Femke BOL

Femke Bol: Olympic medallist, record breaker, world champion

Despite being forced to train on forest paths and fields by COVID-19 quarantine measures, Bol broke the Dutch 400m hurdles record in her first race back in July 2020 although the time could not be ratified due to there being just one other competitor. Two weeks later, she went almost seven-tenths quicker - this time it did count - and then translated that form to victories in races held in place of the cancelled Diamond League in Stockholm and Rome.

In 2021, she was unbeaten indoors over 400m and broke the Dutch record no fewer than five times in less than six weeks. Back over hurdles outdoors, she won six races out of six and lowered her national record to 52.37 in Stockholm. That was just three-hundredths outside Yulia Pechonkina's 18-year-old European record.

On her Olympic debut at Tokyo 2020, Bol's unbeaten run came to an end as she took bronze behind McLaughlin-Levrone and defending champion Dalilah Muhammad. McLaughlin-Levrone set a new world record of 51.46 with Bol clocking a new European record of 52.03.

The following year, she took 400m silver at the World Indoor Championships in Belgrade behind double Olympic champion Shaunae Miller-Uibo. She went on another unbeaten run over hurdles before finishing a distant second to McLaughlin-Levrone at the World Championships as the American smashed her own world record.

The Amersfoort native then completed an unprecedented flat 400m, 400m hurdles and 4x400m relay treble at the European Championships in Munich, easing her way through from third to first on the anchor leg for the Dutch women.

Bol started 2023 with a bang as she broke the world best for the rarely-run 500m in Boston before setting Dutch indoor records over 200m and 400m in Metz. Then at the Dutch indoor nationals, she clocked 49.26 to take more than three-tenths off Jarmila Kratochvilova's 400m world record set back in 1982.

With McLaughlin-Levrone focusing on the flat 400m, Bol dominated the Diamond League and improved her European record to 51.45 in London. And when the world champion opted to skip the Budapest World Championships, the path was clear for Bol to take a first global crown.

The Dutch star looked like anchoring the mixed 4x400m team to gold but stumbled and fell in the closing metres to hand victory to the United States. Bol soon made amends as she eased to a first world title in the 400m hurdles. And then she produced a sensational anchor leg to secure gold in the women's 4x400m relay on the final night.

The 24-year-old has continued that dominance into 2024, eclipsing her own 400m indoor world record in the Dutch nationals before breaking it again in the World Indoor Championships final in Glasgow with a time of 49.17. She then anchored the Dutch women's 4x400m relay team to another gold.

Bol started her outdoor campaign in Olympic year by securing the Dutch a place in the Paris 2024 mixed 4x400m relay at the World Relays in the Bahamas. But all eyes are on a potential individual rematch with McLaughlin-Levrone in the French capital with the world record in danger once more.