2020: First senior Dutch record and first senior successes on 18 July 2020. Bol was forced to train on gravel paths in the woods and on grass fields when
COVID-19 quarantine measures were first enacted in March 2020. Despite this, she raced in Papendal in July and broke by almost a second the national 400 m hurdles record of 54.62 s set by
Ester Goossens in 1998. First, running in the rain, she took almost a second off her 2019 best with a time of 54.47 s, which could not be ratified as only one other athlete competed. Two weeks later, she achieved 53.79 s, the fourth-fastest European under-23 time in history. During this pandemic season, the Dutchwoman won all her following races over the barriers: two
Diamond League events staged in
2020 as one-off exhibition competitions, and three
Continental Tour events. First she stayed ahead of all her competitors in
Székesfehérvár, Hungary on 19 August, to repeat this achievement four days later at the
Stockholm Bauhaus-galan winning her first Diamond race. Bol then won all her following seven races at the distance in four events, improving in every final. Competing in the
World Indoor Tour, she powered to meet records in
Metz (50.81 s) and
Toruń (50.66 s), then clocked 50.64 s at the
Dutch Indoor Championships, and finally lowered her record to 50.63 s when winning at the
European Indoor Championships in
Toruń, Poland. Her individual mark made her the fastest European woman since 2009. , where she won and set one of her eleven Dutch records from 2021.|alt=Photo of Femke Bol sprinting while ahead three other competitors The 21-year-old started her 2021 outdoor season by competing at the
World Relays, before setting a 400 m national record of 50.56 s at the IFAM Meeting on 29 May in
Oordegem. She then started improving her own Dutch hurdling record when winning Diamond League meetings, beginning with a time of 53.44 s on 10 June in
Florence. At the time it was also European U23 record, breaking a 37-year-old mark. On 19 June, she returned to the 400 m flat event during the
European Team Championships in Romania and bettered her record with a 50.37 s performance. On 1 July in
Oslo, she lowered her hurdles record in a time of 53.33 s. She then took almost a second off with a Diamond League record of 52.37 s on 4 July in
Stockholm, where she beat
Shamier Little by 0.02 s. This race was only the second in history, after the
2017 USATF Championships, in which three women recorded times below 53 seconds as third-placed
Anna Ryzhykova finished in 52.96 s. Bol, meanwhile, became the fourth fastest woman of all time with the sixth-fastest result ever, missing the European record by just 0.03 s. On 6 July, she won the event at the Continental Tour meet in
Székesfehérvár with a time of 52.81 s, edging out Little in 52.85 s again. Having won the Diamond League race in
Gateshead, England on 13 July, she extended her unbeaten streak in her specialist event to 12 races in total. It was her third consecutive victory over Little. at the
2020 Tokyo Olympic Games during heavy rain.|alt=Photo of Femke Bol in the air while passing a hurdle seen on her right side At the delayed
2020 Tokyo Olympics in July and August 2021, Bol ran six 400 m races with hurdles and flat, including three under 50 seconds relay legs. In the 400 m hurdles final, Bol finished third after
Sydney McLaughlin (51.46 s – world record) and
Dalilah Muhammad (51.58 s – inside previous world record). With her time of 52.03 s, she broke the European record and became the third-fastest woman of all time at the event with the fourth-fastest result ever. It was the first ever Olympic medal for the Netherlands at the event. Before Bol's individual final on 4 August, she helped the
mixed 4 × 400 m relay team set a national record in the final with her 49.74 s split, and later she anchored the
women's 4 × 400 m relay to consecutive Dutch records in the heat and in the final, clocking splits of 49.14 s and 48.97 s respectively. On 8 August, she reached a 400 metres hurdles ranking of No. 1 in the
World Athletics Rankings for the first time. After the Games, in August and September, she continued her Diamond League dominance over the barriers, winning in
Lausanne and the
