Olympic gold medalist Femke Bol working out draws admiration from teammate Lieke Klaver

Lieke Klaver has shared her reaction to her track teammate Femke Bol exercising in a gym on social media. The pair competes as part of the Dutch national team in relay events. They are both Olympic champions, winning gold in the Mixed 4 x 400m relay at the Paris Olympics.

Despite their occasional rivalry, Klaver and Bol are known to be close friends. They first met at the 2017 European U20 Championships in Grosseto, but only got to know each other better when they shared a room at the 2019 World Athletics Relays in Yokohama. In a story shared by Klaver on Instagram, Bol can be seen working out at a gym, which drew a proud reaction from Klaver. She wrote:

"Building the equipment like a pro @femke_bol"

Screengrab of Femke Bol's Instagram story (@femke_bol)

Bol is among the best in the 400m hurdles and 400m sprint. Competing in hurdle events as a teenager, she broke the Dutch U20 and U23 records and achieved the World Championship qualifying standard. She also holds the world record for the 400m indoor, running in the World Indoor Championships final in Glasgow with a time of 49.17s.

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Femke Bol and Lieke Klaver's friendly rivalry

Femke Bol and Lieke Klaver share a close relationship - (Image via Getty)

Dutch track stars Femke Bol and Lieke Klaver share a close personal friendship, but the pair have spoken about the times they have had to compete against each other. Bol and Klaver both joined the same Papendal-based training group led by Swiss coach Laurent Meuwly after meeting at the World Relays.

While the duo usually competes for the same team, they crossed paths during the indoor season. At the 2021 European Indoor Championships, Klaver explained how they distanced themselves from each other during the competition season:

“We felt at the European Indoors that the natural thing to do was give ourselves a little space, so we didn’t share a room at the meet hotel. When people didn’t see us together I got questions from people asking; did we have a fight? But we just needed a bit of space because we had a race to run. It was nothing bad for the friendship.”

The competitiveness has not affected their friendship as the pair is still close. Bol has even described their close bond as a sisterhood and how they feel more like family than friends.