Marathons at the Olympics Olympics marked the introduction of the now standard distance of 26 miles, 385 yards (42.195 km). However, it was not until the 1924 Paris Olympics that this distance became the standard at the Olympics. 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. It has
2012 Olympic Marathon Course a new women's marathon Olympic record of , clipping 7 seconds off the previous record. The new Olympic record was 7min 42sec slower than Paula Radcliffe's world record set in 2003 during the London Marathon. The winning time of 2:08:01 by Stephen Kiprotich of Uganda in the men's marathon, on 12 August 2012, was outside the Olympic marathon record and outside the world marathon record. The winners of the Paralympic marathon events were: The 2012 Olympic route differed significantly from that of the long-established annual London Marathon. Although the Olympic route shared a finish in The Mall and a section