The men's marathon was part of the

Athletics at the 1964 Summer Olympics At the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, the athletics competition included 36 events, 24 for men and 12 for women. The women's 400 metres and women's pentathlon events were newly introduced at these Games. There were a total number of 1016 partic ...

program in

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

. It was held on 21 October 1964. 79 athletes from 41 nations entered, with 68 starting and 58 finishing. The maximum number of athletes per nation had been set at 3 since the 1930 Olympic Congress. The event was won by

Abebe Bikila ''Shambel'' Abebe Bikila (; August 7, 1932 – October 25, 1973) was an Ethiopian marathon runner who was a back-to-back Olympic marathon champion. He was the first Ethiopian Olympic gold medalist, winning his first gold medal at the 1960 S ...

of Ethiopia, the first man to successfully defend Olympic gold in the marathon (and, indeed, the first to win two medals of any color in Olympic marathons). Unlike in 1960, he wore shoes this time. Great Britain earned its first marathon medal since 1948 with

Basil Heatley Benjamin Basil Heatley (25 December 1933 – 3 August 2019) was a British competitive long-distance runner, who was an Olympic marathon silver medallist and former world marathon record-holder. Although he favoured cross country running, he wa ...

's silver; Japan took its first medal since 1936 with bronze by Kōkichi Tsuburaya.

Background

This was the 15th appearance of the event, which is one of 12 athletics events to have been held at every Summer Olympics. Returning runners from the 1960 marathon included defending champion

of Ethiopia and ninth-place finisher

Osvaldo Suárez Osvaldo Roberto Suárez (17 March 1934 in Wilde – 16 February 2018) was an Argentine long-distance runner who won four gold medals at the Pan American Games. He was punished by the ''Revolución Libertadora'' (''The Liberating Revolution'') a ...

of Argentina. Bikila was favored to repeat. Significant challengers were Toru Terasawa of Japan (who had taken the world record from Bikila at the 1963

Beppu-Ōita Marathon The is an annual men's marathon race that takes place every February between the cities of Beppu and Ōita, Ōita, Ōita on the island of Kyushu in Japan. The race has IAAF Silver Label Road Race status and is a listed course of AIMS (Associati ...

and held it until the 1963 Polytechnic Marathon), Leonard Edelen of the United States (who had held the world record from the 1963 Polytechnic to the 1964 Polytechnic), and

of Great Britain (the current world record, who had broken it at the 1964 Polytechnic). Luxembourg (not counting Michel Theato, the gold medalist in 1900 who was Luxembourg-born but registered as a French competitor) Nepal, Puerto Rico, Rhodesia, Northern Rhodesia, Tanzania, Thailand, and Vietnam each made their first appearance in Olympic marathons. The United States made its 15th appearance, the only nation to have competed in each Olympic marathon to that point.

Competition format and course

As all Olympic marathons, the competition was a single race. The marathon distance of 26 miles, 385 yards was run over an out-and-back course. The course was very flat and straight.

Records

These were the standing world and Olympic records prior to the 1964 Summer Olympics.

set a new world record at 2:12:11.2.

Schedule

All times are

Japan Standard Time , or , is the standard time zone in Japan, 9 hours ahead of UTC (UTC+09:00). Japan does not observe daylight saving time, though its introduction has been debated on several occasions. During World War II, the time zone was often referred to a ...

(

UTC+9 UTC+09:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +09:00. During the Japanese occupations of British Borneo, Burma, Hong Kong, Dutch East Indies, Malaya, Philippines, Singapore, and French Indochina, it was used as a common time with ...

)

Results

Bikila broke the world's best time for the marathon by 1 minute 44 seconds set by runner-up

four months prior at the Polytechnic Marathon to defend his Olympic gold medal.

References

External links

* Official Report *
Marathon Info
{{DEFAULTSORT:Athletics at the 1964 Summer Olympics - Men's marathon Athletics at the 1964 Summer Olympics Marathons at the Olympics Men's marathons Oly Men's events at the 1964 Summer Olympics