Athletics at the 2024 Summer Olympics – Men's marathon

Men's marathon
at the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad
Men's marathon; at the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad
Venue	Paris
Date	10 August 2024;
Winning time	2:06:26 OR
Medalists
	← 2020 2028 →

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.

Background

The men's marathon has been present on the Olympic athletics programme since the inaugural edition in 1896.

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] 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.

Course

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.^[4]

Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world, Olympic, and area records were as follows.^[5]

Global records before the 2024 Summer Olympics
Record	Athlete (Nation)	Time	Location	Date
World record	Kelvin Kiptum (KEN)	2:00:35^[6]	Chicago, United States	8 October 2023
Olympic record	Samuel Wanjiru (KEN)	2:06:32	Beijing, China	24 August 2008
World leading	Benson Kipruto (KEN)	2:02:16^[7]	Tokyo, Japan	3 March 2024

Area records before the 2024 Summer Olympics^[8]
*Africa (records)*	Kelvin Kiptum (KEN)	2:00:35 WR
*Asia (records)*	El Hassan El Abbassi (BHR)	2:04:43
*Europe (records)*	Bashir Abdi (BEL)	2:03:36
North, Central America and Caribbean (records)	Cameron Levins (CAN)	2:05:36
*Oceania (records)*	Brett Robinson (AUS)	2:07:31
*South America (records)*	Daniel do Nascimento (BRA)	2:04:51

Qualification

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.^[9]^[10]

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.^[11]

The qualification period for the 2024 Olympic Marathon ended on 30 April 2024 and exceeded the 80-athlete target by one entry.^[12]

Qualification standard	No. of athletes	NOC	Nominated athletes
Entry standard – 2:08:10	3	Belgium	Bashir Abdi Koen Naert Michael Somers
	3	China	He Jie Wu Xiangdong Yang Shaohui
	3	Eritrea	Samsom Amare Berhane Tesfay Kibrom Weldemicael
	3	Ethiopia	Kenenisa Bekele Deresa Geleta Sisay Lemma
	3	France	Morhad Amdouni Felix Bour Nicolas Navarro
	3	Germany	Samuel Fitwi Amanal Petros Richard Ringer
	3	Great Britain	Emile Cairess Mahamed Mahamed Philip Sesemann
	3	Israel	Maru Teferi Gashau Ayale Girmaw Amare
	3	Italy	Yemaneberhan Crippa Eyob Faniel Daniele Meucci
	3	Kenya	Eliud Kipchoge Benson Kipruto Alexander Mutiso
	3	Morocco	Othmane El Goumri Mohcin Outalha Zouhair Talbi
	3	Spain	Ibrahim Chakir Tariku Novales Yago Rojo
	3	Uganda	Victor Kiplangat Stephen Kissa Andrew Rotich Kwemoi
	2	Australia	Brett Robinson Patrick Tiernan
	2	Canada	Cameron Levins Rory Linkletter
	2	Japan	Naoki Koyama Suguru Osako
	2	Netherlands	Khalid Choukoud Abdi Nageeye
	2	Norway	Zerei Kbrom Mezngi Sondre Nordstad Moen
	2	Switzerland	Tadesse Abraham Matthias Kyburz
	2	Tanzania	Gabriel Geay Alphonce Simbu
	2	United States	Conner Mantz Clayton Young
	0	Bahrain	~~Marius Kimutai~~ ^[a]
	1	Bolivia	Héctor Garibay
	0	Brazil	~~Daniel Ferreira do Nascimento~~ ^[b]
	1	Chile	Carlos Díaz
	1	Djibouti	Bouh Ibrahim
	1	Guatemala	Alberto González Mindez
	1	Lesotho	Tebello Ramakongoana
	1	Peru	Cristhian Pacheco
	1	Portugal	Samuel Barata
	1	South Africa	Stephen Mokoka
	1	Sweden	Suldan Hassan
	1	Turkey	Kaan Kigen Özbilen
	1	Uzbekistan	Shokhrukh Davlatov
	1	Zimbabwe	Isaac Mpofu
World Athletics Rankings	1	Australia	Liam Adams
	1	Chile	Hugo Catrileo
	1	Japan	Akira Akasaki
	1	South Africa	Elroy Gelant
	1	United States	Leonard Korir
Universality Places	1	Cape Verde	Samuel Freire
	1	Chad	Valentin Betoudji
	1	Jordan	Mo'ath Alkhawaldeh
	1	Mongolia	Bat-Ochiryn Ser-Od
	1	North Korea	Han Il-ryong
	1	North Macedonia	Dario Ivanovski
	1	Sudan	Yaseen Abdalla
	1	Virgin Islands	Eduardo Garcia
Invitational places	1	Refugee Olympic Team	Tachlowini Gabriyesos
Total	81

Results

The event was held on 10 August, starting at 08:00 (UTC+2) in the morning.^[1]

