Femke Bol is Dutch athlete who participates in hurdling and sprinting competitions. She currently holds the world record in 400 m short track and the European record in 400 m hurdles. Femke also boasts of world’s best performances in 300 m and 500m short track.
She is the 2023 World Champion in 400 m hurdles and 2024 World Indoor Champion in 400 m. Moreover, Bol is the 2023 World Champion and the 2024 World Indoor Champion in 4X400 m alongside the Dutch women’s team. She is a European Championships (indoor and outdoor) seven-time gold medalist and a three-time Diamond League winner.
Femke is as well the 2021 European Rising Star of the Year and the European Athlete of the Year in 2022 and 2023.
Femke Bol Age and Birthday
Born in Amersfoort, Netherlands on 23 February 2004, Femke is 24 years old as of 2024.
Femke Bol Height
Bol is 184 cm (6 feet 0 inches) tall.
Femke Bol Career
Youth Career
Bol began practicing athletics 2008 at a local club at first just for fun. In 2015 and at age 15, she decided to focus in the 400 m race. She won five Dutch national titles in 400 m both indoors and outdoors between 2015 and 2017. At junior level, Bol won four titles in 400 m indoor, outdoor and hurdles events in 2018 and 2019.
Her feature in international competitions was in the 2015 European Youth Olympics in Georgia where she did not make it beyond the heats. In the 2017 European U20 Championships held in Grosseto, Bol advanced as far as the semi-finals. She eventually won her first national title in the senior 400 m indoor discipline in 2019. She clocked 55.94 s in June to break the Dutch U20/U23 records and attain World Championship qualification status. The following month at the European U20 Championships in Sweden, she won gold in the 400 m hurdles. At the Doha World Championships, Bol achieved a new personal best of 55.32 s in the 400 m hurdles heats making history as the second-fastest European U20 woman.
Senior Career
2020-2021: First senior national record and first world number one ranking
In July 2020, Bol broke the 22-year old Dutch national record of 54.62 s after clocking 53.79 s to became the Europe’s fourth-fastest in history. She proceed to win the rest of the season’s hurdles races which included three continental Tour races and two Diamond league events.
In the 2021 season, Femke regularly improved her personal bests and set eleven Dutch records with additional five more as part of the relay teams. She as well set five World Athletics Indoor records and a Diamond League record. In 400 m hurdles she clocked a time of sub-53 seconds four times. At the delayed 2020 Tokyo Olympics she won bronze in the 400 m hurdles. Bol won 16 out of 20 races she competed in. She concluded the season as the European Athletics Rising Star of the Year. Moreover, she ranked number one for the first time in the World Athletics Rankings.
2022: European triple and European athlete of the Year
At the Dutch Indoor Championships held in February, Bol lowered her own national record time to 50.30 s to rank 12th in world’s all-time list. She as well won silver in both 400m hurdles and 4X400 m relays at the World Indoor Championships in Belgrade.
In the outdoor games, she ran a world best time of 36.86 s in 300 m hurdles. She also got victory in the Rome, Oslo and Stockholm Diamond League meets and improved her Diamond League Record by 0.10 s compared to 2021. At the Silesia Diamond League held in August, Bol broke the 400 m flat 50-seconds barrier to set a meet and national record of 49.75 s.
Later in the month, at the European Champions in Munich, she won a gold hat-trick and made history as the first female sprinter to complete a 400 m double (with and without hurdles) at a major championship. Moreover, at 49.44 s she set the fastest European record time since 1986 and a new national record. She also set a Championship record in the hurdles event. She consummated the 2022 season by successfully defending her Diamond League title and being voted the European Female Athlete of the Year.
2023: Two championship gold medals and second time European Athlete of the Year
At the Dutch Indoor Championships held in February 2023, Bol broke the longest-standing world record in track. She clocked 49.26 s against 49.59 s indoor record set in 1982. She finished the season by retaining her European 400 m title with a global third time sub-50 seconds record. Moreover, the Dutch 4X400 m relay team won the event to become the third-fastest national women’s team in history.
On 25 July, Bol ranked second in the women’s overall World Athletics Rankings for the first time. Only Faith Kipyegon ranked higher. At the 2023 World Athletics Championships, she attained her first world championship gold medal after winning the 400 m hurdles. She won another gold in the 4X400 m relays. In the 2023 season she won all her twenty individual 400 m flat and hurdles races. She was named the European Athlete of the Year for the second consecutive year.
2024: World indoor championship double
Femke kicked-off the season with a victory in 400 m short track in Metz at a time of 49.68 s. This was followed by a win in the 200 m short track in 22.64 s. They were both Dutch indoor and meet records. At the Glasgow World Indoor Championship, she won gold at a time of 49.17 s. In the 4X400 m relay, she anchored her team to a 3.25.07 finish to set a Dutch record and consequently win her second gold medal.
Femke Bol Awards and Achievements
- European Athletics Rising Star of the Year 2021
- European Athlete of the Year 2022
- Dutch Athlete of the Year 2022
- Dutch Sports Team of the Year 2022: Women’s 4X400 m relay team
- European Athlete of the Year 2023
- Dutch Athlete of the Year 2023
- Dutch Sports Team of the Year 2023: Women’s 4X400 m relay team
Femke Bol Net Worth
The Dutch athlete has an estimated net worth of over $5 million as of 2024.