Zurich final with meet records of 53.05 s and 52.80 s respectively to claim her first Diamond trophy. At the former, she finished clear ahead of Shamier Little and Dalilah Muhammad, while in Zurich Bol held off Little again. Having skipped the
USA's event in
Eugene and ran 400 m flat in
Paris (50.59 s, 4th), Bol also set a
Diamond League record, three Diamond League circuit's meet records, and five meet records at the
World Athletics Indoor Tour and
Continental Tour events. She went under 53 seconds in the 400 m hurdles four times that season, had an individual win-loss record of 16–4, and was voted
European Athletics Rising Star of the Year. At the
World Indoor Championships in
Belgrade about three weeks later, Bol won the silver medal, after she fell at the finish line during the semi-finals, in a time of
50.57 s behind Miller-Uibo who ran 50.31 s. Bol also anchored the Dutch women's 4 × 400 m relay to
silver thanks to her closing surge from fourth into second, with the fastest split of the race of 50.26 s. The 22-year-old started her outdoor season on 31 May at the
Golden Spike meeting in
Ostrava, where she ran a
world best over the 300 m hurdles. She clocked a time of 36.86 s, which was 1.3 s faster than the previous best set by
Zuzana Hejnová in 2013. She continued with
Diamond League wins in Rome, Oslo, and Stockholm, breaking a meet record in Oslo before posting 52.27 s in Stockholm to improve her own Diamond League record with 0.10 s which she set the previous year. , Bol went one better in the 400 m hurdles at the
2022 World Championships in
Eugene. At the
World Championships in Eugene, Oregon in July, Bol first ran the final leg of the
mixed 4 × 400 m relay. After taking the baton a distant third, she anchored the Dutch team to a silver and a national record thanks to her split of 48.95 s, the second-fastest female split of the entire race. In the
400 m hurdles, she equalled her season's best (52.27 s) to finish behind McLaughlin (who lowered her world record to 50.68 s) and ahead of Muhammad in third (53.13 s). The Dutch women's 4 × 400 m squad lost the baton in the heats and was disqualified despite a qualifying position. After the championships in August, she went for the first time under 50 seconds in the 400 m flat and set a national and meet record with a time of 49.75 s at the
Silesia Diamond League. The same month, she completed a hat-trick of gold medals at the
European Championships in Munich, becoming the first female sprinter to complete a 400 m double at a major championships as she won one-lap events both
with and
without hurdles. Her time for the open 400 m of 49.44 s was the fastest at a Europeans since
Stuttgart 1986 and a new national record, while over the barriers Bol set a championship record. She rounded off her Munich campaign by producing a 48.52 s
anchor leg to land the Netherlands gold and a national record in the 4 × 400 m relay, moving from third to first around the final bend; their result was also the fastest at a Europeans since 1986. Bol became only the second Dutch athlete after
Fanny Blankers-Koen in 1950 to win three gold medals at the event. In her return to the Diamond League, Bol set another meet record over the barriers in
Lausanne, and then concluded her third senior season with a victory at the
Zurich final, successfully defending her Diamond League title. She achieved six marks under 53 seconds that year, staying unbeaten in 11 out of her 12 hurdles races, posted an individual win-loss record of 13–4, and was crowned
European Female Athlete of the Year. Competing again in Metz, France, she set new Dutch indoor records in both the 200 m and 400 m. Bol clocked a lifetime best in the former (22.87 s), and was the fourth woman in history to go under 50 seconds with 49.96 s in the latter. She next triumphed with a meet record in
Liévin (50.20 s). On 19 February at the
Dutch Indoor Championships in
Apeldoorn, she sliced 0.7 s off her best with a landmark 49.26 s, breaking the longest-standing world record in a
track race. This was at the time the 49.59 s indoor 400 m record, set by
Jarmila Kratochvílová back in
1982. After setting an outright lifetime best, Bol said, "this was almost a perfect race". in 49.85 s at the
