Marathon

The marathon at the Summer Olympics is the only road running event held at the multi-sport event. The men's marathon has been present on the Olympic athletics programme since 1896. Nearly ninety years later, the women's event was added to the programme at the 1984 Olympics.

The modern marathon event was created and later refined through the Olympic competition. The idea of holding a marathon race at the first Olympics was suggested to Pierre de Coubertin by Michel Bréal. Based upon a popular myth stemming from the Battle of Marathon, in which Pheidippides ran to Athens from the town of Marathon, Greece to carry the message of a Greek victory, the 1896 course began in the town of Marathon and finished in Athens' Panathenaic Stadium – a distance of around 40 kilometres (25 mi).

The race distance varied from 40 km to 42 kilometres (26 mi) in the early editions as it was typically based upon the distance between two points that the organisers felt were suitable. The 1908 London Olympics marked the introduction of the now standard distance of 26 miles, 385 yards (42.195 km). However, it was not until the 1924 Paris Olympics that this distance became the standard at the Olympics.

History, Records and Statistics of Men's Marathon

History, Records and Statistics of Women's Marathon

Medal summary

Men

Games	Gold	Silver	Bronze
1896 Athens	Spyridon Louis  Greece	Charilaos Vasilakos  Greece	Gyula Kellner  Hungary
1900 Paris	Michel Théato  France	Émile Champion  France	Ernst Fast  Sweden
1904 St. Louis	Thomas Hicks  United States	Albert Corey  United States	Arthur Newton  United States
1908 London	Johnny Hayes  United States	Charles Hefferon  South Africa	Joseph Forshaw  United States
1912 Stockholm	Ken McArthur  South Africa	Christian Gitsham  South Africa	Gaston Strobino  United States
1920 Antwerp	Hannes Kolehmainen  Finland	Jüri Lossmann  Estonia	Valerio Arri  Italy
1924 Paris	Albin Stenroos  Finland	Romeo Bertini  Italy	Clarence DeMar  United States
1928 Amsterdam	Boughera El Ouafi  France	Manuel Plaza  Chile	Martti Marttelin  Finland
1932 Los Angeles	Juan Carlos Zabala  Argentina	Sam Ferris  Great Britain	Armas Toivonen  Finland
1936 Berlin	Sohn Kee-chung  Japan	Ernest Harper  Great Britain	Nan Shoryu  Japan[12]
1948 London	Delfo Cabrera  Argentina	Tom Richards  Great Britain	Étienne Gailly  Belgium
1952 Helsinki	Emil Zátopek  Czechoslovakia	Reinaldo Gorno  Argentina	Gustaf Jansson  Sweden
1956 Melbourne	Alain Mimoun  France	Franjo Mihalić  Yugoslavia	Veikko Karvonen  Finland
1960 Rome	Abebe Bikila  Ethiopia	Rhadi Ben Abdesselam  Morocco	Barry Magee  New Zealand
1964 Tokyo	Abebe Bikila  Ethiopia	Basil Heatley  Great Britain	Kokichi Tsuburaya  Japan
1968 Mexico City	Mamo Wolde  Ethiopia	Kenji Kimihara  Japan	Mike Ryan  New Zealand
1972 Munich	Frank Shorter  United States	Karel Lismont  Belgium	Mamo Wolde  Ethiopia
1976 Montreal	Waldemar Cierpinski  East Germany	Frank Shorter  United States	Karel Lismont  Belgium
1980 Moscow	Waldemar Cierpinski  East Germany	Gerard Nijboer  Netherlands	Satymkul Dzhumanazarov  Soviet Union
1984 Los Angeles	Carlos Lopes  Portugal	John Treacy  Ireland	Charlie Spedding  Great Britain
1988 Seoul	Gelindo Bordin  Italy	Douglas Wakiihuri  Kenya	Ahmed Salah  Djibouti
1992 Barcelona	Hwang Young-cho  South Korea	Koichi Morishita  Japan	Stephan Freigang  Germany
1996 Atlanta	Josia Thugwane  South Africa	Lee Bong-ju  South Korea	Erick Wainaina  Kenya
2000 Sydney	Gezahegne Abera  Ethiopia	Erick Wainaina  Kenya	Tesfaye Tola  Ethiopia
2004 Athens	Stefano Baldini  Italy	Mebrahtom Keflezighi  United States	Vanderlei de Lima  Brazil
2008 Beijing	Samuel Wanjiru  Kenya	Jaouad Gharib  Morocco	Tsegay Kebede  Ethiopia
2012 London	Stephen Kiprotich  Uganda	Abel Kirui  Kenya	Wilson Kipsang Kiprotich  Kenya
2016 Rio de Janeiro	Eliud Kipchoge  Kenya	Feyisa Lelisa  Ethiopia	Galen Rupp  United States

