The courses for the marathon and race walks will begin and end in Sapporo Odori Park, which measures just under a mile long (1.5km) and covers about 840,000 square feet.

For the marathon, athletes will start by running two laps within the park against a backdrop of the Sapporo TV Tower, one of the city's landmarks, and will then head south along Sapporo Ekimae-dori Avenue towards the busy station area through streets lined with commercial and office buildings. Among other iconic landmarks, athletes will cross the Toyohira River, originally known as the Sapporo River, which gave the city its name, and then travel north towards Hokkaido University, one of Japan's prestigious former imperial universities, originally founded in 1876. With this marathon course, the attractions of Japan's most northerly prefectural capital will be showcased to the world during next summer's Olympic Games.

The race walk courses, approved by the IOC Executive Board earlier this month, features 1km and 2km loops for the 20km and 50km distances respectively, along Sapporo Ekimae-dori Avenue.