Billed the hardest Olympic marathon course in modern history, with gruelling hills positioned at the toughest parts of the race, the 26.2-mile route used for the men’s and women’s marathons at the 2024 Paris Games was not for the faint-hearted. Not even the elites were immune to the pain of such an up-and-down course – especially amid the swelling temperatures of the French capital that August weekend.
For the first time in history, to shine a brighter light on women in sport, the women’s Olympic marathon was held on the final day of the Games to close sporting proceedings. As such, the men toed the line first at Hôtel de Ville on Saturday morning (10 August), their final destination being Les Invalides after a demanding detour to Versailles via nine Parisian districts.
Less than 10 minutes into this long-distance men’s race and we were all making our predictions – including BBC commentator and former elite marathon runner Paula Radcliffe.
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‘This isn’t going to be a marathon that’s anywhere near, in my opinion, challenging the Olympic marathon record,’ predicted Radcliffe, who previously held the women’s marathon world record for 16 years. ‘It’s not going to be a 2:05 race. It’s going to be more around a 2:08, 2:10 race with all those hills.’
Less than two hours later, though, and the results proved otherwise. While we did not see a 2:05 finish, the world was baffled, humbled and elated to see Tamirat Tola of Ethiopia break the tape first in an outstanding time of 2:06:26 – a new Olympic marathon record by six seconds.
A clear specialist on undulating road races – having won the notoriously lumpy New York City Marathon in 2023 – Tola was a worthy winner of such an unforgiving race and showed exceptional power on even the hilliest parts of the course.
Tola takes the Olympic crown
While Eyob Faniel of Italy created a 23-second gap on the pack just after 10K, big names from the African nations – including Tola, who boasts a swift marathon PB of 2:03:39 – were chasing hard in the heat. By the time the climbing started at 15km, Faniel’s fastest competitors had closed the gap and Tola was the first to hit halfway in 1:04:51.
But the hills took their toll – both up and down. By the time the course flattened out around the 20-mile mark, Tola had a clear lead and made the challenge look almost easy, clocking just over 14 minutes for the 5K section of the course that included the sharp, steep downhill. That said, Tola was not as confident as he looked.
‘I had difficulties on the hilly section, so I was afraid at that point,’ he reflected after the race. ‘I only felt confident after 41km. Until then, I kept looking back and wasn’t sure.’
Despite his own doubts, Tola went on to cross the finish line a full 21 seconds ahead of Belgium’s Bashir Abdi, 35, who battled hard to upgrade his Olympic marathon bronze from Tokyo to a silver in Paris in 2:06:47. Kenya’s 33-year-old Benson Kipruto, a three-time Abbott World Marathon Majors winner, finished not far behind in 2:07:00, earning him the bronze medal.
Perhaps most astoundingly, however, is the fact that Tola was not initially selected for Ethiopia’s three-strong Olympic men’s marathon team. He only stepped in when countryman Sisay Lemma – the 2024 Boston Marathon champion whose PB of 2:01:48 doubles as the course record for the Valencia Marathon – withdrew at the end of July due to injury.
‘Sisay told me that it was better for him to drop out and for me to compete,’ said Tola, 33, after the race. ‘He said, “You can do better than me in my condition”. It is thanks to him – this victory also belongs to him for giving me this opportunity.’
Marathon magnificence from Cairess
Podium athletes aside, the fourth finisher of the men’s Olympic marathon in Paris created history of his own. Emile Cairess, of Great Britain, executed the race of his life to finish a mere 63 seconds behind Tola to secure the fourth spot – the highest a British man has placed in an Olympic marathon for 40 years.
While he was outside of the medals, 26-year-old Cairess, from Bradford, performed exceptionally well on such a brutal course to remain in contention throughout – and make his name known worldwide.
Cairess – who has gained as much attention for his trusty orange Casio watch as his running talent – only ran his first 26.2-mile race in 2023, where he was the first Brit home at the London Marathon in a time of 2:08:07. One year later, he then finished fourth overall at the 2024 London Marathon in 2:06:46 – a result that secured his selection for the Paris Games and cemented him as the second-fastest British marathon runner of all time, behind only Mo Farah.
Amazingly, the Olympic marathon in Paris was only his third shot at the distance.
‘I’m really proud of myself – I’m really happy with that,’ said Cairess after the race in Paris. ‘I just wanted to give myself a chance. That was my thinking – just try to run as fast as I could until the end. Maybe some of them would blow up and I could catch them, but it just so happened that three of them [Tola, Abdi and Kipruto] didn’t blow up.
‘The course was tough – it was really hard,’ he continued. ‘I’ve only done two marathons. London is pretty flat, so that [Paris] was way harder. With the hills it felt much longer.’
Fellow Team GB runners Phil Sesemann and Mahamed Mahamed – who, like Cairess, made their Olympic debuts this year in Paris – fought valiantly to finish 46th (2:13:08) and 57th (2:15:19) respectively.
Of the 81 athletes who started the race, 10 dropped out – including two-time Olympic marathon gold medallist and former marathon world record holder Eliud Kipchoge, who appeared to suffer with a hip complaint before pulling up around the 31km mark.
This marathon was the first time in 20 years that Kenya’s Kipchoge, 39, had competed in the same Olympic event as fellow marathon legend Kenenisa Bekele, 42, of Ethiopia, who completed the Paris course in 2:12:24. Indeed, it was at the 2004 Games in Athens that the iconic pair went head-to-head in the 5000m, with Bekele claiming sliver and Kipchoge, bronze.
While Bekele and Kipchoge have surely passed the peak of their illustrious careers, there is certainly no drought when it comes to newer marathon talent, with Tola, Abdi, Kipruto and – of course – Cairess in fiery form to achieve even more in future.
