Femke Bol is in a hurry. Fourteen hours after she became the first Dutchman to win the European title in the 400 meters, she is again speaking to the press with sweat on her forehead and spikes in her hand. She just made it through the semifinals of the 400m hurdles smoothly. Just a few questions, it shouldn’t take too long.
After her victory on Wednesday evening, she also quickly finished the conversations with journalists. She talks fluently and almost without pauses for breath, her voice still a little higher than usual from the effort just made. When she thinks it’s taken long enough, she steps aside towards the exit. In this way the ‘Europameisterin’ forces the end of the fire of questions.
It is understandable that Bol (22) will not linger in the catacombs of the Olympiastadion. She is hungry for even more success in Munich and is aiming for ‘the double’: gold in the 400 meters ‘flat’ and the 400 meters hurdles. She also wants to triumph as a member of the 4×400 meter relay.
Logistically, it is all just fine, partly because Bol is allowed to skip the series of her individual numbers and has been placed directly for the semi-finals. However, it is not easy to get through the full schedule. After her victory in the 400 meters, in a new Dutch record of 49.44, ‘doping control, ice bath, physio and food’ followed. At 1 am she was in bed, around 3 am she fell asleep. At half past seven she was standing next to her bed, ready for the continuation of her campaign.
Unscrupulous for himself
Bol is ruthless with himself. She was already that way as a teenager in Amersfoort. Once addicted to athletics, she set aside a lot for it. While her friends discovered the temptations of going out, Bol became more fanatical around the age of 16. That went and will happen automatically. She never feels like it’s a sacrifice. ‘I can go out every day, run in circles, fly over the hurdles; do what I love to do. That includes going to the extreme’, she said last year in de Volkskrant.
At the same time, she is modest. For a long time she thought that the highest attainable for her would be a place in the relay team on the 4×400 meters. Maybe at the 2024 Games in Paris, she hoped. That was thought much too small, her talent turned out to be much greater.
The turning point for herself came in 2020, when she was twice the best in the Diamond League, the prestigious international competition cycle. The following year, he won bronze in the Olympic 400 meters hurdles in Tokyo. She was named European talent of the year. Her name was made, her confidence hardened.
She calls herself a realist when it comes to her sporting expectations. She doesn’t dream, she estimates. That she emphatically says she wants to win the 400 meters and 400 meters hurdles is telling. She knows she can do it. And she understands that she has to seize her chance now that she is in that position.
Status
In recent years she has tirelessly built on her physical ability at the Papendal sports center under the guidance of coaches Laurent Meuwly and Bram Peters. In the Netherlands she has no equal, certainly not on the hurdles, her specialism. Once in a while she does training races over 250 meters, where she jumps over hurdles and allows her opponents to cross the track without fences. Even then she is often the fastest.
If you take the U-bahn in Munich, you will come across Femke Bol. More than life size, she stands in a somewhat awkward position, with both hands on her right knee, on advertising posters of her shoe sponsor. The photographer’s low point of view makes her footwear appear unnaturally large.
She is the only one to be seen so prominently in the city. It says something about its status, about its commercial value. The cheerful Bol, whose catchword is ‘super’, is popular. At least from a Dutch perspective, she has taken the place of Dafne Schippers as the figurehead of athletics.
World titles
The advertising poster bears her name and below it: ‘European Record Holder, 400m Hurdles’. That description inadvertently emphasizes the limitation that Bol has to deal with. She may be unapproachable in Europe, a phenomenon in the 400 meter hurdles, globally it is different. In that sense, her status differs from that of Schippers in her best days. In addition to becoming European champion three times – in 2014 even at 100 and 200 meters – the sprinter also became world champion twice in the 200 meters (2015 and 2017).
For Bol, world titles seem more difficult to achieve. She has to deal with American Sydney McLaughlin, who broke her own world record from 51.41 to 50.68 at the World Cup. Bol’s personal best is 52.03. And like Bol, McLaughlin, who is only six months older, also plans to make the “400m flat” her hunting ground.
At the European Championships she does not have to worry about the American and she can fully use the force majeure on her own continent. The condition is that she makes a little bit of speed between the races. And then she also has to go to the ceremony of the 400 meters on Thursday evening. That is yet another appointment in her full agenda. She therefore knows exactly what to do until then. ‘Recover quickly, get some sleep and then the Wilhelmus to belong.’ After those words, she runs away.