The men's 10,000 metres at the 2024 Summer Olympics was held at the Stade de France in Paris, France, on 2 August 2024. This was the 26th time in which the men's 10,000 metres has been contested at the Summer Olympics. A total of 27 athletes were able to qualify for the event by entry standard or ranking. Unlike other Olympic events, this event did not have heats or semifinals, with all qualified athletes instead competing in a single final.
Summary
Through the season 20 athletes ran sub 27 minutes, but all of these occurred in just three races, two were used as the Olympic Trials for Ethiopia and Kenya; the third was The TEN, a set up evening race that qualified the eventual American team and individuals from four other countries. World record holder Joshua Cheptegei and several other likely contenders had never attempted the distance during the season. With no qualifying round, they were unknown commodities.[2]
25 athletes started 25 laps around the stadium. After the first few laps all three Ethiopian runners, defending champion Selemon Barega, Yomif Kejelcha and Berihu Aregawi congealed to the front of the large pack. It was clear they intended to control the race from the front, switching position and clearly communicating. Immediately behind them Grant Fisher, Benard Kibet and Mohammed Ahmed positioned themselves to watch the proceedings, but with the games being played at the front of the pack, very few athletes were falling off the back. After 6000 metres, Kejelcha expanded his turn to lead into a 5m gap on his teammates. Seeing the change, Ahmed and Kibet rushed to fill the gap. At that same moment, Fisher caught the heel of a slowing Aregawi, stepping on the curb and nearly falling. With three laps to go, Aregawi and Kejelcha went to the front, looking to set up a wall, but there were 10 athletes bunched up behind. After hovering toward the back of the pack throughout the race, Cheptegei moved up to the front. With 600 to go, Cheptegei ran around the wall, trading elbows with Kejelcha and into the lead. Taking a lesson from Mo Farah, he did not intend to relinquish that lead. The chase was on behind him. Ahmed was the first to get around, followed by Kibet and Fisher. Coming onto the home stretch, Cheptegei had a 3-metre lead on Ahmed. Fisher got around Kibet and everybody sprinted to the finish. Fisher slowly gained and passed Ahmed, clear for silver. But after falling back to 7th place in the re-shuffling, Aregawi sprinted around the outside to roar past everyone but Cheptegei to steal the silver from Fisher by 2 hundredths of a second.[3]
Cheptegei's winning time took 18 seconds off the Olympic record, but the first 13 places all beat the old record because the Ethiopians kept the pace serious from the beginning in far contrast to the usual, slow strategic races in Championship finals. Thierry Ndikumwenayo, Adriaan Wildschutt and Jimmy Gressier set new national records for Spain, South Africa and France respectively.
For the men's 10,000 metres event, the qualification period was between 1 July 2023 and 30 June 2024.[7] 27 athletes were able to qualify for the event, with a maximum of three athletes per nation, by running the entry standard of 27:00.00 seconds or faster, or by their World Athletics Ranking for either this event or the Cross Country event.[7]
Results
Final
The final was held on 2 August, starting at 21:20 (UTC+2) in the evening.[1][8]
