Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Above is a picture of competitors during the first modern Olympic marathon. In 1896, the first modern Olympics took place in Athens, Greece. The first event of the modern games was the Marathon. On April 10, 1896, seventeen runners began the race on the Marathon Bridge. Competitors included Edwin Flack of Australia, Arthur Blake of the United States, Albin Lermusiaux of France, Gyula Kellner of Hungary, and the other 13 runners were Greek. The winner of the 40K (24.8 miles) course was Spyridon Louis of Greece.