World Athletics has announced that a new race walking team event will debut at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. The new marathon race walk will feature 25 teams, each comprising one male and one female athlete, who will complete the marathon distance (42.195km) in four legs of approximately equal distance. Each athlete will complete two legs of just over 10km each, alternating male-female-male-female. The new event will replace the men’s 50km race walk, which appeared last at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. The Marathon Race Walk Mixed Relay will be held on Aug. 7, 2024, at 7.30 am. The event will be held at the foot of the Eiffel Tower, on the same course as the individual race walking events, and will be completed in about three hours. The new format is “designed to be innovative, dynamic and unpredictable” and is meant to “ensure full gender equality across the Olympic track and field program for the first time,” World Athletics CEO Jon Ridgeon said in a statement.
