Juan Carlos Zabala (October 11, 1911 – January 24, 1983), also known as "El

Ñandú The rheas ( ), also known as ñandus ( ) or South American ostriches, are large ratites (flightless birds without a keel on their sternum bone) in the order Rheiformes, native to South America, distantly related to the ostrich and emu. Most taxo ...

Criollo", was an

Argentine Argentines (mistakenly translated Argentineans in the past; in Spanish (masculine) or (feminine)) are people identified with the country of Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Argentines, s ...

long-distance runner, winner of the marathon race at the

1932 Summer Olympics The 1932 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the X Olympiad and also known as Los Angeles 1932) were an international multi-sport event held from July 30 to August 14, 1932 in Los Angeles, California, United States. The Games were held duri ...

Biography

Zabala ran his first marathon at the end of October 1931. Ten days after that he set a new world record in the 30 km (1:42:30.4). Later, before the

1936 Summer Olympics The 1936 Summer Olympics (German: ''Olympische Sommerspiele 1936''), officially known as the Games of the XI Olympiad (German: ''Spiele der XI. Olympiade'') and commonly known as Berlin 1936 or the Nazi Olympics, were an international multi-sp ...

, Zabala would run a new world record in the 20 km (1:04:00.2). Zabala's peak was the 1932 Olympic marathon race. He ran in the lead group almost the entire distance. With just four kilometres left, he broke free to finish 20 seconds ahead of

Sam Ferris Samuel Ferris (29 August 1900 – 21 March 1980) was a British long-distance running athlete who competed mainly in the marathon. He was born in Magherabeg, near Dromore, County Down in Ireland. He won a silver medal for Great Britain ...

from Great Britain. Zabala also participated at the

, placing sixth over 10,000 m, but could not defend his Olympic title in the marathon. Zabala took the lead from the start, but tripped and fell at 28 km, and abandoned the race after 33 km when the main group caught him. Zabala was the flag bearer for Argentina at the opening ceremony of the

. In 1983 he was named as Argentina's track and field athlete of the century.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zabala, Juan Carlos 1911 births 1983 deaths Argentine male marathon runners Olympic athletes of Argentina Olympic gold medalists for Argentina Athletes (track and field) at the 1932 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 1936 Summer Olympics Sportspeople from Rosario, Santa Fe Medalists at the 1932 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medalists in athletics (track and field)