Reaching the 1912 Stockholm Olympics required Shizo Kanaguri to travel for 18 days by ship and the Trans-Siberian Railway, followed by five days of rest. Thirty kilometres into the marathon, he stopped at a house for water, lay down on a couch and awoke the following morning. Ashamed, he returned to Japan without formally withdrawing and was considered missing in Sweden for decades. In 1967, aged 76, he returned to complete the race. His final time of 54 years, 8 months, 6 days, 5 hours, 32 minutes and 20.3 seconds remains the slowest in Olympic marathon history.
Shizo Kanaguri
