Athletics at the 1900 Summer Olympics – Men's marathon

The men's marathon was a track & field athletics event in the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris. The marathon was on July 19, 1900. There were 13 athletes. These athletes were from 5 nations. The marathon was 40.26 kilometres long. 

The winner was Michel Théato. He was from Luxembourg and lived in Paris. At this time, competitors were not chosen by an Olympic Committee. This meant that Théato was on the French team. Later, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg made a complaintto the International Olympic Committee. They made a petition to change Théato's nationality to Luxembourg. The complaint was rejected in 2004.

In 2021, IOC changed some of the nationalities of the athletes from the 1900 Games. Michel Théato was changed to be from Luxembourg. This change in the IOC  was later reversed.

Background

This was the 2nd marathon in the Olympics. This is one of 12 athletic events that has been at every Summer Olympics. None of the runners in the 1896 marathon ran in this marathon. The marathon was a new event in 1896. It was not new anymore. The Boston Marathon had happened since 1897. The 1898 winner of the Boston Marathon (Ronald MacDonald) also ran in this event.

This was the first time that Canada, Great Britain, and Sweden ran in this event. France and the United States were the only countries that competed in the 1896 marathon and the 1900 marathon.

Competition

The marathon was a single race. At the time, there was not a standard distance for the marathon. In 1896, the course was 40 kilometres. The 1900 course was 40.26 kilometres. Now, the marathon distance is 42.195 kilometres. The course was 4 laps around the stadium track. Then, the athletes would run through Paris.

Records

This was the World record and Olympic record before 1900. The times are in hours. The marathon distance was not standard. The world records would not be official in until 1924.

(*) Distance was 40 kilometres

Schedule

 Date Time Round Thursday, 19 July 1900  14:30  Final
Summary

The marathon race began at 2:30 p.m.. The temperatures were 39 °C (102 °F ).

There were 20 runners that were supposed to run. Only 13 started the race. One runner dropped out after the first 4 laps around the track. Touquet-Daunis was in front of the race for some time. Eventually, he was too tired from the heat. He quit the race.

After that, Fast went in front. However, he was too tired from trying to run with Touquet-Daunis. At the end of the race, he was passed by Théato and Champion.

Results

 Rank  Athlete  Nation  Time   Michel Théato    2:59:45   Émile Champion    3:04:17   Ernst Fast    3:37:14 4  Eugène Besse    4:00:43 5  Arthur Newton    4:04:12 6  Dick Grant    Unknown 7  Ronald J. MacDonald    Unknown —  Auguste Marchais     Johan Nyström     E. Ion Pool     Frederick Randall     William Saward     W. Taylor     Georges Touquet-Daunis     —  Emilio Banfi     John Cregan     Alexander Grant     John Maguire     Martens     Jakub Wolf     Ettore Zilia    

Sources
Specific

General
 International Olympic Committee results database
 De Wael, Herman. Herman's Full Olympians: "Athletics 1900".  Accessed 18 March 2006. Available electronically at  .


Men's marathon
Category:Marathons