The British athlete finished the Olympic Marathon in under 2:52 despite having a broken femur
Rose Harvey, a 31-year-old British marathon runner, revealed that she broke her femur but still completed the race, finishing 78th in the women’s marathon at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
On August 14, Harvey shared on Instagram a photo of herself on crutches at St. Pancras in London. She explained that she felt “tightness in her hips” a few weeks before the women’s marathon on August 11 in Paris.
“My team and I worked very hard to make sure I was healthy enough to compete,” Harvey wrote. We are optimistic that a little adrenaline on race day will help me perform at my best.”
However, just a few kilometers into the race, Harvey quickly realized she could not achieve the results she expected, describing the rest of the marathon as a “painful battle”. In the end, she ranked 78th/80 participants with a time of 2 hours, 51 minutes and 3 seconds, more than 28 minutes behind champion Sifan Hassan.
After a medical examination, doctors confirmed Harvey had suffered a stress fracture in her left femur shortly after the start, forcing her to run almost the entire 42.195 km distance with this severe injury. “In any other race, I would have stopped when I didn’t feel right,” she admits. “There were countless moments when I felt like I couldn’t go on. The downhill sections were like hell.”
Although she did not achieve the best results in Paris, Harvey expressed satisfaction with her performance. “Most of my goals were unachieved, but a small part of my Olympic dream kept me going,” she explains of her decision not to give up. “That dream is to finish the Olympic marathon. I always remind myself to smile, soak up the incredible energy of the crowd and keep moving.”
Rose Harvey’s determination and resilience are an inspiration to athletes everywhere, showing that sometimes, true victory lies in just crossing the finish line.
