With Paris 2024 on the horizon, New York City Marathon 2023 has Olympic qualifying implications: 'We want to get the job done'
Top contenders Letesenbet Gidey, Peres Jepchirchir, Tamirat Tola, and Tatyana McFadden were just a few of the athletes who addressed the media on Thursday (2 November), with the coming Olympics a shared theme for them all.
Athletics
Letesenbet Gidey has never been to New York City before. But on Sunday (5 November), she’ll get to see all five of the city’s famous boroughs.
Gidey, the 2022 world champion and reigning Olympic bronze medallist in the 10,000m, will make her NYC Marathon debut, competing across a 26.2-mile (42.1 km) course for just the second time in her athletics career after running Valencia last year.
“I’m aiming to win,” she told reporters on Thursday (2 November) in Manhattan’s Central Park as she discussed a loaded women’s field here, which features defending champion Sharon Lokedi.
“Actually, I’m always aiming to win. I have come here to race really hard and am very focused on it. I hope to run well in the marathon.”
But will she aim for the 10,000m or marathon come next year’s Olympic Games Paris 2024?
“My coach will decide – it will depend on results, but I am running the marathon right now,” Gidey explained, noting the always-competitive Ethiopian long distance qualification process. “New York will have an impact on [that] decision.”
Gidey and Lockedi were part of a busy media day ahead of this weekend’s race, which also saw reigning Olympic marathon champion Peres Jepchirchir, 2022 world champion Tamirat Tola and 20-time Paralympic medallist Tatyana McFadden all speak to reporters.
“In New York, you really dial into the energy of the crowd,” said McFadden, the 2016 champion here, of Sunday's race atmosphere.
Peres Jepchirchir: In doubt after calf injury
After a tear in her left gluteus sidelined her for part of 2022, the Olympic marathon winner from Tokyo 2020 in 2021, Jepchirchir, is in doubt for New York after suffering a new injury – to her right calf.
“I was well-prepared,” she said. “But last Saturday I had [a pull in my right calf] and I don’t know on Sunday if I will run. We will make a decision on Saturday.”
The Kenyan Jepchirchir is the 2021 champion here and is the only athlete to win all three of NYC, the Olympics, and Boston – the latter which she did in 2022.
It’s a frustrating case of déjà vu for Jepchirchir, who a year ago missed out on trying to defend her 2021 New York win with that aforementioned glute injury.
“I don’t know if I will race,” she said about her expectations for the coming days. “I still have pain in my calf [now].”
Jepchirchir said no matter what unfolds in the ensuing days, she will head back home to Kenya for rest and recuperation after New York. Her goal is qualification for Paris, a selection process that is overseen by a committee.
She and fellow Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge are the two reigning Olympic champions in the event, which she believes will help them in the selection process.
Tamirat Tola: NYC ‘important’ for Olympic selection
The NYC Marathon is also “important” for Ethiopia’s Tola, the 2022 world champ saying that he is “confident” ahead of this Sunday’s men's race.
After withdrawing mid-race from the World Championships this year in Budapest due to stomach issues, he said he feels as though his preparation for New York has been as good or better as his lead up to Eugene 15 months ago, when he won the world title.
“I prepared well to run in New York,” he said, adding that this event has impact on the Ethiopian selection process, too.
After finishing third in the London Marathon earlier this year, Tola said a top-three finish here in New York could nearly secure his spot at the Games, though that will not be made official until the team is announced. He clocked a 2:04:59 in London in April.
“It’s important for me to try and be in the top three,” he said of New York. “I’ve been focused on my training and everything is good: My legs, my body, my mind. So I’m going to try for that top three.”
Tola won an Olympic bronze in the 10,000m at Rio 2016, but said his focus for Paris qualification is the marathon and marathon only. But if he does not qualify for the Games, he said, he will instead run at Berlin next September***,*** where he said he will go after the new world record, set just last month in Chicago by Kelvin Kiptum (2:00:35).
“It will be difficult, but if I do it, it will be with a [training] group and everything [will be] focused on that record,” he said. “I want to try for it.”
Tatyana McFadden: Going for all-time record at the 2024 Paralympics
The New York City Marathon is especially important for the American McFadden as the race serves as the final step in the Paralympic team qualification process for Team USA. As has become habit for the 34-year-old, she’ll look to race in a total of seven (seven!) different events at Paris 2024.
“It is our qualifying to be named to the team for the marathon: I need to be top-two [in New York],” McFadden said plainly. “That’s my number one focus, to get that job done.”
Since early in her career (McFadden is a six-time Paralympian who made her debut at Athens 2004), the American has been a loud voice for equity and inclusion for disabled people, and even helped pass into law the Fitness and Athletics Equity for Students with Disabilities Act in 2009.
“The Paralympics has always been about advocacy for me,” she said. “I promised myself [after Athens 2004] that I was going to ‘win everything’ and be an advocate for sport and disability. If we can see change like we have in women’s [football], and I see women fighting for equal rights and equal pay... I want the same thing for the Paralympics, as well.”
Now some two decades removed from her Olympic debut, McFadden is far from done. She said she feels as healthy and fit as ever and has goals she’d still like to accomplish, including 30 Marathon Major wins (she’s at 24) and a Paralympic medal record.
“I'm hoping to break the record of becoming the most decorated Paralympian in athletics,” she said, currently the owner of 19 said medals. (McFadden also won a medal in cross-country skiing in 2014.) “That's really exciting goal for next year.”
The Paris Marathon course, McFadden added, is “quite similar” to that of New York, adding an extra layer of importance to this Sunday.
“I want to be on the podium in Paris,” she said with a smile.