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Ernst van Dyk has won the Boston Marathon ten times, more than any other athlete.
The Boston Marathon, one of the six World Marathon Majors, is a 26.2-mile (42.2 km) race which has been held in the Greater Boston area in Massachusetts since 1897, making it the oldest annual marathon in the world.
The event is held on Patriots' Day, which was April 19 (or April 20 if April 19 was a Sunday) until the implementation of the Uniform Monday Holiday Act in 1971. Since 1971, except in 2020 (race not held) or 2021 (Columbus Day holiday), the Boston Marathon is held on the third Monday in April. Various factors meant that until 1957 the course varied in length, due to which the marathon recognizes several course records that are slower than previous records due to being run on longer courses. The first Boston Marathon included only 15 runners, all of whom were men, and was won by John McDermott. The race was cancelled twice, in 1918 because of World War I, where a ekiden-style relay was conducted of military teams, and in 2020, when Massachusetts authorities refused to allow the event to be conducted due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The winners have represented 27 different countries: Americans have won the marathon the most, doing so on 108 occasions; Kenyans have won 34 times; and Canadians 21 times. Ernst van Dyk is the most successful individual athlete, having won the men's wheelchair division ten times. The current course records are held by Geoffrey Mutai, Buzunesh Deba, Marcel Hug and Manuela Schär.
Clarence DeMar won the men's open race seven times, more than any other runner, achieving his first victory in 1911 and his last in 1930. Women were only officially allowed to run the race beginning in 1972, though female runners had unofficially participated beginning in 1966 despite breaching the rules of the Amateur Athletic Union. The first six victories in the women's open division, between 1966 and 1971, were officially recognized in 1996. Bobbi Gibb was the first woman to finish the race in 1966, while Nina Kuscsik was the first official winner in 1972. Catherine Ndereba's four victories between 2000 and 2005 are the most in the women's open division. The Boston Marathon became the first major marathon to include a wheelchair division, in 1975, which was won by Robert Hall, though the first person to complete the race in a wheelchair had been Eugene Roberts in 1970. The first female wheelchair finisher, Sharon Rahn, came in 1977. Ernst van Dyk's ten wins in the men's wheelchair division are the most of any athlete at Boston, while Jean Driscoll leads the women's wheelchair division with seven wins, and holds the overall record for the most consecutive victories, also seven. A handcyclist division was recognized for the first time in 2017, though handcyclists had been taking part prior to that. Tom Davis has won the first three men's handcyclist races since it was officially recognized in 2017, and still holds the course record as of 2024. Alicia Dana has won the women's handcycle race three times, as of 2024, and set a course record each time.
The course was designed to replicate the original marathon in Greece; a hilly point-to-point race, and as such has not been the venue for many world records. Suh Yun-bok set the only World Athletics-ratified men's open division world record in 1947, in a time of 2:25:39. Two apparent world record times set between 1951 and 1956 by Keizo Yamada and Antti Viskari were later struck when the course was found to be over 1,000 yards (910 m) short. In 1975, Liane Winter took advantage of a 25 miles per hour (40 km/h) following wind to set a world record in the women's open race of 2:42:24, and eight years later, Joan Benoit beat a world record that had only been set the day before at the London Marathon, finishing in 2:22:43. Since 1990, the Boston Marathon has been ineligible for world records, as the start and finish are too far away from each other, and the race is a net downhill. In 2011, Geoffrey Mutai won the race in 2:03:02, which was the world's fastest time for the marathon, beating the official world record by 57 seconds.
John McDermott won the first Boston Marathon in 1897.Clarence DeMar has won the Boston Marathon seven times, more than any other runner in the Men's open division.Suh Yun-bok set a world record at the 1947 Boston Marathon.John J. Kelley won the 1957 Boston Marathon with a course record.Aurèle Vandendriessche won back-to-back marathons in 1963 and 1964.Ron Hill set a course record at the 1970 Boston Marathon.Bill Rodgers won the race four times between 1975 and 1980.Robert Kipkoech Cheruiyot won the race four times, and set two course records.Geoffrey Mutai holds the current course record, 2:03:02, set in 2011.
Bobbi Gibb, pictured in 2016, won the first three, unofficial, women's marathons.Joan Benoit set a world record at the 1983 Boston Marathon.Uta Pippig, pictured in 2019, won three consecutive Boston Marathons from 1994 to 1996.Catherine Ndereba won the Boston Marathon four times between 2000 and 2005.
Course record; Rosie Ruiz was declared the winner of the 1980 race, but was later stripped of her win when it was discovered she did not run the entire race.
Current course record; Rita Jeptoo originally won the 2014 race, but was subsequently disqualified for taking performance-enhancing drugs. In a recent WSJ interview it was confirmed Deba was never paid the winner's prize money for her first-place finish
André Viger won the men's wheelchair division three times between 1984 and 1987.Heinz Frei's 1994 course record stood for ten years.Franz Nietlispach won the race five times in six years.Joshua Cassidy set a course record at the 2012 Boston Marathon.Marcel Hug has won the race four times, and holds the current course record.
Louise Sauvage won the women's wheelchair division in three consecutive Boston Marathons, between 1997 and 1999.Edith Hunkeler won the race twice, in 2002 and 2006.Wakako Tsuchida won the race in five consecutive years from 2007 to 2011.Tatyana McFadden won the race five times between 2013 and 2018.Manuela Schär holds the current course record, 1:28:17, set in 2017.
World records for road races set before 2004 were retrospectively recognised by the IAAF (now World Athletics), and were not officially recognised before that time.
Since 1990, the Boston Marathon has been ineligible for world records, as the start and finish are too far away from each other, and the race is a net downhill.
Geoffrey Mutai's winning time in 2011 of 2:03:02 beat the world record by 57 seconds, making it the fastest marathon time recorded at the time. It remained the fastest time until Dennis Kimetto set an official world record of 2:02:57 at the 2014 Berlin Marathon.
Wheelchair racers set off 15 minutes ahead of the other participants.
Since 1949, Bundesrepublik Deutschland (Federal Republic of Germany). All German athletes that won Boston during the era from 1945 to 1990 represented Bundesrepublik Deutschland, known colloquially as West Germany in English. The unified Germany remains officially Bundesrepublik Deutschland.
Athlete represented the former Yugoslavia, which is recognised as Serbia today.
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