When coming about marathon, energies are raising more and more as years pass. A short history about its debut, was written here. Since I ran a few, I am very well positioned to understand and to express what a marathon means. But what does it means from the eyes of the greatest? Of course, I can place myself in their shoes in imagination, as there is no way to run a marathon at 3:00 / kilometer pace for sure, but a marathon is a struggle and if you are on the top of the game even for one race – which means winning an Olympic medal or winning one of the sixth marathon majors (Berlin, London, New York, Chicago, Boston or Tokyo) – you really are outstanding, regardless if this affirmation is debatable or not. Now, the list. Where to start? How to continue? Where to finish? Really dunno. I just choose the guys who I feel had a turning point in this history. A major turning point!

Famous marathon runners of all time:

1. Emil Zatopek (Czechoslovakia) – the story of this guy is fabulous. He won at the 1952 Helsinki Summer Olympics the marathon gold medal in an outstanding way. He was, by nature a 5k and 10k runner and did win the gold medals at that edition of the Games, but he decided, suddenly, to take part into the marathon. He stuck with the Jim Peters, the world record holder at the time and simply asked him if are they going to fast, but he got the reply… they were too slow. Zatopek accelerated, won, while Peters abandoned. Doing this, Zatopek remains the first and only person to have won three golden medals, at a single Olympics at 5.000 meters, 10.000 meters and marathon! If you want more information about Zatopek, read this article and especially this book.
2. Abebe Bikila (Ethiopia) – now Kenyans and Ethiopians are something regular in winning marathons, but in 1960 this was not the case. The he won the first of his two gold Olympic medals at the Marathon and he did it barefoot (2:15:16!!!)! Because his new shoes gave him blisters, he took this decision. Some said that this gave him an advantage in Rome, then he ran with shoes four years after, in Tokyo, got a better time and another gold medal. Up to this day, only him, Cierpinski and Kipchoge have two marathon Olympic gold medals. He could have made a tremble, but did not finished in 1968. A great book about Bikila is this.
3. Samuel Wanjiru (Kenya) – surprisingly, but until 2008, no Kenyan runner got a gold Olympic medal! Wanjiru was the first and the only one, apart from the double of Kipchoge. What is important to note about Wanjiru, who was only 21 when he became Olympic champion, that he holds, to this day, the Olympic Marathon record. He tragically passed away in a domestic incident at only 24 years, in 2011, but did manage in his very short career to win the London marathon once and the Chicago marathon twice. Considering he was younger than Kipchoge, the rivalry between the two could have been at another level…
4. Eliud Kipchoge (Kenya) – regarded by most as the greatest marathon runner of all time, even though had two epic fails in London and Boston, nobody can actually challenge these statements for now. Almost 40, Kipchoge started running marathon distances when he was 30! From that point he became unstoppable: two Olympic Gold Medals, 4 Berlin Marathon wins, 4 London Marathon wins, 1 Chicago Marathon win and 1 Tokyo Marathon win, from the six majors. Out of 13! In fact, from 18 official marathons, Kipchoge won 15 and finished second once!!! More important he has the world record in Berlin, 2:01:09 from 2022 and also managed, in an unofficial attempt in 2019, to go below 2 hours in a marathon: 1:59:40 in Vienna!
5. Haile Gebrselassie (Ethiopia) – a very big figure of the running world, Haile not only won the Berlin marathon four times, setting two world records at the time, 2:03:59 the best, but he did compete at high level at other distances, like 10000 meters where, like Zatopek, became Olympic champion in 1996 and 2000. He is not a pure marathon runner, but his legacy is one of the finest from the running history.
6. Ron Hill (United Kingdom) – he did not won any Olympic medal, neither had too many marathon victories, but he has two major achievements: winning the Boston marathon in 1970 and becoming the second person to go below 2:10 at a marathon completion time. More than this, between 1964 and 2017 he never take any day off from running at least one mile and he did more than 250.000 kilometers on the way (!!!) He died in 2021, age 82 and left a very interesting legacy.
7. Yuki Kawauchi (Japan) – this guy is something else! Now, Japanese, Kenyan and, maybe, Ethiopian runners are regarded the top three in terms of marathons. Yuki never compete in the Olympics, won, though, a Boston Marathon in 2018, but the most impressive thing about him is that he ran more than 100 (!!!) marathons in under 2:20!!! To push it further, he has 23 under 2:11 marathons (the most!) and his performance, in general, is outstanding, as he also ran several 50 km courses. This guy seems unstoppable, for real!
8. Meb Keflezighi (USA) – american citizen, but born in Eritrea (East Africa, of course) managed to grab a silver medal at the Olympics in 2004 and win both the New York Marathon (2009) and the prestigious Boston Marathon in 2014 when he was almost 40! In fact, he competed mostly in these two encounters and, for example, when he manage to win the Boston he became the first American citizen to do so after… 31 years! A great book written by Meb is the following.
9. Kenenisa Bekele (Ethiopia) – a though decision if to include him or not in this top, but since he is a multy Olympics medalist at 5000 and 10000 meters he deserves a spot. OK, at marathon level he manage only 2 Berlin wins, but the one from 2019 was impressive. Actually, at that time, Bekele was the only challenger for Kipchoge’s World record, set only one year earlier: 2:01:39. Kenenisa ran the marathon in 2:01:41 (!!!). With two seconds short, his time remains the third in the history of marathons. For now. it looks like his career is downhill, but… who knows?
10. Geoffrey Mutai (Kenya) – since we have three Ethiopian marathon runners, I guess we should have also three from Kenya, specially that Wanjiru was placed in this top, as a kind reminder of what he could become. Now, Mutai was chosen by me here because not only he won both New York and Boston marathons, but he holds both course records for a while now. And they are not easy to beat. He didn’t took part in any Olympics, though, and it is very unlikely to have any other chance since his career is on downhill for many years.

Zatopek my favorite marathon runner

The marathon is a very though athletic discipline and it has a lot of participants who obtained outstanding results but, truth being said, East Africa dominates the significant ranks in a while. Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, even Eritrea, Somalia or Tanzania seem to have boys and girls – maybe in another article – made out of the same great dough. Now, Japan is strong also here and Yuki is the best example for this, so European cannot match anymore the rankings. Or, at least, European born athletes. Therefore, the ranking seems fair. Still, from my point of view, the greatest of all time remains Zatopek. He was a pioneer. He neither ran too many marathons, his best time is 2:23 which today would be a joke and even at that moment – remember Bikila ran in 1960 2:15 barefoot! – but the way in which he challenged running remains a case study for everybody that wants to run a marathon.

Photo source: praguemorning.cz