The weird, wacky, wonderful world of marathon

Appropriately when Baron Pierre de Coubertin revived the Olympics in Athens a Greek won the inaugural running. Spyridon Louys, a shepherd from Amarousion, was the man and his selection was somewhat unorthodox. Attending a lecture from the local army boss who had forgotten his spectacles, Louys volunteered to retrieve them from the officer’s home. He returned within two hours and the grateful soldier nominated Louys for the marathon.

During the Olympic race Louys downed glasses of wine but as he approached the stadium the crowd was tipped off by messengers on horseback that a Greek was leading. To rapturous applause Louys was crowned the first modern Olympics marathon champion in a time of 2 hours 58 minutes and 50 seconds. Unlike Phidippides he lived to enjoy the acclaim, dying in 1940. He remained a shepherd and his only reward was a horse and cart.

The 1904 final in St Louis, Missouri was bizarre even by the outlandish standards of the wackiest race in the Olympics.

The Dick Dastardly role was played by US’s Fred Lorz who finished first but Alice Roosevelt, daughter of US President Theodore, had spotted Lorz being driven for 11 miles of the course and produced photographic evidence to back her claim. Lorz was disqualified and victory awarded to compatriot Thomas Hicks, a brass worker born in Birmingham, England.

Hicks, like Louys, was alcoholically fuelled during the race with brandy, raw eggs and strychnine and his path to gold was smoothed by a vicious dog that chased a Cuban competitor a mile off course. Hicks capitalised on his fame by becoming a circus clown.

That was a tough act for London to follow in 1908 but the capital of the world’s largest ever Empire duly provided another fiasco. American John Hayes took the gold but Italian Dorando Pietri stole the show. Dorando led into the stadium but some judges including Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of fictional detective Sherlock Holmes helped the exhausted sweetmaker over the line. He was disqualified and never forgave the British although the Queen presented him with a golden consolation trophy.

Finland’s Hannes Kolehmainen struck gold in 1924 but the marathon was no big deal for the vegetarian bricklayer, who skied 100km to work every day.

London provided another dramatic finale in 1948 when Belgian Etienne Gailly led into Wembley Stadium. But he was overhauled by Argentinian Delfo Cabrera who took gold and eventually had to settle for bronze.

In 1960 the greatest marathon runner in history emerged. Ethiopia’s Abebe Bikila, running barefoot in Rome, won a night-time race, becoming the first black African winner Algerians El Ouafi Boughera and Alain Mimoun won for France in 1928 and 1956.

Bikila, an Imperial Guard at the court of Haile Selassie, made history in Tokyo by retaining the title but his hat-trick bid in Mexico City in 1968 failed although compatriot Mamo Wolde ensured Ethiopia retained the gold.In 1972 the Munich crowd cheered as a German reached the stadium first. Unfortunately he was a student prankster and American Frank Shorter duly triumphed.

In the boycott-affected years of 1976 and 1980 East German Waldemar Cierpinski matched Bikila’s feat of winning two Olympic marathons.

In 1984 the women’s race was born and American Joan Benoit topped the podium only to be upstaged by ailing Swiss runner Gabriela Andersen-Schiess who staggered into the stadium in great distress. It took her five minutes to complete the last 400m but she did finish.

Since then the Olympics marathon has been relatively incident free but South Africa’s Comrades Marathon in 1999 provided another weird and wonderful tale.

The athlete who won a cash prize for finishing ninth was disqualified when it was revealed he had replaced his identical twin brother halfway through the race. The crafty pair had pre-arranged a meeting in a portable toilet where they exchanged clothes. The ruse was exposed when the athlete that finished the race was photographed with his watch on the opposite wrist to the one that started.