My Five Favourite Races from Paris 2024: Part One
And just like that, the Paris Olympics are over. The opening ceremony was strange. The Seine had so much human faeces in it they had to reschedule the triathlons. The athletics action was unpredictable and exciting. Rather than write what would inevitably become a series of novels recounting every detail from the Olympics, I’ve decided to put together a countdown-style recap of my five favourite races.
5. Women’s 400m Hurdles
Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone is a creature of habit. In 2021, she broke the 400m hurdles world record at the U.S. Championships before breaking it again to win Olympic gold in Tokyo. In 2022, she once again broke the 400m hurdles world record at the U.S. Championships, and then once again broke it in the global final, this time at the World Championships in Eugene. She was injured in 2023 but returned to her normal self in 2024, winning the U.S. Championships in – you guessed it – a new world record.
So, when the Paris Olympics rolled around, it was business as usual for the GOAT. Crossing the line a second and a half ahead of Anna Cockrell in second, McLaughlin-Levrone stopped the clock at 50.37 to break the world record for the sixth time in three years. Forever McLaughlin-Levrone’s bridesmaid, Femke Bol faded hard in the home straight but did manage to hold on for bronze, almost two seconds off the pace.
Syndey McLaughlin-Levrone leads the women’s 400m hurdles final at the 2024 Olympics
What is there to say about McLaughlin-Levrone that hasn’t already been said? The American hasn’t lost a 400m hurdles race since her silver medal at the World Championships in 2019 when she was still a teenager, and she has just become the first woman to successfully defend an Olympic 400m hurdles title.
But perhaps the most ridiculous fact of them all is that she’s still improving. Multiple studies have tried to pinpoint the age at which athletes peak; in the case of female sprinters, that number falls between 25.4 and 27.2. McLaughlin-Levrone celebrated her 25th birthday the day before her final (which makes her 25.0 if you want to be all scientific about it), meaning she has the potential to get even faster.
What’s more, McLaughlin-Levrone’s race was not perfect. It’s a weird thing to say about a world record performance, but the American stuttered into the second hurdle and had to adjust her lead leg, which threw off her stride pattern and forced her to slow down as she approached the third barrier. Indeed, in a post-race interview, the Olympic champion acknowledged that this wasn’t a flawless run.
“I crossed the line and was grateful for that time. I was hoping it’d be a little faster, but I’m sure there are some things in the middle there we can clean up. There’s always more work to do.”
As ridiculous as it seems, that elusive sub-50 clocking could be on the cards in the next few years. For now, though, all McLaughlin-Levrone can do is rest on her outrageous number of laurels and prepare for the next U.S. Championships, where she may very well do it all again.
Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone celebrates defending her Olympic crown and lowering her own world record
4. Men’s 10,000m
I often find myself quoting Jonathon Gault of LetsRun, and here’s what he had to say about Joshua Cheptegei and the men’s 10,000m:
“Twenty years from now, when people look back at Cheptegei’s career, they’ll see this race and the fact that Cheptegei won the last three Worlds before it, and assume he was clearly the favourite coming in. But that was not the case. Cheptegei was certainly among the contenders, but many doubted his ability to win in Paris considering he had failed to win any of his races this year.”
I was one of those doubters. Coming into this race, the Ethiopian trio simply looked too good. They were the fastest three men of the year by quite some margin, and so, when they went to the front from the gun and started chopping the lead in a brilliant display of team tactics rarely seen on the international stage anymore, I thought an Ethiopian sweep was more likely than a Cheptegei win.
Unfortunately for Yomif Kejelcha, Selemon Barega, and Berihu Aregawi, their unrelenting pace didn’t whittle down the pack in a way that many would have predicted. Maybe they were confused, maybe they were scared, maybe they were a bit of both, but after failing to get rid of any of their main competitors despite their attritive game plan, the trio resigned themselves to the safety of the group in the final few laps and prepared themselves for the inevitable sprint finish to come.
That sprint finish was won by Cheptegei, who was happy to stay at the back of the leading pack until the final lap. In many ways, his strategy – sit back for much of the race, then strike at the perfect moment – was a microcosm for his season as a whole, and indeed his previous two seasons as well: Cheptegei has only won three track races in the past two years, but all three of those victories have come in the 10,000m global final. The Ugandan knows how to get it right when it matters most, and his impeccable timing has led him to no less than six global titles. Behind him, Aregawi, who was horribly boxed and in seventh as he entered the home straight, somehow escaped and mowed down everyone but Cheptegei to take the silver. America’s Grant Fisher completed the podium, with pre-race favourite Kejelcha and defending champion Barega fading to sixth and seventh.
