PARIS — Ethiopia’s Tamirat Tola wasn’t his country’s first choice to run the Olympic marathon.
But when countryman Sisa Lemma withdrew due to injuries, Tola was tapped to take his place — and won the race in Olympic record time.
“When Sisay had injuries, then I had a chance to represent him. I was fully prepared and knew I could fulfil my dream. I am happy to do that today,” he said after the race.
“This is the Olympics and it is not easy to win the Olympic Games, not at all. I am very proud, very happy.”
Tola, who nine months ago set a course record while winning the hilly New York City Marathon, seemed to thrive on the challenging Olympic course, settling into the front pack on the first steep climb up Rue de Sèvres, which took athletes into Versailles. By the 30km mark he was running out front on his own, along streets lined with crowds that were at times 10 deep. He crossed the finish at Hotel des Invalides in two hours, six minutes, 26 seconds — 21 seconds ahead of European marathon record holder Abdi Bashir of Belgium, who won bronze at the Olympic marathon three years ago.
Benson Kipruto of Kenya, who has won the Boston, Chicago and Tokyo marathons in the last four years, took bronze.
Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge, who came into these Games with dreams of winning gold in three consecutive Olympic marathons fell off the front pack on the first hill and was seen on broadcasts holding his left side. The 39-year-old later dropped out of the race.
“The first part of the race we were together, talking and trying to move together. I don’t know what happened but I will try to go and see him,” Kipruto said after the race.
This race was once expected to be a showdown between Kipchoge and his younger countryman Kelvin Kiptum, who set the marathon world record in a blistering two hours, 35 minutes at the 2023 Chicago Marathon. But Kiptum was killed in a vehicle accident in February, just two months before he’d hoped to lower his world record in April at the Rotterdam Marathon. He was 24.
“I was thinking, what if he was here?” Kipruto said of Kiptum. “What would he have done better than this? But there’s nothing you can change. We have to represent our country and we feel sorry for his passing. Part of this, I personally dedicate to him and his family back in Kenya.”
Less than a month after Kiptum’s death, Kipchoge finished 10th in the Tokyo Marathon, his poorest finish over 42.2 kilometres since his debut over that distance in 2013. He would later tell the BBC that he’d suffered a campaign of online abuse following Kiptum’s death from people who believed he’d been part of a conspiracy to kill Kiptum.
“I received a lot of bad things; that they will burn the (training) camp, they will burn my investments in town, they will burn my house, they will burn my family,” he told the news service, adding he’d “lost about 90 per cent” of his friends over the misinformation campaign. Despite the hardships, he was adamant he planned to go to Paris to win his third consecutive Olympic medal in the marathon. “I want to go into history books, to be the first human being to win back-to-back-to-back.”
Canadian marathon record holder Cam Levins, 35, finished 36th in 2 hours, 11 minutes, 56 seconds, an improvement over his performance three years ago in Tokyo when he faded in the heat at the 2020 Tokyo Games, finishing 71st of 75 finishers.
But in the years since, Levins placed fourth in the men’s marathon at the 2022 world championships and then set the North American record over 42.2 kilometres running when he finished fifth at the 2023 Tokyo Marathon in 2 hours 5 minutes 36 seconds.
“Obviously I was hoping for a lot better still. But for how I was feeling going in, I’m OK with it,” he said after the race.
“I was thinking I might catch some people as I was rolling in, I was still hitting some good splits for a lot of the second half of the course. But the marathoning world is real good right now, and I need to be at the very top of my game to stand any sort of chance.”
Rory Linkletter, originally of Calgary, finished 47th in two hours, 13 minutes and nine seconds.
Later this evening, more than 20,000 people will participate in a mass-participation marathon on the Olympic marathon course.
In deviation from recent tradition, the women will race Sunday on the last day of the Games.