Abdi Nageeye, born in Somalia and who fled to the Netherlands as a child, won the 2023 TCS New York City Marathon men’s open division title on Sunday, Nov. 3, becoming the first Dutch athlete to capture this title. Nageeye pulled ahead in the final stretch, defeating 2022 champion Evans Chebet and 2021 winner Albert Korir by six seconds.
“I feel really happy with [the race] because I didn’t perform [well] in the Olympics, and that really was one of my biggest disappointments ever,” Nageeye said, according to New York Road Runners. He had to withdraw from the Paris Olympics marathon.
“So I went back to training, and I told myself, you will never get it back,” he said. “You can only do one thing: in less than two months you can do something great at the greatest marathon in the world, so focus on that.”
He did just that.
On Monday, Nov. 4, at the Empire State Building in New York City, he shared exclusively with rolling out: “I will be happy to go today to my family. I really feel proud and I’m just looking around (on the 86th floor) and I’m like, it’s just amazing.”
As the Netherlands’ first New York City Marathon champion, he noted that the entire country, including King Willem-Alexander, celebrated his victory.
“Everyone is talking about it back home and everyone knows that this is my 23rd marathon and everyone knows where I come from and that I never gave up,” he said. “I always tried my best. I had so many setbacks. The Olympics were so sad for me, I was so disappointed. But then to go back in training and in less than two months, to come here again and show the world you can have setbacks, but you don’t have to give up. Just try again. Do your best and you give it another shot. As long as you’re alive, as long as you’re healthy, just try and keep doing it. You can accept the defeat, but you don’t have to sit down for the defeat. You can go up and train again.”
