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The 1908 distance becomes the world standard

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The IAAF Congress settles on the London 1908 figure — 26 miles 385 yards, 42.195 km — as the standard marathon distance. Olympic marathons had been run at about 40 km in 1896, about 40.2 km in 1912 and about 42.75 km in 1920, so no time run before this is directly comparable with any run after it. The choice creates the marathon record as a meaningful object, and it creates it out of the geometry of one English course.

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Connections · 2
Assembled narrative · 1

Assembled from 28 blocks · 1 evidence · 19 related

  1. Story
  2. The IAAF Congress settles on the London 1908 figure — 26 miles 385 yards, 42.195 km — as the standard marathon distance. Olympic marathons had been run at about 40 km in 1896, about 40.2 km in 1912 and about 42.75 km in 1920, so no time run before this is directly comparable with any run after it. The choice creates the marathon record as a meaningful object, and it creates it out of the geometry of one English course.
  3. Knowledge
  4. The marathon distance (42.195 km / 26 miles 385 yards)
  5. World Athletics
  6. The 1908 distance becomes the world standard
  7. Connections
  8. The marathon distance (42.195 km / 26 miles 385 yards)
  9. World Athletics
  10. Calibrated bicycle course measurement
  11. The 1908 Olympic marathon fixes 26 miles 385 yards
  12. Carbon-plated road racing shoe
  13. World Athletics
  14. The 1908 Olympic marathon fixes 26 miles 385 yards
  15. The 1908 distance becomes the world standard
  16. Boston lengthens its course and moves the start to Hopkinton
  17. Kelvin Kiptum runs 2:00:35 in Chicago
  18. Ruth Chepngetich runs 2:09:56 in Chicago
  19. Tigst Assefa sets a women-only world record in London
  20. The first sub-two-hour marathon in a record-eligible race
  21. Record-eligible road course criteria
  22. Carbon-plated road racing shoe
  23. The marathon distance (42.195 km / 26 miles 385 yards)
  24. The international federation is founded
  25. The 1908 distance becomes the world standard
  26. World Athletics regulates the racing shoe
  27. Evidence
  28. The marathon distance is 42.195 km / 26 miles 385 yards, taken from the 1908 London Olympic course and set as the standard by the IAAF in 1921. V55 verification basis: worldathletics.org was refused by this session's network egress proxy, so the page was read only through attributed search summaries; the 1921 congress minute was not seen.
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/atlas?object=EVT_DISTANCE_STANDARDISED_1921&experience=EVT_DISTANCE_STANDARDISED_1921