A marathon that took 55 years to complete

In 1912 Stockholm Olympics, a Japanese marathon runner named Shizo Kanakuri (photo below) sought refreshment near a farm house during his run, but collapsed later due to heat exhaustion and was cared for by the farming family.


When he came to, he realised his race was over. Feeling ashamed, he quietly returned to Japan without notifying the race officials. The Swedish officials was looking all over for him but couldn't find him.

When he was back in Japan, he still trained and ran competitively. He even ran in 1920 & 1924 Olympic Games. He finished in 19th place in 1920 but failed to complete in 1924. However, the Swedish authority was still ignorant of his whereabouts.

Then in 1966, after being listed as a missing person for over 50 years in Sweden, a reporter managed to track him down to Japan where he was living a pension life as a geography teacher. At that time, he was already a 75 year-old grandfather.

A Swedish businessmen's committee invited him to come to Stockholm to complete his run. He gladly accepted the offer and continued his run where he had last stopped (the farm house).

Finally, Kanakuri made his triumphant entrance into the Olympic Stadium and finished his marathon in 54 years, 8 months, 6 days, 8 hours, 32 minutes, 20.3 seconds.