Event
special race invented as part of the Athletics at the 1896 Summer Olympics programme
The men's marathon event was a special race held as the capstone of the athletics programme at the 1896 Summer Olympics. Seventeen athletes from five nations competed. The event was won by Spyridon Louis and was the only Greek victory in athletics.
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Text from the Wikipedia article “athletics at the 1896 Summer Olympics – men's marathon”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
The men's marathon event was a special race held as the capstone of the athletics programme at the 1896 Summer Olympics. Seventeen athletes from five nations competed. The event was won by Spyridon Louis and was the only Greek victory in athletics.
Michel Bréal originated the idea of a race from the city of Marathon to Athens, taking inspiration from the legend of Pheidippides. The first such marathon race was a Greek national competition that served as a qualifier for the Olympic marathon. The race was held on 22 March 1896 and was won by Charilaos Vasilakos in 3 hours and 18 minutes. To recruit additional runners, Greece held a second qualifying race on 5 April 1896, won by Ioannis Lavrentis in a time of 3:11:27. The length of the marathon in 1896 was approximately 40 km (25 mi).
The Olympic race was held on 10 April 1896. While 25 athletes traveled to Marathon for the race, only 17 actually began the race.
At least one woman, Stamata Revithi, attempted to enter the race, but she was rejected. The official reason provided was that her entry had been submitted after the deadline. She ran the course on her own the next day, covering the distance in 5½ hours. There are also references to a woman named Melpomene attempting to run, but there is dispute as to whether this was a second woman or Revithi.
As in the 1,500-metre race, Albin Lermusiaux took the lead early. Edwin Flack and Arthur Blake maintained second and third place until Blake withdrew at 23 kilometres. At 32 kilometres, Lermusiaux withdrew as well, leaving Flack in the lead as Spyridon Louis was making full use of his endurance to reach the front. Louis finished the 40-kilometre race in just under three hours.
Vasilakos finished second, followed by Spyridon Belokas, who bested a fast-finishing Gyula Kellner to seemingly complete a Greek top-three sweep. However, Kellner subsequently lodged a protest, claiming that Belokas had travelled part of the course by carriage after having supposedly left the race. The protest was upheld and Belokas was disqualified.
Marathon distances at the time were not standardized and records were not officially recognised. The best time in a qualifying race was that of Lavrentis.
The following record was established during the competition:
The runners traveled to the town of Marathon on Thursday night. They assembled on the starting bridge at 2 p.m. on Friday.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Athletics at the 1896 Summer Olympics – Men's marathon”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.