The Marathon Runner Stelios Kyriakidis

Stelios Kyriakidis is the most significant, modern personality of sports, having achieved international accomplishments and distinctions. He was born in the village of Statos in the Pafos District on the 4th of May 1910. He started his career in sports after his teenage years. Initially he took part in rural games, wearing the colours of his village. Later on he contested as an athlete for the ‹‹Olympia›› Gymnastic Club of Limassol, the colours of which he kept on wearing until the end of his glorious career in athletics.

For some time he worked as an employee of the Limassol Municipality, however being appointed in 1936 as an employee of the Public Power Corporation (ΔΕΗ) of Athens - Piraeus after he had permanently settled in Athens.

Stelios Kyriakidis excelled in middle-distance and long-distance racing contests, especially in the Marathon. From 1933 until 1945 he won first place 14 times in the annual Pan-Cyprian Games. He was the holder of all the records in Cyprus in the races from 1,500 meters to the Marathon. He also held the Greek records in the races of 5 and 10 kilometres, in the races of 3,4,6,8,15, and 30 kilometres, in the races of 3 and 6 miles, and in the races of half an hour and one hour.

From 1934 until 1938 he won first place 10 times in Pan-Hellenic Games and from 1934 until 1939 he climbed 6 times to the top spot of the pedestal in the Balkan games: He won the Marathon of 1934, 1936, 1937, and 1939 and the 10 kilometres race in 1934 and 1936. Stelios Kyriakidis participated with the Greek national team in the Olympic Games of Berlin in 1936 and of London in 1948. He became known world-wide for his victory in the international Marathon of Boston on the 20th of April 1946 with a time of 2 hours, 29 minutes, and 27 seconds. This time of his was -for many decades -the best in the Marathon contest. Besides, his Stelios Kyriakidis's victory in the Boston Marathon is considered one of the most important achievements of all times for Greek sports.

For his achievements in sports, Stelios Kyriakidis has been honoured with the Grand Cross of the Order of the Phoenix by the (former) King of the Greeks and with other medals and distinctions by the Governor of Massachusetts (USA), the Olympic games Committee, and the Municipalities of Athens, Piraeus, Patra, Filothei, etc.

In this historical picture (from the television program hosted by Demetris Liberopoulos
“innocent or guilty?”) the man in the middle in the first row between the brothers Giorgos
and Aristides Roumpanis, is the runner Stelios Kyriakides, who participated in Berlin
marathon in 1936 and won the Boston marathon (1946) right after the war.

The marathon runner Stelios Kyriakides during the marathon,
followed by a policeman on a bicycle.

We welcome you to the home town of our marathon runner, the person you lifted Greece during a tragic period for Hellenism, our great athlete Stelios Kyriakides.

Our land is hard and tough, and daily struggle is needed for survival, blood and sweat as well as patience and good soul that helps overcome difficulties and obstacles. These were the peculiarities of Stelios Kyriakides soul, who left our village at a young age to work and train.

His talent, his hard work and mostly his strength were the main components of his success on a universal level.

His major win as an athlete and a person was during the Boston marathon in 1946. His goal was not only an athletic win, which was a great one, but also something deeper, something purely humanistic. As an original Greek soul, he strived to help all Greeks that were literally starving to death. He fought to gather material assistance and helped boost the morale of the Greek nation that has just came out of the II World War. And he accomplished that. He became a paradigm of a person that can resist hunger and medical reason and defeat them, as his soul was aiming high.

Johnny Kelly, his co-athlete and main opponent, said right after the race: “how can you defeat such a man? He was not running for himself, he was running for his country”.

The message sent by Stelios Kyriakides is beyond the track. It is a message of life and struggle, indicating that humans have unlimited potentials when they aim high. Let us keep that message in our souls.