Team GB's Rose Harvey completed marathon at Paris 2024 Olympic Games with broken leg - 'I'm not sure how I did it'
Updated 13/08/2024 at 22:30 GMT
Team GB long-distance runner Rose Harvey revealed she completed the Olympic marathon with a broken leg. The 31-year-old was warned by doctors that her hip injury would get worse if she competed, but Harvey was determined to finish the marathon in front of family and friends. Harvey now faces a race against time to be fit enough to walk down the aisle at her wedding three weeks away.
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British athlete Rose Harvey has revealed she completed the Olympic marathon in under three hours with a broken leg.
The Team GB long-distance runner crossed the line in 78th place with a time of 2:51:03 on Sunday, unaware that she had a stress fracture in her femur.
Harvey battled through the “agony”, despite being warned by doctors that her hip injury would only get worse if she competed.
Now on crutches and with three weeks to go until her wedding, the 31-year-old said months of preparation and her loved ones’ attendance kept her going.
"It was really tough," Harvey told the BBC. “It was a really, really hot day and I knew from about two miles in that my hip was going to be really pretty painful.
"The hills didn't help at all, the downhills were just agony, and it just got worse and worse. At the halfway mark I knew it was going to be incredibly painful.
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“Honestly, today I’m not sure how I did it because I can’t put any weight through my leg at all.
“I don’t know. You’ve just worked for so long, and you’ve obviously got the physical training, but also during that training, you’re training your mind, all that grit and resilience, and I just had to fall back on that.
"The Olympic energy was kind of what kept me going to that finish line.
"Any other race I would have stopped, because I wasn't able to run like I normally can ... and the pain was really bad, but I just had to get to that finish line, I had to do the Olympic marathon.
"Every mile, I just thought, 'right, just run to Charlie, run to when I can see him next, when I can see my friends and family next'. The crowds were incredible.
"I think the other big thing is I knew deep down if I stopped I would always wonder, 'what if I could've just run an extra mile'? And I wouldn't be able to live with that."
Harvey ran the 2023 Chicago marathon in 2:23:21, which would have been enough for fifth place in Paris and just 26 seconds off gold medallist Sifan Hassan’s pace.
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The former lawyer only went professional two years ago when she finished the London Marathon as the fastest British woman.
And her fiance, Charlie Thuillier, said that the level of suffering and sacrifice Harvey went through was emblematic of the Olympic Games themselves.
“I know just how much work she’s put into this and then for her not to execute exactly what she wanted to do was difficult to watch and difficult to see," Thuillier said.
“But Rose also demonstrated exactly why she was picked, showing true Olympic spirit, resolve, determination, grit, huge amounts of resilience.”
Rose Harvey of Team Great Britain competes during the Women's Marathon on day sixteen of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 at Esplanade Des Invalides on August 11, 2024 in Paris, France.
Image credit: Getty Images
As for the couple's wedding, Harvey is facing a race against time to be able to walk down the aisle.
“My big challenge is to hopefully be off crutches for the wedding, but we will see. It might be Charlie walking down the aisle at this rate,” said Harvey.
Thuillier added: “If Rosie is on crutches, if she’s in a wheelchair, if she’s on a scooter, it doesn’t matter as long as Rosie is there.”
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