Femke Bol is one of the modern-day icons of athletics. A two-time world and European 400m hurdles champion, she also boasts four Olympic medals, including mixed 4x400m gold from Paris 2024. Bol has been an ever-present star of the sport throughout this decade.
She is also a prodigious indoor talent, having become both world and European 400m champion, and she holds the world indoor record with 49.17. She senationally announced a switch to the 800m in October 2025, opening another chapter in her thrilling career.
Here are 10 other facts about Femke Bol you might not know:
Brief judo career
After twice breaking her arm as a youngster, Bol took up judo on her doctor’s advice, who said it would help her learn how to fall safely. She practised the sport for one year but admitted to AW: “I was really bad.”
Published author
In November 2025, she published her first children’s book in her native Netherlands, entitled 'Team TOFF gaat ervoor! (Go Femke!)'.
Love at the track
Since July 2025, she has been engaged to Belgian men’s pole vault record holder Ben Broeders. The two met at the 2020 Stockholm Diamond League. Bol told Beyond the Track: “I mean he is really good looking first of all, of course. He is such a nice guy, he is so easy-going.
"I think from the moment we met we had easy conversation. I think he is my biggest supporter on and off the track. We understand what each other is going through.” The equally smitten Broeders added:
“I can honestly say she is the nicest person I have ever met. That’s why I obviously fell for her.”
Training group
Bol trains at the Dutch National Training Centre in Papendal under Swiss coach Laurent Meuwly. Her training group also includes relay teammate and 2025 European indoor 400m champion Lieke Klaver, as well as another relay teammate, Cathelijn Peeters.
From volunteer to gold medallist
Before becoming a top athlete, Bol volunteered at the Amsterdam 2016 European Athletics Championships, scanning tickets and accreditation as spectators entered the stadium. Six years later, at Munich 2022, she was the star of the championships, winning an unprecedented triple gold in the 400m, 400m hurdles, and 4x400m relay.
Relay icon
Bol has become as famous for her relay heroics as for her individual achievements. Her last-leg charges have defined many major championships this decade, including Olympic mixed 4x400m gold in Paris 2024 and women’s 4x400m gold at the Budapest 2023 World Athletics Championships.
Shining like a Diamond
Since her first Diamond League victory in Stockholm in 2020, Bol has amassed an incredible 30 Diamond League wins. All but one — a 400m flat victory in Silesia in 2022 — have come in her favoured 400m hurdles.
Modest start to her international career
Bol’s first major international event was the 2015 European Youth Olympic Festival in Tbilisi, Georgia, where she finished fifth in her heat of the women’s 400m and did not progress to the next round.
She later competed at the 2017 European Athletics U20 Championships in Grosseto, placing eighth in the 400m semi-finals. That competition was notable for featuring future Olympic gold medallists and Bol’s senior contemporaries Jakob Ingebrigtsen, Armand Duplantis, and Miltiadis Tentoglou — all of whom won gold.
Hurdles move
In 2019, Bol switched from the 400m flat to the 400m hurdles as her main event — and the decision paid immediate dividends. She won gold at the Borås 2019 European Athletics U20 Championships and reached her first World Athletics Championships in Doha, placing seventh in the semi-finals.
Shock switch to 800m
In October 2025, as the reigning world 400m hurdles champion, Bol shocked the athletics world by announcing a switch to the 800m. To date, she has just one 800m race on record — an indoor outing at the Reykjavík International Games in February 2018, where she did not finish. She was only a few days shy of her 18th birthday at the time.
