Stamata Revithi

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Greek athlete

AthletesLived 1866 to 1896 · aged 30

Fame51.3

Momentum21.4

Languages22

In century#8,117

Stamata Revithi was a Greek woman who ran the 40-kilometre marathon during the 1896 Summer Olympics. The Games excluded women from competition, but Revithi insisted that she be allowed to run.

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Photos 3

Coubertin believed "that contact with women's athletics is bad for [the male athlete], and that these athletics should be excluded from the Olympic programme".[1]

Spiridon Louis entering the Panathinaiko Stadium at the end of the marathon. Only 9 of the 17 male runners finished the marathon, one day before Revithi's race.[12]

Painting of the Muse Melpomene by Edward Simmons, 1891; Thomas Jefferson Building, Washington, D.C. According to certain modern Olympic historians and journalists, Melpomene and Revithi are the same person, and the Greek woman was attributed the name of the Muse.

Athletes born in the 1860s 6

Carlo Airoldi52.8 Holger Nielsen51.1

Eugen Sandow59.4

Ioannis Frangoudis50.5

Prince Christian Victor of Schleswig-Holstein50.3

Eugen Schmidt50.1

About this person

Stamata Revithi was a Greek woman who ran the 40-kilometre marathon during the 1896 Summer Olympics. The Games excluded women from competition, but Revithi insisted that she be allowed to run. Revithi ran one day after the men had completed the official race, and although she finished the marathon in approximately 5 hours and 30 minutes and found witnesses to sign their names and verify the running time, she was not allowed to enter the Panathinaiko Stadium at the end of the race. She intended to present her documentation to the Hellenic Olympic Committee in the hopes that they would recognize her achievement, but it is not known whether she did so. No known record survives of Revithi's life after her run.