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The marathon at the Summer Olympics is the only road running event held at the multi-sport event. The men's marathon has been present on the Olympic athletics programme since 1896. Nearly ninety years later, the women's event was added to the programme at the 1984 Olympics. The modern marathon event was created and later refined through the Olympic competition. The idea of holding a marathon race at the first Olympics was suggested to Pierre de Coubertin by Michel Bréal. Based upon a popular myth stemming from the Battle of Marathon, in which Pheidippides ran to Athens from the town of Marathon, Greece to carry the message of a Greek victory, the 1896 course began in the town of Marathon and finished in Athens' Panathenaic Stadium – a distance of around .〔(Athletics at the 1896 Athina Summer Games: Men's Marathon ). Sports Reference. Retrieved on 2014-03-12.〕 The race distance varied from 40 km to in the early editions as it was typically based upon the distance between two points that the organisers felt were suitable. The 1908 London Olympics marked the introduction of the now standard distance of 26 miles, 385 yards (42.195 km).〔( Athletics at the 1908 London Summer Games: Men's Marathon ). Sports Reference. Retrieved on 2014-03-12.〕 However, it was not until the 1924 Paris Olympics that this distance became the standard at the Olympics.〔(Athletics at the 1924 Paris Summer Games: Men's Marathon ). Sports Reference. Retrieved on 2014-03-12.〕 The Olympic marathon proved immediately popular in the Western world and quickly spawned numerous long-running annual races, including the Boston Marathon in 1897, the Tour de Paris Marathon in 1902, the Yonkers Marathon in 1907, and the London Polytechnic Marathon in 1909. Such marathons played a key role in the expansion of the road running movement internationally over the course of the 20th century.〔(Longest Running Marathons ). Association of Road Racing Statisticians. Retrieved on 2014-03-12.〕〔Lovett, Charlie (1997). (Prologue: The Legend ). Marathon Guide. Retrieved on 2014-03-12.〕 The Olympic records for the event are 2:06:32 hours for men, set by Samuel Wanjiru in 2008, and 2:23:07 hours for women, set by Tiki Gelana in 2012. The men's marathon world record has been improved several times at the Olympics: in 1908, 1920, and then at successive Olympics by Abebe Bikila in 1960 and 1964. Abebe Bikila and Waldemar Cierpinski are the only athletes to have won two Olympic gold medals in the marathon. No athlete has won more than two medals of any colour. Ethiopia has won the most gold medals in the event, with six, while the United States has the greatest medal total with twelve overall. ==Medal summary== 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Marathons at the Olympics」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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