Athletics at the 2024 Summer Olympics – Men's marathon
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| Men's marathon at the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad | |||||||||||||
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 Tamirat Tola at kilometre 29. | |||||||||||||
| Venue | Paris[1] | ||||||||||||
| Date |
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| Winning time | 2:06:26 OR | ||||||||||||
| Medalists | |||||||||||||
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The men's marathon at the 2024 Summer Olympics was held in Paris, France, on 10 August 2024. This was the 30th time that the men's marathon was contested at the Summer Olympics.
Summary
[edit]All three medalists in Tokyo returned: 2016 and 2020 gold medalist Eliud Kipchoge from Kenya, 2020 silver medalist Abdi Nageeye from the Netherlands, and 2020 bronze medalist Bashir Abdi from Belgium. Kipchoge, the champion of the past two Olympic marathons, sought to make history with a victory in Paris becoming the first athlete to win three Olympic gold medals in the marathon.[2] 2022 World Championship gold medalist Tamirat Tola, who also took silver back in 2017 and a track 10,000 bronze medal from 2016, came here as the alternate filling the shoes of injured Sisay Lemma. Abdi was also bronze medalist in 2022. 2023 World Champion Victor Kiplangat and silver medalist Maru Teferi are also entered. One athlete, Yaseen Abdalla, made his marathon debut after gaining entry through a universality spot.[3] The marathon world record holder, Kelvin Kiptum, was killed in a car accident in February 2024.
For most of the first 5K, nearly 43 year old Bat-Ochiryn Ser-Od, running his sixth Olympic Marathon got his time in the sun at the front of the pack. Yang Shaohui would occasionally float forward with Victor Kiplangat watching the front. For most of the next 5K, Héctor Garibay migrated to the front barely ahead of a large pack with Yang erratically still poking in front. Around 12K Eyob Faniel made the first significant break, dropping the pace down to 3:00 a kilometre when the field was going closer to 3:07. Faniel had 23 seconds over the field at 15K but the first set of hills had already begun. The hills broke apart the large pack, the lead "chase group" included Tamirat Tola, Bashir Abdi, Conner Mantz, Alphonce Simbu, Akira Akasaki, Elroy Gelant, Suguru Osako, with Deresa Geleta and Clayton Young hanging on the back. Kipchoge was not among the group. Faniel was slowing on the hills. The chasers were only 11 seconds back at 20K. That was where Tola took off on his own to bridge the gap. Still on the hill, suddenly there was a gap behind Tola. Mantz took off to catch back up to Tola. In barely over half a kilometre Faniel had been caught. Tola didn't even look at Faniel, he just kept going though Faniel tried to fall in behind. As the hill was crested, Mantz used the downhill to catch back up with Tola and Faniel, practically sprinting as they approached the halfway point in the Marathon. The three crossed the half marathon mark in 1:04:51. Geleta was next, 7 seconds back. With the easy downhill section, it took the lead chase group a little over 2K to catch back up to the leaders. By 25K, the lead pack had again congealed into 15 runners, Akasaki slightly in the lead. Faniel was no longer with the leaders, the next straggler behind. Just before 28K, the hills began again. Akasaki continued to lead for the first bump, but then Tola went by him and continued to open up a gap. Behind him, the lead pack was disintegrating. By the 29K marker, it was a 7 second gap back to Emile Cairess, the next chaser. After a water station near the top of the hill, Tola started the downhill, passing 30K 11 seconds ahead of Cairess. Geleta, Abdi and Akasaki were the next over the top. With the steep descent, the order shifted again. Geleta passed Cairess. Akasaki passed Abdi. Then Simbu, roaring down the hill, passed all of them. Geleta then responded and moved back ahead of Simbu. By the time they reached the bottom of the hill near 33K, Tola was maintaining a 13 second gap. The group behind him were tightening up. Tebello Ramakongoana and Benson Kipruto ran fastest of all down the hill to latch onto the chase group. As the Eifel Tower came into view, with 5K remaining, Geleta, Abdi and Kipruto broke into a chase group separating from the next chaser, Akasaki. Tola's lead was out to 27 seconds. With three athletes vying for the remaining two medals, something had to give. At 39.5K, Abdi began to tighten the screw, after being in the next challenging position for 19K, Geleta started to lose contact. Seconds later, Kipruto looked around at the situation and suddenly was losing contact. With a kilometre to go, Abdi brought the gap down to 17 seconds. As he reached the final bends on the course, Tola finally showed some signs of celebration. He continued onto the carpet, the clock counting down. 2:06:26 was a new Olympic record on the toughest Olympic course in history. 21 seconds later, Abdi finished for silver 13 seconds ahead of Kipruto. Japan was the first country to get three across the finish line, ahead of Ethiopia and Italy.[4]
Background
[edit]The men's marathon has been present on the Olympic athletics programme since the inaugural edition in 1896.
