See: route of Paris 2024 Olympic marathon is charged with history
The race on August 10 and 11 follows in the footsteps of a movement that help shape French identity
The race starts and ends at the Paris Hôtel de Ville, with Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge chasing his third consecutive Olympic marathon winphotocosmos1 / Alla Tsyganova / Shutterstock / Paris 2024
The Paris 2024 Olympic marathon takes place on Saturday (August 10) and Sunday (August 11), with the athletes following in the footsteps of a movement that helped shape French history.
Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge, 39, is chasing his third consecutive Olympic marathon win in the men’s race on Saturday.
World record holder (2:11:53), Ethiopia’s Tigist Assefa, 27, is favourite for the women’s race on Sunday, the final day of the Games.
The races will both follow the same 42.195km (26.219 miles) route, which is that of the Women’s March on Versailles of October, 1789.
A route that marked French history
The march, starting in the poor areas of the city on October 5 and 6, 1789, saw market women, shopkeepers and workers gather in front of the Hôtel de Ville in Paris to demand bread and money.
Between 6,000 and 7,000 Parisian women, joined by men, marched through Paris to Versailles to bring the King back to the Tuileries Gardens.
That day, Louis XVI finally agreed to ratify the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizens.
