The image of Greek and Cyprus war hero and marathon runner Stylianos (Stelios) Kyriakides, has been linked to the 125th anniversary commemoration of the famous Boston Marathon which he won to great acclaim in 1946.
A marathon race banner featuring a full-length image of the Cyprus-born Mr Kyriakides running the race in 1946 has been placed at a prominent point along the race route opposite the Consulate General of Greece in Boston.
This year’s race, which will be held on 11 October, is made even more poignant as it is the first time it has been run in person in 990 days. Thanks to the pandemic, the last two races were run “remotely” by participants who independently ran their own courses.
The race organisers, the Boston Athletic Association (BAA), will also hold an opening ceremony for the first time in the event’s long history which will highlight key moments in the race’s history. It will also include an account of the use of Greek olive wreaths to crown Boston Marathon champions over the years. The opening ceremony will be held the evening before the race in Boston’s Copley Square.
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This year also marks the 30th anniversary of the Boston Marathon Official Charity Program but Mr Stylianos, who ran the race in April 1946, is considered to be the event’s first charity runner as he used the platform of his victory to ask for American help for Greece recovering from the Second World War.
He toured the United States after the race to raise awareness of Greece’s plight.
Thanks to Mr Stylianos’ efforts after the race, 25,000 tons of aid were donated and distributed to over a million Greeks. He also $250,000 in cash.
During the race he kept close to race favourite, Johnny Kelley. Not far from the finish line an old man among the bystanders shouted to him: “For Greece, for your children!” and that spurred him on to win the race in 2:29:27 making it the fastest marathon of the year and beating his own best time by 14 minutes.
Facts about Stylianos (Stelios) Kyriakides
Mr Kyriakides was born in the mountain village of Statos in Cyprus in 1910. When he was 19 he went to work in the household of British medical officer Reginald Cheverton. The doctor saw his potential as a long-distance runner. With Dr Cheverton’s encouragement he trained at night on Limassol Beach.
In 1932 he attended his first Pan Cyprian games and distinguished himself by winning the 1,500m and 10,000m on the Friday, and the 5,000m and 20,000m on the Saturday.
In September, 1933, he travelled to Greece to take part in National Championship and the Pre-Balkan races. He came second in the 10 kilometre event and this spurred his athletic career.
He was encouraged in his efforts by the winner of the first modern Olympic marathon, Spyridon Louis, who told him: “My son Stelios, you should always run, because we Greeks were born to run. This is how we managed to live for so many centuries.”
He represented Greece at the infamous 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin where finished in eleventh place but in the process broke the Greek marathon record which he was told until April 1968 and is considered at 34 years and six months, the longest a national record has been held by one man.
It was in Berlin that he met Johnny Kelly who invited him to run in Boston. He went to Boston before the war to run the marathon but had to drop out of the race because he ran it in new shoes that injured his feet. He swore he would return to win the race, which he did in 1946.
During the Second World War, Mr Kyriakides played a role in the Greek resistance by passing messages to various guerilla groups.
In 1943, he was rounded up with 49 other Greeks and taken to Chalandri Square where they were to be hanged. When asked for his identification, Mr Kyriakides presented to an astonished German officer his Berlin Olympics identity card. The astonished German officer who was a long-distance runner saved him from the fate of the other 49 who were executed. His survival from that event was to affect Mr Kyriakides for the rest of his life.
After his success in Boston in 1946, he was greeted as a hero on his return by one million Greeks. The Acropolis was illuminated in his honour for the first time since the Nazi Occupation.
Mr Kyriakides took part in the 1948 Summer Olympics marathon in London where he finished in 18th place.
He was to be awarded the Grand Cross of the Phoenix and was honoured by a number of Greek cities, and they Olympic Committee of USA among others. A permanent exhibition “Stylianos Kyriakides -Running for Mankind” is housed in the Sports Museum in Massachusetts.
He died in Athens in 1987.
His statue entitled “The Spirit of the Marathon” was raised in his honour in Hopkinton, near Boston, in 2004 and was dedicated in 2006 to mark the 60th anniversary of his victory in 1946.