2023 European Indoor Championships. She went under 50 seconds a record three times that year. She capped her record-breaking indoor campaign by
successfully defending her European 400 m title at
Istanbul 2023 with the third mark under 50 seconds in the that season (49.85 s), a global record. She added her seventh European title anchoring the Netherlands to a
4 × 400 m relay victory with a new Dutch and championship record, making them the third-fastest national women's team in history. Training for the 2023 outdoor season, Bol practiced a different stride pattern for the 400 m hurdles in an effort to become faster. Previously, she took fifteen steps between the hurdles throughout the race, which meant she could jump over each hurdle with the same leg leading. Now, she tried out fourteen steps between the first few hurdles, which made her alternate between her legs for the jump, only to change it to fifteen steps for the last hurdles. Bol tried this new setup in competition for the first time in
Oordegem, Belgium on 27 May, where she ran sixteen steps after hurdle seven instead of fifteen and nonetheless set a world lead of 53.12 s. Bol continued to win three
Diamond League races over hurdles in
Rome,
Oslo, and
Lausanne, setting meet records in all three of them. On 23 July, Bol made her first ever appearance at the
London Diamond League. After leading from the first barrier, Bol continued to widen her lead throughout the entire race. At the finish line, she stopped the clock at a time of 51.45 s, which was a 0.58 s improvement of her personal best in the 400 hurdles. With her performance in London, Bol became the third woman in history to run the 400 metres hurdles under 52 seconds. Her time of 51.45 s was the third-fastest time ever and made her the second-fastest woman of all time, as only world record holder
McLaughlin-Levrone had run faster. This time also further lowered her own European and Diamond League records. On 25 July, she reached a women's overall ranking of No. 2 in the World Athletics Rankings for the first time, with only
Faith Kipyegon ranking higher. medal, together with silver medalist
Shamier Little (right) and bronze medalist
Rushell Clayton (left), at the
2023 World Championships Bol competed in three events at the
2023 World Athletics Championships in
Budapest, Hungary. On 19 August, during the
4 × 400 m mixed relay, Bol fell within metres of the finish line, while vying with
Alexis Holmes of the
USA for first place. Landing face first, Bol lost the relay baton over the finish line, making it impossible for the Netherlands team to legitimately finish the race and resulting in a
DNF. On 24 August, she gained her first world title when she won the final of the
400 m hurdles in 51.70 s. Mike Rowbottom of World Athletics called Bol's performance in the mixed relay and hurdles "the fall and rise of Femke Bol". She then continued her success on 27 August with her anchor leg in the
women's 4 × 400 metres relay, passing
Nicole Yeargin of Great Britain and
Stacey-Ann Williams of Jamaica shortly before the finish line, earning her a second gold medal at these World Championships, together with team members
Eveline Saalberg,
Lieke Klaver,
Cathelijn Peeters, and
Lisanne de Witte (heat only). After the World Championships, Bol won her 400 metres hurdles races at the
Galà dei Castelli in Bellinzona,
Memorial Van Damme in Brussels, and
Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, In 2023, Bol won all of her twenty individual 400 m flat and hurdles races
2024: Two world records, double world indoor champion, and triple Olympic medalist in a world record time of 49.17 s in
Glasgow On 3 February, Bol started her 2024 indoor season in Metz, where she won the 400 metres short track with a meeting record of 49.69 s. Here she also finished first in the 200 metres short track in 22.64 s, setting both a Dutch indoor record and a meeting record. On 10 February, she won the 400 metres short track in
Liévin in 49.63 s, another meeting record and the 4th-best result of all time. At the Dutch Indoor Championships in Apeldoorn on 18 February, she improved her own world record in the 400 metres short track with 0.02 s to 49.24 s, after running 50.55 s in the heats a day earlier. At the
