Which athlete won the 1952 Olympic men’s marathon?

Emil Zátopek won the men’s marathon at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics.

Zátopek of Czechoslovakia won in 2:23:03, completing an extraordinary distance-running treble at those Games. He had already won the 5,000 metres and 10,000 metres before adding the marathon in his first race at that distance.

His Olympic marathon victory made him the only athlete to win all three events at a single Games. Zátopek was known for an unconventional, strenuous training style that included repeated interval runs.

He is sometimes confused with Abebe Bikila, who won the Olympic marathon in 1960 and 1964, or Alain Mimoun, the 1956 champion. Those victories came at later Games.