Ethiopia’s Tamirat Tola Wins 2024 Men’s Olympic Marathon In Paris With Record Time

One of the marquee events of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games is the marathon, and this year, the event promised to be one of the most exciting in Olympic history.

The race, featuring a daunting course, a stacked field, and challenging weather conditions, promised to be a thrilling one, with much drama to follow.

The 2024 Paris Olympic Games marathon winner, Tamirat Tola of Ethiopia, wasn’t even expected to race the Olympic marathon just a few weeks ago. But when fellow countryman Sisay Lemma had to drop out with a hamstring injury in late July, he got the call. Clearly he’d been training and was ready, crushing the hills and setting an Olympic record in the process.

He set an Olympic marathon record, winning in 2:06:26, 21 seconds ahead of Bashir Abdi of Belgium, who took silver (2:06:47), and 34 seconds clear of perhaps the pre-race favorite Benson Kipruto of Kenya, who got bronze in 2:07:00.

One of the key storylines for the men’s marathon was Eliud Kipchoge, Kenya’s legendary marathoner, who was aiming for a historic third consecutive Olympic gold. At 39, Kipchoge remains at the pinnacle of the sport, holding four of the ten fastest marathon times in history, including his former world record of 2:01:09 set in Berlin in 2023.

However, with recent breaks in his form, including a 10th place finish at the 2024 Tokyo Marathon, and a course taking place in the hills, his weakness, the door was wide open for a new Olympic Champion.

The Paris 2024 Olympic Marathon course was not for the faint-hearted. Unlike recent Olympic marathons, which featured flat, looped courses, this marathon presented a significant challenge with its varied terrain and elevation changes. 

The route’s elevation gain of 1,430 feet (436 meters) is almost double that of the hilliest World Marathon Majors, such as Boston and New York City, which both feature around 800 feet of elevation gain.

The first significant challenge comes just before the 10-mile mark, where runners will encounter a steep climb with a 4% grade lasting about 1.25 miles. This is followed by an even steeper climb at the 12-mile mark, with a 5% grade over 900 meters. 

However, these hills are just a prelude to the main challenge of the course: a brutal climb just after the 18-mile mark, where the gradient reaches a punishing 10.5% over 600 meters.

The course also includes a total descent of 1,437 feet (438 meters), which may prove to be just as challenging as the climbs. 

How the Race Played Out

The race started off at a conservative pace (for these runners, still too fast for us mere mortals), with the entire field coming through the first 5K in 15:41.

While Italy’s Eyob Faniel got a bit of an early gap, the field stayed mostly together, with all the race favorites, including Kipchoge, making it to the start of the daunting hills around mile 10 as one.

As the road pointed upwards, the race began to explode.

As veterans Kipchoge and Kenenisa Bekele of Ethiopia fell back, Tamirat Tola and Conner Mantz began to surge ahead. The pair strung out the rest of the field on the hills, which resulted in a select group of about 15 runners by the 25K mark.

The lead group was a really nice mix. It included some of the favorites you’d expect to see, such as Tola of Ethiopia, but also a number of runners you wouldn’t expect to have made it into this group including Emile Cairess of Great Britain. Americans Mantz and Clayton Young, both training partners, were also in this front group. You could tell they were really taking in this whole experience as they high-fived one another passing an aid station.

The front pack stayed together until they hit the nastiest climb of the day, where they would negotiate 600m at over 10% incline.

It was at this point that Tola made a distinct move and gapped himself from the rest of the group. Behind him, the front group of 15 truly shattered, and runners were strung out along the entirety of the climb.

Deresa Gelata of Ethiopia, Tola’s teammate, and Emile Cairess of Great Britain began to close down the gap to Tola on the equally challenging downhill following the final climb of attrition.

Tola made it out of the hills solo, with a chase group of seven runners behind, which included compatriot Gelata, putting Ethiopia in a strong position. With less than 10K to go and the hills out of the way, it looked like Tola’s race to loose as he held a 13-second gap to the chase group.

By 35K, Tola extended his lead to 20 seconds, but the chase group was still in sight behind him. The group of five chasing Tola included Abdi of Belgium, Gelata of Ethiopia, Akasaki of Japan, Kipruto of Kenya, and Simbu of Tanzania.

Ethiopia’s Tamirat Tola opened up his gap on the climb and never looked back, winning the 2024 Olympic Marathon in Paris with a time of 2:06:26, running a new Olympic record.

With three runners battling for the remaining two medals, it was Bashir Abdi of Belgium who took silver with a time of 2:06:47 and Benson Kipruto of Kenya who rounded out the podium in 2:07:00.

Other finishers of note:

Emile Cairess of Great Britain, caught both Akira Akasaki of Japan and Ethiopia’s Deresa Geleta in the closing meters of the race to finish fourth in 2:07:29. Geleta finished fifth in 2:07:31, and Akasaki was sixth in 2:07:32.

Americans Conner Mantz (2:08:12) and Clayton Young (2:08:44) finished in eighth and ninth.

Kipchoge Drops Out of the Olympic Marathon

Eliud Kipchoge began the race near the front in the lead pack, looking calm and confident. But as they hit the hills, beginning at about 16K, the two-time Olympic champion began to fade back. He was caught on camera at roughly 21K grabbing at his hip. Kipchoge ultimately dropped out of the race at some point between 30-35K, and became one of 10 athletes to DNF on the tough course.

