The night before the women’s marathon at the 2024 Paris Games, while the Olympic racers slept, an entirely different competition lit up the city streets—and no one had to be a world-class athlete to participate.
In the Marathon Pour Tous (which translates to the ‘Marathon for All’ in English), 20,024 regular runners careened through the same iconic course—and crossed the same finish line—as Sifan Hassan and Tola Tamirat, the respective women’s and men’s marathon gold medalists. For those who wanted to follow in those iconic Olympians’ footsteps, just not all 26.2 miles of them, a simultaneous 10-kilometer (a.k.a. 6.2-mile) race was also held in central Paris. In total, more than 40,000 people from 127 countries participated in the two events, according to the Associated Press. Both events were held overnight prior to the women’s marathon on August 11th.
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As the official website of the 2024 Games notes, this is the first time an Olympic marathon route has been opened to the public. It was part of the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) effort to make guests feel like they were part of the action and give them “unforgettable, lifelong” memories from this year’s Games.
Making it even more special? The course, for both Olympians and amateurs, was designed to spotlight key moments in French history. The starting gun went off at the Hôtel de Ville, where the Women’s March on Versailles happened in 1789. Runners then traveled through nine districts of Paris, weaving past iconic landmarks like the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, and the Palace of Versailles before crossing the finish line at the Esplanade des Invalides.
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