A quick scan of the schedule for Paris 2024 seem to indicate that for these Olympics it is one of the most attractive for several Games.

For a start, all the finals inside the Stade de France will be held during the evening, unlike Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 where, to satisfy the demands of broadcasters, some took place in the morning.

The marathons will remain in the morning, but a major change is that for the first time in the 128-year history of the Olympics, it will be the women’s race that will be held on the final day of the Games on August 11, not the men’s, as is normally the tradition.

This is particularly appropriate as the 26.2 mile course is inspired by "la marche des femmes" - the women’s march on Versailles - when a crowd overwhelmingly made up of women walked from Paris City Hall to Versailles in October 1789 demanding reforms. They stormed the Palace and forced King Louis XVI to return in one of the defining early moments of the French Revolution.

The other major change is the introduction of a repechage round, which will replace time qualifiers in five events - the 200 metres, 400m, 800m, 1500m and 400m hurdles. Under the new format, any athlete who does not advance automatically from the first round will compete in an extra race - the repechage round - to earn their spot in the semi-finals. Qualification from semi-finals to the final will remain the same.

Opinion remains divided on this change, but it will certainly add an extra dimension to the programme. What odds someone making it through the repechage who would otherwise not have qualified and win a medal?

The other thing athletes and fans always look for when the timetable is announced is where there are the opportunities for athletes to double - or even treble - up.

Athletics is not like swimming where there are usually several chances for competitors to win medals in multiple events. Remember Mark Spitz’s seven golds at Munich 1972? Or Michael Phelps’ eight at Beijing 2008?

That is why the achievements of the United States’ Jesse Owens and Carl Lewis, winners of four gold medals in the 100m, 200m, long jump and 4x100m relay at Berlin 1936 and Los Angeles 1984, and Emil Zatopek’s incredible 5,000m, 10,000m and marathon treble at Helsinki 1952 resonate in Olympic history so much.

It is not surprising that under current World Athletics President Sebastian Coe, more thought and care has been put into the Olympic timetable to make it more sympathetic to athletes hoping to win a gold medal in more than one event.

Coe twice attempted the Olympic double, winning gold and silver in the 1500m and 800m respectively, at consecutive Games at Moscow 1980 and Los Angeles 1984.

Among those who will be fancying their chances of winning more than one gold at Paris 2024 are Americans Noah Lyles in the 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay and Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone in the 400m, 400m hurdles and 4x400m relay.

Interestingly, the only time a track and field athlete has won five Olympic gold medals at the same Games was in 1924, the last occasion Paris hosted the event.

Finland’s Paavo Nurmi completed the 1500m and 5,000m double, a feat that remained unmatched until Morocco’s Hicham El Guerrouj achieved it 80 years later at Athens 2004.

Nurmi then added gold medals in the 3,000m team race, individual cross country and cross country team race - all events that have long since disappeared off the Olympic programme.

He wanted to add a sixth, in the 10,000m, but he was prevented from trying because Finnish officials thought that he would not be physically fit enough after his other races. To this Nurmi disagreed, especially as he was the defending champion.

So, when he returned home to Finland he ran a world record in the event, just to prove them wrong. Then, four years later at Antwerp, he regained his 10,000m title. 

There are no chances of any athlete achieving something similar at Paris 2024, but there are a couple of possibilities for distance runners to attempt the "treble" of 1500m, 5,000m and 10,000m that has never been done before.

The Netherlands’ Sifan Hassan attempted it at the rearranged 2020 Olympics in Tokyo and ended up winning the gold in the two longer races and bronze in the shorter distance. The physical toll on her, though, was immense and she looked a shadow of herself at last year’s World Athletics Championships in Eugene, failing to win a medal.

A more intriguing possibility is in the men’s events where Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen has openly talked about attempting a similar treble. He won the 1500m at Tokyo 2020 and the 5,000m at last year’s World Championships. He ran only one event in the Japanese capital as the two races overlapped but did attempt the double in Eugene, only to suffer a surprise defeat in the 1500m to Britain’s Jake Wightman.

If he were to attempt it, the 22-year-old Ingebrigtsen would have to run the first round of the 1500m in the morning on August 2 and then, 10 hours later, return to the Stade de France for the final of the 10,000m. 

He would then have a rest day before the semi-finals of the 1500m on August 4 and another chance to put his feet up before returning for the final two days later.

Then, Ingebrigtsen would need to be back on the track 14 hours later for the opening round of the 5,000m. The good news is that he would then have three days to rest ready for the 5,000m final. 

Tough? Certainly. 

But then, making history is not supposed to be easy, is it?