Paris 2024 Olympic Marathon Preview

Around 80 men and 80 women will line up for their country to run the Paris 2024 Olympic Marathon this weekend. Here’s everything you need to know about the race and the runners.

The men’s Olympic marathon is on Saturday 10 August starting at 8am local time in Paris. The women’s Olympic marathon is on Sunday 11 August, also starting at 8am local time.

You can jump straight to a preview of the Paris Olympic Marathon course, a preview of the men’s Olympic Marathon and a preview of the women’s Olympic Marathon. 

And did you know there’s a Marathon Pour Tous? For the first time at an Olympics, thousands of people will get to run the marathon route. It takes place on Saturday night, between the men’s and women’s marathons. We’ve got a presenter taking part, so look out for that on YouTube!

If you want to know more about the marathon, then here are 13 incredible facts about the Olympic Marathon, and if you want to know more about the marathon and why it’s 26.2 miles (which were both because of Olympic races!), then here’s the history of the marathon. 

WILL WE SEE ANY NEW MARATHON RECORDS IN THE PARIS 2024 OLYMPIC MARATHON?

We definitely won’t see the marathon world record broken by a man or a woman at the 2024 Olympic Marathon. Those times of 2:00:35 and 2:11:53 were respectively run in Chicago and Berlin, which are both very fast, and very flat courses, where the runners set out intentionally to run record-breaking times. 

Historically, the Olympics has not seen fast marathon times, and the last time the men’s world record was broken at the Olympics was when Ethiopia’s Abebe Bikila won gold in Tokyo 1964. The women’s marathon world record has never been broken in the Olympics. 

Will we see a new Olympic record? The men’s Olympic record is 2:06:32 and the women’s time is 2:23:07. While the men’s time looks to be too quick for the Paris course (more on that below!), there’s potentially more chance that the women’s Olympic record may be broken, and there are certainly many runners capable of running under 2:23.

Why are marathon times slower in the Olympics? There are numerous reasons for this. They’re run in the middle of summer, so the weather is often warmer than in spring and summer marathons. As it’s such a prestigious race, which only happens every four years, runners focus more on where they finish and not their finishing time, meaning races are typically slower and more tactical. The routes are also often more challenging than big city marathon courses, making for slower times. 

But slower times doesn’t make for less interesting races, and it means that more of the runners in the field can consider themselves as contenders to win a medal – and that’s exciting for us as spectators.

PARIS 2024 OLYMPIC MARATHON COURSE

The Paris 2024 Olympic Marathon course is not the same route as the Paris Marathon, which takes place every April. Event organisers have chosen a route which celebrates the historic Women’s March on Versailles, which happened in October 1789 and was one of the earliest and most important events in the French Revolution.

The Paris Olympic marathon is a full 42.2km course and not a looped course like previous Games. It follows a route from Paris’s Hôtel de Ville (the City Hall) to the Palace of Versailles, and then back again via a different route, to finish at Les Invalides.

Here’s the Paris 2024 Olympic Marathon course. Check out that elevation profile – this is not a typical city marathon course! 

First the good news: the first 15km are pretty flat, and the last 10km are pretty flat.

The bad news: the 17km in between are definitely not flat. In total, the course has an elevation ascent and then descent of 436m (1,430ft). And while 436m doesn’t sound like much, it’s almost 200m more elevation gain than what runners face during the ‘hilly’ marathons in Boston and New York. Paris also has significantly more downhills than Boston, and those descents are going to punish unprepared quads. 

The uphills are long and in places very steep. The third of the hills, from 25.5km to 29km, is often above a 10% gradient, and sometimes over 13%, then runners have to come back down again, with 3km of downhills and gradients as steep as -15%! The steepest hills in Boston rarely get above or below a 6% gradient. 

This course may not make for really fast marathon times, but it could make for exciting racing, where runners who have personal bests much slower than the fastest in the field will be in with a chance of competing for medals – as long as they’ve trained hard at running hills.

PARIS 2024 OLYMPIC MARATHON | THE MEN’S RACE

In 2024 alone, 44 men have run faster than the Olympic marathon record, but because of the hills, this will likely be a very open race. 

The great Kenyan marathoner Eliud Kipchoge will hope for his third straight Olympic marathon gold, in what is very likely to be his final Olympics. His PB of 2:01:09 makes him the fastest in the field. But he’s not the fastest this year, and that’s Kenya’s Benson Kipruto who ran 2:02 in the 2024 Tokyo Marathon. Kenya’s other runner is Alexander Munyao, a 2:03 guy. 

Ethiopia’s Kenenisa Bekele, who has three Olympic gold medals and will be running his final Olympic race, is always a contender, even at 42 years old. Though his countrymen are also very strong: Deresa Geleta won the 2024 Seville Marathon in 2:03:27, and Tamirat Tola, 2023 New York City Marathon winner and course record holder. 

Uganda’s strongest medal hope will be with Victor Kaplangat. He’s a 2:05 guy, the current marathon World Champion from Budapest, and has won the World Mountain Running championship, so he’s shown that he can run well on the hills.

France’s Morhad Amdouni’s 2:03:47 is the fastest European time this year, so home advantage may favour him. 

GB’s Emile Cairess could be an outside favourite for a medal, and he’s in the race alongside compatriots Phil Sesemann and Mahamed Mahamed.

Team USA’s Connor Mantz and Clayton Young are other athletes to watch out for on the back of what appears to be an excellent build up, which Young has shared on YouTube.

PARIS 2024 OLYMPIC MARATHON | THE WOMEN’S RACE

This is the final running event of the Olympic Games and on form and PBs this is a battle between Ethiopia and Kenya for the medals, but the field is deep.

Ethiopia’s Tigist Assefa, the world record holder, is running. We know she’s very fast, but can she handle the hills? The other Ethipians are Megertu Alemu, who ran 2:16 to finish fourth is a fast 2024 London Marathon, and Amane Beriso Shankule, 2023 marathon World Champion, 2022 Valencia Marathon winner in her personal best of 2:14 (fifth fastest all time woman), and a runner up in Boston. 

Kenya have the reigning Olympic Champion, Peres Jepchirchir, who ran 2:16 to win the 2024 London Marathon. She’s also won both Boston and New York, so knows how to run hilly courses. The two other Kenya runners have also had success in both Boston and New York, so should be towards the front if they have a good race: Hellen Obiri and Sharon Lokedi.

The Netherlands’ Sifan Hassan will run Sunday’s marathon after competing in the 10,000m on Friday night and having won bronze in the 5000m earlier in the week. She’s the second fastest female marathoner of all time, but will her legs handle her crazy Olympic schedule?

GB’s team includes Rose Harvey, Calli Thackery and Clara Evans, who was a very late call-up after Charlotte Purdue sustained an injury.

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Who do you think will win the Paris Olympic Marathon? 

Lead image of Marathon Pour Tous and Olympic Marathon Map both ©Paris 2024