For four consecutive seasons, Moroccan runner Soufiane El Bakkali was untouchable in the 3,000m steeplechase.
Starting with a historic gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, which saw him end Kenya’s four-decades-long dominance in the discipline at the Games, El Bakkali swept every major steeplechase title over the next three years.
He clinched back-to-back World Championship crowns in 2022 and 2023 before retaining his Olympic gold medal at Paris 2024 to become just the second athlete in history, since Finland's Iso Hollo in 1932, to top the steeplechase podium at two consecutive Olympic Games.
Now 30 years old and preparing for a new season training the high-altitude Atlas Mountains city of Ifrane, El Bakkali has his sights firmly set on filling the only gaping hole in his resume – the 3,000m steeplechase world record.
His rival Lamecha Girma of Ethiopia set the current world record mark of 7:52.11 in 2023 and El Bakkali has every intention of breaking it this campaign.
“People have been saying, ‘You’re the Olympic champion, and the world champion, but you don’t have the world record?’” El Bakkali told The National.
“Every year, when I wanted to achieve the world record, my coach would surprise me and tell me, ‘This year we will only focus on the gold medal, we won’t focus on the world record’.
“For me, if I didn't have a big championship like the Olympic Games or the World Championships, I would have tried.”
El Bakkali only ever made one serious attempt at the world record, at a Diamond League stop in Rabat three years ago.
“It was a strong time for me; only three seconds separated me from the world record,” he recalled.
“I said, maybe I will try next year, but the next year I had the Olympic Games in Paris. In 2025, I didn't make an attempt. Now, this year we don't have a World Championship, we don't have an Olympic Games. So my number one goal is to achieve the world record.”
El Bakkali’s ambition doesn’t stop there. He is already dreaming of an Olympic three-peat and wants to make it to the Los Angeles 2028 Games.
Joining him in his quest for further glory is a new sponsor in the form of Swiss brand On, who El Bakkali says have tailored a specific programme to help him achieve his new goals.
“I see myself with On as a complete runner, a complete athlete,” said El Bakkali, who spent a decade with Nike before making the switch.
“The programme they have is not just about financial support; it's a complete programme.”
LA 2028 would mark his fourth appearance at the Olympics. A 20-year-old El Bakkali made his Games debut in Rio 2016, where he finished in fourth place, less than three seconds away from the podium.
“I see myself in the next Olympic Games. This would be a great thing for me. This would be a testament to my longevity,” he says.
New rivals emerge
El Bakkali is a generational talent and his impact on his discipline is undeniable, his legend status firmly cemented. But perhaps he enters this season with something to prove, given his last outing was a shock defeat in the World Championships in Tokyo last September, where he settled for a silver medal behind New Zealand’s Geordie Beamish.
El Bakkali looked set for a third world title but was pipped by Beamish in the last 10 metres of the race and couldn’t hide his disappointment as he banged his fist against his head after crossing the finish line in second place.
“After so many golds, El Bakkali proves to be human,” said the stunned TV commentator that day.
Months later, El Bakkali can still feel the pain of that loss when he looks back on those final moments.
“It was a shock for me. I could not accept it,” he admits. “Especially that it was not my usual rival who beat me, it was a new rival. So that’s what made it an even bigger shock, I was like, ‘How can I lose the title like this? If it were Lamecha Girma, who is the world record holder and my main rival, I would have felt differently.
“But when I saw that a new rival beat me, I couldn’t accept it. I felt like it was a missed opportunity.”
The Tokyo 2025 World Championships were meant to continue his victory march but instead gave El Bakkali one of his toughest defeats.
Covid challenge
When Covid interrupted the regular sports calendar, several major events were postponed, including the Tokyo Olympics, which were staged in 2021 instead of 2020, and multiple editions of the World Championships were bunched up in consecutive seasons instead of their typical biennial scheduling.
That prompted El Bakkali’s long-time coach Karim Tlmecani to come up with an ambitious road map for his protege.
“He told me, ‘Listen, you can have a career in these five years. If you focus, you will have a career other runners would only dream of achieving in these five years, if you win everything’,” El Bakkali explained.
“The World Championships were originally held every two years. But because of Covid, we had a major championship every year.
“I won the Tokyo Olympics, I won the World Championships in Oregon. I also won the World Championships in Budapest. I won the Olympic Games in Paris.
