Athletics at the 2004 Summer Olympics - Women's marathon

__NOTOC__The Women's marathon event at the 2004 Summer Olympics took place in August 22, 2004 in the streets of Athens, Greece. World record holder Paula Radcliffe of Great Britain started as favourite for the race, and led from the start. However, she was overtaken by Mizuki Noguchi, from Japan and Catherine Ndereba of Kenya. After dropping to fourth place, she retired citing pre-race nutrition problems and illness for her disappointing performance. Deena Kastor of the United States ran a conservative race to come through for a bronze.

Results

Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows:

World Olympic Record
world_athlete = flagathlete|Paula Radcliffe|GBR
world_mark = 2:15:25
world_place = London, United Kingdom
world_date = 13 April 2003
olympic_athlete = flagIOCathlete|Naoko Takahashi|JPN|2000 Summer
olympic_mark = 2:23:14
olympic_place = Sydney, Australia
olympic_date = 9 September 2000

Neither record was broken.

Finishing times

# 2:26:20
# 2:26:32
# 2:27:20 SB
# 2:28:15
# 2:28:44
# 2:31:15
# 2:31:43
# 2:31:56
# 2:32:04
# 2:32:50
# 2:33:52
# 2:34:34
# 2:34:45
# 2:35:01
# 2:35:54
# 2:35:56
# 2:36:43
# 2:36:45
# 2:37:23
# 2:37:31
# 2:37:52
# 2:37:53
# 2:38:57
# 2:39:55
# 2:40:13
# 2:40:13
# 2:40:46
# 2:40:58
# 2:41:00
# 2:41:36
# 2:41:41
# 2:41:51
# 2:42:54
# 2:43:52
# 2:44:05
# 2:44:28
# 2:44:33
# 2:46:14
# 2:46:30
# 2:47:23
# 2:47:26
# 2:48:08
# 2:48:14
# 2:48:47
# 2:48:57
# 2:49:04
# 2:49:18
# 2:49:41
# 2:50:01
# 2:50:01
# 2:50:23
# 2:50:29
# 2:50:45
# 2:52:50 SB
# 2:54:48
# 2:55:54
# 2:55:58
# 2:57:14
# 3:02:20
# 3:03:21
# 3:03:29
# 3:08:11
# 3:09:18
# 3:11:56
# 3:18:25
# 3:48:42

Athletes who did not finish

* DNF
* DNF
* DNF
* DNF
* DNF
* DNF
* DNF
* DNF
* DNF
* DNF
* DNF
* DNF
* DNF
* DNF
* DNF
* DNF

ee also

* 2003 Women's World Championships Marathon
* 2005 Women's World Championships Marathon