Paris Olympics: British marathoner reveals she finished race with a broken leg

Great Britain’s Rose Harvey finished 78th in the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics, out of 91 competitors and 80 finishers.

For some, that might have been disappointing outcome. In Harvey’s case, it was one of the most remarkable performances of the Olympics.

That is because Harvey was revealed after the race to have crossed the finish line with a stress fracture in her femur, according to the BBC. She had entered the day with a hip injury, which wasn’t helped by perhaps the most punishing course ever devised for a major marathon.

With the series of climbs and downhills in Paris, it’s a wonder Harvey finished at all, to say nothing of doing it in less than three hours, with a time of 2:51:03. From the BBC:

Harvey reportedly received treatment on the hip before the Olympics, but was advised that running the marathon would make it worse. There were no reserves from Great Britain to take her place in the race, so she decided to give it a shot.

She credited her friends, family and own anxiety about finishing for keeping her going:

Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands won the gold medal in the marathon, with an Olympic-record time of 2:22:55. Harvey is now walking around on crutches, which might be an issue with her wedding coming up in three weeks:

Even a healthy Harvey would have been an unusual presence in the marathon field, as the 31-year-old didn’t start running in elite competition until four years ago. Before that, she was working as a corporate lawyer while enjoying running as a hobby.

After being laid off in 2020, Harvey started training for a triathlon and just kept going, eventually notching a personal-best time in the Chicago Marathon that qualified her for Paris.