Netherlands
2020

The 2020 season in short

The Netherlands went to the Tokyo Olympics — held in the summer of 2021 after a year's delay — and came home with the best Olympic athletics haul in its history: eight medals, two of them gold. Both golds, and one of the bronzes, belonged to one runner.

Sifan Hassan became the first athlete ever to win medals in the 1500m, 5000m and 10,000m at a single Olympic Games. But the meet was more than one athlete: a 21-year-old Femke Bol announced herself in the 400m hurdles, the Dutch women went two-three in the heptathlon, and the men's 4×400m broke the national record for silver.

Tokyo: the treble and the fall

The Games turned on Hassan's schedule — and one fall.

In her 1500m heat she was tripped at the bell and hit the track in last place. She got up, roughly eleventh, and ran down the entire field over the final 300m to win the heat — one of the images of the Games. She had raced a 5000m round in the same cycle. She closed the meet with 10,000m gold in 29:55.32 and 5000m gold in 14:36.79, and took bronze in the 1500m in 3:55.86. Two golds and a bronze across three distances, in eight days.

Femke Bol, 21, ran 52.03 for bronze in what is still regarded as the greatest 400m hurdles race ever run: the first time three women went under the old world record in one final, behind Sydney McLaughlin (51.46 world record) and Dalilah Muhammad (51.58). Bol's mark was a European record at the time. It was the start of a career that has since made her a two-time world champion.

There was depth beyond the two stars. Anouk Vetter and Emma Oosterwegel finished second and third in the heptathlon; Abdi Nageeye took marathon silver and famously waved his training partner Bashir Abdi through to bronze; and the men's 4×400m ran a national record 2:57.18 for silver.

Every Dutch medal in Tokyo

Eight medals — two gold, three silver, three bronze:

• GoldSifan Hassan — 10,000m29:55.32
• GoldSifan Hassan — 5000m14:36.79
• SilverAnouk Vetter — Heptathlon6689 · NR
• SilverAbdi Nageeye — Marathon2:09:58
• SilverMen's 4×400m relay — Relay2:57.18 · NR
• BronzeSifan Hassan — 1500m3:55.86
• BronzeFemke Bol — 400m hurdles52.03 · ER
• BronzeEmma Oosterwegel — Heptathlon6590

The chart below is the meet in one picture: Hassan's three medals across the distance range, from 1500m to 10,000m — something no athlete had done at a single Olympics before.

The kit: Netherlands Pro Elite 2020

The Dutch team raced Tokyo in the black-and-orange Netherlands Pro Elite 2020 race-issued kit — the Olympic-cycle gear made for the athletes on the team, not a retail line.

The 2020 Netherlands rail in the archive is small — a few pieces from the Tokyo cycle. What is here is shown below; when a piece sells, it is gone.