The women's marathon at the 2024 Summer Olympics was held in Paris, France, on 11 August 2024, the 11th time that the women's marathon has been contested at the Summer Olympics.
| Women's marathon at the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad | |||||||||||||
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 Rose Harvey of Great Britain runs past the Palace of Versailles, retracing the route of the Women's March on Versailles. | |||||||||||||
| Venue | Paris[1] | ||||||||||||
| Date |
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| Winning time | 2:22:55 OR | ||||||||||||
| Medalists | |||||||||||||
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Summary
editSince 2019, Sifan Hassan has been a disruptive force in any race she enters, and she enters a lot. She has a faster finishing kick than almost any other female distance runner. She knows it, all of her competitors know it, making their mission to disrupt what Hassan does so they can win. Hassan has won World Championship or Olympic Gold medals at 1500 metres, 5000 metres and 10,000 metres. She has held the world record for the Mile, 10,000 metres and road 5k. In 2023, she added the marathon to her range of events, running the second fastest time in history on her second attempt. This Olympic Marathon was her fourth attempt at the distance. She has already competed in two rounds of the 5000 and 10,000 at these Olympics, taking bronze behind Beatrice Chebet and one other in each race. She had only had less than 36 hours rest since the 10,000 final. Back to defend her title was Peres Jepchirchir, who also can claim the fastest marathon in a women's only race, while Brigid Kosgei and Molly Seidel did not make it back. The only 2022 World Championship medalist to return was Lonah Chemtai Salpeter, 2023 gold medalist Amane Beriso Shankule, who is the #5 marathoner ever and bronze Fatima Ezzahra Gardadi are entered. The world's fastest marathoner ever, Tigst Assefa also entered. Hellen Obiri was another entrant with extensive track experience and 2 world championship gold medals in the 5000.
The temperatures for the women were a little warmer than for the men the day before. Many men commented on their need to take special measures to cool down in the conditions. As is typical for championship marathons, a giant lead pack congealed and reduced in size as individuals fell off the back. By 15 kilometers, that had reduced down to a manageable 21. That was where the hill climb began. 428 metres (1,400 feet), most of it in less than 3K. Mélody Julien used the home field advantage to break away to a 15 meter lead up the more familiar hill toward the Palace of Versailles. Also feeling good an hour into the race, Jessica Stenson comes up to take over the lead. After the major portion of the hill, the pack congealed again, only to have Julien, Stenson and Dakotah Lindwurm be the first three to the halfway point but the large pack was still lurking right behind them. After passing a water station near the Palace, Lindwurm emerged off the front, the only leaders interested in bridging were Salpeter and Sardana Trofimova, catching Lindwurm at 24K. Salpeter continued on the front but in less than a kilometre, Assefa and Jepchirchir closed down any thoughts of a breakaway, with the rest of the pack in tow. Stenson suddenly found herself holding onto the back of the lead pack of 20. Over the next 5K, it was down to 12 with Yuka Suzuki and Stella Chesang trying to keep in contact off the back. At about 28K, the race had it's steepest climb, some of it up to a 13.5% grade. Though significantly shorter in distance and on foot here, such a grade is more than one and a half times the Hors catégorie in the Tour de France. With Shankule taking the lead, a much smaller pack including Assefa, Obiri, Salpeter, Jepchirchir, Sharon Lokedi, Eunice Chumba, and Delvine Relin Meringor, all born and raised in East Africa, were charging up the hill. And Suzuki had caught back up to the lead pack. Notably absent was Hassan. Was this the break everyone was looking for? What goes up, must come down. On the downhill, it only took a little over a kilometre for Hassan's faster leg turnover to allow her to catch back up to the pack. Over the next 5K, the pack had reduced to Shankule, Assefa, Obiri, Lokedi, Meringor, Suzuki and Hassan. It took 5 more kilometers for Meringor and then Suzuki to fall out the back. There was only 2K to go and Hassan still had shown no interest in leading. This was the end game of chess. Shankule was the first to go as Obiri and Assefa battled at the front. Lokedi was behind the two with Hassan, then she couldn't keep up and there were three. Then Obiri began to struggle, as she began to fall back, Hassan seized on the moment to accelerate around her. Assefa also accelerate, trying to stay ahead of Hassan, around one turn, then Hassan switched sides sprinting the tangent to pass on the inside of the next turn. Assefa dipped her shoulder to cut off space between her body and the barricade, dangerously close to what could have been an interference call. But Hassan was coming through, pushing Assefa away to make the pass just as they passed the 42Km marker. It was a 195 metre sprint, which is Hassan's forté. Hassan was not confident, she kept checking every few steps over one shoulder then the other to make sure there weren't any surprises coming. Assefa wasn't backing down or going away, but it was clear by the time they reached the final carpet, less than 100m from the finish, she was not going to catch Hassan. A few more checks over her shoulder and Hassan raised her arms in victory as she hit the finish banner. Assefa finished just three seconds later and Obiri was already on the finishing carpet, just 12 seconds further back for bronze.[2]
Sifan Hassan's winning margin of three seconds over a distance of greater than 26 miles (42 km) was the narrowest of any women's marathon at the Olympics. After the race, the Ethiopian team filed a protest to disqualify Hassan due to obstruction, which was rejected by the Jury of Appeal. At the post-race news conference, Tigst remarked (through a translator) "I didn’t expect at that moment it would happen. Maybe at that moment, if she didn’t push me I would have the gold."[3][4]
Background
editThe women's marathon has been present on the Olympic athletics programme since 1984.
