Stamata Revithi

Stamata Revithi (Greek: Σταμάτα Ρεβύθη or Ρεβίθη) (born 1866, date of death unknown) was a Greek woman who attempted to compete at the 1896 Summer Olympics on 10 April, 1896 (29 March, 1896 per the Julian Calendar).

Biographical elements

Spiridon Louis entering the Panathinaiko Stadium at the end of the marathon

Revithi was born in Syros, but in 1896 she lived in poverty in Piraeus. She was the mother of a 17-months-old child, and as well had a 7-years-old boy who had died in 1895. She probably was a widow, because contemporary sources mention no husband of hers. According to Athanasios Tarasouleas she looked much older than her age, and she was blonde, thin, with large eyes. A few days prior to the Olympic marathon, while walking to Athens in search of employment, she encountered a male runner along the road who gave her some money, and advised her to run the marathon and win, in order to find a job.

From that moment the idea to run the Marathon stuck firmly in Revithi's mind. She had enjoyed long-distance running as a child, and believed that she could beat the male competitors. On the eve of the Marathon run, Thursday 9 April (28 March per the Julian Calendar), Revithi arrived at the small village of Marathon, where the race was to take place the next day, and met the assembled athletes. Revithi attracted the attention of the reporters, and was warmly greeted by Marathon's mayor, who sheltered her in his house. She answered the reporters' questions, and was quick-witted, when a male runner from Chalandri teased her.

The morning of Friday 10 April (29 March), Revithi was denied a blessing by the old priest of Marathon who argued that he would give his blessing only to the officially recognized athletes. In the end, as with Carlo Airoldi Revithi too was refused entry into the race by the organizing committee, not because she was a professional, but because she was a woman. According to Tarasouleas, the organizers had promised that she would compete with a team of American women in another race in Athens, but she did not take part in that race either.

On Saturday, 11 April (30 March) at 08:00, Revithi ran the Marathon course on her own. Before she started she managed to get a signed statement from the teacher, the mayor and the magistrate as to the time she departed from Marathon. She ran the race at a steady pace and reached Parapigmata (the place where the Evangelismos Hospital stands today, near the Hilton Athens) at 13:30 (5½ hours). There she met a few non-commissioned officers whom she asked to sign her a handwritten report to certify her time of arrival in Athens. She stated to the reporters that she wanted to meet Philimona (the General-Secretary of the Hellenic Olympic Committee) to present her case. It seems that she intended to present to present her documents to the Hellenic Olympic Committee, hoping that they would recognize her achievement. Neither her reports nor documents from the Hellenic Olympic Committee have been discovered to provide corroboration. There is no account of what she did after running the marathon or even when she died. Numerous newspapers printed accounts of her story in the buildup to the marathon, but these reports never followed up on her life after the race. It is not even known whether she met Philimona or if she found a job. As Tarasouleas stated, "Stamata Revithi was lost in the dust of history." Women were finally allowed to run the marathon in the 1984 Summer Olympics.

Melpomene

According to modern Olympic historians and journalists, Melponene and Revithi are the same person, and the Greek woman was attributed the name of the Muse.

In March 1896, a French-language newspaper in Athens (the Messager d' Athènes) reported that "there was talk of a woman who had enrolled as a participant in the Marathon race. In the test run which she completed on her own [...] she took 4 1/2 hours to run the distance of 42 kilometers which separates Marathon from Athens." Later that year, Franz Kémény, a founding IOC member from Hungary, wrote in German that "indeed a lady, Miss Melpomene, completed the 40 kilometers marathon in 4 1/2 hours and requested an entry into the Olympic Games competition. This was reportedly denied by the commission." According to David Martin and Roger Gynn, "a peculiarity here is why there is no first name for Melpomene."

No contemporary press reports in Greek newspapers mention Melpomene by name, while the name Revithi appears many times; according to Martin and Gynn this was described in foreign reports many years later. Tarasouleas suggests that Melpomene and Revithi are the same person, and Martin and Green argue that "a contemporary account referring to Revithi as a well-known marathon could explain the earlier run by a woman over the marathon course—this was by Revithi herself, not Melpomene."

Estia of 4 April (23 March) 1896 refers to "the strange woman, who, having run a few days ago in the Marathon as a try-out, intends to compete the day after tomorrow. Today she came to our offices and said 'should my shoes hinder me, I will remove them on the way and continue barefoot'". Moreover on 1 March 1896, another local newspaper indicated that a woman and her baby had registered to run the Marathon, but again the name of that woman is not mentioned. Trying to resolve the mystery, Tarasouleas asserts that "perhaps Revithi had two names, or perhaps for reasons unknown she was attributed the name of the Muse Melpomene."

References

• Eleftheratos, Dionysis (April 12, 2008). "April 11, 1896" (PDF). ET Review (in Greek). Eleftheros Typos. Retrieved 2008-07-24.
• Martin, David E. (2000). "The Olympic Marathon". Running through the Ages. Human Kinetics. ISBN 0-880-11969-1. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• Tarasouleas, Athanasios (1997). "Stamata Revithi, "Alias Melpomeni"" (PDF). Olympic Review: 53–55.
• Tarasouleas, Athanasios (1993). "The Female Spiridon Loues" (PDF). Citius, Altius, Fortius. 1 (3): 11–12. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)