Sport
Landmark
John Stephen Akhwari
born 1938
Finished the 1968 Olympic marathon on a wrecked leg, an hour after everyone else
Landmark is level 2 of 4 in the Tanzania Hall of Fame: a first that opened a door, or the pre-eminent figure of their generation in this country. See how the levels work.
Why they are here
He fell early in the Mexico City Olympic marathon, dislocated his knee and gashed his shoulder, and finished last — more than an hour after the winner, in a near-empty stadium. It is one of the most retold moments in Olympic history.
John Stephen Akhwari ran the marathon for Tanzania at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics. Cramping in the thin high-altitude air, he was jostled in a pack around the nineteen-kilometre mark and fell hard, dislocating his knee and injuring his shoulder.
He had it bandaged and kept going. He entered the stadium in near darkness, more than an hour after Mamo Wolde of Ethiopia had won, with only a few thousand people left in the stands, and finished fifty-seventh and last of those who completed the course. Asked afterwards why he had not retired, he said his country had not sent him five thousand miles to start the race, but to finish it. The line is quoted around the world and he has spent the decades since as an ambassador for Tanzanian sport and Olympic education.
He had it bandaged and kept going. He entered the stadium in near darkness, more than an hour after Mamo Wolde of Ethiopia had won, with only a few thousand people left in the stands, and finished fifty-seventh and last of those who completed the course. Asked afterwards why he had not retired, he said his country had not sent him five thousand miles to start the race, but to finish it. The line is quoted around the world and he has spent the decades since as an ambassador for Tanzanian sport and Olympic education.
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