1500m to the marathon · 2010s onward

Sifan Hassan

An outcome goal big enough to sound unreasonable, then broken into a schedule.

3 medals

Tokyo, six races in eight days

What she announced

That she would contest the 1500m, the 5000m and the 10,000m at one Olympic Games. With heats, that meant six races in eight days, at three distances that ask for different things.

What happened

Gold at 5000m. Gold at 10,000m. Bronze at 1500m. She also fell during a 1500m heat, got up, and ran through the field to win it.

The machinery under the headline

Underneath the announcement was a plan: which rounds to spend and which to survive, what to do in each specific race, how to recover in between. The ambition was the headline. The schedule was what made it possible.

Then the marathon

She moved up and won in London on her debut, and later took Olympic marathon gold in Paris, in a race she ran after also contesting track distances. The pattern repeats: set something that sounds unreasonable, then build the steps.

What to steal

Aim at something that sounds unreasonable, then spend your time on the schedule rather than on the wanting.

Where they come up

Checkpoint 02Set the TargetWent to Tokyo in 2021 having announced she would contest the 1500m, 5000m and 10,000m at one Games, which meant six races in eight days. She came away with gold at 5000m, gold at 10,000m and bronze at 1500m. An outcome goal big enough to sound unreasonable, then broken down into a schedule and executed round by round.

All 26 case studies. Profiles are factual and drawn from the public record. Where a performance carries an asterisk, this app says so rather than leaving it out.