The marathon is a long-distance race, completed by running, walking, or a run/walk strategy. There are also wheelchair divisions. The marathon has an official distance of 42.195 kilometres, usually run as a road race. The event was instituted in commemoration of the fabled run of the Greek soldier Pheidippides, a messenger from the Battle of Marathon to Athens, who reported the victory.
Joan Benoit Samuelson is a retired American marathon runner who was the first-ever women's Olympic Games marathon champion, winning the Gold medal at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles and thus setting the existing women’s American record in the Olympic Marathon. She held the fastest time for an American woman at the Chicago Marathon for 32 years after winning the race in 1985. Her time at the Boston Marathon was the fastest time by an American woman at that race for 28 years. She was inducted into the Maine Women's Hall of Fame in 2000.
Haile Gebrselassie is a retired Ethiopian long-distance track and road running athlete. He won two Olympic gold medals over 10,000 metres and four World Championship titles in the event. He won the Berlin Marathon four times consecutively and also had three straight wins at the Dubai Marathon. Further to this, he won four world titles indoors and was the 2001 World Half Marathon Champion.
Clarence Harrison DeMar was a U.S. marathoner, winner of seven Boston Marathons, and Bronze medalist at the 1924 Paris Olympics. He was known by the nickname "Mr. DeMarathon."
Gelindo Bordin is an Italian former athlete, winner of the marathon race at the 1988 Summer Olympics. He is the only male to win both the Boston Marathon and an Olympic gold medal in the marathon.
Rosa Maria Correia dos Santos Mota, GCIH, GCM is a Portuguese former marathon runner, one of her country's foremost athletes, being the first sportswoman from Portugal to win Olympic gold. Mota was the first woman to win multiple Olympic marathon medals as well as being the only woman to be the reigning European, World, and Olympic champion at the same time. On the 30th Anniversary Gala of the Association of International Marathons and Distance Races (AIMS) she was distinguished as the greatest female marathon runner of all time.
Mebrahtom "Meb" Keflezighi is a retired Eritrean-born American long distance runner. He is the 2004 Olympic silver medalist in the marathon and finished in fourth place in the 2012 Summer Olympics. He won the 2009 New York City Marathon on November 1, 2009, and the 2014 Boston Marathon on April 21, 2014, becoming the first American man to win each race since 1982 and 1983, respectively. Keflezighi is a graduate of UCLA where he won four NCAA championships competing for the UCLA Bruins track and field team. He came in fourth in the 2014 New York City Marathon on November 2, 2014, eighth in the 2015 Boston Marathon on April 20, 2015 and second in the 2016 U.S. Olympic Team Trials to qualify for the 2016 Summer Olympics.
Deena Michelle Kastor is an American long-distance runner. She holds American records in the marathon and numerous road distances. She won the bronze medal in the women's marathon at the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece. She is also an eight-time national champion in cross country.
Dathan Ritzenhein is an American long-distance runner. He held the American record in the 5,000 metres (12:56.27) from 2009–10, when it was broken by Bernard Lagat. He is a three-time national cross country champion with wins at the USA Cross Country Championships in 2005, 2008 and 2010. Formerly a Nike athlete for the majority of his professional career, Dathan joined the Hansons-Brooks Distance Project team and is sponsored by Brooks in 2017.
Eliud Kipchoge is a Kenyan long-distance runner who competes in the marathon and formerly 5000 metres race. He won the Olympic marathon in 2016 and is the current marathon world record holder with a time of 2 hours 1 minute 39 seconds. Kipchoge's world record run at the 2018 Berlin Marathon broke the previous record by 1 minute, 18 seconds, the greatest improvement since 1967.
Ryan Hall is a retired American long-distance runner who holds the U.S. record in the half marathon. With his half marathon record time (59:43), he became the first U.S. runner to break the one-hour barrier in the event. He is also the only American to run a sub-2:05 marathon. However, this time is not eligible to be a record due to the course being point-to-point and a net-downhill course. Hall won the marathon at the 2008 United States Olympic Trials and placed tenth in the Olympic marathon in Beijing.
Olivera Jevtić is a Serbian long-distance runner. She has represented her country five times at the Olympics in 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012 and 2016.
Abdihakem "Abdi" Abdirahman is a Somali-American long-distance runner. He was a four-time Olympian competing for the United States in the 10,000 meters and the marathon.
Kara Goucher is an American long-distance runner. She was the 10,000 meters silver medalist at the 2007 World Championships in Athletics and represented her country at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and 2012 London Olympics. She made her marathon debut in 2008 and finished third the following year at the Boston Marathon.
Colleen S. De Reuck is a long-distance runner from South Africa, who became an American citizen on 11 December 2000. She has had a long-lasting career, running in her forties, and made a total of four appearances at the Summer Olympics.
Brian Sell is a retired American long-distance runner who specialized in various long-distance track events before specializing as a marathoner in his professional career with Hansons-Brooks Distance Project. Sell represented the United States at the 2008 Summer Olympics in the men's marathon. He attended Saint Francis University in Loretto, Pennsylvania, where he ran on the Saint Francis University cross country team. Also, he is good friends with Kevin Doyle, John Balouris, and Peter Kazery.
Djibouti has participated in eight Summer Olympic Games as of the completion of the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. They have never competed in the Winter Olympic Games. Djibouti debuted at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, United States of America with three athletes, but did not take home a medal. The highest number of Djiboutian athletes participating in a summer Games is eight in the 1992 games in Barcelona, Spain. Only one Djiboutian athlete has ever won a medal at the Olympics, marathon runner Hussein Ahmed Salah, who won a bronze medal in the 1988 marathon.
East Timor competed at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China which was held from 8 to 24 August. The country's participation at Beijing marked its second appearance in the Summer Olympics since its debut in the 2004 Summer Olympics. The delegation included Augusto Ramos Soares and Mariana Diaz Ximenez, both of whom were marathoners that qualified via wildcard places as the nation had no athletes that met the "A" or "B" qualifying standards. Ximenez was selected as flag bearer for the opening ceremony. Neither of the two athletes finished their events; Soares did not even start.
Michael J. "Mike" Ryan was an American track and field athlete and a member of the Irish American Athletic Club. He was a distance runner and competed in the Marathon for the U.S. Olympic team in the 1908 Summer Olympics and 1912 Summer Olympics, but did not finish either race.
Desiree Nicole Linden is an American long-distance runner. She represented the United States in the 2012 London Olympics and the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics women's marathon. In 2018, she won the Boston Marathon, becoming the first American in 33 years to win the woman's category in the event.
