Today, marathons are held almost every weekend in different parts of the world. East African athletes, particularly Kenyans and Ethiopians, are known globally for their prowess in the discipline.
Both the men’s and the women’s marathon world records are currently being held by East African runners.
Eliud Kipchoge holds the men’s world record of 2:01.39 which he set at the 2018 Berlin Marathon while his compatriot Brigid Kosgei set a new women’s record of 2:14.04 at the 2019 Chicago Marathon.
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TeamKenya.co.ke takes a look at how marathon was introduced as a discipline in the Olympic Games.
Frenchman Michel Breal is credited for introducing marathon as a discipline in the Olympic Games.
In a letter dated September 15, 1894, Breal requested Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of Olympic Games, to introduce the marathon event.
"If you go to Athens, you could try and see if a long distance run from Marathon to Pnyx could be organized.
"That would emphasize the character of Antiquity. If we had known the time that the Greek soldier had needed for the distance, we could have set up a record,” read the contents of his letter.
As such, the first Olympic marathon event was held at the 1896 Athens Olympic Games, in Greece.
Greek substitute runner Spiridon Louis won the title defeating several top athletes including Albin Lermusiaux of France who was the race favorite. Only 10 out of the 17 runners finished the race.
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At the end of the letter, he added that he was ready to sponsor the discipline.
“I, personally, claim the honor of sponsoring the marathon trophy," ended Breal.
True to his words, Breal provided the trophy which was awarded to Spiridon.
The trophy which came to be known as the Breal’s Silver Cup was auctioned in 2012 for a whopping £541,250 (Approximately Ksh76.5 million).
Stavros Niarchos, the foundation which bought the cup, has been displaying it to the public in Athens since 2015.
Women were not allowed to take part in the marathon event at its inception. It took almost 100 years before the first women’s marathon event was held in the Olympic Games.
American athlete Joan Benoit Samuelson won the first women's edition which was held in 1984, in Los Angeles, United States, running alone for the better part of the race.
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