THE PATRIOT
RUNNING FOR THE HUMAN RACE
1946 - 1947
Stylianos Kyriakides is without a doubt the most successful Greek marathon runner ever.
His 16-year athletic career, from 1933 to 1948, was unfortunately interrupted by WWII, the German/Italian occupation, and the Greek Civil War.
He won the BOSTON marathon in 1946, in the world's best time and a European record, although he had not trained or run for 6 years, emancipated and starved from the years of the occupation and the Greek civil war.
He was 10 times champion of the Balkans in the Marathon and the 10,000 meters, he was twice silver medalist in the marathon in the British championships in London, in 1935 and 1937, he was 9th in the Olympic games in Berlin in 1936 and 11th in the Olympic games in London in 1948, and won other national marathons in Europe, before the war.
In 1933, in three consecutive days, he won the 1500 m, the 5000 m, the 10000 m, and the half marathon, in the national championships of his home country Cyprus, and his athletic talent was discovered.
In the Guinness Book of Records, he is mentioned as the marathon runner who has held more than anyone else, the national record of marathon. The period is 33 years and 216 days.
Athletic achievements
.1932
Starts training for first time. At the Pan-Cyprian games, wins the 1,500, 5K, 10K and 20K.
.1932 – 1948
Greek champion 12 times: 5K (1934, 1936, 1937, 1938); 10K (1934, 1936, 1937, 1938); and marathon (1933, 1934, 1936, 1934). Best times: 5K, 15m 33s (1937); 32m 28s for the 10K (1936); marathon, 2h 29m 27s (1946)
.1934 – 1940
Balkan champion 10 times: 10K (1934, 1936); and marathon (1934, 1936, 1937 1939, second in 1933, 1938, 1939 and third in 1940).
Marathon champion: Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Egypt, Turkey, Yugoslavia, Romania and Bulgaria..1935 and 1937
Silver medalist in the English marathon at the AAA championship
.1936
11th place in the marathon at the Berlin Olympics (2h 43m 20s).
.1938
Boston marathon. While in the leading group, using his new and ‘unbroken’ shoes, without socks on the hard cement road surface, he developed severe blisters and dropped out in 21-mile.
.1940 – 1945
WWII interrupted his athletic career. He does not train or run at all for 5 years.
.December 1945
Undernourished and extremely thin, he decides to start training to run the Boston Marathon. His idea is to go to the USA to publicize the plight of the Greek nation and its people after WWII and in the middle of the civil war. He goes to Cyprus for better training conditions, corresponding with his coach Otto Simitchek.
.1946
Crossing the finish line in Boston 1946 he shouts FOR GREECE. Wearing bib 77, his time was 2h 29m 27s, the best time in the world that year and the European record.
.1946
European games Oslo, Norway, marathon. Drops out because of severe cramps on his legs
.1947
He goes to Boston, at the age of 36, in order to request financial and equipment assistance so that Greece can patripate in the the 1948 Olympic Games in London. He finishes in 10th place. From that year on Boston Marathon opened to foreign runners. The winner is a young Korean.
.1948
London Olympics, he finished in 18th place in the marathon (2h 49m 00s). A dramatic marathon. Many runners drop out because of excessive heat and very high humidity. Only 30 runners out of 41 that started, finish. The dehydrated Belgian leader is passed by two runners after entering the White City stadium.
.1949
After 16 years, five of which were interrupted by war, Kyriakides ends his athletic carrier at the age of 38.
.1951
Kyriakides is elected to join the Greek Athletic Federation (SEGAS). From 1955 until 1981, he was responsible for organizing the Athens International Marathon, where the best runners in the world participated, including Abebe Bekila in 1962, the Fin Veiko Karvonen in 1955, and Ron Hill and Bill Adcoks in 1969).
The Patriot
He was the first long distance runner in the world, to use a wrist stopwatch to pace himself during the race and was not following the tactics of the other runners who were running with “broken paces” during the race to affect him.
What makes however Stylianos Kyriakides different from all other great athletes, was his true patriotism, his compassion for those in need, his dedication to serve young people, his total selfishness, and his honest characteristics that were demonstrated many times throughout his life.
Although the youngest in the Greek athletic “dream team” before the war, because of his character and personality, he was chosen to be its leader in all the trips outside Greece.
In the years from 1933 to 1940, he showed his talent by winning many 5000 m, 10000 m, and marathon races, breaking many records.
In 1938 having trained well and in good shape, he goes to America to run the Boston Marathon, but he drops out of the race 3 km before the finish, being in the leading pack of runners, because the new pair of “unbroken shoes” given to him by the local Greeks as a gift, caused the soles of his feet to develop blisters and have severe bleeding, in the hard cement surface, that the Boston roads were made off at the time.
The start of the war of interrupts his very promising athletic career.
Newly married in 1941, he went through the difficult years of the German occupation, having to protect and raise his young family.
During the occupation he saw some of his best friends and fellow athletes perish from starvation or die from the occupying forces.
Himself came very close to death twice.
Then, when the nightmare of the war was over at the end of 1944, he was a witness to the horrors of the start of the Greek civil war, where relatives killed relatives and people were dying in Greece every day and the country was being destroyed.
Being a sensitive and peaceful man, he could not understand the sense of all that. He started thinking of what he could do to help his country and his people.
He makes the big decision, to start training to go to America again to run and to win the most famous marathon race of the time. THE AMERICAN MARATHON IN BOSTON.
