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WATCH: Fans give Bhutan's sole female Olympian Kinzang Lhamo a rousing reception despite last-place finish at Paris 2024
At the 2024 Paris Olympics, Kinzang Lhamo proved that one does not need to finish on the podium for fans to celebrate their efforts.
The Summer Games are Lhamo's first international competition. She was Bhutan's flagbearer in the opening ceremony and also the country's sole female athlete at the quadrennial event.
In the marathon on Sunday (August 11), Lhamo was not at her best. At certain points during the event, she was even reduced to a walk. However, she showed grit and determination to finish the race. While 11 starters did not finish the marathon, Lhamo was the 80th and final athlete to cross the line.
She finished the course in three hours, 52 minutes, and 59 seconds — a full hour-and-a-half after gold medal winner Sifan Hassan crossed the finish line. However, the most interesting and heart-warming part of Lhamo's race came over the last few kilometers as spectators cycled and ran alongside her, cheering for her and pushing her to finish the race.
Watch a video of the same below:
Sifan Hassan shatters Olympic record to take home marathon gold at Paris 2024
Sifan Hassan won the marathon with a new Olympic record time of 2:22:55. She clinched her third medal in Paris, having earlier won bronze medals in 5000m and 10,000m.
Additionally, it is the sixth Olympic medal of her career and the first Olympic gold in the marathon for the Netherlands. After the event, she said that she was astonished by what she had just achieved.
“I feel like I am dreaming. I only see people on the TV who are Olympic champions. The marathon is something else, you know. When you do 42 kilometers in more than two hours and 20 minutes, then every single step you feel so hard and so painful,” she told reporters after the race.
“When I finished, the whole moment was a release. It is unbelievable. I have never experienced anything like that. Even the other marathons I have run were not close to this. When I finished, I couldn’t stop celebrating. I was feeling dizzy. I wanted to lie down. Then I thought, ‘I am the Olympic champion. How is this possible?'” she added.
Ethiopia's Tigst Assefa, who finished just three seconds behind Hassan, won the silver medal. Kenya's Hellen Obiri won the bronze after clocking 2:23:10.
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