Course
[edit]The marathon course began at the Hôtel de Ville and traversed many of the host city's most iconic landmarks such as the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre before concluding at Les Invalides. Paris officials have stated the route has taken inspiration from la marche de femmes. Due to the elevation profile, the course has been discussed as one of the more challenging Olympic marathons. Notably, for the first time in Olympic history, the public had the opportunity to run the marathon course. Following the Olympic marathon, up to 40,000 runners will be able to participate in a public marathon or a 10k race.[5]
Records
[edit]Prior to this competition, the existing world, Olympic, and area records were as follows.[6]
| Record | Athlete (Nation) | Time | Location | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| World record |  Kelvin Kiptum (KEN)
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2:00:35[7] | Chicago, United States | 8 October 2023 |
| Olympic record | Samuel Wanjiru (KEN)
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2:06:32 | Beijing, China | 24 August 2008 |
| World leading | Benson Kipruto (KEN)
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2:02:16[8] | Tokyo, Japan | 3 March 2024 |
| Africa (records) | Kelvin Kiptum (KEN)
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2:00:35 WR |
| Asia (records) |  El Hassan El Abbassi (BHR)
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2:04:43 |
| Europe (records) |  Bashir Abdi (BEL)
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2:03:36 |
| North, Central America and Caribbean (records) |
 Cameron Levins (CAN)
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2:05:36 |
| Oceania (records) |  Brett Robinson (AUS)
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2:07:31 |
| South America (records) |  Daniel do Nascimento (BRA)
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2:04:51 |
Qualification
[edit]In order to comply with the 80-athlete capacity imposed by the IOC, World Athletics debuted a new qualification system ahead of the Paris games. Each country is eligible to send three athletes to compete in the marathon; however, each spot must be "unlocked" in one of three ways between 6 November 2022 to 30 April 2024. To unlock guaranteed spots for their country, athletes must run under a 2:08:10 in an eligible race within the time period. Athletes may also unlock a spot for their country by placing top five at a World Athletics platinum-level race or by reaching a high-enough World Athletics rankings. The world rankings were used to fill any entries not allocated to time-unlocked spots. Once spots have been unlocked for a country, the National Olympic Federation can select athletes to fill their spots as they see fit. While any athlete can be assigned to an unlocked spot, they must have run at least the Quota Reallocation Time of 2:11:30.[10][11]
National Olympic Federations could also use a universality spot in the marathon. Any country with no qualified athlete was be allowed to enter their best-ranked runner in the marathon regardless of qualification standards.[12]
The qualification period for the 2024 Olympic Marathon ended on 30 April 2024 and exceeded the 80-athlete target by one entry.[13]
Results
[edit]The event was held on 10 August, starting at 08:00 (UTC+2) in the morning.[1]
Notes
[edit]- ^ Currently serving a 3-year ban for a positive doping result. Quota place can be reallocated to another athlete by the NOC, provided that the athlete has achieved a time of at least 2:11:30 during the qualification period.
- ^ Currently provisionally suspended for a doping adverse result. Quota place can be reallocated to another athlete by the NOC, provided that the athlete has achieved a time of at least 2:11:30 during the qualification period.
References
[edit]- ^ a b "Paris 2024 - Olympic Schedule - Athletics", Olympics.com. Retrieved 29 June 2024.
- ^ "Kenyan Kipchoge ready to make history at Paris Olympics". Africanews. 2024-07-26. Retrieved 2024-08-03.
- ^ Kelsall, Christopher (2024-05-09). "World Athletics adds 20 universality spots to Paris Marathon". Athletics Illustrated. Retrieved 2024-08-03.
- ^ https://olympics.com/OG2024/pdf/OG2024/ATH/OG2024_ATH_C77V_ATHMMARATHON----------FNL-000100--.pdf
- ^ "Paris 2024 reveals routes for Olympic marathon and mass event run | News | Paris 24 | Olympic Games". worldathletics.org. Retrieved 2024-08-03.
- ^ "Stats | World Athletics | World Athletics". worldathletics.org. Retrieved 2024-08-03.
- ^ "All time Top lists – Senior – Marathon men", World Athletics, 29 June 2024. Retrieved 29 June 2024.
- ^ "Season Top Lists – Senior 2024 – Marathon men Archived 5 June 2024 at the Wayback Machine", World Athletics, 2024. Retrieved 29 June 2024.
- ^ "Records 100 Metres Men". World Athletics. 3 July 2024. Archived from the original on 8 August 2024. Retrieved 3 July 2024.
- ^ "U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials: All you need to know about qualifying | NBC Olympics". www.nbcolympics.com. Retrieved 2024-07-24.
- ^ "Why the U.S. Might Have Only Two Men in the Olympic Marathon". Runner's World. 2024-01-24. Retrieved 2024-07-24.
- ^ Kelsall, Christopher (2024-05-09). "World Athletics adds 20 universality spots to Paris Marathon". Athletics Illustrated. Retrieved 2024-07-24.
- ^ "Athletic Entries- Men's Marathon". Paris 2024. 23 July 2024.
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