Marathon, Men

The 1996 Olympic Games were assigned to Atlanta, Georgia, in the Southern United States, and the biggest concern for the marathon was the stifling summer heat and humidity of the American South. Though the European press did not realize it, the two weeks of the Atlanta Olympics were about as cool as that region of the nation ever gets in late July and August. To avoid the heat, the race started at 7:05 AM but, by the time the race ended, the temperature had risen to almost 80° F (26° C), with humidity approaching 80%. The Olympic course was designed to basically follow the outline of the course used for the annual Atlanta Marathon, but changed slightly to allow for a start and finish in the Olympic Stadium on the out-and-back course.

There was again no dominant male marathoner entering the 1996 Olympics and the race was considered wide-open. The concern over the heat and the lack of any favorites led the pack to run almost together for the bulk of the race, which resulted in the closest finish of any Olympic marathon. The three medalists finished within eight seconds of one another, and contested the final outcome on the Olympic track. The race was won by the unheralded Josia Thugwane of South Africa, who held off Korea’s Lee Bong-Ju, who finished second only three seconds back, and Kenya’s Erick Wainaina, who won the bronze medal.

Thugwane was an experienced marathoner, as the Atlanta race was the 19th of his career. He had won several races in South Africa, but his only marathon victory outside his native country had come in Honolulu in December 1995. He would later win at Fukuoka in 1997. In his native country, because of his new-found riches, he was a marked man. He had been robbed and shot at only a few months before his Olympic victory, and was required to live under bodyguard protection for him and his family.