PARIS — Hours after the world’s top men’s marathoners cross the finish of what is expected to be beautiful but brutal course, Paris Olympic organizers are doing something that’s never been done before: welcoming some 20,000 runners to the start line to tackle the race themselves.
Runners around the world earned their bibs for the Marathon Pour Tour (Marathon For All) by logging their work toward physical activity challenges over the last several months. Those who earned enough points were entered into a draw to secure one of the 20,024 spots up for grabs in the marathon. An additional 20,024 spots were also awarded for a 10km event, which will cover some of the same ground as the Olympic marathon course.
The 40,048 entries were allocated equally to men and women. “Regardless of physical condition, age or sporting ability… Everyone had a chance,” the Marathon Pour Tour website explains.
Saskatoon’s Jacquie Yourk read an article about the race in 2022 and immediately downloaded the Marathon Pour Tour app so she could start accruing points. “I just thought: ‘Oh, that’s amazing, you get to run the same route as the Olympians.’ I follow all the Olympics all the time, especially track and the marathon.”
Yourk, 60, only started running in her late 30s because she was upset about her weight and had just been diagnosed with Crohn’s disease. She had never been active — “I was busy being a smoker in high school” — and started by alternating between running one minute and walking four. She soon started challenging herself to go farther. Four years after setting out on her first walk-run, she ran her first marathon.
“I just love it. I’m not fast, I’m sure I’ll never win a race, but that’s OK.”
Yourke had expected to hear in January if her name was among those drawn to participate in the Marathon Pour Tour. But the month came and went without news so when she got the email in March saying she had a spot in the 10km she was gobsmacked. “I was texting everybody. I was so excited.” She immediately began planning a trip to Paris. “I just tell people: I’m an Olympian, I’m running the Olympic course.”
That trip will involve the 10km, yes, but also a day at Stade de France taking in the track events and she plans to watch part of the Olympic marathons. “It’ll be amazing to see them, just the speed they’re at, the level of athleticism they have. Any part of the Olympics, I just love to watch.”
The mass participation race takes place Saturday night, after the men’s race in the morning. In deviation from recent tradition, the women race Sunday on the last day of the Games.
“For many years, the men’s marathon has been held at the end of the Games, on the competition’s final day, as a culminating event to bring the Olympic fortnight to a close. To showcase the performances by women athletes, this time we are reversing the order,” an Olympics.com news release explains.
Canada qualified two marathoners for this year’s Games: Cam Levins and Malindi Elmore, who will both be competing in their third Olympics.
Levins, 35, is the current North American record holder over 42.2 kilometres and is looking for Olympic redemption after a disappointing run at the 2020 Tokyo Games where he finished 71st after a fast start.
Forty-four-year-old Elmore will likely be gunning to improve on her ninth-place finish from Tokyo, which was the best performance by a Canadian since the inaugural women’s marathon in 1984.
The marathon course, which boasts 436 metres of elevation gain and loss, starts in Paris and runs into Versailles before looping back into the city. It mirrors the route of the 1789 Women’s March on Versailles, a pivotal moment of the French Revolution when thousands of women and allies marched through Paris to Versailles where they besieged the palace and pressed their demands upon King Louis XVI, who returned with them to Paris and ultimately ratified the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizens.