Great Britain’s Georgia Bell clinched a sensational 1500m bronze on her Olympic debut as Faith Kipyegon won a third successive title at Paris 2024.
Bell, now 30, had given up on her Olympic dream when she quit the sport in 2017 and has made remarkable progress since rediscovering her love of running three years ago.
She dug deep to overhaul Ethiopia’s Diribe Welteji in the final metres and cross the line in a British record three minutes 52.61 seconds at the Stade de France.
Kenya’s Kipyegon set an Olympic record 3:51.29 for victory as Australian Jessica Hull took silver in 3:52.56.
Team GB’s Tokyo silver medallist Laura Muir missed out on the medals in fifth, despite running a personal best 3:53.37.
Bell’s silver on the final night of track and field action in Paris was Britain’s eighth athletics medal of the Games.
Bell was once a hugely talented junior athlete, winning the English Schools 800m in 2008, but mentally and physically she was unable to sustain that promise.
It was only during the pandemic that she rediscovered her enjoyment of running and, noticing continuous improvement, she chose to get back in contact with former coach Trevor Painter – the man who, alongside wife and world medallist Jenny Meadows, has overseen Keely Hodgkinson’s rise to Olympic 800m champion.
The progress she had made since, despite holding down a full-time job in cyber security, has been remarkable.
After winning European silver in June, Bell beat Muir to the British title in June to secure her Olympic debut, having taken a summer sabbatical from work to pursue a dream that seemed unlikely even at the start of the year.
And in Paris, in her first final at a global championship, she completed a fairytale journey to the Olympic podium.
“I don’t know if I’ve ever been this happy,” Bell, who took almost four seconds off her personal best, told BBC Sport.
“I woke up really calm and in a good mood and I just thought ‘I’m not the fastest person in that race’ but I thought if I was brave and got stuck in, I could make something special happen.”