Multiple medalists

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Olympics	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1=	Abebe Bikila	Ethiopia (ETH)	1960–1964	2	0	0	2
1=	Waldemar Cierpinski	East Germany (GDR)	1976–1980	2	0	0	2
3	Frank Shorter	United States (USA)	1972–1976	1	1	0	2
4	Mamo Wolde	Ethiopia (ETH)	1968–1972	1	0	1	2
5=	Karel Lismont	Belgium (BEL)	1972–1976	0	1	1	2
5=	Erick Wainaina	Kenya (KEN)	1996–2000	0	1	1	2

Medals by country

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Ethiopia (ETH)	4	1	3	8
2	United States (USA)	3	3	5	11
3	France (FRA)	3	1	0	4
4	Kenya (KEN)	2	3	2	7
5	South Africa (RSA)	2	2	0	4
6	Italy (ITA)	2	1	1	4
7	Argentina (ARG)	2	1	0	3
8	Finland (FIN)	2	0	3	5
9	East Germany (GDR)	2	0	0	2
10	Japan (JPN)	1	2	2	5
11=	Greece (GRE)	1	1	0	2
11=	South Korea (KOR)	1	1	0	2
13=	Czechoslovakia (TCH)	1	0	0	1
13=	Portugal (POR)	1	0	0	1
13=	Uganda (UGA)	1	0	0	1
16	Great Britain (GBR)	0	4	1	5
17	Morocco (MAR)	0	2	0	2
18	Belgium (BEL)	0	1	2	3
19=	Chile (CHI)	0	1	0	1
19=	Estonia (EST)	0	1	0	1
19=	Ireland (IRL)	0	1	0	1
19=	Netherlands (NED)	0	1	0	1
19=	Yugoslavia (YUG)	0	1	0	1
24=	New Zealand (NZL)	0	0	2	2
24=	Sweden (SWE)	0	0	2	2
26=	Brazil (BRA)	0	0	1	1
26=	Djibouti (DJI)	0	0	1	1
26=	Germany (GER)	0	0	1	1
26=	Hungary (HUN)	0	0	1	1
26=	Soviet Union (URS)	0	0	1	1

Intercalated Games

The 1906 Intercalated Games were held in Athens and at the time were officially recognised as part of the Olympic Games series, with the intention being to hold a games in Greece in two-year intervals between the internationally held Olympics. However, this plan never came to fruition and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) later decided not to recognise these games as part of the official Olympic series. Some sports historians continue to treat the results of these games as part of the Olympic canon.

At this event a men's marathon was held over 41.86 km and Canada's Billy Sherring won the competition. John Svanberg, the runner-up in the 1906 5-mile race, was also runner-up in the marathon. American William Frank was the bronze medalist.

Games	Gold	Silver	Bronze
1906 Athens	Billy Sherring (CAN)	John Svanberg (SWE)	William Frank (USA)

Women

Games	Gold	Silver	Bronze
1984 Los Angeles	Joan Benoit  United States	Grete Waitz  Norway	Rosa Mota  Portugal
1988 Seoul	Rosa Mota  Portugal	Lisa Martin  Australia	Katrin Dörre  East Germany
1992 Barcelona	Valentina Yegorova  Unified Team	Yuko Arimori  Japan	Lorraine Moller  New Zealand
1996 Atlanta	Fatuma Roba  Ethiopia	Valentina Yegorova  Russia	Yuko Arimori  Japan
2000 Sydney	Naoko Takahashi  Japan	Lidia Șimon  Romania	Joyce Chepchumba  Kenya
2004 Athens	Mizuki Noguchi  Japan	Catherine Ndereba  Kenya	Deena Kastor  United States
2008 Beijing	Constantina Tomescu  Romania	Catherine Ndereba  Kenya	Zhou Chunxiu  China
2012 London	Tiki Gelana  Ethiopia	Priscah Jeptoo  Kenya	Tatyana Petrova Arkhipova  Russia
2016 Rio de Janeiro	Jemima Sumgong  Kenya	Eunice Kirwa  Bahrain	Mare Dibaba  Ethiopia

Multiple medalists

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Olympics	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Valentina Yegorova	Unified Team (EUN)  Russia (RUS)	1992–1996	1	1	0	2
2	Rosa Mota	Portugal (POR)	1984–1988	1	0	1	2
3	Catherine Ndereba	Kenya (KEN)	2004–2008	0	2	0	2
4	Yuko Arimori	Japan (JPN)	1992–1996	0	1	1	2

Medals by country

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Japan (JPN)	2	1	1	4
2	Ethiopia (ETH)	2	0	1	3
3	Kenya (KEN)	1	3	1	5
4	Romania (ROM)	1	1	0	2
5=	Portugal (POR)	1	0	1	2
5=	United States (USA)	1	0	1	2
7	Unified Team (EUN)	1	0	0	1
8	Russia (RUS)	0	1	1	2
9=	Australia (AUS)	0	1	0	1
9=	Norway (NOR)	0	1	0	1
9=	Bahrain (BRN)	0	1	0	1
12=	China (CHN)	0	0	1	1
12=	East Germany (GDR)	0	0	1	1
12=	New Zealand (NZL)	0	0	1	1