“In 2025, I went to Tokyo with the sole goal of winning gold. To this day, I still do not understand what happened in the last 20 metres.”
Several athletes had stepped up and clocked some impressive times in the build up to last year’s World Championships, many of which were relatively new rivals for El Bakkali.
“But I was prepared mentally and physically,” he added.
He recalls making his move in the last 250 metres and he did the water jump “in the best conditions”.
The problem occurred at the very last barrier. “I was looking at the barrier, and I miscalculated my jump,” he says. “I felt that I was going to collide with the barrier. So I changed the shape of my jump and when I did that, I did not have enough energy to recover after the jump. When I landed on the ground, it was a very heavy landing. By the time I recovered from that jump, there was another runner right next to me.”
With some time now removed between El Bakkali and that race, he is able to see a silver lining. In the past, he only worried about how to beat Girma. Now, there is fresh blood in the steeplechase field and the competition is going to get more exciting.
“This was an experience that can benefit me in the future and will help me mature,” he concludes.
Inspired by Mekhissi-Benabbad
El Bakkali was born in Fes and took up running at a local club from a young age. His coach identified his talent in long distance early on, and when he reached the age where he was tall enough to clear hurdles, he was encouraged to give steeplechase a shot in a local race.
He didn’t know how to jump but still managed to finish in second place with a decent time. That’s when his coach realised El Bakkali could have a future in the discipline.
El Bakkali says he always had a passion for distance running from a young age and watched all the international races on TV.
Mahiedine Mekhissi-Benabbad, a French athlete of Algerian descent, caught his eye and became a source of inspiration for a young El Bakkali.
“He won a medal in the Olympics and the World Championships in the 3,000m steeplechase. When you see an Arab athlete who wins among the Kenyans, you know that he is strong and smart at the same time. I learnt a lot from him how to clear the barriers,” said El Bakkali of the Frenchman.
“To be honest, the way he cleared the barriers was amazing. He was tall, similar to my height. I watched on TV how he used to jump and I tried to do the same thing. I learnt how to jump the same way.”
In 2014, El Bakkali placed fourth in the World Junior Championships in Oregon and says that experience sparked his Olympic dream.
Taking on the Kenyans
Rio 2016 was his first year out of the juniors and he drew lots of inspiration from American Evan Jager, who took the silver medal in Brazil behind Kenya’s Conseslus Kipruto and ahead of third-placed Mekhissi-Benabbad. In his first Diamond League race in Rome in 2017, El Bakkali placed second and took another step towards disrupting the Kenyans’ dominance.
“I feel like that day in Rome I broke the fear barrier with the Kenyans. From then on, I was always with them at the front, at times in the middle of the race I’d make a move and take the initiative. Even if I wasn’t ready to beat them yet, I was right there with them trying and competing,” he reflects.
The 2019 World Championships in Doha was another critical moment in El Bakkali’s trajectory as he clinched the bronze medal behind Kipruto and Girma.
That paved the way for his triumph at the Tokyo Olympics, which he entered buoyed with the belief he was finally ready to top the podium.
“It was a big surprise for the world. Because no one expected that a non-Kenyan would win at the Olympic Games,” he says with a smile.
El Bakkali is tall (1.94m) and possesses special athletic abilities but it is his mentality that separates him from the rest. He made a name for himself by stepping up when it matters the most, on the world’s biggest stages, and he names another Moroccan great, two-time Olympic champion and world record holder Hicham El Guerrouj, as someone who has helped him develop this mental strength.
“Hicham is a legend for me,” said El Bakkali. “He used to tell me, ‘I train, I work hard, why? To win’. And I say the same thing. Right now, I’m training in altitude in Ifrane, it’s snowing, it’s cold; I say to myself, ‘Why do I spend all my time in the mountains, training, putting in all this effort? It’s to achieve something, it’s to win’.
“There’s a difference between an athlete who only looks for times, and an athlete who thinks about times but is also chasing medals. What I learnt the most from him is this, because he used to look for times, and also how to win medals.”
El Bakkali is meant to kick off his 2026 season in the opening leg of the Diamond League in Doha in May. He says he’ll have to pick the right tracks for his world record attempts but believes his best shot may be in Rabat, where he previously clocked his personal best.
“They are all attempts. I always have to try to I will keep trying until I achieve my goal, inshallah.”
Given his track record, it would be unwise to bet against him!
