The Boston Marathon is an annual sporting event held in several cities in the state of Massachusetts. It is always held on Patriots' Day, on the third Monday of April. The first race took place in 1897. He was inspired by the success of the first marathon at the 1896 Summer Olympics. The Boston Marathon is the oldest annual race, which is also considered one of the most famous in the world.
The marathon attracts approximately 500, 000 spectators, making it the most popular sporting event in New England. Although only 18 athletes participated in the race in 1897, it currently has an average of about 30, 000 registered participants. The 1996 Boston anniversary marathon was the record holder in terms of the number of participants: 38, 708 people wished to join the race were registered at it, 36, 748 people went to the start and 35, 868 reached the finish line.
History
The first Boston marathon was organized in April 1897, inspired by the revival of the race at the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens. It is the oldest continuously operating and the second longest in North America.
The event is dedicated to the celebration of Patriots' Day and symbolizes the connection between Athenian and American freedom fighters. The first winner was John McDermott, who covered 24.5 miles in 2:55:10. The race, known as the Boston Marathon, has since been held every year. In 1924, the start was moved to Hopkinton, and the route was extended to 26 miles 385 yards (42.195 km). This is done to meet the standards set at the 1908 Olympics and codified by the IAAF in 1921.
Initially, the Boston Marathon was a local event, but, thanks to its fame and prestige, it began to attract runners from around the world. For most of its history, this event was completely non-profit, and the only prize for the victory was a wreath made from branches of an olive tree. Sponsorship cash prizes began to be awarded only in the 1980s, after professional athletes began to refuse to participate in the race without significant rewards. The first cash prize for winning the marathon was received in 1986.
The struggle for the right of women to participate in the marathon
Women were not allowed to officially participate in the Boston Marathon until 1972. Roberta Gibb, according to the organizers of the competition, is the first woman to completely run the entire distance of the marathon (in 1966). In 1967, Catherine Sweetser, registered as "C.V. Sweetser, " became the first woman to run to the very end with an official membership number. She managed to get to the finish line, in spite of the widely known incident, during which the representative of the marathon administration Jock Sample tried to tear off her number and prevent her from running. In 1996, women who unofficially participated in the marathon from 1966 to 1971, and the first to reach the finish line, were retroactively recognized as champions. In 2015, about 46% of the participants were female.
Rosie Ruiz scandal
The scandal occurred at the Boston marathon in 1980, when amateur runner Rosie Ruiz appeared out of nowhere and won the women's race. Representatives of the administration of the marathon suspected something was wrong when they discovered that Ruiz was not visible on the video of the race almost to the very end. Subsequent investigation revealed that Ruiz missed most of the competition, and then, about a mile (1.6 km) before the finish line, mixed with the crowd and easily overtook her rivals. The judges officially disqualified Rosie. The 1980 Boston Marathon was thus won by Canadian athlete Jacqueline Garro.
Accidents
In 1905, James Edward Brooks of North Adams in Massachusetts died of pneumonia shortly after running a marathon without ever returning home. In 1996, a 62-year-old man from Sweden died of a heart attack. In 2002, 28-year-old Cynthia Lucero died of hyponatremia.
2013 Boston Marathon
During the 2013 marathon on April 15 at 14:49 local time, more than two hours after the winners crossed the finish line, there were two explosions in Boyleston Street, about 200 meters from the finish line, the distance between which was 180 meters.
As a result of the explosions, three were killed and at least 144 people were injured, of whom 17 were seriously injured. Among the dead was an eight-year-old boy. No terrorist group has claimed responsibility for these bombings. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) took over the case and soon photos were received of two suspects.
On the night of April 18, as a result of a shootout in Cambridge, not far from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a policeman died, after which an operation began to capture the two suspects, the brothers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. The eldest of them, Tamerlan, died in the hospital in the early morning of April 19. Residents of nearby areas were encouraged to stay inside their homes with locked doors. Public transport in Boston was stopped, including routes from Massachusetts Bay's largest Transportation Authority and Amtrak Rail Company; schools and universities, as well as many commercial enterprises, were closed. Human rights bodies led by state police raided the city of Watertown, and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was arrested on April 19 at 8:45.
The 2013 Boston Marathon, the explosion of which caused the death of an 8-year-old boy and a 29-year-old woman (both residents of the suburbs of Boston), as well as a 23-year-old student from China, is a huge tragedy for all civilized humanity. Among the seriously wounded were the mother and sister of the deceased boy.
Marathon attack
Explosions of two bombs with an interval of 15 seconds sounded near Copley Square in Boston. As a result of the terrorist attack, three people died and more than a hundred were injured of varying severity. The winners crossed the finish line about two hours before the blasts, but there were still many runners who only had to run to the end of the Boston Marathon.
The attack was a surprise to everyone: before the attack, no threats from terrorist organizations were reported.
Explosive devices were of such a type that they could be made using instructions from the Internet or any other source. The explosives were inside six-liter pressure cookers that were hidden in nylon sports backpacks.
Skirmishes, pursuit and arrest
Soon after the photos were published, there was a shootout in the vicinity of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, not far from Building 32 (Stata Center). This happened on April 18 at 22 hours 48 minutes local time (02:48 UTC). A few shots were fired. Bullets hit a police officer sitting in a patrol car. He was taken to the Massachusetts Central Hospital, and, after some time, the doctors died. The policeman's name was Sean Collier, he was 26 years old, originally from Somerville, Massachusetts, and worked in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's police department.
The Tsarnaev brothers seized a silver Mercedes SUV in Cambridge and forced the owner to withdraw $ 800 from an ATM. Taking the money, they released the owner of the car. The suspects informed him that they were considered responsible for the explosion at the Boston marathon. Police tracked the car to Watertown, Massachusetts. Watertown law enforcement officials reported several clashes and shootings, during which explosions also rang out. That same evening, The Boston Globe reported that people who were wanted for a terrorist attack during a marathon run participated in the shootout. A shootout with the police and an explosion of a bomb thrown by criminals were observed by residents of Watertown. One of the brothers was caught, but the second managed to escape in a stolen SUV. In a shootout, a 33-year-old Massachusetts Bay traffic police officer named Richard H. Donahue Jr. was seriously injured. Fortunately, the wound was not fatal.
On the morning of April 19, after a car chase and a shootout with the police, one of the suspects, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, was taken to Beth-Izrael Medical Center, where he died from several gunshot wounds and injuries sustained during the explosion. The FBI has published photos of two suspects in the Watertown events. The second of the brothers, Johar, who is sometimes called the “white hat suspect, ” according to police, was still at large. Authorities report that the brothers threw home-made bombs from their car at police officers who chased them from Cambridge to Watertown.
In 2015, one of the perpetrators of the explosion, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, was convicted on 30 counts and sentenced to death.
Memorial ceremony
On April 18, an interfaith memorial service for the victims of the attack took place in the Boston Catholic Cathedral of the Holy Cross. American President Barack Obama and some veterans of the Boston Marathon spoke at it.
2014 doping scandal
In this year’s marathon, Kenyan runner Rita Jeptu came to the finish line first among women. However, she was disqualified after representatives of the World Anti-Doping Agency said that her test for prohibited substances showed a positive result. Hearings in this case took place in January 2015.
