Athletics at the 2020 Summer Olympics – Men's marathon

Before the start of the race, four athletes were introduced and took their positions on the start line, host nation Japanese champion Suguru Osako, Rio bronze medalist Galen Rupp, 2019 World Champion Lelisa Desisa and Rio gold medalist, world record holder Eliud Kipchoge, honored with the applause of his competitors. 102 others then toed the line with them. While some fell off the back from the start, the lead group filled the width of the street. About two kilometres into the race, the first leader, Jeison Suárez, began to assert himself. Suárez stayed on the front for the next 22 kilometres, joined by a succession of other frontrunners; Yang Shaohui, Amanal Petros, Mohamed Reda El Aaraby, Stephen Mokoka and Daniel Ferreira do Nascimento all under the watchful eye of Kipchoge, his Kenyan teammates Lawrence Cherono and Amos Kipruto, Desisa and Rupp.

A pack of over fifty at 5,000 metres dwindled to about twenty by the half way mark as other notable runners fell off the back, with many dropping out. Going in to the 25,000 meter mark, Kipchoge upped the pace. The pack became a string of runners trying to chase, led by the Kenyans and Rupp. At 28,000 metres Kipchoge attempted a break but was caught shortly after. Just after the 30,000 meter mark, he attempted another break, this time staying well ahead of the other competitors, eventually building a 27 second lead over the chase pack that had dwindled to Cherono, Ayad Lamdassem and Bashir Abdi with Abdi Nageeye hanging on a few seconds later. With Cherono at the point over the next 5,000 metres, the remaining foursome congealed into a pack, each trying to figure a tactic to take silver as Kipchoge pulled away into the distance. Coming from 30 seconds back of the group, Osako was rapidly making up ground. With 1,000 metres to go, Cherono tried to make a break, but Nageeye held onto his back. Cherono tried to break again, this time Lamdassem was dropped. Approaching the finish line Nageeye, sensing Cherono was spent, accelerated and waved to Abdi to follow him. Abdi responded, with Nageeye getting silver and Abdi bronze two seconds up on Cherono. Kipchoge won by 1:20, greater than his Rio margin of victory.^[5][6]

Very tough weather conditions forced many runners to retire. These included the 2012 champion Stephen Kiprotich and all three Ethiopian runners, among them the current World champion Lelisa Desisa. Only 76 out of 106 athletes finished.^[7] The last one was Iván Zarco from Honduras, who was essentially running alone for the whole race and finished 36 minutes behind the winner. Most of the race participants, including Nageeye and Bashir, finished with the season best results, which mainly reflected the lack of competitions due to the COVID-19 limitations.

Kipchoge became the third man to successfully defend the Olympic Marathon title, after Abebe Bikila and Waldemar Cierpinski.^[8]

This was the 29th appearance of the event, which is one of 12 athletics events to have been held at every Summer Olympics. Five of the top 10 runners from Rio 2016 returned: gold medalist Eliud Kipchoge of Kenya, bronze medalist Galen Rupp of the United States, fifth-place finisher Alphonce Simbu of Tanzania, seventh-place finisher Tadesse Abraham of Switzerland, and ninth-place finisher Callum Hawkins of Great Britain.

No nations made their men's marathon debut in Tokyo. The United States made its 28th appearance, most of any nation, having missed only the boycotted 1980 Games.

Approximately 80 athletes were initially expected to compete (target number of 80) by entry time or ranking; the final number was 110 runners qualified by time, with NOCs universality places yet to enter athletes in addition to the 110 qualifying through time, much more than the expected due to the postponed Games (4 universality places were used in 2016). The qualification period for the entry standard (2:11:30) was from 1 January 2019 to 31 May 2021, with a maximum quota of 3 athletes per National Olympic Committee. Performances achieved between 6 April 2020 and 30 November 2020 were not considered in the qualification system.^[9]

A National Olympic Committee (NOC) could enter up to 3 qualified athletes in the men's marathon if all athletes meet the entry standard or qualify by ranking during the qualifying period. (The limit of 3 has been in place since the 1930 Olympic Congress.) The qualifying standard is 2:11:30. This standard was "set for the sole purpose of qualifying athletes with exceptional performances unable to qualify through the IAAF World Rankings pathway." Runners in the top 10 at the 2019 world championship, the top 5 at any IAAF Gold Label marathon, and the top 10 at the Marathon Major Series were deemed to have met the qualifying standard, regardless of actual time. The world rankings, based on the average of the best five results for the athlete over the qualifying period and weighted by the importance of the meet, will then be used to qualify athletes until the cap of 80 is reached.^[9][10] More than 80 athletes (after application of the 3 per NOC rule) have met the qualifying standard.

To be a qualifying performance, the course had to have been certified in the last five years by a Grade A or Grade B road course measurer. In order to be eligible for the qualifying standard time, the elevation decrease could not be more than 1 metre per kilometre. For world rankings, the elevation decrease could exceed that rate, but a correction would be made to the score.^[9]

The qualifying period was originally from 1 January 2019 to 31 May 2020. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the period was suspended from 6 April 2020 to 30 November 2020, with the end date extended to 31 May 2021. The world rankings period start date was also changed from 1 January 2019 to 1 December 2018. The qualifying time standards could be obtained in various meets during the given period that have the approval of the IAAF. The most recent Area Championships may be counted in the ranking, even if not during the qualifying period.^[9][11] In July 2020, World Athletics announced that the suspension period would be lifted for the road events (marathons and race walks) on 1 September 2020.^[12]

NOCs can also use their universality place—each NOC can enter one male athlete regardless of time if they had no male athletes meeting the entry standard for an athletics event—in the marathon.^[9]

Qualification ended on 31 May 2021. Both marathons had a target number of 80 athletes, but a larger number of athletes have fulfilled the qualifying criteria and will compete in Sapporo, the venue of the Olympic road events. In the men's field, 106 athletes have qualified (with a maximum of 3 per nation).

