Crisp takes Marathon top-20 on Olympic debut

Diving in from the starting pontoon which was stationed below the iconic Pont Alexandre III Bridge, Leah Crisp set off among a 24-strong field heading downstream in the river Seine towards the first turn buoy at Pont de L’Alama.

With athletes having enjoyed to flow of the river through the opening 800m, cutting across to now turn back up against the current showed just how tough this six-lap course would be. Those early stages would see Crisp nestled into a good position in the pack with a large group sticking together over the first two and a half laps.

At the halfway stage the race began to stretch, and the Bath Performance Centre swimmer dug in well to hold onto the largest third group behind two smaller breakaways for the remainder of the distance – only slightly beginning to get dropped down the final 800m stretch against the current to finish 20th in a time of 2:07:46.7.

“It was a really tough race, and I really gave my all to get to the end there especially against the current,” said Crisp.

“The location is amazing - a few times looking up you could see the Eiffel Tower in the background and you do think ‘wow’, so it was challenging but this is an amazing place to have the race.

“I’m slightly disappointed in the result. I would have of liked to have placed higher and been more involved in the race, but I’m proud of the journey I’ve taken. Being quite new in the open water just to get on the start line today was incredible and for me this is just the beginning.”

On her race strategy and experiences to learn from, Crisp added:

“My race plan went really well on the first lap, but a couple of times I got stuck taking the wrong line where there might have of been more current and then fell back a little bit. So a lot of this is about experience, I’ve never experienced anything like that before and there is definitely a lot of learnings to take from today.

“A lot of the takeaways will be about holding my own line, especially keeping that line down the inside and not letting other people in a points by really fighting for your position - I think that’s the main thing but I’ve still got lots to learn about how to handle different situations, currents and different types of water.”

The Women’s 10km gold was ultimately won by Sharon Van Rouwendaal of the Netherlands, who reclaimed the title having previously been the Olympic champion at Rio 2016.

The Men’s 10km takes place on the same course Friday morning, with Team GB represented by Hector Pardoe and Toby Robinson. You can find details of all the upcoming aquatics action from Paris 2024 through our What’s On? Page.

Where can I watch?

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