Athletics at the 1984 Summer Olympics – Men's marathon

Official Video Highlights

Men's marathon at the Games of the XXIII Olympiad
Tickets for Athletics at the 1984 Summer Olympics
Venue	Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum
Date	August 12
Competitors	107 from 59 nations
Winning time	2:09:21 OR
Medalists
Carlos Lopes   Portugal John Treacy   Ireland Charlie Spedding   Great Britain
←  1980 1988  →

The men's marathon at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California, was held on Sunday August 12, 1984. The race started at 5:00 pm local time. There were 107 competitors from 59 countries. The maximum number of athletes per nation had been set at 3 since the 1930 Olympic Congress. A total number of 78 athletes completed the race.

The race was won by Carlos Lopes of Portugal, giving Portugal its first medal in the men's marathon, as well as its first ever gold medal at the Olympics. ^[1] His time of 2:09:21 was the Olympic record for the next 24 years. ^[2] Ireland also won its first men's marathon medal, with John Treacy's silver. Great Britain returned to the podium for the first time since 1964 with Charlie Spedding taking bronze.

Background

This was the 20th appearance of the event, which is one of 12 athletics events to have been held at every Summer Olympics. Returning runners from the 1980 marathon included silver medalist Gerard Nijboer of the Netherlands, sixth-place finisher Rodolfo Gómez of Mexico, ninth-place finisher (and 1972 silver and 1976 bronze medalist) Karel Lismont of Belgium, and tenth-place finisher Robert de Castella of Australia. The two-time defending champion, Waldemar Cierpinski of East Germany, was prevented from trying for a third gold by the Eastern Bloc boycott.

The two favorites^{[ citation needed ]} were de Castella (1981 Fukuoka winner, in world record time, and 1983 World Championships winner) and Toshihiko Seko of Japan (1981 Boston winner and 1978–1980 and 1983 Fukuoka winner). ^[3] Alberto Salazar of the United States had a strong 1980 to 1982 (1980–1982 New York winner and 1982 Boston winner), ^[4] but had less good results in 1983, and had finished second at the USA trials. ^[3]

Botswana, the Central African Republic, Cyprus, Djibouti, Israel, Jamaica, Jordan, Oman, Qatar, the Virgin Islands, and Zaire each made their first appearance in Olympic men's marathons; the Republic of China made its first appearance as Chinese Taipei. The United States made its 19th appearance, most of any nation, having missed only the boycotted 1980 Games.

Competition format and course

As all Olympic marathons, the competition was a single race. The marathon distance of 26 miles, 385 yards was run over a point-to-point route starting at Santa Monica College and ending at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. ^[4]

Records

These were the standing world and Olympic records prior to the 1984 Summer Olympics.

World record	Robert de Castella  (AUS)	2:08:18	Fukuoka, Japan	6 December 1981
Olympic record	Waldemar Cierpinski  (GDR)	2:09:55.0	Montreal, Canada	31 July 1976

Carlos Lopes set a new Olympic record at 2:09:21.

Schedule

All times are Pacific Daylight Time (UTC-7)

