At this year’s Paris 2024 Olympic Games, a mass participation marathon – Marathon Pour Tous (‘Marathon For All’) – was organised, enabling amateur athletes to take on the same route as the Olympians.
The event was run by the Paris 2024 organising team, on Saturday, August 10, 2024. Runners set off at 21:00 CEST on a route that linked Paris and Versailles through the city’s historical landmarks, with more than 20,000 participants.
Data from Strava data shows how the amateur runners fared against the elites competing for medals at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games marathon.
- On average, female participants of the Marathon Pour Tous finished 2 hours and 5 minutes slower than the professional athletes competing for gold.
- The men’s race saw a slightly smaller gap of 1 hour and 59 minutes between the average amateur and pro runner finish times.
- Professional athletes seemed to take the tough elevation of kilometre 30 in their stride with a pace drop of 11% compared to their median pace for the route. In comparison, Marathon Pour Tous runners saw a pace drop of 30% at the same point.
Strava also highlighted the fastest sections of the race which differed for the pro field and the runners of the Marathon Pour Tous.
- The Olympians ran the 32nd kilometre as their fastest split with an average time of 3:00min/km.
- Meanwhile, the broader amateur field ran the second kilometre as their fastest split with an average time of 5:23 min/km.
- Not all runners of the Marathon Pour Tous fell into this trap though – 10% of the field impressively ran negative split races (finishing the second half of the race faster than the first).
In total, nearly 70% of the 20,000 runners participating in the Marathon Pour Tous on Saturday night uploaded their efforts to Strava. Strava was one of the platforms that supported the ‘Connected Marathon Pour Tous’ initiative, enabling people around the world to participate remotely and feel part of the event.
www.marathonpourtous.paris2024.org
www.strava.com
