Femke Bol ran her Olympic season 400m hurdle season opener at the Stockholm Diamond League. Her race fueled great anticipation among fans as her rival Sydney McLaughlin Leveron ran her first 400m hurdles race a week prior at the Edwin Mosses Legends Meet.
Femke Bol clocked 53.07s in her season opener at the Stockholm Diamond League and dominated the pack, thereby clinching the gold medal. Her race immediately drew comparisons with Sydney McLaughlin Leveron’s season opener where the American clocked 52.70s.
The two athletes have pushed the limits of the sport, particularly the 400m hurdles. Bol began the Olympic season with a very high momentum by breaking her own world record in the indoor 400m at the World Indoor Athletics Chmapionships held in March 2024.
Fans took to X to express their opinion on the Dutch athlete’s performance at the Stockholm Diamond League.
“Now everyone can hush about her beating Syd lol ain’t happening,” wrote a fan.
“‘Everyone’.. literally 5 people out of the millions of fans that comment these things. Stop trying to feed into this hatefully rivalry narrative, it’s very toxic. They are both amazing,” chimed in another.
“Really solid opener for Femke Bol with 53.07! Just like Sydney she just makes it all look easy and is definitely capable of running even faster. #StockholmDL,” tweeted another fan.
Here are some more fan reactions
“Wow. Not a bad race atall. It’s just that she is going to be competing against an alien in Sydney. The rest will have to contest for bronze at the Olympic cause Sydney has Gold, then Femke Bol has silver,” a fan wrote.
“Okay! I’ll take this. I WILL DEF TAKE THIS,” another fan chimed in.
“unless something really strange happens, everybody is essentially competing for bronze in this event at Paris!,” another fan tweeted.
Femke Bol reveals the mindset behind her Olympic season opener
Femke Bol spoke about her mindset while running the first 400m hurdles race of the season in a pre-race press conference at the Stockholm Diamond League. The Tokyo Olympics bronze medalist revealed the approach she would follow for her signature event.
“The first one is always a bit feeling how it goes. You never run a 400m hurdles in training so you have to see how the stride is exactly going. So, think I just would like to have a smooth race and see how this is going, and then we just build from the first race. You start to feel how it is really in a race,” she said.
With both Bol and Syndey Mclaughlin-Levrone pushing the limits of the event, fans hold on to the anticipation of witnessing a competitive race at the Paris Olympics.