Joshua Cheptegei wins the men’s 10,000m at the 2024 Olympics
This truly was a 10,000m for the ages. The sprint finish was made even more special by the fact that the whole thing had been orchestrated by the Ethiopians to deliberately not come down to the final metres. The metronomic pace should have been catastrophic for most of the field, but it instead saw 13 men break 27 minutes, easily surpassing the previous record of 9. The champion was thoroughly deserving, and Cheptegei’s win in Paris completes his collection of every achievement in the event: he now has world titles, the world record, an Olympic title, and the Olympic record. The Ugandan intends to move to the roads soon to try his hand at the marathon, and this would be a fitting end to his glittering track career.
Joshua Cheptegei has achieved everything on offer in 10,000m running
3. Men’s 1500m
Easily the most hyped event of the track and field program, the men’s 1500m was pitched as the final act in a year-long war of words between reigning world champion Josh Kerr and reigning Olympic champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen. So, when Cole Hocker moved past both men on the inside to claim America’s second Olympic 1500m title in just three Games, it left the pair rightly humbled. In slaying the two giants of middle-distance running, Hocker clocked 3:27.65 to leap from 66th to 7th on the all-time list and break Ingebrigtsen’s Olympic record from Tokyo.
While Hocker’s victory was certainly an upset, it wasn’t totally unexpected. The American is well known for having perhaps the best kick in the world, and it was out in full force in Paris. Hocker made his move just before he entered the home straight, but a fading Ingebrigtsen closed the window on him, which meant the American had to find his momentum all over again. It’s difficult to overstate how challenging that would have been for Hocker: the fact that he essentially had to kick twice and still found his way to the front in a 3:27 race is genuinely remarkable. Kerr managed a silver, although not by much: the Briton clocked 3:27.79 to finish in front of a charging Yared Nuguse, who picked up bronze in 3:27.80. In a turn of events that nobody predicted, Ingebrigtsen failed to make the podium, but he was uncharacteristically humble after his fourth-place finish.
“Today, Cole Hocker, Yared Nuguse and Josh Kerr outsmarted me. They were the best guys when it really mattered. And I want to congratulate them all on a great performance!”
Jakob Ingebrigtsen after finishing fourth in the men’s 1500m at the 2024 Olympics
Never before have we seen an athlete so strong in a time trial format be so underwhelming at the big championships. This is, of course, only in reference to his 1500m – Ingebrigtsen won the 5000m a few days later, adding that Olympic title to the two world titles he’s won over the distance in the last two years. But this third consecutive defeat in his favourite event does beg the question of whether it’s time for him to switch up his strategy. The Norwegian’s “infinite threshold” training model does tend to produce better long-distance runners than it does middle-distance ones, and it’s true that Ingebrigtsen does usually find himself unopposed in even the toughest of 5000m races. That being said, he is still only 23, so there’s plenty of time for him to perfect the 1500m. Ingebrigtsen has more strength than anyone needs to perform well in this event, and we see it on the rabbited Diamond League circuit all the time. Knowing this, it would be wise for him to get into some non-paced, competitive, and shorter races that demand more of his tactical awareness and closing speed. If he did make this switch, I think we would quickly see him develop into the most impressive male middle-distance runner of all time (obligatory nod to Faith Kipyegon, whom Ingebrigtsen will probably never surpass as the overall middle-distance GOAT). Kerr has signed to Michael Johnson’s new Grand Slam Track league, and if I were Ingebrigtsen, I would do the same: if he competed in the middle-distance category, he would come up against Kerr at least eight times a year, with four of those races being 800m. The exposure to stiffer competition and faster finishing kicks would be exactly what he needs, but until he finds a way to develop this aspect of his running, expect the likes of Hocker to continue to steal the spotlight at the big championships.
Cole Hocker wins the men’s 1500m at the 2024 Olympics
This article is already quite long, and seeing as we’ve reached a natural splitting point between the track and the road, I’ve decided to simply leave a link to my two favourite events from Paris here. The men’s and women’s marathons take top honours on my list, and a separate article for the Olympic road races makes sense anyway. Follow the above link to find out why I’ve ranked these races as the best events to come out of Paris.