# Athletics at the 1936 Summer Olympics – Men's marathon

The men's marathon event at the 1936 Summer Olympic Games took place August 9. Fifty-six athletes from 27 nations competed. The maximum number of athletes per nation had been set at 3 since the 1930 Olympic Congress. The race was won by Sohn Kee-chung, a Korean athlete competing for Japan as the country was under Japanese occupation; Sohn refused to acknowledge the Japanese anthem at the victory ceremony. Sohn was the first Korean athlete to win an Olympic gold medal, though the medal remains credited as Japan's first victory in the Olympic marathon. Finland (barely) missed the marathon podium for the first time since World War I, with its top two runners placing 4th and 5th.

## Korean athletes

During the time of the competition, Korea was a colony of Japan, therefore Korean sportsmen competed as members of Japanese team and were using their Japanese names. The Korean names of Son Kitei and Nan Shōryū are Sohn Kee-chung and Nam Sung-yong respectively. After Sohn's victory, he bowed his head during the Japanese anthem at his medal ceremony and remarked that he was ashamed to compete for Japan, an occupying power, rather than an independent Korea. A Korean newspaper, The Dong-a Ilbo, obscured the Japanese rising sun symbol on Sohn's uniform in a photograph of the victory ceremony, resulting in the Japanese government suspending the newspaper and jailing some of its employees.

## Background

This was the tenth appearance of the event, which is one of 12 athletics events to have been held at every Summer Olympics. Returning runners from 1932 included the defending champion, Juan Carlos Zabala of Argentina, and tenth-place finisher Anders Hartington Andersen of Denmark. Sohn Kee-chung had broken the world record in 1935, won 9 of the 12 marathons he had run since 1933, and finished in the top three in the other 3.
Bulgaria, the Republic of China, Peru, Poland, and Switzerland each made their first appearance in Olympic marathons. The United States made its tenth appearance, the only nation to have competed in each Olympic marathon to that point.

## Competition format and course

As all Olympic marathons, the competition was a single race. The now-standard marathon distance of 26 miles, 385 yards was run over a course that started in the Olympic Stadium. After going around the stadium, the starting field left the stadium through the Marathon Gate. The runners crossed the Maifeld and then turned right into the Angerburger Avenue. Shortly thereafter, it was then left into Glockenturmstraße and the first checkpoint after 4 km on the Havelchaussee. They went on the banks of the Havel along the Grunewald to the left side. The second checkpoint was 6 kilometers on Rupenhorn, at kilometer 8 of the third control point followed on Schildhorn. The Grunewaldturm was reached after 10 km, at the level of the island Lindwerder sending the runners southeast. At the end of Havelchaussee runners then turned left on the long, straight AVUS. The course went on the race track to the Nordschleife, there returned to the rotor field and the previous route ran back to the Olympic Stadium. The athletes came through the Marathon Gate back to the stadium and then ran for about 150 meters to the finish line.
This route differs from the present-day Berlin Marathon.

## Records

These were the standing world and Olympic records prior to the 1936 Summer Olympics per the IAAF. The ARRS lists Sohn as having run 2:26:14 on 21 March 1935.
| World record | Kitei Son (JPN) | 2:26:42 | Tokyo, Japan | 3 November 1935 |
| Olympic record | Juan Carlos Zabala (ARG) | 2:31:36 | Los Angeles, United States | 7 August 1932 |
Sohn Kee-chung set a new Olympic best with a time of 2:29:19.2.

