Femke Bol stared herself down on Monday afternoon and felt her stomach flip.
“It was like I was standing at the start of a race, it was that exciting,” the Dutch track star said after the unveiling of her wax figure at Madame Tussauds in Amsterdam. “Actually, it’s just scary to see yourself like that.”
The lifelike statue — dressed in Bol’s signature orange New Balance competition kit, race number pinned on, shoes laced — now stands alongside Usain Bolt and Dutch speed skating icon Jutta Leerdam in the Amsterdam museum. Sculptors, color specialists, and costume designers spent nine months building it, capturing not just her appearance, but her energy and presence as an elite athlete.
For someone who has won Olympic, World, and European titles across the 400-meter hurdles, 400-meter flat, and 4x400m relay, it’s a fitting tribute. The 26-year-old from Amersfoort is one of the most decorated Dutch athletes of her generation — and she’s only just getting started on her next chapter.
That chapter is the 800 meters. In February, Bol — who married Belgian pole vaulter Ben Broeders earlier this year and now competes as Femke Broeders-Bol — ran her first serious indoor 800-meter race in Metz, France. She clocked 1:59.07, breaking a Dutch national record that had stood for 25 years. Ester Goossens had held it at 2:00.01 since 2001.
Then a tendon injury in her foot ended her indoor season before it really began.
“That injury is due to the switch from the 400 hurdles to the 800 meters flat,” she said. “I have to push my body differently in training, and this is the result. Fortunately, I am surrounded by a team that stands by me in good times and is also fully there for me now that things are somewhat difficult.”
Anyone who has come back from a running injury will recognize this. Switching events — or even shifting from shorter to longer distances — stresses the body in new ways. Bol’s tendons are adapting, and they’re asking for time. As with foot tendon injuries in general, there are no shortcuts.
The good news: she completed her first running session back this week, reporting it felt fine. She’ll head to a training camp in Potchefstroom, South Africa, where cross-training will form a key part of her recovery. She’s skipping the World Relay Championships in Gaborone, Botswana, in early May — pointing to the Dutch relay squad’s silver medal at the World Indoor Championships in Torun as proof the team doesn’t need her right now.
“Those girls can manage without me too,” she said. “They have certainly proven that.”
The bigger picture target is the European Championships in Birmingham, running August 10–16, where her 1:59.07 has already earned her a qualifying spot. World Athletics chief Sebastian Coe has already said he expects big things from her at the 800-meter distance.
The 800-meter field she’s entering is dominated by British Olympic champion Keely Hodgkinson, who ran a world record 1:54.87 this indoor season. To put that in context, Bol’s debut 1:59.07 is rapid by any normal standard — but Hodgkinson is operating in a different stratosphere. Bol is under no illusions.
“She is far too good for that,” Bol said of Hodgkinson. “She is a few sizes too big, and that is perfectly fine. I don’t mind at all that Keely is so exceptionally good. On the contrary — something like that is good for the sport.”
For now, Bol’s wax figure is doing the standing still. The real one is working her way back.
The European Athletics Championships take place in Birmingham, August 10–16, 2026.
