Stockholm 1912 – Olympic Champion with many names – Olympic Marathon Champion Kennedy Kane McArthur.

In the official results it listed simply KK. He was called Ken by his South African teammates.

In the Swedish newspapers of the time, he was referred to as Kenneth but the real name of the 1912 Olympic Marathon Champion is Kennedy Kane McArthur.

McArthur ran six marathons during his short career, and he won every race.

Kennedy Kane McArthur was born in Dervock, County Antrim in Northern Ireland on 10 February 1881. After finishing Dervock Upper National School he got a job as a postman.

In 1901 McArthur emigrated to South Africa and became a police constable. Here the tall young man (1.90m) started running.

He began competing at middle distance (880 yards and 1 mile), but then moved up to longer distances. After winning the South African Cross Country Championships, McArthur decided to try maraton running.

In 1908 in Johannesburg McArthur surprisingly won his first maraton. He beat South African Charles Hefferon who several months earlier had finished second in the Maraton at the Olympic Games in London.

Four victories from four starts in various South African marathons followed over the next few years.

McArthur and Christopher Gitsham were drafted in as South Africas representatives for the marathon at the Stockholm Olympics. Before the race Henry Nourse, President of the South African Athletic Federation, predicted that McArthur would be Olympic Champion.

Nourse was right. In stifling heat the two green-clad runners, McArthur and Gitsham achieved a double in the most memorable event of the 1912 Olympic Games. McArthur reached the finish 58 seconds before Gitsham.

This was to be McArthurs last marathon. Just one year later he injured a foot in an accident while working for the police. The injury put a stop to his training. During his career McArthur ran six marathons and won all of them. He was undefeated at any distance over 10 miles (16km).
McArthur ended his service in the police force in 1931 and moved with his wife, Johanna Louw, who he had met in South Africa, back to his town of birth, Dervock.

The couple stayed in Northern Ireland for five years but then returned to Potchefstroom, outside Johannesburg, South Africa, where McArthur died on 13 June 1960.

McArthur's widow donated his collection of prizes and athletics equipment to the museum in Potchefstroom.

In South Africa, McArthur was called Ken which, in English, is the usual short form of Kenneth. Therefore McArthur was known his whole life in South Africa as Kenneth. It was also the name which journalists of the time used with reference to him at the Olympic Games in Stockholm.
Only when McArthur was buried was it discovered that his real name was Kennedy Kane McArthur.

The athletics arena in Potchefstroom is still called the Kenneth McArthur Stadium.

In Northern Ireland McArthur was never called anything but Kennedy Kane.

In memory of Dervock's all-time greatest sports hero, they hold the annual Kennedy Kane McArthur Festival of Running.

To celebrate the 100 year anniversary of McArthur's Olympic victory, the Olympic torch will be carried through Dervock on 3 June on its way to London where the Olympic Games took place in early August.

More information about McArthur on YouTube

In McArthur's place of birth, Dervock, the annual Kennedy Kane McArthur Festival of Running is organised.

 

Source: ASICS Stockholm Marathon Organisers

 

Athletics South Africa – News – FESTIVAL TO CELEBRATE MCARTHUR