[2] 2022 World Championship gold medalist Tamirat Tola, who also took silver back in 2017 and a track 10,000 bronze medal from 2016, came here as the alternate filling the shoes of injured Sisay Lemma.

One athlete, Yaseen Abdalla, made his marathon debut after gaining entry through a universality spot.

[3] The marathon world record holder, Kelvin Kiptum, was killed in a car accident in February 2024.

The hills broke apart the large pack, the lead "chase group" included Tamirat Tola, Bashir Abdi, Conner Mantz, Alphonce Simbu, Akira Akasaki, Elroy Gelant, Suguru Osako, with Deresa Geleta and Clayton Young hanging on the back.

Still running uphill, a gap had opened up behind Tola, causing Mantz to take off to regain contact, with the two catching Faniel just over half a kilometer later.

After a water station near the top of the hill, Tola started the downhill, passing 30K 11 seconds ahead of Cairess.

[4] The men's marathon has been present on the Olympic athletics programme since the inaugural edition in 1896, making this the 30th appearance of the event.

The marathon course began at the Hôtel de Ville and traversed many of the host city's most iconic landmarks such as the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre before concluding at Les Invalides.

[6] In order to comply with the 80-athlete capacity imposed by the IOC, World Athletics debuted a new qualification system ahead of the Paris games.

Each country is eligible to send three athletes to compete in the marathon; however, each spot must be "unlocked" in one of three ways between 6 November 2022 to 30 April 2024.

To unlock guaranteed spots for their country, athletes must run under a 2:08:10 in an eligible race within the time period.

Any country with no qualified athlete was be allowed to enter their best-ranked runner in the marathon regardless of qualification standards.