Athletics at the 1996 Summer Olympics – Men's marathon

Men's marathon at the Games of the XXVI Olympiad
Centennial Olympic Stadium (during the 1996 Paralympic Games)
Venue	Centennial Olympic Stadium, Atlanta
Date	August 4
Competitors	124 from 79 nations
Winning time	2:12:36
Medalists
Josia Thugwane   South Africa Lee Bong-Ju   South Korea Erick Wainaina   Kenya
←  1992 2000  →

Official Video Highlights
@ 11:43

The men's marathon at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta was held on Sunday, August 4, 1996. The race started at 07:05h local time to avoid excessively hot and humid conditions. ^[1] A total number of 111 athletes completed the race, with an injured and limping Abdul Baser Wasiqi from Afghanistan finishing in last position in 4:24:17. ^[2]

There were 124 competitors from 79 countries. The maximum number of athletes per nation had been set at 3 since the 1930 Olympic Congress. Thirteen competitors did not finish. ^[3] The medal ceremony took place during the Closing Ceremony which they did again in Athens eight years later. The event was won by Josia Thugwane of South Africa, the nation's first victory in the Olympic men's marathon since 1912. South Korea's Lee Bong-ju won the silver, and Erick Wainaina of Kenya won bronze.

Summary

There were few favorites in the event. The race started at an Olympic stadium and after 3 1/2 laps of the track they started on the out and back course through Atlanta. There was a large group of about 60 in front. It was not until mile 15 that things started to get stirred up. The South Africans made a wall at the front and proceeded to increase the pace. They were joined by Lee Bong-Ju. The race continued as such until mile 17. Josia Thugwane made a move and was joined by Lee Bong-Ju. Meanwhile, Erick Wainaina joined the two in front. The three switched leads several times until Thugwane made a move outside Olympic stadium. He took through the tunnel while Lee Bong-Ju passed Wainaina. It was the closest finish in Olympic history but Thugwane maintained his lead in the last mile to take the gold medal in 2:12:36. Lee Bong-Ju took silver and Wainaina bronze.

Background

This was the 23rd appearance of the event, which is one of 12 athletics events to have been held at every Summer Olympics. Returning runners from the 1992 marathon included bronze medalist Stephan Freigang of Germany, fifth-place finisher Salvatore Bettiol of Italy, eighth-place finisher Hiromi Taniguchi of Japan, and ninth-place finisher Diego García of Spain. Martín Fiz of Spain was the reigning World and European champion. Belayneh Dinsamo of Ethiopia was the world record holder, but that record had been set 8 years previously. As in 1992, there was "no dominant male marathoner entering the 1996 Olympics and the race was considered wide-open." ^[4]

Afghanistan, Andorra, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Burundi, Cambodia, Cape Verde, Indonesia, Kyrgyzstan, Lithuania, Mauritius, Moldova, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, Ukraine, Venezuela, and Yemen each made their first appearance in Olympic men's marathons. The United States made its 22nd 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 an out-and-back route starting and finishing at the Olympic Stadium. The course generally followed that of the Atlanta Marathon. ^[4]

Records

These were the standing world and Olympic records prior to the 1996 Summer Olympics.

World record	Belayneh Dinsamo  (ETH)	2:06:50	Rotterdam, Netherlands	17 April 1988
Olympic record	Carlos Lopes  (POR)	2:09:21	Los Angeles, United States	12 August 1984

No new world or Olympic bests were set during the competition. The following national records were established during the competition:

Nation	Athlete	Round	Time
Yemen	Mohamed Al-Saadi	Final	2:40:41

Schedule

The Olympic marathon, usually scheduled for afternoons or evenings at the Games' last day, began early in the morning in 1996 due to the anticipated heat and humidity of summer in Atlanta. The temperature by about 10 a.m. local time, as runners finished, was approximately 80 °F (27 °C) with 80% humidity. ^[4]

All times are Eastern Daylight Time (UTC−4)