World Indoor Championships in
Glasgow, Bol competed in the
400 m short track, where she won her heat in 52.00 s and her semi-final in 50.66 s. In an interview after the final race, Bol had a high-pitched voice because of body exertion, which was compared online to the voice of
Mickey Mouse. She then anchored the Dutch women's relay team in the
4 × 400 m short track relay heats (3:27.70 min) and final, where she finished first in 3:25.07 min, setting a Dutch record and winning her second gold medal of these championships, together with
Lieke Klaver,
Cathelijn Peeters,
Eveline Saalberg (heat only),
Myrte van der Schoot (heat only), and
Lisanne de Witte. On 28 April, Bol opened her outdoor season in
Willemstad, Curaçao, where she competed in two distances at the Curaçao SprintFest. She ran the
100 metres in 11.47 s finishing in fifth place and the
150 metres in 17.10 s finishing third, which were both personal bests. Bol ran the anchor leg in the heat of the
mixed 4 × 400 m relay with
Isayah Boers, Klaver, and
Isaya Klein Ikkink, finishing in a championship record of 3:12.16 min and qualifying the Dutch mixed relay team for the
2024 Paris Olympics. On 2 June, Bol ran her first 400 m hurdles race of the season at the
Bauhaus-galan in Stockholm, Sweden, which she won in 53.07 s. teams, with Bol second from the right, at the
2024 European Championships in
Rome Bol competed in three events at the
European Championships in
Rome, Italy. On 7 June, she won a bronze medal in the
mixed 4 × 400 m relay, when she anchored the Dutch team with
Liemarvin Bonevacia, Klaver, and Klein Ikkink finishing in 3:10.73 min after the Irish and Italian teams. Bol had a split time of 49.21 s, which made her the fastest female competitor in this mixed relay final. On 11 June, she successfully defended her European title in the
400 m hurdles, winning in a championship record of 52.49 s, On 12 June, Bol anchored the Dutch
women's 4 × 400 m relay team with Klaver, Peeters, and De Witte with a split time of 50.45 s to the first place in 3:22.39 min, winning her second gold and third medal of the championships. On 7 July, she won the 400 m in a meeting record of 50.02 s at the
FBK Games also in Hengelo. She finished in 50.95 s, breaking her own
European record from 2023 and going under 51 seconds for the first time. It was the third-fastest time in history, only
Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone was faster when she ran her 2022 and 2024 world records. On 20 July, she won the 400 m hurdles race in 51.30 s at the
2024 London Athletics Meet, breaking her own meeting record and Diamond League record. in the final of the
mixed 4 x 400 metres relay at the
2024 Paris Olympics. At the
Paris Olympics, Bol competed and medalled in three events. On 3 August, she anchored the Dutch team with
Eugene Omalla, Klaver, and Klein Ikkink in the
mixed 4 x 400 metres relay to win gold in a European record of 3:07.43 min. The time was 0.02 s off the world record set by the team of the United States in the first round a day earlier. In the
400 metres hurdles, she ran 53.38 s in the first round on 4 August and 52.57 s in the semi-finals on 6 August. On 8 August, she won a bronze medal in 52.15 s in the 400 m hurdles final, finishing after McLaughlin-Levrone in a world record of 50.37 s and
Anna Cockrell in a personal best of 51.87 s. On 10 August, Bol anchored the Dutch women's team with Klaver, Peeters, and De Witte in the
4 × 400 m relay to a silver medal in a national record of 3:19.50 min, 4.23 s after the team of the United States in gold position and 0.22 s before the bronze team of Great Britain. On 13 August, Bol became a knight of the
Order of Orange-Nassau as an Olympic gold medalist. Bol won her next two 400 m hurdles races in the Diamond League, ensuring qualification for the season final in Brussels: on 22 August, she set a meeting record of 52.25 s at the
Athletissima in
Lausanne, Switzerland, and on 25 August, she set another meeting record of 52.13 s at the
Kamila Skolimowska Memorial in
Chorzów, Poland. On 14 September, she won the
Diamond League final in Brussels in 52.45 s, finishing more than a second before the rest of the field, which brought Bol the fourth Diamond League trophy of her career.
