Athletics at the 1896 Summer Olympics – Men's marathon

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Men's marathon at the Games of the I Olympiad
Spyridon Louis entering the stadium at the end of the marathon
Venue	Marathon to Athens
Date	10 April 1896
Competitors	17 from 5 nations
Winning time	2:58:50 OR
Medalists
Spyridon Louis  Greece Charilaos Vasilakos  Greece Gyula Kellner  Hungary
1900 →

Athletics at the 1896 Summer Olympics
Track events
100 m	men
400 m	men
800 m	men
1500 m	men
110 m hurdles	men
Road events
Marathon	men
Field events
Long jump	men
Triple jump	men
High jump	men
Pole vault	men
Shot put	men
Discus throw	men
v t e

The men's marathon event was a special race invented as part of the Athletics at the 1896 Summer Olympics programme. Seventeen athletes from 5 nations competed.^[1] It was the capstone of the athletics programme. 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, won by Charilaos Vasilakos. The length of the marathon in 1896 was approximately 40 km (25 mi).^[2]

While twenty-five athletes traveled to Marathon for the race, only seventeen actually began the race.

At least one woman, Stamata Revithi, attempted to enter the race, but this was rejected. Officially, the reason given was that her entry came after the deadline; unofficially, the reason was her gender.^[3] She ran the course on her own the next day, covering the distance in 5½ hours.^[4]

There are also references to a woman named Melpomene attempting to run; there is dispute whether this was a second woman, or instead it was Revithi.^[5]

Just as in the 1500 metre race, Albin Lermusiaux took the lead early. Edwin Flack and Arthur Blake maintained second and third place, until Blake dropped out at 23 kilometres. At 32 kilometres, Lermusiaux dropped out as well, leaving Flack in the lead as Spyridon Louis was making full use of his endurance to reach the front.

Exhausted from trying to maintain his pace, Flack dropped out of the race with three kilometres left, leaving Louis alone at the front; he stormed home to finish the 40 kilometre race in one minutes and ten seconds under three hours.

Vasilakos finished second, followed by Spyridon Belokas, who held off a fast-finishing Gyula Kellner to seemingly complete a Greek top-three sweep.

However, Kellner subsequently lodged a protest, claiming Belokas had covered part of the course by carriage after having supposedly dropped out of the race: the protest was upheld, and Belokas was disqualified.

Marathon distances at the time were not standardized and records were not officially recognized. The best time in a qualifying race was by Lavrentis.^[6]

World record	Ioannis Lavrentis (GRE)	3:11:27 (u)	n/a	n/a
Olympic record	New event	n/a	n/a	n/a

The following record was established during the competition:

Date	Event	Athlete	Nation	Distance (m)	Record
April 10	Final	Spyridon Louis	Greece	2:58:50	OR

The runners traveled to the town of Marathon on Thursday night. They assembled on the starting bridge at 2 p.m. on Friday.^[7]

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
	Spyridon Louis	Greece	2:58:50	OR
	Charilaos Vasilakos	Greece	3:06:03
	Gyula Kellner	Hungary	3:06:35
4	Ioannis Vrettos	Greece	Unknown
5	Eleftherios Papasymeon	Greece	Unknown
6	Dimitrios Deligiannis	Greece	Unknown
7	Evangelos Gerakeris	Greece	Unknown
8	Stamatios Masouris	Greece	Unknown
9	Sokratis Lagoudakis	Greece	Unknown	[1]
—	Edwin Flack	Australia	DNF (37 km)
	Albin Lermusiaux	France	DNF (32 km)
	Ioannis Lavrentis	Greece	DNF (24 km)
	Georgios Grigoriou	Greece	DNF (24 km)
	Arthur Blake	United States	DNF (23 km)
	Ilias Kafetzis	Greece	DNF (9 km)
	Dimitrios Christopoulos	Greece	DNF (? km)
—	Spyridon Belokas	Greece	3:06:30	DQ

• Lampros, S.P.; Polites, N.G.; De Coubertin, Pierre; Philemon, P.J. & Anninos, C. (1897). The Olympic Games: BC 776 – AD 1896. Athens: Charles Beck. (Digitally available at la84foundation.org)
• Mallon, Bill & Widlund, Ture (1998). The 1896 Olympic Games. Results for All Competitors in All Events, with Commentary. Jefferson: McFarland. ISBN 0-7864-0379-9. (Excerpt available at la84foundation.org)
• Smith, Michael Llewellyn (2004). Olympics in Athens 1896. The Invention of the Modern Olympic Games. London: Profile Books. ISBN 1-86197-342-X.

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