Paris 2024: how will the mixed team walk, a new event on the Olympic calendar, work?

It will be one of the sporting novelties of the Paris 2024 Olympics. Exit the 50 kilometer walk, a historic event, make way for the mixed team walk. But what is it, then ? It is a new format invented by the international athletics federation and validated by the Olympic Committee (IOC) to give a little “dynamism” to a long and sometimes indigestible event for the spectator. “It’s an innovative, dynamic and unpredictable format,” said World Athletics boss Jon Ridgeon. It is believed to be easy for fans to understand and it will ensure full gender equality for the first time in the athletics program of the Olympics. »

Each team – there will be 25 at the start – is made up of a man and a woman, who will each take it in turns to cover the 42.195 kilometers of the event, the distance of a marathon. The man will start first and cover a little more than 10 kilometers, giving the relay to his compatriot, and so on… It is therefore the female athletes who will cross the finish line for the race for the medal. This race should last around 3 hours and will take place at the same place as the individual walking races, at the foot of the Eiffel Tower, on August 7, 2024 from 7:30 am.