The organizers of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games have announced a number of historic changes ahead of the events which will be staged between July 26 and August 11.
According to a statement released on Wednesday, October 6, the men’s marathon will take place a day before that of their female counterparts for the first time in the history of the games.
"French marathon runner Mélody Julien expressed how excited she is about the route and the meaning behind it.
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"More so because for the first time since the women’s marathon was introduced at the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984 the order in which the races will take place has changed.
“With the men’s race taking place first on Saturday 10 August at 8am CET and the women’s race the following day on Sunday 11 August at 8am CET," the organizers announced.
Paris 2024 organizers also disclosed that they will allow members of the public to take part in the marathon discipline for the first time since the inception of the games.
“In addition to the Olympic marathons, it was confirmed that over 40,000 members of the public will be given the opportunity to run in the "Paris 2024 Marathon Pour Tous" mass running events.
“As part of this announcement, Paris 2024 organisers revealed details about how people can earn entry for the public marathon (42.195km) and 10km run, both of which will take place on the same route as the Olympic marathons,” part of the statement from the organizers read.
The Marathon discipline is also expected to be a very special one because it might be the last time that the reigning world record holder and double Olympic champion will grace the summer games.
Kipchoge, who lowered his world record from 2:01.39 to 2:01.09 in Berlin two weeks ago, won the marathon race at both the 2016 and 2020 editions staged in Brazil and Japan respectively.
Both the women’s and men’s marathon titles are currently held by Kenyans.
Kipchoge and Peris Chepchirchir clocked 2:08.38 and 2:27.20 to win the male and female categories respectively.
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