Estonian triplets make history in Olympic marathon
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Estonia made a piece of history Sunday as the Luik sisters – Liina, Lily and Leila Liuk, say that five times fast – became the first triplets to compete in the Olympics together.
Sporting the same cropped blonde haircut and blue Nike outfits, the identical Liuk triplets christened themselves the “Trio to Rio” as they competed in Sunday’s women’s marathon. They wore consecutive bib numbers from 633 to 635 and took off from the starting line together. The triplets only started running six years ago and wanted to prove to others that it’s OK to get a late start on trying something you’ve always wanted to do.
Unfortunately, only two of the sisters finished all 26.2 miles. Liina Luik was one of 23 runners to drop out because of the heat in Rio. Lily finished 97th with a time of 2 hours, 48 minutes and 29 seconds (24 minutes behind gold medalist Jemima Sumgong of Kenya) while Leila finished 114th with a time of 2:54.38.
“When Liina fell behind I was like, ‘come on, come on,’ ” Lilly Luik said to reporters in Rio. “I thought that maybe she’s coming and we could finish together, but it was a very tough race for us.”
In a strange twist, two sets of twins also competed in Sunday’s race. North Korea’s Hye-Song and Hye-Gong Kim finished 10th and 11, respectively while Germany’s Anna and Lisa Hahner crossed the finish line together to share 81st and 82nd place.
