The History of the Marathon at the Olympic Games

2024 is an Olympic year and one of the most legendary events that takes place during the Olympic Games remains the marathon. It is also the last event in athletics and it traditionally takes place on the last day of the Olympic Games. To share a summary of the history of the Marathon at the modern Olympic Games, we have retraced the major events related to this legendary race that have marked the history of sport and Olympism.

 

1896: The birth of the modern Olympic Games

This is the year of the birth of the modern Olympic Games under the impetus of Pierre de Coubertin. The first Olympic Games of the modern era take place in Greece in honor of the Olympic Games that had already taken place almost three millennia ago in ancient Greece. At that time, they were also organized every 4 years and took place in Olympia in honor of Zeus. This choice of Greece is like a link between antiquity and the modern era.

This link is symbolized among other things by the Marathon race since it finds its origin in the legend of the soldier Phillipides who ran from the city of Marathon, 40 kilometers east of Athens, to the same city of Athens to announce the victory of the Athenian army before dying of exhaustion. This first modern-day Marathon race was also run on the same mythical route between Marathon and Athens and a Greek runner, Louis Spyridon 'Spyros' was the winner. He finished the race in 2 hours 58 minutes and 50 seconds. He instantly became a national hero.

 

1904: the first winner disqualified

The 1904 Olympic Games were held in the United States in the city of St. Louis. The Marathon was held in sweltering heat. The first runner to finish was Fred Lorz. He was disqualified for running part of the distance in a car. After 14.5 km (9 miles) of the race, he stopped running due to exhaustion. He then ran the next 17.7 km (11 miles) in his coach's car before the car broke down. He then continued on foot to the Olympic stadium, where he crossed the finish line ribbon and was greeted as the winner. However, spectators claimed that he had not run the entire race. He was confronted by angry officials about these allegations and eventually admitted that he had cheated.

 

1908: the origin of the famous 42.195 kilometers

It was not until the 1908 Olympic Games in London that the Olympic Marathon distance was established at 42 kilometres and 195 metres. The reason why the official distance exceeded the original forty kilometres or so was linked to the organisation of the Games in London. The organisers wanted to start the Marathon from the Royal Palace at Windsor and judge the finish in front of the Royal Box in the Olympic Stadium. By adding together the extensions needed at the start of the event to start the marathon from Windsor Castle and at the very end of the Marathon to position the finish line in front of the Royal Box, they calculated a precise distance of 42 kilometres and 195 metres. (Royal) necessity is law! This distance was recognised as the official distance of the event later in 1921 by the International Amateur Athletic Federation.

 

1952 and 1956: two great legendary riders win

In 1952 and 1956 respectively at the Helsinki and Melbourne Games, two legendary runners won one after the other four years apart. In 1952, it was the Czechoslovakian runner Émile Zatopek who won the event just a few days after winning the 5000m and 10000m middle-distance events. Four years later in Melbourne, it was the turn of the French runner Alain Mimoun to win the Olympic marathon while many expected Émile Zatopek to do a double four years apart. He would only finish in ^6th place in this Olympic marathon in Melbourne.

 

1960: the first winner to run the marathon barefoot

We are now at the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome. That year, Ethiopian runner Abebe Bikila won the gold medal in the Olympic Marathon. He won the race while running barefoot. He was also the first athlete to win two successive Olympic marathons, the first in 1960 in Rome and the second in 1964 in Tokyo. He would be followed years later by Waldemar Cierpinski of East Germany who won in 1976 in Montreal and 1980 in Moscow and more recently by Eliud Kipchoge of Kenya who won in 2016 in Rio de Janeiro and 2020 in Tokyo.

 

1984 and the first women's Olympic Marathon

It was not until 1984, 88 years later, that the first women's Olympic Marathon took place. It took place in Los Angeles and the first female marathoner to win gold was an American, Joan Benoit. In addition to the fact that this women's marathon in Los Angeles was the first in the history of the Olympic Games, another incident made it famous. About 20 minutes after Joan Benoit's victorious arrival in the Olympic stadium, the Swiss runner Gabriela Andersen-Schiess also entered the stadium. She had missed the last and fifth refreshment station and while the outside temperature was close to 30 degrees Celsius, she began to dehydrate. She arrived in the stadium and began to stagger, limp, her body leaning to one side. She signaled to the medical staff not to approach her because if they touched her, she would be disqualified and she wanted to finish the marathon. The crowd encouraged her. She continued, stopping from time to time. It took her almost 6 minutes to cover the last 400 meters of the track. This dramatic finish with her swaying figure and her extraordinary determination that pushed her to finish the race will remain a symbol of the courage displayed by all marathon runners.

 

2008 and 2012: the record-breaking years at the Olympic Games

The Olympic Marathon record was set in 2008 in Beijing for men. The winner was a Kenyan runner named Samuel Wanjiru. He ran the Olympic Marathon in 2 hours 6 minutes and 32 seconds. A specialist in long-distance running, he was also the world record holder in the half marathon in 58 minutes and 53 seconds. For women, the Olympic record for a Marathon dates back to 2012. It was set by an athlete of Ethiopian origin Tiki Gelana in 2 hours 23 minutes and 7 seconds at the London Olympics.

2024: The Paris Olympic Games Marathon and women in the spotlight

For this new Olympic year, the organizers have innovated by placing the Women's Marathon on the last day of the Olympic Games a few hours before the closing ceremony of the Olympic Games. For the first time, the Women's Olympic Marathon is scheduled after the Men's Olympic Marathon which takes place the day before. Honor to women therefore with the Women's Marathon scheduled as the last event of all the Olympic Games in Paris 2024. The route was also traced in part in memory of the women's march of October 5, 1789 who left the town hall and headed to the Palace of Versailles to demand bread from King Louis XVI. That day, the king would end up agreeing to ratify the Universal Declaration of Human and Citizen Rights.

For the Paris Olympic Games Marathon, the runners take this route starting from the Hôtel de Ville in Paris, then passing in front of the Opéra Garnier and the Louvre Pyramid, before following the Seine and heading towards the Château de Versailles. They then return on the second half of the course towards Paris, passing just in front of the Eiffel Tower at the end of the course and finishing the Marathon on the Esplanade des Invalides. A symbolic course full of history, passing in front of many monuments of Paris and the Île de France region, but also a demanding course with more than 400 m of positive elevation gain and the equivalent in negative elevation gain and above all a very difficult hill to negotiate with a gradient of up to 13.5%. This promises some great battles in a magnificent environment.

The other innovation for the Paris Olympic Games Marathon is the Marathon for All, the aim of which is to allow a large number of amateurs to run on the same route as the athletes of the Games. The Marathon for All takes place at night with a start at 9 p.m. on Saturday, August 10, the same day as the Men's Olympic Marathon and the day before the Women's Olympic Marathon.

 

After more than 120 years of modern Olympic history, the Marathon remains a legendary event that brings the Olympic Games to a beautiful close every 4 years. This race offers a legendary spectacle and high-level battles between the best marathoners in the world for just over two hours. It is also a very popular event since it allows a large crowd spread over more than 42 kilometers to see these high-level athletes from all over the world running in the streets of the city hosting the Olympic Games. These athletes are like modern-day heroes in their courage, resilience and performance and remind us of the heroes and gods of the stadiums of antiquity in Greece where the Olympic Games were born.