A Team GB marathon runner completed a thrilling event at the Paris Olympics in under three hours despite breaking his leg in the race.
Rose Harvey, from Evesham, Worcestershire, told the BBC she refused to give up after training hard and came to the Games in the shape of her life.
The 31-year-old, who now uses crutches, now says he is facing a new challenge – how to survive three weeks of marriage.
Harvey battled through “adversities” to finish 78th in a time of 2:51:03 in 24C heat. Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands took gold in an Olympic record time of 2:22:55.
The British athlete said it was clear to him from about two miles into Sunday morning’s race that his hip – which had started to feel tight three weeks earlier – was going to be “tight, painful”.
He ended up crossing the line with a stress fracture in his femur.
“It was very difficult,” Harvey told the BBC.
“The hills didn’t help, the downhills just made me suffer and it got worse and worse. At the halfway mark I knew it was going to hurt a lot.”
Despite treatment for her hip before the Olympics, the injury did not appear to be improving.
Doctors and physios told Harvey that running a marathon would make things worse – but there was a chance he could pull through and do the training justice.
With no Team GB reserves available to fill his place, Harvey decided to give the event a try and was feeling positive on the start line.
Six miles in, though, he was falling behind the pack and soon walking alone.
But Harvey, who was selected after running 2:23:21 in Chicago last year – just 26 seconds shy of Hassan’s finishing time in Paris – fought through the pain to finish the event ahead of the other two runners. Nepal’s Shantoshi Shrestha was hugged by the winner after finishing, while a crowd ran alongside Bhutan’s Kinzang Lhamo to cheer him on as he came to the finish line.
The other eleven did not finish.
“Olympic energy is one thing that keeps me going to the finish line,” he said.
“Any other race I would have stopped, because I couldn’t run like I used to… and it hurts a lot, but I just have to reach the finish line, I have to do the Olympic marathon.”
Harvey said he can’t put his weight on his leg right now, so he’s not sure how it’s going to end. But the athlete highlighted gaining “grit and resilience” from her training, having friends and family in France and an “amazing crowd” as helping her.
She said the thoughts of her fiance, Charlie Thuillier, continued as well.
“Every mile, I just thought ‘right, just run to Charlie, run to when I can see him next’.”
Reuters‘Can’t Live With It’
“I think the other big thing is I know deep down that if I stop I’ll always wonder ‘what if I could just run an extra mile?’ And I’m not going to be able to live with that.”
Thuillier, who watched the race, said: “I know how much he works and then he doesn’t do what he wants, it’s hard to watch and it’s hard to see.
“But Rose also demonstrated exactly why she was chosen, showing the true Olympic spirit, determination, determination, grit, a lot of resilience.”
The British athlete’s route to becoming an Olympian was unconventional, as he found his passion for running after losing his job as a lawyer during the first Covid lockdown in early 2020.
He said that he would previously run to and from his office in London in order to commute on the busy Tube train, but the long working hours prevented him from devoting much time to exercise.
After being made redundant at the start of the coronavirus pandemic, he wanted something to keep him busy – and running was one of the few activities he was still allowed to do.
“It just kind of snowballed from there, I really love it,” she explained in June.
Harvey turned professional in 2022 and she was the fastest British woman in the London Marathon that year.
Her time of 2:23.21 in Chicago last year was the fifth fastest marathon time by a British woman.
But his attention now turned to marriage.
Harvey explained: “My big challenge is hopefully no crutches for the wedding, but we’ll see. Maybe Charlie will walk down the aisle at this rate.
Thuillier – who was found walking – added: “If Rosie is on crutches, if she’s in a wheelchair, if she’s on a scooter, it doesn’t matter if Rosie is there.”
Additional reporting by Kathryn Armstrong