2025: World champion and double European indoor champion at the
2025 European Indoor Championships In January, Bol announced that she was not going to compete in individual events during the 2025 indoor season, but only in relays. She explained her decision on social media: "It gives me the opportunity to have some more time processing everything that has happened and prioritize more things outside of the sports that are important to me." She opened her indoor season with the
mixed 4 × 400 m relay during the
European Indoor Championships for a home audience in
Apeldoorn, Netherlands, on 6 March 2025. Her team, also including
Nick Smidt,
Eveline Saalberg, and
Tony van Diepen, won a gold medal in a
championship record of 3:15.63 min, which made them the
fastest national team of all time in this short track event. It was also not recognised as European record, because the initial short track European record was to be 3:15.50 min or faster. It was, however, recognised as Dutch record. She continued at these championships with the
women's 4 × 400 m relay on 9 March 2025. Teamed with
Lieke Klaver,
Nina Franke, and
Cathelijn Peeters, she won a second gold medal in a Dutch record of 3:24.34 min. She started with her nonpreferred leg, so she could take fourteen steps between the hurdles until the sixth hurdle, one hurdle less than in the previous season, and from there fifteen steps between the remaining hurdles while jumping with her preferred leg in an effort to become faster this season. Two weeks later, she continued with a meeting record of 52.51 s in the 400 m hurdles at the FBK Games in Hengelo, Netherlands. She broke her own meeting record with a time of 52.11 s at the
Stockholm Diamond League meeting in Sweden on 15 June. In Ostrava, Czech Republic, on 24 June, she ran a 400 metres and finished in third place in 49.98 s, behind
Salwa Eid Nasser and
Lynna Irby-Jackson. Three days later, at the
2025 European Athletics Team Championships First Division in
Madrid, Spain, Bol won the 400 metres in a championship record of 49.48 s, which contributed to a fourth place overall for the team of the Netherlands, their highest ever position in these team championships. Back to the 400 m hurdles, Bol won the
Monaco Diamond League on 11 July, setting a meeting record and world leading time of 51.95 s. She also won the
London Diamond League on 19 July with a time of 52.10 s. At the Dutch Championships on 3 August, Bol competed in the 200 m, where she ran 22.89 s in the heats and 22.84 s in the final, finishing in second place after
Lieke Klaver. On 12 August, Bol won the 400 m hurdles in 52.24 s at the
Gyulai István Memorial in
Budapest, Hungary. On 16 August, she set a new meeting record and world leading time of 51.91 s in the 400 m hurdles at the
Silesia Diamond League meeting in
Chorzów, Poland. In the
Diamond League Final on 28 August, she set a new meeting record of 52.18 s in the 400 metres hurdles, which was her thirtieth consecutive hurdles victory in the Diamond League and brought Bol her fifth Diamond League trophy. At the
World Championships in Tokyo, Bol successfully defended her world title in the
400 m hurdles, and set a world leading time of 51.54 s on 19 September. She stayed undefeated in the 400 m hurdles throughout the 2025 season. Bol also won a silver medal in the
mixed 4 × 400 m relay with a time of 3:09.96 min and a bronze medal in the
women's 4 × 400 m relay with a time of 3:20.18 min with the Dutch team. On 10 October, Bol announced her intention to move up in distance to the
800 m for the 2026 season. On 15 October, she opened the Femke Bol Hal, an indoor sports facility in Amersfoort named after her. On 25 October, Bol became
European Athlete of the Year for the third time.
2026: Dutch 800 metres indoor record On 8 February, Bol opened her 2026 indoor season with an
800 m race in Metz, France. It was the first time she competed over this distance as a
senior athlete. She won in a new
Dutch indoor record of 1:59.07 min, breaking the record of
Ester Goossens from 2001 and qualifying for the
2026 World Indoor Championships. During a training camp, Bol sustained a foot
tendon injury, which led her to withdraw from her only other planned race of this year's indoor season, a
600 m record attempt in Liévin, France. On 30 March, a
wax figure in her likeness was unveiled in
Madame Tussauds Amsterdam. ==Personal bests==