Swiss Runner, 22, Posts 3rd-Fastest 800m Ever in Stockholm

A 22-year-old runner from Switzerland just rewrote the record books and surprised even herself in the process.

Audrey Werro blazed through 800 meters in 1:53.98 at the Stockholm Diamond League on June 7, posting the third-fastest time in history. The performance moved her from barely inside the top 40 all-time rankings to the elite tier in a single race.

"This is crazy! I need time to process this," Werro told Olympics.com minutes after crossing the finish line. The time shattered her personal best by nearly two seconds and broke Caster Semenya's eight-year Diamond League record.

Just a year ago, Werro viewed herself as a rising talent working to establish credibility in the brutal 800-meter event. She had set realistic goals of "becoming better after a year or two" and slowly challenging the world's best runners.

Then she completely ripped up that timeline.

The breakthrough began when Werro made a bold tactical decision mid-race. Rather than sitting in third place behind Olympic gold medalist Keely Hodgkinson as planned, she pushed to the front and told herself, "I am the best!"

It worked. Werro outkicked Hodgkinson, who won gold at Paris 2024 and beat Werro for the world indoor title just three months earlier in Torun, Poland.

Why This Inspires

Werro's leap forward shows what happens when young athletes trust themselves enough to abandon safe plans and take risks. Her willingness to change strategy mid-race, pushing to the front when everything inside told her to play it safe, created a moment that rewrote her entire career trajectory.

The Canton of Fribourg native had already shown promise by qualifying for the Paris Olympics at age 20 and reaching the World Championships final last year. But even those achievements hadn't convinced her she belonged among the sport's biggest names.

One race changed everything about how she sees herself. "This now allows me to believe in myself a little more," she said.

Now Werro and her childhood coach Christiane Berset Nuoffer are quietly discussing something that seemed distant just weeks ago: chasing Jarmila Kratochvílová's world record of 1:53.28, a mark that has stood since 1983.

"It feels great to have younger athletes getting closer to the world record," Werro said.

Her coach has worked with her since her early days at Club Athlétique Belfaux, building the foundation that made Sunday's breakthrough possible. The 800 meters remains one of track's most unpredictable events, with no repeat Olympic champion in recent history and eight different winners across the last four World Championships.

Werro just proved she belongs in that conversation, faster than anyone expected.