The 2024 Men's Olympic Marathon Was Epic
Excuse me for some screaming about the 2024 Paris Olympic Men's Marathon, okay?
Cool. Under the cut 'cause this is gonna get long and enthusiastic.
So, first of all, Kenenisa Bekele, the man the myth the legend, was back at the Olympics. After twelve years. After he very nearly won the 2024 London Marathon. I was there and seated for this.
For second, I immediately developed a massive mancrush on Yaseen Abdallah. He's 22. He represents Sudan. He just graduated from college. He--get this--had never run a marathon before. (He was in the race on one of the Olympic universality places.) And said about running, "I hate hills".
let's all take a moment to remind ourselves of the brutally hilly Paris Olympic marathon course, yes? Yes.
And finally, Bat-Ochiryn Ser-Od was running his sixth Olympic marathon, which is makes my brain bleed to even think about.
I was too cheap to pay for a livestream, plus, from everything I've read, live television coverage of championship marathons is usually pretty shit. (Especially if there are men's and women's races happening at the same time. But feminist outrage about how fukkin' horrible TV coverage of women's long distance racing is, is not the point of this post.) I was following the race via the Olympic webpage, which gives 5k splits, and various major newspapers live updates. I should also say that I'm a pretty new fan of the sport and not at all a competitive runner myself, so, take all of this for what it's worth.
That marathon was ridiculous. Reasons include:
Eyob Faniel (Italy): made what seemed like a serious effort to take charge in the first half of the race. Boy did he pay for it later. But how exciting to see someone go for it.
By the end of the first half, it looked like Tamirat Tola (Ethiopia) had been like, "I'll take it from here" and seeing him win, in an Olympic record, on THAT COURSE, in those weather and humidity conditions, was frankly fucking bonkers. Like, run do not walk to watch the Eurosports coverage of the last ten minutes of the race, because the beauty and economy of that man's stride belongs in a museum.
The performance of Akira Akasaki (Japan). Bro is 26, this was his first Olympics and world championship race. He stayed in fifth place almost the entire freaking race, even with the Faniel-led craziness in the first half, and only ended up sixth when he got passed at the very end. You can see his finish in the clip above, and I implore you to watch it. Dude looks so flipping' happy, and from what I could see on the live tracker, you could set a metronome or an atomic clock by his pacing. And you can see from the video of the last ten minutes--he's running alone! There's no one with him! Again, as far as I can tell this was his first race at this level of competition. Absolute insanity. I can't wait to see what he does in the future.
Bashir Abdi got silver! After his bronze in Tokyo! What a legend. Also, Benson Kipruto was third. Both, from the live tracker, seem to have run incredible, smart races, especially in the second half.
Emil Cairess, (a Yorkshireman! Whoo!) who went from 9th at the half, to 2nd at 30k, to 6th at 35k and 40k, and finished fourth. I bet his race was epic to witness live. (And his finish is hilarious, dude looks like he left it allllll on the ice. Love to see it.)
Seeing somebody set a National Record is always exciting; seeing someone do it in heat, humidity, and hills, and come seventh in the Olympic marathon, is even cooler. Give Tebello Ramakongoana (Lesotho) all the flowers.
In the battle of Connor Mantz (USA) vs the Hurt Locker (dude looks like he went with Faniel and paid for it), the judges award Mantz the victory. He hung on for eighth.
Yaseen Abdallah, hater of hills, finished his first marathon, in 2:11 for 33rd place, setting a new national record for Sudan. My head exploded. If he ever decides to run another marathon, dude has a bright future.
Kenenisa Bekele had a rough day at the office but he finished! I was hoping to see him medal, because I'm a huge fan of his, but seeing him grind to finish 39th is inspiring. Massive respect to him. Eliud Kipchoge sadly DNF'd, and I hope he is okay.
And in last place, Bat-Ochiryn Ser-Od, finished his sixth Olympic marathon, which he was determined to do after dropping out in Tokyo. Ridiculous.
And that was the men's Olympic marathon. Bonkers from beginning to end. Cannot wait to follow the women's race tomorrow!
Last ten minutes of the race:
