A runner from Bhutan – a country situated in the Eastern Himalayas – was afforded a hero’s reception through the streets of Paris after completing the Olympic Marathon almost an hour slower than the next runner.
However, on a day when 11 starters did not finish, Kinzang Lhamo ensured that she was not among them, finishing with numerous spectators who were running alongside to encourage her in a time of 3hr 52min 59sec.
Labelled “the Pied Piper of Bhutan” by Eurosport commentators, Lhamo was 80th and last of the finishers. The 79th finisher had run 2hr 55min 06sec but that did not matter to Lhamo, or the crowd, who treated her Olympic effort with as much appreciation as the medallists some 90 minutes earlier.
Lhamo is the only female athlete in the Bhutanese team in France, and despite being forced to walk the majority of the final five kilometres, she had enough left in the tank to jog towards the finish line where she received a standing ovation.
Lhamo was hailed as an embodiment of the Olympic spirit, given how easy it would have been to withdraw like nearly a dozen others did. As she hit the home straight, fans in the stands in front of the Invalides monument got to their feet to cheer her on as she crossed the finish line.
The 26-year-old was participating in her first international competition, and was the Himalayan nation’s flagbearer in the opening ceremony.
An ultramarathon specialist, Lhamo came second in 2022 in the Snowman Race, an extreme event covering 203 kilometres through the Himalayan mountains. She took up running after joining Bhutan’s army.
Lhamo finished 1hr, 30min 4sec behind the Olympic record-breaking time set by the Netherlands’ Sifan Hassan, who secured her third medal of Paris 2024 by adding marathon gold to the bronzes won in each of the 5,000m and 10,000m track events.