In its four-decade-long Olympic history since the 1984 Los Angeles Games, the women's marathon occurred on the last day of the athletics program for the first time, with the men's race scheduled a day before. According to Tony Estanguet, a triple Olympic slalom canoeing champion and president of the Paris 2024 organising committee, "We wanted to reverse the order in an ambition to more gender equality and bring women to the fore for the first time so the women's marathon will enjoy major visibility on 11 August to cap off the athletics program."[5]
Course
editThe 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 the 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.[6][7]
Records
edit| Record | Athlete (Nation) | Time | Location | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| World record |  Tigst Assefa (ETH)
|
2:11:53[8] | Berlin, Germany | 24 September 2023 |
| Olympic record | Tiki Gelana (ETH)
|
2:23:07 | London, Great Britain | 5 August 2012 |
| World leading | Sutume Kebede (ETH)
|
2:15:55[9] | Tokyo, Japan | 3 March 2024 |
| Area Record | Athlete (Nation) | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Africa (records) | Tigst Assefa (ETH)
|
2:11:53 WR |
| Asia (records) |  Honami Maeda (JPN)
|
2:18:59 |
| Europe (records) |  Sifan Hassan (NED)
|
2:13:44 |
| North, Central America |  Emily Sisson (USA)
|
2:18:29 |
| Oceania (records) |  Sinead Diver (AUS)
|
2:21:34 |
| South America (records) |  Florencia Borelli (ARG)
|
2:24:18 |
Qualification
editFor the women's marathon event, the qualification period is between 1 July 2023 and 30 June 2024. 95 athletes are able to qualify for the event, with a maximum of three athletes per nation, by running the entry standard of 2:26.50 seconds or faster or by their World Athletics Ranking for this event.[11]
Results
editThe event was held on 11 August 2024 starting at 08:00 (UTC+2) in the morning with 91 athletes taking part.[1] Sifan Hassan placed first in an Olympic record of 2:22:55.[12][13][14]
References
edit- ^ a b "Paris 2024 - Women's Marathon - Start list" (PDF). Olympics.com. 10 August 2024. Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 August 2024. Retrieved 10 August 2024.
- ^ https://olympics.com/OG2024/pdf/OG2024/ATH/OG2024_ATH_C77V_ATHWMARATHON----------FNL-000100--.pdf
- ^ "Sifan Hassan wins women's marathon at Paris Olympics after trading elbows with Tigst Assefa". AP News. 2024-08-11. Retrieved 2024-08-11.
- ^ "Sifan Hassan wins women's marathon at Paris Olympics, edging ahead of Tigst Assefa". Voice of America. 2024-08-11. Retrieved 2024-08-11.
- ^ "Paris 2024 marathon route revealed: A challenging race through history and incredible monuments". International Olympic Committee. 5 October 2022. Archived from the original on 15 February 2023. Retrieved 27 December 2022.
- ^ "Paris 2024 reveals routes for Olympic marathon and mass event run | News | Paris 24 | Olympic Games". worldathletics.org. Retrieved 2024-08-03.
- ^ Lorge Butler, Sarah; Dalek, Brian (4 August 2024). "What You'll Want to Know About the Paris Olympics Marathon Course". Runner's World. Retrieved 11 August 2024.
- ^ "All time Top lists – Senior – Marathon women". World Athletics. Retrieved 29 June 2024.
- ^ "Season Top Lists – Senior 2024 – Marathon women". World Athletics. Retrieved 29 June 2024.
- ^ "Records – Marathon women". World Athletics. 3 July 2024. Retrieved 3 July 2024.
- ^ Sean McAlister, "How to qualify for athletics at Paris 2024. The Olympics qualification system explained", Olympics.com, 20 December 2022. Retrieved 29 June 2024.
- ^ "Paris 2024 - Women's Marathon - Results" (PDF). Olympics.com. 11 August 2024. Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 August 2024. Retrieved 11 August 2024.
- ^ "Olympic marathon: Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands wins women's race". Le Monde. 11 August 2024. Retrieved 11 August 2024.
- ^ "Une réclamation éthiopienne rejetée sur le marathon féminin des JO de Paris 2024 après un incident dans le final". L'Équipe (in French). 11 August 2024. Retrieved 11 August 2024.
