, I’m still amazed. It’s a jaw-droppingly stellar performance. Or as Bol put it: “I just went for it.” So she came away from Paris with Olympic gold in the 4x400m mixed relay, silver in the women’s 4x400m relay, and bronze in the 400m hurdles. Not a bad haul. And she got to be the flag bearer for the Netherlands at the Olympics Closing Ceremony.
Flat Out
You could say that Femke Bol is racing against herself and her own achievements now. Especially since her main competitor, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone swapped the 400m hurdles for the 400m flat this year. That instantly transformed Bol into the undisputed number one. Luckily, she’s up to this. “I just really love what I do, I love athletics. I love trying to improve every day.”
Next big challenge is the LA Olympics in 2028, when Bol will be as old as the century and in her prime at 28-years-old. And you wouldn’t put it past her to rejig her stride pattern and change her relay tactics again.
Who knows, she might even switch to the 400m flat herself. Or do both? Or even do all four events. The quiet star won’t be drawn on her plans. “I prefer to let my legs do the talking instead of saying too much.”
Just when you thought you couldn’t admire this remarkable athlete any more, you learn that this year she’s become an ambassador for Free a Girl, a non-profit committed to rescuing girls from sexual exploitation situations.
And that’s another reason Why I Love Femke Bol.
Watch Femke Bol in the 400m hurdles final on Friday 19th September at 1.27pm UK time; and in the Women’s 4x400m Metres Relay final on Sunday 21st September at 12.35pm UK time.
Photos: Helen M Jerome
