How a 65-year-old Canadian earned a spot on the Paris 2024 Olympic marathon course

Kitdapawn E is one of 20,000 runners from around the world who won a spot in what Paris 2024 Olympic organizers call the “Marathon Pour Tous," a mass participation marathon that will take place on the marathon course after the women’s race on Aug. 11.

Organizers set up challenges for runners around the world, encouraging runners to sign up and win a spot, which the Ottawa resident did.

“It’s a lifetime experience for me, it is an honour,” the sixty-five year old said. “I was told we would run through one of the five Olympic rings, and that the Eiffel tower will be all lit up. This is such an honour.”

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A room in her Ottawa home is devoted to the countless running medals she has earned participating in races around the world. When anyone asks how many marathons she has run, she answers with a broad smile.

“Well, not many. Sixteen. This will be my 17th.”

We caught up with her in Paris, where passers-by encouraged her, congratulated her like an Olympic athlete, and where one French woman, who says she saw her on the Facebook group for the marathon, took her picture and said she is an inspiration.

Kitdapawn E says this time, she will be inspired by the athletes, but also the majestic views she will encounter, including of the Seine.

Ottawa resident Kitdapawn E is one of thousands of runners from around the world who will take part in the 'Marathon Pour Tous,' a mass participation marathon scheduled to take place Aug. 11. (Genevieve Beauchemin/CTV News)

But whether the Seine will remain that backdrop, or become a venue safe enough for Triathlon and open water swim athletes, will depend on sunshine hanging around a city where rain is part of the landscape.

Paris rain stopped falling onto the Olympic host city Sunday, but it caused enough damage to the river Seine for Olympic officials to cancel a practice event.

The question now is whether rainclouds will steer clear long enough for the Seine to be a venue for competition, like so many other landmarks in Paris, of will it be relegated to the role of backdrop, albeit a majestic one.

IOC and World triathlon officials announced they would cancel a swim designed to familiarize athletes with the site, after two days of rain flushed bacteria into the river, including E.Coli. This marks a significant setback, as nearly $2 billion and years of work have been invested in de-contaminating this body of water that was so polluted for so long, it was illegal to swim for a hundred years.

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“We are still very confident that, with the weather forecast for the next 48 hours, the water quality will improve,” Anne Deschamps, a member of the Paris 2024 organizing committee, said.

Officials will continue to test the water, right up until hours before what could be a historic triathlon swim scheduled for Tuesday. Organizers of these games have banked on the Seine and several of the French city’s landmarks myriad landmarks of the city of lights, to not just be background wonders, but be part of the games.

For instance, Place de la Concorde, at the site where Marie-Antoinette was guillotined, will host the new sport of breakdancing: a new Olympic sport meets a venue that’s hundreds of years old.

The marathon course will follow the footsteps of a historic march of the French Revolution, the Women’s March on Versailles, from October 1789.