He thinks that if he can do that, he can raise the awareness of the Americans of the terrible situation in Greece and the plight of the Greek people and to ask the American people and the Greek American community to help save Greece.
STYLIANOS KYRIAKIDES
HIGHLIGHTS
He sales half of his household furniture to raise the money to buy his ticket, and with the help of his employers, the British Electricity Company of Athens and Piraeus, he buys a one-way ticket to New York.
His wife Ifigenia thinks that he is crazy, his friends and fellow athletes laugh at his dream.
Kyriakides is not listening to anybody. He looks ahead believing totally in him self and his goal, confident that he can achieve it.
He arrives in Boston 3 weeks before the race to train. He is received in Boston by George Demeter, a wealthy Greek American judge and businessman, who knows him well from his last trip in 1938,
He trains hard and Demeter makes sure that he is fed well with good American beef steaks and pasta, at his restaurant, in the then famous MINERVA hotel.
With his good friend Jerry Nayson, the sports editor of the BOSTON GLOBE, he starts telling the American people as soon as he arrives, that he is there to run for his country and that he needs help for the starving, dying Greeks.
On the day of the race, he fails to pass his medical examination, because he is too thin and too weak. The doctor that he examined him, claimed that “Kyriakides will not be able to finish the race”.
George Demeter intervenes and together they sign a paper, taking full responsibility for his health, in order to be allowed to take part in the race.
The organizers of the race the BAA, decide that in honor of being Greek he must be given to ware bib no 1. Kyriakides refuses and asks for bib no 77, saying that 7 was the lucky number in ancient Greece, therefore 77 will be double lucky.
The race is described by all Boston marathon experts as one of the most dramatic races in the history of the event. It was an epic battle between 5 very good runners.
The emancipated, starving Greek is fighting with the giant marathoners, and in the end, he beats the best marathon runner of the time, the famous Irish American Jonny Kelley, winner of 4 previous Boston races, by 2 minutes, in 2h 29m and 27sec. which was then the world's best time and a European record.
When he crosses the finish line, he shouts with all his remaining strength. “FOR GREECE”.
The story is on the front page of all the big American and Greek newspapers. LIFE magazine puts a full-page picture showing the crowned winner of Boston. Children’s comic books run two pages with the story.
After the race, he is offered many contracts to become a professional runner. Being a handsome fellow, Hollywood does not miss the opportunity, and MGM offers him big money for a 10-year contract to make movies.
Kyriakides declines all.
He asks permission from his employers and the Greek government to remain in America for a while and starts touring the big cities of the northeast of the US, asking people to help Greece.
Americans are fascinated by the Greek who asks nothing for himself and responds.
Donations started pouring in from ordinary people. Schoolchildren offer their pocket money.
The president of the United States hears the story and invites Kyriakides to the White House.
He has an audience of 1.5 hours with the Chief of Staff, who hears his emotional story.
The US President authorizes special assistance for Greece that they name “the Kyriakides aid package”
The aid package contained, large amounts of grain, dry and tinned food, livestock, medicine, blankets, tents, secondhand cloths shoes and other needed items, and together with 250,000 dollars, that he managed to collect from the people's donations, they were sent to Greece.
The aid is sent onboard two liberty ships that were given by the Greek shipping family of Livanos.
Kyriakides returns to Greece one month after his victory as a national hero Nearly 600,000 Greeks wait for him and line the streets from the airport to the House of Parliament.
Petros Linardos, the respected newspaper reporter and historian, said, that in the dark, bleak years of the war, the achievement of Kyriakides was the only news of hope for Greece at the time. He said that in 1946 “Kyriakides was Greece”
In 1947, with the civil war still raging and Greece’s economy in ruins, he returned to Boston to ask for more help but this time for a special cause.
He collected 50,000 dollars and athletic clothes and equipment and brought them back to Greece so that the Greek national team could train and participate in the 1948 Olympic games in London.
He also ran in the Boston Marathon that year at the age of 37 and finished 10th among more than 1000 participants many from countries outside the USA.
He retired after the London Olympics in 1948 where he finished 18th.
After he retired, he was elected as a member of the Greek Amateur Athletic Association where he remained active until he died, serving with a passion for Greek amateur sports and sports for the young people.
In 1956 he built with donations from his many admirers, an athletic stadium and formed the athletic club of Filothei, in the north suburb of Athens. He is the first man in Greece to start organized training programs for the young people of the area. The stadium today is named after him.
Kyriakides dedicated all his life to serving his country and its ordinary people, especially the people in need.
He died in 1987 at the age of 77, the same number that we wore when he won in Boston.
In 2002 with the publication of the book about his life in the US, named “RUNNING WITH PHEIDIPIDES” , a permanent exhibit was opened at the New England Sports Museum, in Boston, with the very powerful title “STYLIANOS KYRIAKIDES RUNNING FOR THE HUMAN RACE”.
His statue, named THE SPIRIT OF MARATHON was unveiled in Marathon City in 2004 and a similar statue was unveiled near the start of the Boston Marathon in 2006, 60 years after he won the race.
These two marathons happened to be the two oldest and the two most difficult marathon courses today.
In 2004 the American TV channel NBC produced a documentary for the ATHENS OLYMPICS, called “STYLIANOS KYRIAKIDES, THE JOURNEY OF A WORRIER”. It won the EMMY award in 2004 as the best sports documentary of the year.
A movie is currently being produced in Hollywood about the life and achievements of this great athlete and human being and hopefully you can all see it in the big screen soon.