The Paris 2024 Olympic Games will officially get under way on 26 July when the opening ceremony takes place. Just six days later, the eyes of the world will focus on athletics, the No.1 Olympic sport.
Here is everything you need to know about the track and field athletics programme at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
Where and when will athletics take place at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games?
The athletics programme of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games runs from 1-11 August. All track and field finals will be held during the evening sessions, while all road events will take place in the morning.
For the first time ever at the Olympic Games, the athletics programme will end with the women’s marathon.
In-stadium events will take place at the Stade de France, which has had a purple Mondo track fitted especially for the Games. The stadium, which is in Saint-Denis just north of Paris, has a capacity of 77,083 when staging athletics events.
The marathon course begins at the Hotel de Ville and will end in Les Invalides. The challenging route takes in many of the city’s iconic sights and landmarks.
The race walking events will be contested at Pont d’Iena, a bridge spanning the River Seine.
How many disciplines are on the athletics programme?
There are 48 disciplines in athletics at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, meaning 144 medals will be allocated across the 11 days of action. It will be the first Olympic Games in history that has had an identical number of disciplines for men and women.
The marathon race walk mixed relay is the newest addition to the competition programme, replacing the men’s 50km race walk. In the new mixed event, teams of one man and one woman take it in turns to each cover two legs of a relay, covering the full marathon distance between them.
How many athletes will compete in Paris?
More than 2000 athletes from some 200 teams have been entered, although those entry figures include reserves. The final start lists will be confirmed nearer to the start of the competition.
The entries include 36 of the gold medallists from the last Olympic Games in Tokyo.
Will athletes win prize money?
The International Olympic Committee does not offer prize money to athletes in any sport. Earlier this year, however, World Athletics announced it would reward each of the gold medallists in Paris with US$50,000. Relay teams will receive the same amount, to be shared among the team.