Date	Time	Round
Sunday, 4 August 1996	7:05	Final

Results

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
	Josia Thugwane	South Africa	2:12:36
	Lee Bong-ju	South Korea	2:12:39
	Erick Wainaina	Kenya	2:12:44
4	Martín Fiz	Spain	2:13:20
5	Richard Nerurkar	Great Britain	2:13:39
6	Germán Silva	Mexico	2:14:29
7	Steve Moneghetti	Australia	2:14:35
8	Benjamín Paredes	Mexico	2:14:55
9	Danilo Goffi	Italy	2:15:08
10	Luíz Antônio dos Santos	Brazil	2:15:55
11	Carlos Grisales	Colombia	2:15:56
12	Kim Yi-Yong	South Korea	2:16:17
13	Tendai Chimusasa	Zimbabwe	2:16:31
14	António Pinto	Portugal	2:16:41
15	Dionicio Cerón	Mexico	2:16:48
16	Mwenze Kalombo	Zaire	2:17:01
17	Leszek Bebło	Poland	2:17:04
18	Alberto Juzdado	Spain	2:17:24
19	Hiromi Taniguchi	Japan	2:17:26
20	Salvatore Bettiol	Italy	2:17:27
21	Peter Fonseca	Canada	2:17:28
22	Rolando Vera	Ecuador	2:17:40
23	Roderic De Highden	Australia	2:17:42
24	José Luis Molina	Costa Rica	2:17:49
25	Domingos Castro	Portugal	2:18:03
26	Tahar Mansouri	Tunisia	2:18:06
27	Lawrence Peu	South Africa	2:18:09
28	Keith Brantly	United States	2:18:17
29	Thabisio Ralekhetla	Lesotho	2:18:26
30	Khristo Stefanov	Bulgaria	2:18:29
31	Bob Kempainen	United States	2:18:38
32	Harri Hänninen	Finland	2:18:41
33	Gert Thys	South Africa	2:18:55
34	Sean Quilty	Australia	2:19:35
35	Carey Nelson	Canada	2:19:39
36	Spyros Andriopoulos	Greece	2:19:41
37	Oleg Strizhakov	Russia	2:19:51
38	Kim Jung-won	North Korea	2:19:54
39	Bruce Deacon	Canada	2:19:56
40	Kim Jong-su	North Korea	2:20:19
41	Mark Coogan	United States	2:20:27
42	Hussein Ahmed Salah	Djibouti	2:20:33
43	Petro Sarafyniuk	Ukraine	2:20:37
44	Abdelkader El Mouaziz	Morocco	2:20:39
45	Bert van Vlaanderen	Netherlands	2:20:48
46	Manuel Matias	Portugal	2:20:58
47	Vanderlei de Lima	Brazil	2:21:01
48	Konrad Dobler	Germany	2:21:12
49	Borislav Dević	FR Yugoslavia	2:21:22
50	Davide Milesi	Italy	2:21:45
51	Aleksandrs Prokopčuks	Latvia	2:21:50
52	Lameck Aguta	Kenya	2:22:04
53	Diego García	Spain	2:22:11
54	Masaki Oya	Japan	2:22:13
55	Peter Whitehead	Great Britain	2:22:37
56	Ezequiel Bitok	Kenya	2:23:03
57	Hsu Gi-sheng	Chinese Taipei	2:23:04
58	Pavel Loskutov	Estonia	2:23:14
59	Rubén Maza	Venezuela	2:23:24
60	Steve Brace	Great Britain	2:23:28
61	Grzegorz Gajdus	Poland	2:23:41
62	Isaac Simelane	Swaziland	2:23:43
63	Nazirdin Alikbekov	Kyrgyzstan	2:23:59
64	Anders Szalkai	Sweden	2:24:27
65	John Mwathiwa	Malawi	2:24:45
66	Leonid Shvetsov	Russia	2:24:49
67	Eddy Hellebuyck	Belgium	2:25:04
68	Ahmed Adam Salah	Sudan	2:25:12
69	Ikaji Salum	Tanzania	2:25:29
