Tamirat Tola gave himself an early birthday present on Saturday when he claimed the men's Olympic marathon crown. Tola, who will be 33 on Sunday, finished the 42km course in two hours, six minutes and 26 seconds.
Belgium's Bashir Abdi finished 21 seconds later to take the silver medal and Benson Kipruto from Kenya was third.
"Thank you, Paris!" said Tola, who won the bronze medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics in the 10,000m.
"I'm happy today. I'm Olympic champion. It's the greatest day in my life. This was my goal."
Tola was a late cal up for Sisay Lemma who had to pull out of the Olympics team. "I was the reserve in the Ethiopian team but when Sisay had injuries, then I had a chance to represent him," Tola said.
"I was fully prepared and knew I could fulfil my dream. This is the Olympics and it is not easy to win the Olympic Games, not at all. I am very proud, very happy."
Defending champion Eliud Kipchoge pulled out towards the end of the race.
The 39-year-old, who won golds in the 2016 Rio Games and in Tokyo in 2021, dropped out just after the 30km mark when he was more than eight minutes off the pace.
Tola's teammate Kenenisa Bekele, who won three Olympic and five world golds over 5000m and 10,000m before turning to the marathon, finished 39th.
Pride
"It is fantastic that Ethiopia won the race," said the 42-year-old. "Tola is very strong and I am happy for him.
"People have been talking about me and Kipchoge, but you see it was the young generation today. These guys are stronger than us.
"These days there are many younger and stronger athletes, so it was tough to challenge them."
The marathon course headed out of central Paris on a loop to Versailles, copying a key moment from the French Revolution: the Women's March on Versailles, on 5 October 1789 which led to French King Louis XVI agreeing to ratify the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizens.
The route included a 436m climb and 438m descent. The maximum gradient on the route was 13.5 percent.
"The weather was hot and the course featured a lot of ups and downs," said Abdi.
"Actually, I expected going uphill would be most challenging but I found going downhill most difficult.
"It was very steep and you don't have control of your body. That was very scary, especially after 29km. We had almost 2km of running downhill and it was just going more down and down, and I was really afraid of falling.
"This is the hardest marathon course I've ever run."
