Special Ceremony Honouring Horst Milde in Athens 2016 – Gerd Steins reports

On Sunday, November 13, 2016, Horst Milde (long-time Race Director of the Berlin Marathon) received two important awards from Greek sports in the Athens City Hall.

The president of the Greek athletics association (SEGAS) and the president of the Athens Marathon – The Authentic, Kostas Panagopoulos, presented Horst Milde with the honorary prize of a silver sprig of laurel for his 10 years of providing advice and support to the organisers of the Athens Marathon.

Spyros Zagaris, the former mayor of Marathon, presented Horst Milde with a collection of gold-plated postage stamps with motifs from the Battle of Marathon 2500 years ago in appreciation for his active promotion of the Greek marathon and for developing and leading the AIMS Marathon Symposium since its inception on November 3, 2007, which takes place in conjunction with the Athens Marathon.

When Horst Milde visited the Olympic Games in 2004 and took a short trip to Marathon (the legendary birthplace of the Olympic Marathon of 1896), it sparked his interest in the Athens Marathon and its historical significance. A contributing factor may have also been that when he visited the just-opened IOC running museum in Marathon, it only presented Olympic marathon races and a few others, but not "his" Berlin Marathon.

Back in Berlin, he put together a fat package filled with a letter and numerous mementos from the Berlin Marathon, including posters, medals, and many other souvenirs. Despite his efforts, at first there was no response. Then about a year and a half later, he received a letter from the new mayor of Marathon introducing himself and letting him know that he had just recently come across the letter and package.

The new mayor was Spyros Zagaris, who wrote that he wanted to come to Berlin to introduce himself and to demonstrate the connection of the city of Marathon with the Berlin Marathon.

He did not come alone, but rather with a delegation of seven people from March 16-17, 2007. The reception was held in the Berlin Sports Museum, the AIMS Museum of Running, followed by a dinner in the exclusive International Club Berlin an, where the museum, also known as the Marathoneum, has presented the Horst Milde Award since 2014.

The mayor of Marathon brought the Berlin Sports Museum the gift of a bronzed olive branch from the historical olive groves at Tumulus near Marathon, which now holds a special place in the Marathoneum.

Spyros Zagaris was not only the mayor of Marathon, but was also a member of the organising committee for the Athens Classic Marathon.

That marked the beginning of a valued and lasting relationship with Horst Milde, who served as the chairman of the Marathon Symposium from the beginning until its sixth edition in 2012 in Marathon – and then later in Athens. He became a regular advisor in Athens, working closely with the organisational team for the Athens Marathon and the Greek athletics association (SEGAS) to help further the Athens Classic Marathon.

The Athens Marathon, which had only 4,500/5.000 participants in 2007, boasted a record number of 55,000 participants in four different events in 2016, growth that Horst Milde helped to develop through his intensive consulting.

"Being honoured in Athens was a very moving experience for me. After participating in the cross-country race in Olympia in 1964 with the Free University of Berlin cross-country team, we were housed for a few nights up above the old Olympic Stadium and trained on the venerable track in the Olympic Stadium. I never would have thought back then that I would be honoured there 50 years later. That is really something special, and I am very thankful" Horst Milde remarked.

The Athens Classic Marathon (since 2015: "Athens Marathon – The Authentic") has become an iconic sporting event with participants from around the world, enthusiastically capturing the entire city under its spell and bringing running out of the shadows and into the limelight in Greece.

For many AIMS Congress participants this ceremony honouring Horst Milde came as a surprise, but for those long involved in marathons, this was a long-anticipated, well-earned, and especially successful celebration of his work, and the beautiful atmosphere in the Athens City Hall provided a fitting setting for it.

Gerd Steins
President of the Forum for Sport History – 
Supporting Organisation for the Berlin Sports Museum