Paris Olympics: Ethiopian marathon runner Tigst Assefa's 'third wind'

The 27-year-old world record holder is tipped as one of the favorites to win the Olympic title on Sunday.

Tigst Assefa from Ethiopia at the finish line of the Berlin Marathon, where she broke the world record for the distance in 2 hours 11 minutes 53 seconds, on September 24, 2023. 

She had just run over 40 kilometers, but her face showed no signs of fatigue. Towards the end of the Berlin Marathon on September 24, 2023, Tigst Assefa upped her speed and passed another dozen competitors from the elite men's field. Concentrating on her stride, Assefa passed them without so much as a glance or gesture. Once through the Brandenburg Gate, and as if carried by a third wind, she accelerated again in the last 300 meters and won herself solo victory shattering the world record by more than two minutes (2 hours 11 minutes 53 seconds). That day she signed a double victory: her own and that of her equipment manufacturer, when she brandished her "supershoes" against the German sky, before receiving her medal.

Wearing her thick-sole trainers, Assefa will be at the starting line on the forecourt of the Hotel de Ville in Paris for the final event of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games on Sunday, August 11, And she is tipped as the favorite, even though she's never run an Olympic marathon. "It's the ultimate goal, a dream I've been pursuing for years," she told Le Monde . "Every training session, every race, every sacrifice has been geared towards this goal. Arriving at the Olympics with the world record adds extra pressure, but I've got used to it. I'm ready for it."

In the German capital, Ethiopia's long-distance runner ran at a speed of 19.2 km/h, with an average speed of 3 minutes 8 seconds per kilometer. Her pace, as much as her state of freshness at the finish line, was a surprise even to her entourage, and according to Runner's World magazine, Assefa's agent Gianni Demadonna and coach Gemedu Dedefo were astonished by her performance. "The coach said to me in August, 'Tigist is beating all the course records of training courses and I never saw a woman running like that,' but honestly, the goal [in Berlin] was to run near or under 2:19 and not so fast," Demadonna wrote in an email to Runner's World .

'Capable of maintaining a high pace'

The 27-year-old Ethiopian explains that she has increased her training volume and worked more specifically. "I've made a few changes in my preparation over the last two years," Assefa said. "I run between 160 and 200 kilometers a week. I push my limits, with