The legend of Spiridon Louis
The great victory of Spiridon Louis in the marathon race of the Athens Olympic Games (1896) contributed in the association of his name with the history of modern Greek sport.
He was born in early 1872 by a couple of peasants from Maroussi in Attica. From an early age he was occupied in farming and later he became water seller.
His participation in the marathon was adventurous, seeing that his effort in the preliminaries had been unsuccessful. More specifically, he ranked 17th, whereas according to the programme of the games only 16 athletes could participate in the final. Therefore his presence in the big race was ensured after the insistence of the head of the organization of the contest and starter, G. Papadiamantopoulos, who tried successfully to have more participants in the final than what was initially planned. The latter was a cavalry major and Louis had served as his groom during his military service, where he had displayed his resistance and speed and had resorted to them on many occasions in order to be punctual in his military duties.
Several days before the marathon, that particular event monopolized the interest of the Greek sports fans. When the big moment finally arrived, everybody was wondering whether anyone of the Greek athletes would be able to win in an event that was inspired from the history of ancient Athens. No-one dared to forecast, since everybody acknowledged the value of the foreign athletes as well as the degree of their preparation.
Finally, at the starting point of the race at the Marathon tomb 25 athletes took up position at the starting line. The race had quite a few fluctuations and almost all the athletes made a quick start ignoring the fact that they had to save energy. On the contrary, Louis maintained almost a steady pace throughout the distance of 40km, which was the official distance of the race. So, it was a question of time before he would take the lead a few kilometres from the stadium, seeing that his main foreign rivals, such as the French Lermusiaux and the Australian Flack, had abandoned worn out.
Louis' entrance in the Panathenaic Stadium was accompanied by enthusiastic exultation of the fans both for his high performance (2.58.50), and for the first place that he had won. The rejoicing became even stronger when two more Greek athletes arrived right after Louis, Charilaos Vasilakos (2nd) and Spyros Belokas (3rd).
Right after his victory Louis received a multitude of offers and gifts. However, he most gladly accepted a horse and a carriage in order to carry water more easily from Maroussi to Athens.
Although Louis became a legend of his time, he never ran in any other race. He died in March 1940 in Athens at the age of 67.

 

The Olympic Games in Antiquity:
From ancient Olympia to Athens of 1896