# Athletics at the 1920 Summer Olympics – Men's marathon

The men's marathon event was part of the track and field athletics programme at the 1920 Summer Olympics. The distance of this race was 42.75 kilometres. The competition was held on Sunday, 22 August 1920. 48 runners from 17 nations competed. No nation had more than 4 runners, suggesting the limit had been reduced from the 12 maximum in force in 1908 and 1912. The event was won by Hannes Kolehmainen of Finland, the nation's first Olympic marathon medal and victory; Kolehmainen received his fourth gold medal, having won the 5000 metres, 10,000 metres, and individual cross country in 1912. Estonia (Jüri Lossmann's silver) and Italy (Valerio Arri's bronze) also won their first marathon medals.

## Background

This was the sixth appearance of the event, which is one of 12 athletics events to have been held at every Summer Olympics. The field included significant competitors, including the original Flying Finn, Hannes Kolehmainen (who had not run the marathon in 1912, but took gold in three other distance events) and his brother Tatu Kolehmainen (who had competed in the 1912 marathon); South Africa's Christian Gitsham (silver medal in the 1912 marathon); and American Boston Marathon winners Arthur Roth (1916) and Carl Linder (1919), as well as future winner Charles Mellor (1925). Shizo Kanakuri of Japan, still considered a missing person in Sweden after disappearing during the 1912 Olympic marathon, competed.
Chile, Estonia, and India each made their first appearance in Olympic marathons. The United States made its sixth appearance, the only nation to have competed in each Olympic marathon to that point.

## Competition format

As all marathons, the competition was a single race. The course for the race was listed as 42.75 kilometres long, making it the longest Olympic marathon ever. However, the Association of Road Racing Statisticians estimated the course to be only 40 km, which would make it among the shorter courses in the pre-standardized era. The course included 1.5 laps of the stadium at both the start and finish.

## Records

These were the standing world and Olympic records (in hours) prior to the 1920 Summer Olympics.
| World record | Alexis Ahlgren (SWE) | 2:36:07 | London, United Kingdom | 31 May 1913 |
| Olympic record | Ken McArthur (RSA) | 2:36:54.8(*) | Stockholm, Sweden | 14 July 1912 |
(*) Distance was 40.2 kilometres
Hannes Kolehmainen is recognized as having set a new world best with a time of 2:32:35.8 hours.

## Schedule

The weather during the race has been described as "cool". An Associated Press report described the weather as "cold and showery", but "fine running weather for the marathoners".
| Date | Time | Round |
| Sunday, 22 August 1920 | 16:12 | Final |

## Results

| Rank | Athlete | Nation | Time | Notes |
| | Hannes Kolehmainen | Finland | 2:32:35.8 | WR, OR |
| | Jüri Lossmann | Estonia | 2:32:48.6 | |
| | Valerio Arri | Italy | 2:36:32.8 | |
| 4 | Auguste Broos | Belgium | 2:39:25.8 | |
| 5 | Juho Tuomikoski | Finland | 2:40:18.8 | |
| 6 | Sofus Rose | Denmark | 2:41:18.0 | |
| 7 | Joseph Organ | United States | 2:41:30.0 | |
| 8 | Rudolf Hansen | Denmark | 2:41:39.4 | |
| 9 | Urho Tallgren | Finland | 2:42:40.0 | |
| 10 | Tatu Kolehmainen | Finland | 2:44:02.3 | |
| 11 | Carl Linder | United States | 2:44:21.2 | |
| 12 | Charles Mellor | United States | 2:45:30.0 | |
| 13 | James Dellow | Canada | 2:46:47.0 | |
| 14 | Bobby Mills | Great Britain | 2:48:05.0 | |
| 15 | Arthur Scholes | Canada | 2:48:30.0 | |
| 16 | Shizo Kanakuri | Japan | 2:48:45.4 | |
| 17 | Gustav Kinn | Sweden | 2:49:10.4 | |
| 18 | Albert Moché | France | 2:50:00.2 | |
| 19 | Phadeppa Chaugle | India | 2:50:45.4 | |
| 20 | Zensaku Motegi | Japan | 2:51:09.4 | |
| 21 | Kenzo Yashima | Japan | 2:57:02.0 | |
| 22 | Norman General | Canada | 2:58:01.0 | |
| 23 | Rudolf Wåhlin | Sweden | 2:59:23.0 | |
| 24 | Yahei Miura | Japan | 2:59:37.0 | |
| 25 | Henri Teyssedou | France | 3:00:04.0 | |
| 26 | Hendricus Wessel | Netherlands | 3:00:17.0 | |
| 27 | Charles Melis | Belgium | 3:00:51.0 | |
| 28 | William Grüner | Sweden | 3:01:48.0 | |
| 29 | George Piper | Great Britain | 3:02:10.0 | |
| 30 | Sinton Hewitt | Australia | 3:03:27.0 | |
| 31 | Leslie Housden | Great Britain | 3:14:25.0 | |
| 32 | Iraklis Sakellaropoulos | Greece | 3:14:25.0 | |
| 33 | Juan Bascuñán | Chile | 3:17:47.0 | |
| 34 | Oscar Blansaer | Belgium | 3:20:00.0 | |
| 35 | Eric Robertson | Great Britain | 3:55:00.0 | |
| — | Ettore Blasi | Italy | DNF | |
| — | Louis Ichard | France | DNF | |
| — | Antonio Persico | Italy | DNF | |
| — | Albert Smoke | Canada | DNF | |
| — | Axel Jensen | Denmark | DNF | |
| — | Panagiotis Trivoulidas | Greece | DNF | |
| — | Christiaan Huijgens | Netherlands | DNF | |
| — | Desiré Van Remortel | Belgium | DNF | |
| — | Hans Schuster | Sweden | DNF | |
| — | Amédée Trichard | France | DNF | |
| — | Sadashiv Datar | India | DNF | |
| — | Christian Gitsham | South Africa | DNF | |
| — | Arthur Roth | United States | DNF | |