Marathon, Men

The day dawned unbearably hot, with temperatures eventually reaching 39° C (102° F). Still, the event was held, and incredibly, was started at the hottest part of the day, 2:30 PM. The runners made four circuits of the 500 metre track before making out for the streets of Paris, although Johan Nyström withdrew before one lap of the stadium.

George Touquet-Daunis led the runners out of the Bois de Boulogne. Race descriptions are scanty, but he led through at least half the race, followed by Ernst Fast. When Touquet-Daunis dropped out, Fast took the lead. However, he was basically spent by that point, and Michel Théato passed him to win by a few minutes over Émile Champion, with Fast finishing almost 40 minutes back.

Théato was a baker’s assistant and knew the streets of Paris well from his deliveries. Arthur Newton later claimed that Théato and Champion must have used their knowledge of the streets to cheat as he never saw them pass him. However, this does not explain Fast’s finish, nor does it agree with race reports which have Touquet-Daunis and Fast leading the early part of the race. In the early 1990s, French athletics historian Alain Bouillé discovered that Théato was actually a Luxembourgeois national.