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Abdi Nageeye is the defending champion of the TCS New York City Marathon with a time of 2:07:39, becoming the first Dutch athlete to win the Men’s open division.

He most recently placed fourth at the London Marathon in April, breaking his own Dutch record, and will look to successfully defend his title at his fifth TCS New York City Marathon.

Nageeye was the surprise silver medalist in the Olympic marathon in Tokyo in 2021, his second Olympic Games appearance. He was locked in a three-way race for silver and bronze and urged his struggling training partner Bashir Abdi to cross the line right behind him and join him on the podium. Nageeye’s sportsmanship was shown on television highlight reels around the world.

Earlier in 2021, he won the Rotterdam Marathon—his first career marathon victory—in a new national-record time of 2:04:56. He then went on to represent the Netherlands at the World Athletics Championships Marathon but failed to finish.

Born in Somalia, Nageeye fled to the Netherlands with his brother as a refugee when he was six years old. After spending four years in the Netherlands his brother then took him to Syria for three years and then for a spell back to his parents’ farm in Somalia. Desperately missing the Netherlands, he fled his homeland via Ethiopia and settled in the Dutch village of Oldebroek, where he settled with his adopted family.

Nageeye initially played soccer, but after running 17 minutes in his 5K debut at age 17, he opted to join a local athletics club. He made rapid progress in his new-found sport and made his international debut in the junior race at the European Cross Country Championships the following year. He then shifted his focus to the roads, taking 11th place in the Rio 2016 Olympic Marathon and finishing in the top 10 at the Boston Marathon in both 2016 and 2018 before going on to break the Dutch national record multiple times.

He competes with the NN Running Team and is a skilled linguist who can speak five languages: Somali, Dutch, Arabic, English, and Amharic.