Femke Bol speaks with the ease of a woman with nothing to lose.
It’s still very early in a season that will stretch out to the World Athletics Championships in September, and the Dutch track star keeps proving herself over and over.
“Of course I have good feelings,” she said in a recent interview with Olympics.com, “but every season is different. I just want to go out there and enjoy the races, give my best and see where it brings me.”
That was just after winning her fifth race of the season at the Diamond League in Stockholm but, despite her dominance on the circuit, Bol keeps pushing, wanting to go even faster.
“I’m just happy on the track, if I can perform well, execute my races… and of course I also hope to get close to my PB at the moment it counts,” said Bol, the Olympic champion from her outstanding 4x400m mixed relay run at Paris 2024.
The 25-year-old’s fastest time is 50.95, which makes her one of only two women to break 51 seconds along with Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, who lowered the world record further to 50.37 at the Stade de France at last year’s Olympic Games.
It is that competition which keep her very much motivated.
Tokyo brings back happy memories for Femke Bol
On her Olympic debut at Tokyo 2020, Bol was able to grab bronze with a blistering run behind American McLaughlin-Levrone. It served as a springboard and fuelled her desire to be a star runner.
“I have good feelings about the stadium in Tokyo, where I won my Olympic bronze medal. I’m just looking forward to returning to it,” she said.
Bol closed her season at the Memorial Van Damme last September. The 2023 world champion then took a long break from racing as she focused on her polarized training guided by her coach Laurent Meuwly, which optimizes both endurance and strength. Most sprinters do solely high-intensity, short-distance workouts.
“I took a break from racing, but it meant I had to train a lot,” she said. “I’m really happy that I did this. I enjoyed this time just training a lot, being more at home, and now I’m enjoying racing again.”
It was evident that her preparations paid off when she competed at Stockholm’s Olympic stadium on June 15. She cruised to the fastest time ever recorded at what’s considered the world’s oldest active Olympic arena, of 52.11 seconds, just 0.04 shy of McLaughlin-Levrone’s world lead.
After her fastest sub-51 dash last July, the European record holder wants to drop more eye-popping numbers, saying: “It’s always great to run 51, to be already so close to 50 [at this time] is amazing. I think last year I ran two races in 51, the year before three races.”
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Femke Bol on McLaughlin-Levrone: “She’s the best to ever do it”
Bol knows she cannot plan to have everything going her way in the 400m hurdles, especially in a race that has a front-runner like McLaughlin-Levrone, the American double Olympic champion.
And as she keeps chasing the ‘small goals’, Bol spoke of the deep respect she has for McLaughlin-Levrone, who is aiming for her second world individual title in Tokyo after missing Budapest.
“I always love to see her race and I think it’s so cool to see her also doing the 100m hurdles and the 100m – and she’s killing it when she’s doing this,” said Bol.
“It’s amazing to see someone who is so diverse on the track, who’s a great athlete in 400m hurdles but also giving it a shot in 100 hurdles or 100m – and it’s always a joy to watch her race. She’s the best to ever do it.”
But there’s no chance of watching the two go head to head before the Worlds.
McLaughlin-Levrone has only confirmed that she will race the 400m at Prefontaine Classic before the U.S Trials. Bol’s next race will be the 400m flat at the European Team Championships 1st Division in Madrid, then she is confirmed for the 400m hurdles at the Diamond League in Monaco.
