Less than 450 days before the opening of the Paris 2024 Games, the World Athletics Council has set in stone the qualification process and rules for a new event in the athletics program, the mixed relay race walking marathon. Teams will have to go through the 2024 World Team Walk Championships in Antalya, Turkey, to earn a spot in the French capital next year. The mixed relay will replace the 35 km. The 22 best-ranked teams in the competition will qualify for the Paris 2024 Games. As a bonus, up to five of these 22 teams will be able to form a second team to represent the same country. Finally, three additional teams, still not qualified at the Antalya Worlds, will be able to obtain a ticket on the basis of the lists of the best performances of walking on a mixed relay marathon during the period of qualification, that is to say between December 31, 2022 and June 30, 2024. Another decision of the World Athletics Council for this new Olympic event is the abandonment of disqualifications for irregular walking. They will be replaced by time penalties. Objective: to allow each team to finish the event, while ensuring that no team is advantaged by an irregular walking technique.