70	Pavelas Fedorenka	Lithuania	2:25:41
71	Miguel Mallqui	Peru	2:25:56
72	Ethel Hudzon	Indonesia	2:26:02
73	Diamantino dos Santos	Brazil	2:26:53
74	Tika Bahadur Bogate	Nepal	2:27:04
75	Ronnie Holassie	Trinidad and Tobago	2:27:20
76	Joseph Tjitunga	Namibia	2:27:52
77	Valeriu Vlas	Moldova	2:28:36
78	Daniel Sibandze	Swaziland	2:28:49
79	Waldemar Cotelo	Uruguay	2:28:50
80	Petko Stefanov	Bulgaria	2:29:06
81	Abebe Mekonnen	Ethiopia	2:29:45
82	Luis Martínez	Guatemala	2:29:55
83	Sean Wade	New Zealand	2:30:35
84	Abderrahim Ben Redouane	Morocco	2:30:49
85	Abdou Monzo	Niger	2:30:57
86	Marcelo Barrientos	Chile	2:31:05
87	Antoni Bernardo	Andorra	2:31:28
88	Adel Adili	Libya	2:32:12
89	Carlos Tarazona	Venezuela	2:32:35
90	Tharcisse Gashaka	Burundi	2:32:55
91	Policarpio Calizaya	Bolivia	2:33:08
92	Simon Qamunga	Tanzania	2:33:11
93	Kenjiro Jitsui	Japan	2:33:27
94	António Zeferino	Cape Verde	2:34:13
95	Pamenos Ballantyne	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	2:34:16
96	Kaleka Mutoke [5]	Zaire	2:34:40
97	Ernest Ndjissipou	Central African Republic	2:35:55
98	Ali Ettounsi	Morocco	2:36:01
99	William Aguirre	Nicaragua	2:37:02
100	Roy Vence	Philippines	2:37:10
101	Mohamed Al-Saadi	Yemen	2:40:41	NR
102	Julio Hernández	Colombia	2:41:56
103	Ajay Chuttoo	Mauritius	2:42:07
104	Nils Antonio	Jamaica	2:44:10
105	To Rithya	Cambodia	2:47:10
106	Maximo Oliveras	Puerto Rico	2:47:15
107	Islam Ðugum	Bosnia and Herzegovina	2:47:38
108	Marlon Selwyn Williams	Virgin Islands	2:48:26
109	Eugene Muslar	Belize	2:51:41
110	Abdi Isak	Somalia	2:59:55
111	Abdel Baser Wasiqi	Afghanistan	4:24:17
—	Belayneh Dinsamo	Ethiopia	DNF
	Stephan Freigang	Germany	DNF
	Patrick Ishyaka	Rwanda	DNF
	Benjamin Keleketu	Botswana	DNF
	Kim Wan-Ki	South Korea	DNF
	Česlovas Kundrotas	Lithuania	DNF
	Omar Moussa	Djibouti	DNF
	Victor Razafindrakoto	Madagascar	DNF
	Antonio Silio	Argentina	DNF
	Julius Sumaye	Tanzania	DNF
	Tumo Turbo	Ethiopia	DNF
	Risto Ulmala	Finland	DNF
	Dainius Virbickas	Lithuania	DNF

See also

• 1995 Men's World Championships Marathon
• 1997 Men's World Championships Marathon

Notes

1. Official Report
2. "Taleban hope to get ban revoked", Reuters, August 17, 2000
3. "Athletics at the 1996 Atlanta Summer Games: Men's Marathon". sports-reference.com. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 22 May 2017.
4. "Marathon, Men". Olympedia. Retrieved 29 August 2020.
5. also competed in the 1988 Summer Olympics and the 1992 Summer Olympics

References

• (in English) Official Report
• (in French) Marathon Info