## Schedule

The day was "dry and clear" and 22 °C (72 °F).
| Date | Time | Round |
| Sunday, 9 August 1936 | 15:00 | Final |

## Results

| Rank | Athlete | Nation | Time | Notes |
| | Kitei Son | Japan | 2:29:19.2 | OR |
| | Ernest Harper | Great Britain | 2:31:23.2 | |
| | Shōryū Nan | Japan | 2:31:42.0 | |
| 4 | Erkki Tamila | Finland | 2:32:45.0 | |
| 5 | Väinö Muinonen | Finland | 2:33:46.0 | |
| 6 | Johannes Coleman | South Africa | 2:36:17.0 | |
| 7 | Donald Robertson | Great Britain | 2:37:06.2 | |
| 8 | Jackie Gibson | South Africa | 2:38:04.0 | |
| 9 | Mauno Tarkiainen | Finland | 2:39:33.0 | |
| 10 | Thore Enochsson | Sweden | 2:43:12.0 | |
| 11 | Stylianos Kyriakides | Greece | 2:43:20.0 | |
| 12 | Nouba Khaled | France | 2:45:34.0 | |
| 13 | Henry Palmé | Sweden | 2:46:08.4 | |
| 14 | Franz Tuschek | Austria | 2:46:29.0 | |
| 15 | Jimmy Bartlett | Canada | 2:48:21.4 | |
| 16 | Émile Duval | France | 2:48:39.8 | |
| 17 | Manuel Dias | Portugal | 2:49:00.0 | |
| 18 | Johnny Kelley | United States | 2:49:32.4 | |
| 19 | Miloslav Luňák | Czechoslovakia | 2:50:26.0 | |
| 20 | Felix Meskens | Belgium | 2:51:19.0 | |
| 21 | Ján Takáč | Czechoslovakia | 2:51:20.0 | |
| 22 | Rudolf Wöber | Austria | 2:51:28.0 | |
| 23 | Ludovic Gall | Romania | 2:55:02.0 | |
| 24 | Robert Nevens | Belgium | 2:55:51.0 | |
| 25 | Anders Hartington Andersen | Denmark | 2:56:31.0 | |
| 26 | Gabriel Mendoza | Peru | 2:57:17.8 | |
| 27 | Tommy Lalande | South Africa | 2:57:20.0 | |
| 28 | Artūrs Motmillers | Latvia | 2:58:02.0 | |
| 29 | Eduard Braesecke | Germany | 2:59:33.4 | |
| 30 | Percy Wyer | Canada | 3:00:11.0 | |
| 31 | Fernand Le Heurteur | France | 3:01:11.0 | |
| 32 | Wilhelm Rothmayer | Austria | 3:02:32.0 | |
| 33 | Bronisław Gancarz | Poland | 3:03:11.0 | |
| 34 | Max Beer | Switzerland | 3:06:26.0 | |
| 35 | Guillermo Suárez | Peru | 3:08:18.0 | |
| 36 | Boris Kharalampiev | Bulgaria | 3:08:53.8 | |
| 37 | Arul Swami | India | 3:10:44.0 | |
| 38 | Josef Šulc | Czechoslovakia | 3:11:47.4 | |
| 39 | Franz Eha | Switzerland | 3:18:17.0 | |
| 40 | Wang Zhenglin | Republic of China | 3:25:36.4 | |
| 41 | Stane Šporn | Yugoslavia | 3:30:47.0 | |
| 42 | José Farías | Peru | 3:33:24.0 | |
| — | Juan Acosta | Chile | DNF | |
| — | Franz Barsicke | Germany | DNF | |
| — | Ellison Brown | United States | DNF | |
| — | Giannino Bulzone | Italy | DNF | |
| — | Paul de Bruyn | Germany | DNF | |
| — | Kazimierz Fiałka | Poland | DNF | |
| — | Aurelio Genghini | Italy | DNF | |
| — | Billy McMahon | United States | DNF | |
| — | Jaime Mendes | Portugal | DNF | |
| — | Bert Norris | Great Britain | DNF | |
| — | Luis Oliva | Argentina | DNF | |
| — | Tamao Shiwaku | Japan | DNF | |
| — | Harold Webster | Canada | DNF | |
| — | Juan Carlos Zabala | Argentina | DNF | |
| — | Vincent Callard | Canada | DNS | |
| — | Jean Chapelle | Belgium | DNS | |
| — | Ernst Hirt | Switzerland | DNS | |
| — | Jorge Perry | Colombia | DNS | |