Here are Kipchoge’s recorded splits:

Distance	Time	Rank
5 km	15:41	8
10 km	30:59	7
15 km	46:02	7
20 km	1:02:28	48
Half	1:06:07	58
25 km	1:18:33	63
30 km	1:39:38	71

Men’s 2024 Olympic Marathon Results

pos	bib	Country	Athlete	mark
1	622	ETH	Tamirat TOLA	2:06:26 OR
2	372	BEL	Bashir ABDI	2:06:47 SB
3	974	KEN	Benson KIPRUTO	2:07:00
4	692	GBR	Emile CAIRESS	2:07:29
5	616	ETH	Deresa GELETA	2:07:31
6	926	JPN	Akira AKASAKI	2:07:32 PB
7	1011	LES	Tebello RAMAKONGOANA	2:07:58 NR
8	1330	USA	Conner MANTZ	2:08:12 SB
9	1357	USA	Clayton YOUNG	2:08:44 SB
10	574	ERI	Samsom AMARE	2:08:56 SB
11	1177	RSA	Elroy GELANT	2:09:07
12	767	GER	Richard RINGER	2:09:18 SB
13	942	JPN	Suguru OSAKO	2:09:25 SB
14	554	DJI	Ibrahim HASSAN	2:09:31 SB
15	745	GER	Samuel FITWI SIBHATU	2:09:50
16	665	FRA	Nicolas NAVARRO	2:09:56 SB
17	1244	TAN	Alphonce Felix SIMBU	2:10:03
18	1020	MAR	Othmane EL GOUMRI	2:10:06
19	1381	ZIM	Isaac MPOFU	2:10:09 SB
20	641	FRA	Hassan CHAHDI	2:10:09
21	982	KEN	Alexander MUNYAO	2:10:31
22	391	BEL	Michael SOMERS	2:10:32
23	936	JPN	Naoki KOYAMA	2:10:33
24	349	AUS	Patrick TIERNAN	2:10:34
25	848	ITA	Yemaneberhan CRIPPA	2:10:36
26	837	ISR	Maru TEFERI	2:10:42 SB
27	1182	RSA	Stephen MOKOKA	2:10:59
28	1236	SWE	Suldan HASSAN	2:11:21
29	1160	PRK	Il Ryong HAN	2:11:21
30	1222	SUI	Matthias KYBURZ	2:11:32
31	835	ISR	Gashau AYALE	2:11:36
32	1097	NOR	Sondre Nordstad MOEN	2:11:39 SB
33	1215	SUD	Yaseen ABDALLA	2:11:41 NR
34	587	ESP	Ibrahim CHAKIR	2:11:44
35	1025	MAR	Zouhair TALBI	2:11:51
36	460	CAN	Cameron LEVINS	2:11:56 SB
37	1273	UGA	Victor KIPLANGAT	2:11:59
38	1216	SUI	Tadesse ABRAHAM	2:12:22
39	612	ETH	Kenenisa BEKELE	2:12:24
40	495	CHN	Xiangdong WU	2:12:34
41	601	ESP	Yago ROJO	2:12:43 SB
42	570	EOR	Tachlowini GABRIYESOS	2:12:47
43	853	ITA	Eyob FANIEL	2:12:50
44	834	ISR	Girmaw AMARE	2:12:51 SB
45	324	AUS	Andrew BUCHANAN	2:12:58
46	721	GBR	Philip SESEMANN	2:13:08
47	461	CAN	Rory LINKLETTER	2:13:09
48	1152	POR	Samuel BARATA	2:13:23 SB
49	317	AUS	Liam ADAMS	2:13:33 SB
50	639	FRA	Felix BOUR	2:13:46 SB
51	861	ITA	Daniele MEUCCI	2:14:02
52	1096	NOR	Zerei Kbrom MEZNGI	2:14:14 SB
53	477	CHI	Carlos DÍAZ	2:14:25
54	578	ERI	Henok TESFAY	2:14:31
55	501	CHN	Shaohui YANG	2:14:48
56	523	CPV	Samuel FREIRE	2:15:05
57	711	GBR	Mahamed MAHAMED	2:15:19
58	1049	NED	Khalid CHOUKOUD	2:15:25 SB
59	476	CHI	Hugo CATRILEO	2:15:44
60	404	BOL	Héctor GARIBAY	2:15:54 SB
61	386	BEL	Koen NAERT	2:16:33 SB
62	1275	UGA	Andrew Rotich KWEMOI	2:17:28
63	1324	USA	Leonard KORIR	2:18:45
64	577	ERI	Berhane TESFAY	2:18:50
65	924	JOR	Moath ALKHAWALDEH	2:20:01 SB
66	795	GUA	Alberto GONZALEZ MINDEZ	2:22:12 SB
67	486	CHN	Jie HE	2:22:31
68	600	ESP	Tariku NOVALES	2:25:50 SB
69	1038	MKD	Dario IVANOVSKI	2:28:15
70	475	CHA	Valentin BETOUDJI	2:32:11
71	1036	MGL	Ser-Od BAT-OCHIR	2:42:33
	1058	NED	Abdi NAGEEYE	DNF
	1024	MAR	Mohcin OUTALHA	DNF
	1243	TAN	Gabriel Gerald GEAY	DNF
	971	KEN	Eliud KIPCHOGE	DNF
	1365	UZB	Shokhrukh DAVLYATOV	DNF
	760	GER	Amanal PETROS	DNF
	1274	UGA	Stephen KISSA	DNF
	1266	TUR	Kaan Kigen ÖZBILEN	DNF
	1116	PER	Christian PACHECO	DNF
	838	ISV	Eduardo Terrance GARCIA	DNF