Megan Wiegand

Five-ring Circus Photo illustration by Slate. Photo by Issei Kato/AFP via Getty Images. When the Olympics open on Friday in Tokyo, athletes from a whopping 339 events will be ready to compete in the delayed and controversial Games. But there’s one more event whose competitors deserve to be there, but aren’t: the half-marathon. Of the myriad running events in Tokyo, three—the 5,000 meters, the 10,000 meters, and the marathon—are considered long-distance races.

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