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Marathon (sport), running event, traditionally the longest race (42 km, 195 m/26 mi, 385 yd) included in track-and-field competitions. It is traditionally the final track-and-field event held at the Summer Olympic Games. Marathons have become increasingly popular around the world, and the larger events—such as races held in Boston, Massachusetts; London, England; Berlin, Germany; and New York City—attract thousands of runners and spectators annually.
The marathon's name and distance date back to the ancient story of a Greek soldier named Pheidippides who, according to legend, ran from the village of Marathon to Athens in 490 bc to deliver the news of a military victory. The Marathon-to-Athens distance is actually slightly less than 40 km (25 mi). This was the distance used at the first modern Olympic Games, held in Athens in 1896. The marathon there was won by Greek runner Spiridon Louis with a time of 2 hours 58 minutes 50 seconds. The following year the first Boston Marathon was held, as it has every year since.
The standard marathon distance used today was first introduced at the 1908 Olympic Games in London, England, and was the distance from Windsor Castle to the city’s Olympic stadium. It became the official race length at the 1924 Olympics in Paris, France. Only men participated in the Olympic marathon until 1984, when the women’s race was created.
The first marathoner to repeat as Olympic champion was Ethiopian Abebe Bikila, who captured gold medals in 1960 and 1964. Bikila ran barefoot in his first Olympic win, setting a new world-best time of 2 hours 15 minutes 16.2 seconds (because each course is different, there were no official world records for the marathon until a course certification program was created in 2004). American Frank Shorter increased the popularity of the event in the United States when he won the marathon at the 1972 Olympics. Waldemar Cierpinski of East Germany matched Bikila’s achievement with consecutive Olympic wins in 1976 and 1980.
Well-known male marathon runners in the 1970s and early 1980s included Americans Bill Rodgers, who holds the New York City Marathon record with four straight wins (1976-1979) and won the Boston Marathon four times (1975, 1978-1980), and Alberto Salazar, who captured the New York race three times (1980-1982) and the Boston event once (1982).
The Boston Marathon did not permit women runners to enter until the early 1970s; the New York event began in 1970 and has always allowed women to participate. Prominent female marathoners of the 1970s and 1980s included American Joan Benoit Samuelson, Norwegian Grete Waitz, and Portuguese Rosa Mota.
Although the Boston and New York City marathons remain among the sport’s premier annual races, foreign runners have dominated these and other major marathons for several decades. No American male has won the New York event since Salazar in 1982 or the Boston race since Greg Meyer in 1983.
The African nations of Kenya and Ethiopia have emerged as the leading producers of great male marathoners. Ethiopia’s tradition goes back to Bikila in the 1960s, while Kenya first became a force beginning in 1988 when Ibrahim Hussein captured the first of his three Boston Marathon titles. Kenyan runners—such as Hussein, Joseph Chebet, John Kagwe, Cosmas Ndeti, and Moses Tanui—won every men’s Boston Marathon but one from 1991 to 2004, along with five New York City Marathons from 1997 to 2004. Some experts attribute this trend to the higher elevations at which these runners train in their home countries. Top marathoners from other countries have responded by also training extensively at high elevations.
Female foreign runners have also dominated the top marathons over the last two decades, with no American woman winning in Boston or New York since Lisa Larsen Weidenbach won the Boston Marathon in 1985. Countries that have produced top female marathoners in the last 20 years include Ethiopia, Germany, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, and Russia. In the 1990s and early 21st century the best female marathoners included Germany’s Uta Pippig, Ethiopia’s Fatuma Roba, Japan’s Naoko Takahashi, and Kenya’s Catherine Ndereba.
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