Sports Then and Now

It is believed that marathon is the most difficult of all races as it is the ultimate test of fortitude, where sportsmen can rely on own muscles and fighting spirit only. A professional marathoner runs at an average speed of 20 kilometers per hour, which is twice more than the speed of reindeer migration, and it’s being done without any special equipment or tools.

The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) is the international governing body for the sport of athletics, which ratifies world records in the marathon. So, who are they, the fastest people in the world?

The World’s Fastest Marathoners: Men

1. Dennis Kimetto from Kenya was recognized as the best marathon runner: he broke the previous world record in Berlin, on September 28, 2014, with his winning 2 hours, 2 minutes, and 57 seconds. Dennis grew up in a family of athletes, one day he had to quit doing sports and start helping his parents on the farm instead because of financial issues. But when watching the broadcasts of the Sydney Olympics races, the future athlete realized that he must devote his life to running. Interesting fact: Dennis Kimetto could probably beat a horse in a 26.2-miler.

2. Kenenisa Bekele is a 34-year-old world champion from Ethiopia. He won the Berlin Marathon in 2016 (2 hours, 3 minutes, and 3 seconds), moving Emmanuel Mutai (Kenya) down to the fourth place from the second one, where he had been with his 2:03:13 since the Berlin Marathon in 2014. Kenenisa is also a repeated world champion (2003-2009), three-time Olympic champion (in Athens and Beijing), twice world record holder at a distance of 5 and 10 km. The athlete says that everything began in childhood when he had to run to school, which was 10 km far from his house!

3. Eliud Kipchoge is the athlete from Kenya, who took the third place in the rate, which previously belonged to his countryman Patrick Makau (2:03:38 in Berlin, 2011). Eliud took part and won the Rotterdam and Chicago Marathons in 2014, beat his personal record at the Berlin Marathon (5 seconds faster) and first appeared at the London Marathon in 2015, won a gold medal at Rio 2016 Olympics. But only at the London Marathon 2016, he became the 1st with a track record and a new personal record of 2 hours, 3 minutes, and 5 seconds. Read the rest of this entry →

Abebe Bikila was known for running marathons barefoot, including his victory in the 1960 Olympics.

Of all the sports and exercises in the history of the world, the most fundamental and common is undoubtedly running. The prizes in the very first footraces were the largest. In the first footraces ever it was a race to elude predators. It is easy to visualize early man going into a sprint to reach the safety of a cave or fire while pursued by a sabre tooth tiger or equally ferocious animal. While hard to call it a sport with those stakes, it is none the less undoubtedly the origin of the sport of running.

As the centuries went past the first Marathon was thought to be run around 500 BC and the survival skill of running evolved into a sport. Since those earliest days the question of what is the best footgear to run in has been asked, answered, and refined hundreds of times. The sandals laced up around the ankles protected the feet from rough terrain but the earliest Olympiads foreswore those often times for bare feet to save those few ounces in weight. That is not dissimilar to the last 100 years where shedding of weight while preserving protection and support has become a billion dollar industry highlighted by the likes of Nike, Adidas, and New Balance among many others.

The technology and science has gone from the basics of protecting the soles of feet and proving traction, to increasing cushioning and comfort, to literally having loaded springs that artificially increase stride and speed.  Throughout all this advancement in technology, there were still famous runners like Abebe Bikila that won a gold medal in the 1960 Olympic Games while running the marathon barefooted. Read the rest of this entry →