Shizo Kanakuri – The Man Who Took 52 Years To Complete A Marathon In Olympics

The Olympics are the biggest multi-sports event in the world where thousands of athletes converge in a show of strength, determination, resilience and endurance. Several records of various kinds have been made and broken at the Olympics. One such unique record is the longest marathon ever run in the history of the Olympics.

Japanese runner Shizo Kanakuri 54 years 246 days 5 hours 32 minutes 20.3 seconds to complete his Olympic marathon. The record is not without an interesting story to it.

Shiso Kanakuri started running at a young age as he used to run miles to-and-fro school. His incredible running ability won him the Japanese marathon trial in 1911 which qualified him for the 1912 Stockholm Olympics in Sweden. With this, Kanakuri became the first Japanese athlete, along with Yahiko Mishima, to take part at the Olympics.

Kanakuri spent 18 days by ship and then traveled on the Trans Siberian Railway to reach Stockholm. On his arrival in the city, he got extremely tired and exhausted. Despite five days of rest, he was not in the best of his forms to run a marathon.

The first Japanese Olympian began running for the marathon, creating history for his country. However, he dropped out of the race midway and joined a Swedish family at a garden party where he fell asleep on a couch. He was among the several marathon runners that day who could not complete the race. One of them even died tragically.

Instead of officially withdrawing and informing organizers, Kanakuri quietly left his accommodation and returned to Japan, leaving the Swedish authorities with no knowledge of his whereabouts. This resulted in him being officially listed as a missing person in Sweden for over 50 years.

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In 1967, Kanakuri was invited to Stockholm to complete the Olympics, which he did. On achieving this feat, the “Father of Japanese Marathon”, as he popularly came to be known, told reporters. “It’s been a long race, but then I got myself a wife, six children, and 10 grandchildren during it, and that takes time, you know.”