Date	Time	Round
Sunday, 12 August 1984	17:15	Final

Results

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
	Carlos Lopes	Portugal	2:09:21	OR
	John Treacy	Ireland	2:09:56
	Charlie Spedding	Great Britain	2:09:58
4	Takeshi So	Japan	2:10:55
5	Robert de Castella	Australia	2:11:09
6	Juma Ikangaa	Tanzania	2:11:10
7	Joseph Nzau	Kenya	2:11:28
8	Djama Robleh	Djibouti	2:11:39
9	Jerry Kiernan	Ireland	2:12:20
10	Rod Dixon	New Zealand	2:12:57
11	Pete Pfitzinger	United States	2:13:53
12	Hugh Jones	Great Britain	2:13:57
13	Jorge González	Puerto Rico	2:14:00
14	Toshihiko Seko	Japan	2:14:13
15	Alberto Salazar	United States	2:14:19
16	Mehmet Terzi	Turkey	2:14:20
17	Shigeru So	Japan	2:14:38
18	Ralf Salzmann	West Germany	2:15:29
19	Henrik Jørgensen	Denmark	2:15:55
20	Hussein Ahmed Salah	Djibouti	2:15:59
21	Agapius Masong	Tanzania	2:16:25
22	Gidamis Shahanga	Tanzania	2:16:27
23	Eloi Schleder	Brazil	2:16:35
24	Karel Lismont	Belgium	2:17:07
25	Allan Zachariasen	Denmark	2:17:10
26	Michail Koussis	Greece	2:17:38
27	Pertti Tiainen	Finland	2:17:43
28	Alain Lazare	France	2:17:52
29	Vincent Ruguga	Uganda	2:17:54
30	Armand Parmentier	Belgium	2:18:10
31	César Mercado	Puerto Rico	2:19:09
32	Omar Abdillahi Charmarke	Djibouti	2:19:11
33	Øyvind Dahl	Norway	2:19:28
34	Derek Froude	New Zealand	2:19:44
35	Giovanni d'Aleo	Italy	2:20:12
36	Jesús Herrera	Mexico	2:20:33
37	Lee Hong-yeol	South Korea	2:20:56
38	Juan Camacho	Bolivia	2:21:04
39	Cor Vriend	Netherlands	2:21:08
40	Frans Ntaole	Lesotho	2:21:09
41	Johan Geirnaert	Belgium	2:21:35
42	Jacques Boxberger	France	2:22:00
43	Marco Marchei	Italy	2:22:38
44	Art Boileau	Canada	2:22:43
45	Samuel Hlawe	Swaziland	2:22:45
46	Baikuntha Manandhar	Nepal	2:22:52
47	Ahmed Mohamed Ismail	Somalia	2:23:27
48	Chae Hong-nak	South Korea	2:23:33
49	Joseph Otieno	Kenya	2:24:13
50	Bruno Lafranchi	Switzerland	2:24:38
51	Dick Hooper	Ireland	2:24:41
52	Derick Adamson	Jamaica	2:25:02
53	Claudio Cabán	Puerto Rico	2:27:16
54	Marc Agosta	Luxembourg	2:27:41
55	Wilson Theleso	Botswana	2:29:20
56	Alejandro Silva	Chile	2:29:53
57	Chen Chang-ming	Chinese Taipei	2:29:53
58	Kim Won-sik	South Korea	2:30:57
59	Rubén Aguiar	Argentina	2:31:18
60	Sabag Shemtov	Israel	2:31:34
61	Vincent Rakabaele	Lesotho	2:32:15
62	Marios Kassianidis	Cyprus	2:32:51
63	Arjun Pandit	Nepal	2:32:53
64	Ismael Mahmoud Ghassab	Jordan	2:33:30
65	Alain Bordeleau	Canada	2:34:27
66	Tau John Tokwepota	Papua New Guinea	2:36:36
67	Patric Nyambariro-Nhauro	Zimbabwe	2:37:18
68	Kimurgor Ngeny	Kenya	2:37:19
69	Amiri Yadav	Nepal	2:38:10
70	Adolphe Ambowode	Central African Republic	2:41:26
71	Carlos Ávila	Honduras	2:42:03
72	Jules Randrianarivelo	Madagascar	2:43:05
73	Abdul Lahij Ahmed	Somalia	2:44:39	The Los Angeles Times described Ahmed's Olympic finish as follows: "In one dramatic moment, Somalian runner Abdulahij Ahmed entered the stadium, obviously in pain. The stadium crowd rose to its feet, cheering wildly to encourage him to finish. He did." [5]
74	George Mambosasa	Malawi	2:46:14
75	Marlon Williams	Virgin Islands	2:46:50
76	Johnson Mbangiwa	Botswana	2:48:12
77	Leonardo Illut	Philippines	2:49:39
78	Dieudonné LaMothe	Haiti	2:52:18
—	Awadh Al-Sameer	Oman	DNF
	Ahmet Altun	Turkey	DNF
	Dave Edge	Canada	DNF
	Matthews Kambale	Malawi	DNF
	Ronald Lanzoni	Costa Rica	DNF
	Bigboy Matlapeng	Botswana	DNF
	Tommy Persson	Sweden	DNF
	Kjell-Erik Ståhl	Sweden	DNF
	Domingo Tibaduiza	Colombia	DNF
	Rodolfo Gómez	Mexico	DNF
	Gerard Nijboer	Netherlands	DNF
	Gerhard Hartmann	Austria	DNF
	Omar Aguilar	Chile	DNF
	Filippos Filippou	Cyprus	DNF
	Juan Carlos Traspaderne	Spain	DNF
	Santiago de la Parte	Spain	DNF
	Geoff Smith	Great Britain	DNF
	Nimley Twegbe	Liberia	DNF
	Miguel Angel Cruz	Mexico	DNF
	Cor Lambregts	Netherlands	DNF
	Stig Roar Husby	Norway	DNF
	Cidálio Caetano	Portugal	DNF
	Delfim Moreira	Portugal	DNF
	Ibrahim Al-Taher	Qatar	DNF
	Mehmet Yurdadön	Turkey	DNF
	Wilson Achia	Uganda	DNF
	John Tuttle	United States	DNF
	Masini Situ-Kumbanga	Zaire	DNF
	Tommy Lazarus	Zimbabwe	DNF
—	Martti Vainio	Finland	DNS

See also

• 1982 Men's European Championships Marathon (Athens)
• 1983 Men's World Championships Marathon (Helsinki)
• 1984 Men's Friendship Games Marathon (Moscow)
• 1986 Men's European Championships Marathon (Stuttgart)
• 1987 Men's World Championships Marathon (Rome)

References

1. "Four medals for Portugal in Tokyo 2021". The Portugal News. 6 August 2021. Retrieved 25 August 2021.
2. "Athletics at the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Games: Men's Marathon". sports-reference.com. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 11 May 2017.
3. 1984 - Looking back on one of the best U.S. Olympic marathon trials ever, Runner's World, January 10, 2012.
4. "Marathon, Men". Olympedia. Retrieved 28 August 2020.
5. Mark A. Stein (August 13, 1984). "High-Tech Glitter Closes L.A. Games: Laser-Illuminated Ceremony Follows Finish of Marathon Before 92,655". Los Angeles Times– via Newspapers.com.

External links

• (in French) Marathon Info