It’s a meteoric rise like no other.

By winning Olympic silver at the Stade de France on Sunday morning (AEST), Jessica Hull completed her stunning journey from major competition also-ran to Olympic medallist.

And what a race it was to be a part of.

The women’s 1,500m was always going to be an event worth getting the permanent marker out and circling pre-Games.

But when it came it was absolutely everything we could have hoped for.

A staggeringly entertaining race from gun to tape that saw Hull become the first Australian woman to ever win a medal in the event at an Olympics.

Of course, world record holder Faith Kipyegon was a clear favourite, and lived up to the billing with a wonderfully paced race in which she kicked away in the final 400m to finish in an Olympic Record time of 3:51.29.

But behind her, Hull played a blinder.

Ethiopian Gudaf Tsegay went out hard to stretch the field from the gun down the back straight.

Hull seemed like she was first to respond, forcing American Elle St Pierre along in front of her with Kipyegon shadowing behind.

“Within 200m I knew it was on,” Hull said post-race.

“And I just thought, ‘OK, this is simple now’.'” 

Tsegay kept the lead until the final 500m, when Hull made her move towards the front.

Kipyegon saw the threat and kicked too, hitting the front with a lap to go and surging away, dragging the field into a long line of lithe runners pushing for all they were worth. 

The Kenyan would not be caught, but the second Ethiopian Diribe Welteji pushed too, sitting in second with Hull behind.

Then came the kick.

Hull’s father and coach, Simon, has worked hard on ensuring his daughter had the strength and endurance to stay with the very best on the final lap.

It has clearly worked.

Hull latched onto the shoulder of Welteji, with a pair of Britons in Laura Muir and Georgia Bell finishing fast behind.

But Hull’s strength shone through, pulling ahead and holding off Bell by 0.05 seconds to finish in the silver medal position in a time of 3:52.56.

The time was slower than her best, albeit her second fastest time ever in competition, but this was a triumph as much of her newly found raw pace as her race craft, a rapidly growing maturity against the world’s best to out-tactic her rivals when it counts.

And it matches her precipitous rise.

Half an hour or so around the Périphérique to the south of the Stade de France, at the Stade Sébastien-Charléty, Hull smashed the Australian record by more than five seconds just over a month ago.

Paris has been good to her.

The week after, she broke the 2,000m world record in Monaco.

Perhaps we should broaden it out to say that Francophone Europe has been good to her.

But while we’re doing that, we could say that 2024 has been pretty good to the 27-year-old from Wollongong.

Last year, Hull’s personal best of 3:57.29 would have barely been enough to get her through her semifinal at this year’s Games.

Her improvement of 6.46 seconds in 13 months, is remarkable, especially given she had taken just 4.51 off her PB over the previous five years.

She puts that down to her ability to train consistently without injury since 2019, and developing the strength to finish races.

“I think, March I made a few changes after World Indoors when I came fourth and I was just like, ‘I don’t want to come fourth again’ and that meant like doing some really, really hard stuff and training that helps with my close, because my close was my weakness,” she said.

“I just kept missing putting the final pieces of a race together. 

“I think, back in March when I made those changes, I was like thinking I could scrape a bronze and then you run 3.50 and you have the world record holder looking over her shoulder and you start to think, ‘can I win?'”

Simon Hull told ABC Sport his daughter had “hit every work out for the last six months” and that was key to her success.

“I have just seen this massive shift,” he said.

“And I was like, wow, this is this is pretty cool to be part of, especially being a coach and a father. 

“You see a lot of the tough years that she’s had and then to get the rewards. It’s pretty crazy.”

She also paid credit to world record holder Kipyegon for hauling the standard up in her impressive wake.

Kipyegon has dominated this distance for close to a decade now.

The 30-year-old has won three Olympic titles in a row, three of the last five World Championships — she won silver in the other two — and has also had success at 5,000m with a silver at this Games and gold at the 2023 World Championships.

Hull has set PBs at every distance from 800m to 3000m and broken five Australian records.

She is leading the charge of Australian middle to long distance runners into a stunning era.

And not just them either.

The seven medals Australia has won at these Paris Games in athletics is second in number only to the 12 that were won in Melbourne in 1956.

It was also Australia’s 50th medal of the Games across all sports.

It’s been some year for Hull, and a year that she and Australia will never forget.