How The Paris Olympics Differs From All The Rest

The first Olympic 10K Marathon Swim was held in a rowing basin at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

The second Olympic 10K Marathon Swim was held in the Serpentine, a man-made lake in Hyde Park in the center of London, England at the 2012 London Olympic Games.

The third Olympic 10K Marathon Swim will be held in Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.

The fourth Olympic 10K Marathon Swim was held in Odaiba Marine Park in Tokyo Bay, Japan at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.

All of these courses were loop courses. Four times around the rowing basin in Beijing in 2008, won by by Larisa Ilchenko of Russia and Maarten van der Weijden of the Netherlands. Six times around the Serpentin in London in 2012, won by Eva Risztov of Hungary and Ous Mellouli of Tunisia. Five times around an ocean course in Copacabana Beach in 2016, won by Sharon van Rouwendaal and Ferry Weertman of the Netherlands. Four times around Tokyo Bay in 2021 won by Ana Marcela Cunha of Brazil and Florian Wellbrock of Germany.

But, Paris will be unique.

The start and finish of the marathon swim will literally be separated by 10 km.

In the words of many in the open water swimming community, the 2024 Paris Olympic 10K Marathon Swim will be a "real" marathon swim - a point-to-point race down the Seine River in the center of Paris. There will be drafting - and lots of it - as well as tactical positioning. It will be unpredictable and dynamic throughout the swim. Because of the point-to-point course, there are various lines to victory - and all kinds of lead changes. There may be faster places to swim down the Seine - possibly along the shoreline or down the middle of the river.

The start of the Olympic 10K Marathon Swim in Paris will held will be at Pont Alexandre III, a bridge that connects the Champs-Élysées quarter with those of the Invalides and Eiffel Tower. The bridge is widely regarded as the most ornate, extravagant bridge in the city and has been classified as a French monument historique since 1975.

The women’s 10 km marathon swim will be held on August 8th and the men’s 10 km marathon swim final will be held on August 9th. Both races will start at 7:30 am local time. Spectators will be able to walk nearly along the entire course, cheering on their favorite swimmers and watching the fastest marathon swimmers in the world.

The schedule of events can be seen here.

Location: Huntington Beach, CA, USA

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Eduardo Slerca Completes the Travessia do Leme ao Pontal

Image
Adherbal de Oliveira , President of the Leme to Pontal Swimming Association reported on another successful crossing from Leme to Pontal, Brazil. " More than a challenge, the 36 km Travessia do Leme ao Pontal in Brazil is a dream that many swimmers have. It motivates them to work hard for a long period of time and to one day be able to transform those dreams into an unforgettable reality. The swim that started at 1:29 am on March 17th was very special due to the characteristics of the swimmer who, as an amateur, needs to know how to reconcile his training series with family and work routines, as well as for everything that they had experienced during the Travessia do Leme ao Pontal. A challenge of 36 km in the Atlantic Oceans requires a long preparation with the fulfillment of tests with intermediate lengths that demand for many swimmers some years of dedication, focus and discipline. To complete a marathon, it is necessary to leave your comfort zone, leave that routine w
Read more

Eduardo Daniel Appoloni Rotela Becomes First Swimmer from Uruguay to Complete the Travessia do Leme ao Pontal

Image
Adherbal de Oliveira , President of the Leme to Pontal Swimming Association reported on another historic day from Leme to Pontal, Brazil. He writes, " The morning of March 4th 2023 began with 35-year-old Eduardo Daniel Appoloni Rotela who became the first Uruguayan swimmer to attempt and complete the 36 km Travessia do Leme ao Pontal . We recently won fourth place in the annual WOWSA Awards in the Event of the Year category which highlights the events in the world that have most positively influenced open water swimming. Appoloni is a Certified Public Accountant and a former pool swimmer and basketball player who began his career in the open water in 2019. Since then, he has been accumulating experiences and skills. Appoloni is very disciplined and has become a brilliant swimmer who, together with his coach Jorge Mario Gnazzo Orrego, plans each of the challenges he faces step-by-step. After a year and a half of preparations, Appoloni arrived in Rio de Janeiro accompan
Read more

Michael Rice, Catherine Breed Win The 2023 SCAR Swim

Image
The 2023 SCAR Swim Challenge was another grand success.   The brainchild of visionary Kent Nicholas  [shown below] had won the 2022 World Open Water Swimming Event of the Year and had attracted a multi-faceted, multi-talented group of prolific marathon swimmers and their escort kayakers from around the world.  Triple Crowners , Ice Milers , and swimmers who have set records and pioneered swims gathered in the warm desert of Arizona to compete in the 4-day, 4-lake SCAR stage swim . The event consists of four lake crossings, from dam to dam in Saguaro Lake , Canyon Lake , Apache Lake , and finally a night swim in Roosevelt Lake .  The four lakes were created through a series of dams that created the reservoirs along the Salt River  that flows through the State of Arizona. Nicholas wrote on the SCAR Facebook page , “ If we could dial in a perfect day at Saguaro, this was it. From water temp to air temp to low wind – it was good day to be at S.  Michael Rice  [shown below] proving to be
Read more