Qualification standard	No. of athletes	NOC	Nominated athletes
Entry standard – 2:11:30	3	Australia	Liam Adams Jack Rayner Brett Robinson
	3	Bahrain	Alemu Bekele Shumi Dechasa El-Hassan El-Abbassi
	3	Belgium	Bashir Abdi Dieter Kersten Koen Naert
	3	Brazil	Daniel Chaves da Silva Daniel Ferreira do Nascimento Paulo Roberto Paula
	3	Canada	Trevor Hofbauer Cameron Levins Ben Preisner[13]
	3	China	Dong Guojian Peng Jianhua Yang Shaohui[14]
	3	Eritrea	Yohanes Ghebregergis Goitom Kifle Oqbe Kibrom Ruesom
	3	Ethiopia	Lelisa Desisa Shura Kitata Sisay Lemma
	3	France	Morhad Amdouni Hassan Chahdi Nicolas Navarro[15]
	3	Germany	Amanal Petros Hendrik Pfeiffer Richard Ringer
	3	Great Britain	Ben Connor Callum Hawkins Chris Thompson
	3	Ireland	Paul Pollock Stephen Scullion Kevin Seaward
	3	Israel	Haimro Alame Girmaw Amare Marhu Teferi
	3	Italy	Yassine El Fathaoui Eyob Faniel Yassine Rachik
	3	Kenya	Lawrence Cherono Eliud Kipchoge Amos Kipruto
	3	Mexico	Jesús Arturo Esparza Juan Pacheco José Luis Santana
	3	Morocco	Mohamed Reda El Aaraby Othmane El Goumri Hamza Sahli
	3	Netherlands	Khalid Choukoud Abdi Nageeye Bart van Nunen
	3	Poland	Marcin Chabowski Arkadiusz Gardzielewski Adam Nowicki
	3	South Africa	Elroy Gelant Desmond Mokgobu Stephen Mokoka
	3	Spain	Javier Guerra Ayad Lamdassem Daniel Mateo
	0	Sweden	Ebba Tulu Chala Mustafa Mohamed David Nilsson
	2	Turkey	Yavuz Ağralı Polat Kemboi Arıkan Kaan Kigen Özbilen[16]
	3	Uganda	Felix Chemonges Stephen Kiprotich Fred Musobo[17]
	3	Ukraine	Bohdan-Ivan Horodyskyy Mykola Nyzhnyk Oleksandr Sitkovskyy
	3	United States	Abdi Abdirahman Jacob Riley Galen Rupp
	2	Argentina	Joaquín Arbe Eulalio Muñoz
	2	Austria	Peter Herzog Lemawork Ketema
	2	Colombia	Iván Darío González Jeison Suárez
	2	Denmark	Thijs Nijhuis Abdi Hakin Ulad
	2	Estonia	Roman Fosti Tiidrek Nurme
	2	Japan	Shogo Nakamura[18] Suguru Osako[19]
	2	Mongolia	Tseveenravdangiin Byambajav Bat-Ochiryn Ser-Od
	2	New Zealand	Malcolm Hicks Zane Robertson
	2	South Korea	Oh Joo-han Shim Jung-sub
	2	Rwanda	John Hakizimana Félicien Muhitira
	2	Tanzania	Gabriel Geay Alphonce Simbu
	1	Burundi	Olivier Irabaruta
	1	Lesotho	Khoarahlane Seutloali
	1	Namibia	Tomas Hilifa Rainhold
	1	North Korea	Ri Kang-bom
	1	Norway	Sondre Nordstad Moen
	1	Panama	Jorge Castelblanco
	1	Paraguay	Derlis Ayala
	1	Peru	Cristhian Pacheco
	1	Refugee Olympic Team	Tachlowini Gabriyesos
	1	Switzerland	Tadesse Abraham
Finishing position at designated competitions	1	Japan	Yuma Hattori
World ranking	0
Universality Places	1	Honduras	Iván Zarco
Total	106

As all Olympic marathons, the competition was a single race. The marathon distance of 42.195 km was run over a course that starts with two laps around Odori Park. The route then includes a large loop (about half the marathon's length) through the streets of Sapporo, passing by Nakajima Park, Sapporo TV Tower, and Hokkaido University, and crossing the Toyohira River twice. The course then takes two trips around a smaller (approximately 10 kilometres) section of the large loop. The finish line is back at Odori Park.^[20]

Prior to this competition, the existing world, Olympic, and area records were as follows.

World record	Eliud Kipchoge (KEN)	2:01:39	Berlin, Germany	16 September 2018
Olympic record	Samuel Wanjiru (KEN)	2:06:32	Beijing, China	24 August 2008

Area	Time	Athlete	Nation
Africa (records)	2:01:39 WR	Eliud Kipchoge	Kenya
Asia (records)	2:04:43	El-Hassan El-Abbassi	Bahrain
Europe (records)	2:04:16	Kaan Kigen Özbilen	Turkey
North, Central America and Caribbean (records)	2:05:38	Khalid Khannouchi	United States
Oceania (records)	2:07:51*	Robert de Castella	Australia
South America (records)	2:06:05	Ronaldo da Costa	Brazil

* — Boston Marathon, aided road course per IAAF rule 260.28

No new records were established during the competition.

All times are Japan Standard Time (UTC+9)

The men's marathon took place on a single day.^[1]