Athletics at the 1896 Summer Olympics – Men's marathon

Men's marathon at the Games of the I Olympiad
240px Spyridon Louis entering the stadium at the end of the marathon
Venue	Marathon to Athens
Dates	April 10
Competitors	17 from 5 nations
Medalists
Spyridon Louis  Greece Kharilaos Vasilakos  Greece Gyula Kellner  Hungary

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

The men's marathon event was a special race invented as part of the Athletics at the 1896 Summer Olympics programme. 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 qualifier was won by Kharilaos Vasilakos. The length of the marathon in 1896 was 40 kilometres (25 mi).

Twenty-five athletes traveled to Marathon for the race from there to Athens, though only seventeen actually began the race. Just as in the 1500 metre race, Albin Lermusiaux took the lead early. Edwin Flack and Arthur Blake maintained the second and third places until Blake dropped out at 23 kilometres. At 32 kilometres, Lermusiaux dropped out as well, leaving Flack in the lead. That lead was not secure, however, as Spyridon Louis was making full use of his endurance to gain slowly on Flack.

Exhausted from trying to maintain his pace, Flack dropped out of the race with about three kilometres left. Louis was left alone at the front, finishing the 40 kilometre race in slightly less than 3 hours. Vasilakos finished second, followed closely by Spyridon Belokas and Gyula Kellner. Kellner lodged a protest stating that Belokas had covered part of the course by carriage; the protest was upheld, and Belokas was disqualified.

Results

Place	Athlete	Time
1	Spyridon Louis (GRE)	2:58:50
2	Kharilaos Vasilakos (GRE)	3:06:03
3	Gyula Kellner (HUN)	3:06:35
4	Ioannis Vrettos (GRE)	Unknown
5	Eleitherios Papasimeon (GRE)	Unknown
6	Dimitrios Deligiannis (GRE)	Unknown
7	Evangelos Gerakeris (GRE)	Unknown
8	Stamatios Masouris (GRE)	Unknown
–	Edwin Flack (AUS)	DNF (37 km)
	Albin Lermusiaux (FRA)	DNF (32 km)
	Ioannis Lavrentis (GRE)	DNF (24 km)
	Georgios Grigoriou (GRE)	DNF (24 km)
	Arthur Blake (USA)	DNF (23 km)
	Ilias Kafetzis (GRE)	DNF (9 km)
	Sokratis Lagoudakis (GRE)	DNF (? km)
	Dimitrios Khristopoulos (GRE)	DNF
DISQ	Spyridon Belokas (GRE)	3:06:30

Burton Holmes' photograph entitled "1896: Three athletes in training for the marathon at the Olympic Games in Athens".

See also

• Stamata Revithi - A Greek woman who tried to enter the event

References

• (Digitally available at la84foundation.org)
• (Excerpt available at la84foundation.org)