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Time Behind	Notes
	Tamirat Tola	Ethiopia	2:06:26		OR
	Bashir Abdi	Belgium	2:06:47	+0:21	SB
	Benson Kipruto	Kenya	2:07:00	+0:34
4	Emile Cairess	Great Britain	2:07:29	+1:03
5	Deresa Geleta	Ethiopia	2:07:31	+1:05
6	Akira Akasaki	Japan	2:07:32	+1:06	PB
7	Tebello Ramakongoana	Lesotho	2:07:58	+1:32	NR
8	Conner Mantz	United States	2:08:12	+1:46	SB
9	Clayton Young	United States	2:08:44	+2:18	SB
10	Samsom Amare	Eritrea	2:08:56	+2:30	SB
11	Elroy Gelant	South Africa	2:09:07	+2:41
12	Richard Ringer	Germany	2:09:18	+2:52	SB
13	Suguru Osako	Japan	2:09:25	+2:59	SB
14	Bouh Ibrahim	Djibouti	2:09:31	+3:05	SB
15	Samuel Fitwi Sibhatu	Germany	2:09:50	+3:24
16	Nicolas Navarro	France	2:09:56	+3:30	SB
17	Alphonce Simbu	Tanzania	2:10:03	+3:37
18	Othmane El Goumri	Morocco	2:10:06	+3:40
19	Isaac Mpofu	Zimbabwe	2:10:09	+3:43	SB
20	Hassan Chahdi	France	2:10:09	+3:43
21	Alexander Mutiso Munyao	Kenya	2:10:31	+4:05
22	Michael Somers	Belgium	2:10:32	+4:06
23	Naoki Koyama [ja]	Japan	2:10:33	+4:07
24	Patrick Tiernan	Australia	2:10:34	+4:08
25	Yemaneberhan Crippa	Italy	2:10:36	+4:10
26	Maru Teferi	Israel	2:10:42	+4:16	SB
27	Stephen Mokoka	South Africa	2:10:59	+4:33
28	Suldan Hassan	Sweden	2:11:21	+4:55
29	Han Il-ryong	North Korea	2:11:21	+4:55
30	Matthias Kyburz	Switzerland	2:11:32	+5:06
31	Gashau Ayale	Israel	2:11:36	+5:10
32	Sondre Nordstad Moen	Norway	2:11:39	+5:13	SB
33	Yaseen Abdalla	Sudan	2:11:41	+5:15	NR
34	Ibrahim Chakir	Spain	2:11:44	+5:18
35	Zouhair Talbi	Morocco	2:11:51	+5:25
36	Cameron Levins	Canada	2:11:56	+5:30	SB
37	Victor Kiplangat	Uganda	2:11:59	+5:33
38	Tadesse Abraham	Switzerland	2:12:22	+5:56
39	Kenenisa Bekele	Ethiopia	2:12:24	+5:58
40	Wu Xiangdong [cn]	China	2:12:34	+6:08
41	Yago Rojo	Spain	2:12:43	+6:17	SB
42	Tachlowini Gabriyesos	Refugee Olympic Team	2:12:47	+6:21
43	Eyob Faniel	Italy	2:12:50	+6:24
44	Girmaw Amare	Israel	2:12:51	+6:25	SB
45	Andrew Buchanan	Australia	2:12:58	+6:32
46	Philip Sesemann	Great Britain	2:13:08	+6:42
47	Rory Linkletter	Canada	2:13:09	+6:43
48	Samuel Barata	Portugal	2:13:23	+6:57	SB
49	Liam Adams	Australia	2:13:33	+7:07	SB
50	Felix Bour	France	2:13:46	+7:20	SB
51	Daniele Meucci	Italy	2:14:02	+7:36
52	Zerei Kbrom Mezngi	Norway	2:14:14	+7:48	SB
53	Carlos Díaz	Chile	2:14:25	+7:59
54	Henok Tesfay	Eritrea	2:14:31	+8:05
55	Yang Shaohui	China	2:14:48	+8:22
56	Samuel Freire	Cape Verde	2:15:05	+8:39
57	Mahamed Mahamed	Great Britain	2:15:19	+8:53
58	Khalid Choukoud	Netherlands	2:15:25	+8:59	SB
59	Hugo Catrileo	Chile	2:15:44	+9:18
60	Héctor Garibay	Bolivia	2:15:54	+9:28	SB
61	Koen Naert	Belgium	2:16:33	+10:07	SB
62	Andrew Rotich Kwemoi	Uganda	2:17:28	+11:02
63	Leonard Korir	United States	2:18:45	+12:19
64	Berhane Tesfay	Eritrea	2:18:50	+12:24
65	Mo'ath Alkhawaldeh	Jordan	2:20:01	+13:35	SB
66	Alberto González Mindez [de]	Guatemala	2:22:12	+15:46	SB
67	He Jie	China	2:22:31	+16:05
68	Tariku Novales	Spain	2:25:50	+19:24	SB
69	Dario Ivanovski	North Macedonia	2:28:15	+21:49
70	Valentin Betoudji	Chad	2:32:11	+25:45
71	Bat-Ochiryn Ser-Od	Mongolia	2:42:33	+36:07
—	Abdi Nageeye	Netherlands	–	40 km	DNF
	Mohcin Outalha	Morocco	–	35 km	DNF
	Gabriel Gerald Geay	Tanzania	–	30 km	DNF
	Eliud Kipchoge	Kenya	–	30 km	DNF
	Shokhrukh Davlatov	Uzbekistan	–	30 km	DNF
	Amanal Petros	Germany	–	30 km	DNF
	Stephen Kissa	Uganda	–	25 km	DNF
	Kaan Kigen Özbilen	Turkey	–	Half	DNF
	Cristhian Pacheco	Peru	–	15 km	DNF
	Eduardo Garcia	Virgin Islands	–	5 km	DNF

Notes

^ 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.