Because of where the organizers wanted it to start and finish. Up to 1908 the Olympic marathon had been run at distances ranging from forty to forty-two kilometers. For the London Games the organizers wanted a start on the East Lawn at and a finish in the directly in front of the Royal box.
Measured between those two points, the race came to exactly , or twenty-six miles and 385 yards. That figure has been the standard marathon distance worldwide ever since. Nothing about it is principled. It is the length of one route chosen in one city to suit a castle lawn at one end and a royal viewing position at the other.
Before 1908 the Olympic marathon had no fixed length. It had been contested anywhere from forty to forty-two kilometers. Nobody seems to have minded. The race was the race.
The London Games changed that for reasons of staging rather than sport. The organizers were keen for the race to start on the East Lawn at Windsor Castle and to finish inside the White City Stadium, directly in front of the Royal box. Both ends were fixed before anyone measured anything. The distance between them was whatever it turned out to be.
It turned out to be exactly 42.195 kilometers, or twenty-six miles and 385 yards. That is now the standard everywhere. The IOC’s Olympic Studies archive holds the program for the race, which describes the historic route in detail, kilometer by kilometer.
The same race produced one of the most dramatic finishes in Olympic history. Italy’s entered the stadium in first place, began heading in the wrong direction, and collapsed from exhaustion. Officials helped him to his feet. He collapsed again, and in the end they helped him over the line. He crossed first and was disqualified for receiving help, and his effort to finish is why he is still remembered. One caution: this is a newsletter item about an archive document, not a history of how the decision was taken.
wat. The marathon is that long because of where the Royal box was.
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A measurement that every runner in the world now trains against was fixed by stadium architecture. The standard outlived the reason for it by more than a century.
How do we know?
The IOC’s Olympic Studies newsletter describes the 1908 Olympic marathon program held in its collections. It gives the varying earlier distances, the reason for the chosen route, and the distance that resulted.
What is still unknown
A newsletter item introducing an archive document rather than a history of the decision. It gives the outcome and the motive in a sentence each, without the organizers’ own records.
Learn something?
Where to next
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