SPYROS Louis' famous win in the marathon at the Athens Olympics of 1896 provided the exclamation mark for those Games. It was the only Greek win in the track and field events and it was in one of the last events. The home crowd greeted Louis' entrance into the Panathenaic Stadium, where he crossed the finishing line, with an outburst of patriotic enthusiasm.

It was just as well, then, that the marathon race had been specially invented for the Olympic Games, only a year earlier. It was the brainchild of a Frenchman, Michel Breal, a friend of the reviver of the modern Olympics, the baron de Coubertin. Breal accompanied Coubertin when he travelled to Greece in 1895 to persuade the Greeks to organise the first Olympics.

Breal, a romantic phil hellene, stated he would offer a gold cup as a prize if the Greek organisers revived the run from the battleground at Marathon to Athens by the Greek soldier Pheidippides to announce the victory over the Persians in 490BC. According to the legend - no actual evidence exists in any of the sources - Pheidippides ran the roughly 40- kilometre (25-mile) distance at the conclusion of the battle, announced its outcome by gasping out Nenikikamen! and then promptly died of exhaustion.

The Greek organisers loved the idea of a race that recalled such a proud moment in Ancient Greek history, and they even had two trial runs. The first trial - the first ever marathon race in history - took place on March 10 (February 27 according to the Julian calendar that was observed in Greece at the time). It involved only Greek runners and the winner was the nineteen-year old Peloponnesian Charilaos Vasilakos, who would come second to Louis in the Olympic marathon, a month later.

Legendary Louis

Appropriately perhaps for a race based on a legend, Louis, the first winner, became a legend in his own time. He won before a home crowd expecting a Greek win in what was considered a Greek race. The twenty-four year old Louis, a farmer and water carrier who lived in Maroussi just north of Athens (and now one of its suburbs) had taken part in the second trial marathon prior to the Olympics but otherwise he was untrained, and this gave his win its mystique and romanticism and helped him become a legend. The Olympic Stadium that hosts the 2004 Athens Olympics, located very close to Maroussi, is named after Louis.

There has probably never been a marathon win again of such tremendous national importance. Coubertin's biographer, Chicago University professor John MacAloon, said that Louis' dramatic victory in the marathon gave the Olympics an aura of heroism that helped them become the major sporting event in the world.

The longest race and the most gruelling track and field event, the marathon is now the highlight of each Olympics and traditionally takes place on the last day. Its instant popularity led, within months of the Athens Olympics, to the running of a marathon in Paris and in the American town of Stamford, Connecticut in April 1896 and, most famously, to the establishment of an annual marathon race which began the next year in Boston, Massachusetts, that is now a major event on the international athletic calendar.

By being held only every four years, however, the Olympics marathon is the one that attracts the most international attention. From its earliest days it also generated the best myths. A small book can be written about the stories surrounding Louis' origins and the rewards he was promised and actually received for his win. Fanciful stories also emerged about the next marathon winner at the Paris Olympics in 1900. Michel Theato, a resident of France who was born in Luxembourg, was said to have won on a very hot day because he was a baker used to delivering hot croissants to his fellow Parisians. As usually happens, academic research spoiled this good story by ascertaining that Thlato was, in fact a woodworker.

Marathon music

There have been several dramatic finishes to the Olympic marathons that have involved athletes running neck and neck in the final stretch. The first of these took place at the london Olympics in 1908. This might not have happened if the race's distance had not been extended in order to please the British royal family: they wanted the race to start just outside one of their official residences, Windsor Castle, located just west of london.

Although there was no standard distance yet, the previous marathons had been between 25 and 26 miles (or 40 to 41.6 kilometres). In london, the 26-mile maximum distance would have ended the race at the entrance to london's White City stadium. But there would be greater dramatic effect if the runners circled the stadium and ended up in front of the royal box. So another 385 yards were, added.

This extra distance proved disastrous for the Italian runner Dorando Pietri who entered the stadium first but then, utterly exhausted, collapsed. Pietri got up, staggered on and fell again but was helped up by officials who eventually had to assist him across the finishing line. This was in clear violation of the rules, and the American team, whose runner John Hays, a New Yorker, came in second to Pietri, lodged a protest. The judges had no option but to disqualify the unlucky Italian and award the gold medal to Hays. In a very British gesture, it was announced that Pietri would receive a special award for the fighting spirit he had shown in adversity.

Irving Berlin, one of America's greatest popular composers, had his first big hit with the song' Dorando' , named after the Italian runner. It is about an Italian-American barbershop owner who bets his shop on Dorando winning a race at Madison Square garden. Dorando falls and loses: "Dorando he's a drop! / Goodbye poor old barber shop." And the reason Dorando does not win, according to Berlin, is that the day before he eats Irish beef stew instead of spaghetti. Ironically, Hays was the son of Irish immigrants.

New records

In the aftermath of World War II, the Olympic marathon acquired a new legend: Emil Zatopek..When the Czech runner appeared at the starting line during the 1952 Helsinki Games he caused a great deal of consternation among the other competitors.

There was a very good reason why. Zatopek had just won the two major long-distance contests - the 10,000 metres (that he had also won at the London 1948 Games) and the 5,000 metres. He had never, though, competed in a marathon before. In the 10,000m the runner-up was a full 100 metres behind him and in the 5,000m, Zatopek was only in fourth place with half a lap to go, but he sprinted into the lead in the final turn and won easily. In the afternoon, he watched his wife Jana, whom he had met at the London Games, win gold in the javelin throw.

Distance runners, especially 10,000­metre specialists, often compete in the marathon as well. Delfo Cabrera, the Argentinian winner of the London marathon in 1948, had earlier distinguished himself in the 10,000-metre race in the South American championships. But no one had ever gone on to try for the marathon after winning a long distance race in the same tournament only days earlier. So Zatopek's presence at the starting line caused understandable astonishment, at least to those not familiar with his genuine love of running long distances!

As a novice, the Czech runner did not know what the right pace was, so for good measure he ran along with the more experienced favourites who led the race. Then, just past the halfway mark, he found himself ahead of everyone else. There was no mistaking Zatopek' s figure as he entered the stadium, still first. He had the most unorthodox running style, his arms and shoulders flayed about, his head was tilted to one side and his face was contorted in an awful grimace. The lower half of his body seemed to be moving totally independently. The stadium's 70,000 capacity crowd rose to their feet and cheered Zatopek to the finishing line. History had been made, and this extraordinary feat has yet to be repeated.

A year before Zatopek' s triumph at Helsinki, a young Ethiopian named Abebe Bikila enlisted in the army because it offered him the opportunity to do the running and physical training he enjoyed. Within a few years it became evident that Bikila was a strong marathon runner, with times very close to those of the Algerian­born Alain Mimoun, who won at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, running in French colours. Bikila was included in the small Ethiopian squad which travelled to Rome for the 1960 Olympics.