Mondo Knows Facts
The marathon is 42.195 km because of a royal view
The odd distance comes from the 1908 London Olympics course
The 1908 Olympic marathon ran from Windsor Castle to the stadium at White City, a distance of 26 miles and 385 yards. The extra yards reportedly let the race start under the royal nursery windows and finish in front of the royal box. The distance was formally adopted as the standard by athletics authorities in 1921.
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Tags: marathon, olympics, history
The marathon is 42.195 km because of a royal view: the short answers
- Where does this come from, and can I check it?
- The odd distance comes from the 1908 London Olympics course. The figure is taken from Olympics.com, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
- Is this really a sports fact?
- Yes. It sits on the Sports shelf, one of 1,090 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
- What else can I read about it?
- The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.