Australia name six-member team for marathon events at Paris 2024 Olympics
The team comprises three men and women each. Sinead Diver, 47, is set to become the oldest Australian Olympian in athletics, eclipsing her own record set at Tokyo 2020.
Sinead Diver, Genevieve Gregson, Jessica Stenson, Brett Robinson and Patrick Tiernan, Liam Adams are the six runners who will represent Australia in marathon events at the Paris 2024 Olympics in Melbourne.
Two-time Olympic champion Anna Meares, the Chef de Mission for the Australian Olympic Team, announced the initial five-member team at Lakeside Stadium in Albert Park on June 3.
Two-time Olympian Liam Adams was added to the team three days later after an additional quota for Australia was confirmed through rankings by World Athletics.
The 34-year-old Genevieve Gregson will feature at the Olympics for the first time as a mother. However, Gregson has competed in three Summer Games before and is set to become only the sixth Australian woman in history to compete in athletics events at four different Olympics.
Gregson ran in the women’s 3000m steeplechase - where she holds the Australian national record - at London 2012, Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020. She also competed in the 5000m at Rio.
Jessica Stenson, who achieved the entry standard for the Olympics in April barely six months after giving birth to her second child, is also returning for her third Olympic Games but the first one as a mother. She is the reigning Commonwealth Games women’s marathon champion.
The 47-year-old Sinead Diver, also a mother, had the best time among Australian women during the qualifying period for the Olympics and will make her second appearance at the Games. Diver had clocked 2:21:34 in January last year to set a new national record.
Diver will also become Australia's oldest-ever athletics competitor at the Olympics - a record she already holds from the Tokyo Games.
“I was so proud to place 10th in Tokyo, but as athletes we are never content to stay at the same level, we want to continually improve,” Diver said after her selection. “I’m going to focus on what I can control and get myself into the best shape possible (for the Paris 2024 Olympics).”
Brett Robinson, Patrick Tiernan and Liam Adams were the three Australian men picked in the squad and all three runners are poised for a third Olympic appearance.
Liam Adams was Australia’s best finishing male marathon runner at both the Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
Marathon events at the Paris 2024 Olympics will start from the Hotel de Ville and run through iconic monuments like the Palace of Versailles, the Louvre, and the Eiffel Tower.
It will pay tribute to key moments in French history and the French Revolution by following the route of the Women’s March on Versailles in 1789. The races will finish at Invalides.
The men’s race will be on August 10 while the women’s marathon will be on the final day of the Paris 2024 Olympics on August 11.
Australian marathon team for the Paris 2024 Olympics
Women
- Sinead Diver
- Genevieve Gregson
- Jessica Stenson
Men
- Brett Robinson
- Patrick Tiernan
- Liam Adams