Shizo Kanakuri, the Japanese athlete who participated in the 1912 Olympic Games, took more than 50 years to complete the Stockholm Marathon.
At the Olympic and Paralympic Games, Millions of people follow each competition in the hope of witnessing new records. A recent example was at Tokyo 2020, when the world record was broken in the 400m hurdles. But while some break times, others extend them in unusual ways, as the history of the event shows. marathon runner Shizo Kanakuri.
Over the years, millions of fans have witnessed amazing moments in sport. However, few can match the unique journey of Kanakuri, the Japanese athlete who took more than 50 years to complete a marathon. What happened in 1912 became a unique anecdote that still amazes.
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Shizo Kanakuri, the athlete who took 50 years to reach the goal
The story goes that Shizo Kanakuri, a 20-year-old young man, traveled to Stockholm in 1912 to represent Japan in his first appearance in the OlympicsThe marathon, which was supposed to test his endurance, ended up turning into an unusual disappearance. After reaching the 30th kilometer of the course, exhausted and dehydrated by the intense heat, the Japanese athlete decided to stop at the house of a spectator who offered him shelter. What was initially intended to be a short rest turned into a long nap, after which, overwhelmed by the shame of not having finished the race, Kanakuri decided to return to Japan in silence.
For more than half a century, no one knew what had happened to him, until a Swedish journalist located him in his hometown in 1962. That was how his story came to light again, and in 1967, at the age of 76was invited to complete the marathon he had left unfinished. Finally, he crossed the finish line after an unusual time of 54 years, 8 months, 6 days, 8 hours, 32 minutes and 20 seconds, marking one of the most unusual records in Olympic history.
Source: Ambito
