In men's events, only the 400 metres entry standard, at 45.00 seconds, is less stringent - by 0.10sec - than its equivalent for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, with the high jump remaining at 2.33m.

In women's events every event is tougher, save for the javelin throw, which remains at 64 metres.

A World Athletics spokesperson told insidethegames: “The entry standards for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games reflect the level of performance in each individual event (considering a maximum of three athletes per nation) in a comparable qualification timeline during the two years before the qualifying period begins, and are designed to include the corresponding number of quota athletes."

As with the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, half of the athletes will progress through entry standards and the other half via world rankings.

For the 10,000 metres, combined events, race walks and relays, the qualification period runs from December 31 2022 to June 30 2024.

For the marathon, the qualification window is from November 1 2022 to April 30 2024.

For all other events the qualification period runs from July 1 2023 to June 30 2024, with athletics at the Paris 2024 Olympics scheduled from August 2 to 11.

The qualification system was approved by the World Athletics Council and includes details of the qualification windows, targeted numbers of athletes per discipline and entry standards.

The programme will include 23 women’s events and 23 men’s events as well as two mixed events - the 4x400m mixed relay and the 35km mixed team race walk.

"For the marathon, any athlete ranked higher than the 65th athlete on the filtered quota place "Road to Paris" list on January 30 2024 will be considered qualified," World Athletics says.

"After January 30 2024, the remaining 20 per cent of the quota will be determined by the same dual pathway qualification criteria outlined above, without displacing the athletes qualified per January 30 2024.

"Any National Olympic Committee may choose to reallocate a quota place to an unqualified athlete, provided the athlete in the qualification window has achieved at least a 2min 11.30sec (men) or 2:29:30 (women) performance.

"World Athletics will publish the official qualification monitoring tool (Road to Paris) on the stats zone of the World Athletics website in the latter part of 2023.

"Nassau in The Bahamas will host the World Athletics Relays, the main Olympic qualifying event for the relays, in April/May 2024 (dates to be confirmed)."

Paris 2024 organisers have revealed the routes for the Olympic marathon and the two races - a 42.195km course and a 10km course - that will be open to the general public as part of mass event running.