Why Olympic Organizers Didn’t Include the Boston Marathon Route
If Boston hosts the 2024 Olympics, when the days come for the men’s and women’s marathons, athletes will not take to the time-honored route from Hopkinton to Boylston Street.
Instead, Olympic organizing committee Boston 2024 has proposed a route that would start and end at Boston Common, heading through South Boston, Cambridge, and Brighton on the way. The route may well be changed as Boston 2024’s plans advance. The committee says none of its venue ideas are set in stone, and the advocacy group Friends of the Public Garden has voiced its displeasure with plans to station the Olympics marathon around the Common. But don’t expect it to switch to the Boston Marathon route.
“We are working with athletes, venue planning experts, the community and the city to propose a route that highlights Boston’s history, landscape, and culture, while conforming to the International Associations of Athletics Federations standards and respecting runner preference,’’ Boston 2024 Vice President Erin Murphy told Boston.com in a statement. “Plans are still in the works and we look forward to continuing the conversation to create a world-class course that will build on Boston’s rich marathon history.’’
The reason the Patriots’ Day marathon route is a no-go is alluded to in her response: The route is not in compliance with what Olympic event organizers are looking for.
The Boston Marathon route is not eligible for world record consideration for a couple of reasons. First, it is a point-to-point race, not a loop. That, hypothetically, allows for a tailwind to be at runners’ backs for the entirety of a race, thus cutting their time. Secondly, the race is too steep; over the course of the marathon, the total elevation drop is 450 feet—considered too drastic by the IAAF, which oversees these sorts of things.
While the International Olympic Committee organizes the games, individual sporting bodies are responsible for the actual events. For example, soccer at the Olympics is overseen by soccer’s world governing body, FIFA. The IAAF oversees track and field events.
The IAAF did not respond to multiple requests for comment. In a February public meeting, a Boston 2024 officials said the committee originally proposed using the familiar 26.2-mile stretch, but were told it wouldn’t be an option by the United States Olympic Committee. When Boston hosted Olympic marathon trials in 2008, a different route was used as well.
Tom Grilk, the executive director of the BAA, said he could go either way when asked if he would have liked to see an Olympics marathon mirror his orgnaization’s route. “There’s so much history here, I think that would probably be a big attraction,’’ he said. However, “it might not be a course one would choose,’’ he said. “It’s darn difficult. … It’s punishing for a lot of runners.’’
“It might also be interesting to have a course that shows off the sights and history of Boston,’’ he said of using a different course, which is what you can expect from the bid committee in the long run.
Read more coverage of the 2015 Boston Marathon.
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