Spirit of the Marathon
Stylianos Kyriakides

‘Spirit of the Marathon’ is a 12-foot-tall statue that stands at the 1-mile mark of the Boston Marathon route. Commissioned by New Balance, coordinated by the Hopkinton Athletic Association (the former name of the 26.2 Foundation), sculpted by Mico Kaufman, and unveiled in 2006, ‘Spirit’ depicts Greek marathoner Stylianos Kyriakides, who represents one of the Boston Marathon’s greatest underdog stories.

Kyriakides won the 50th Boston Marathon in 1946 against all odds, having survived the horrors and deprivations of the Axis occupation of WWII Greece. He then turned his achievement into an opportunity to highlight the plight of his nation, which was still starving and rebuilding from the war. He returned home to a hero’s welcome with boatloads of food, medicine, clothing and other essentials donated by the American people. As a result of those efforts, he is considered by many to be the first Boston Marathon ‘charity’ runner.

Flanking him in the sculpture is a fellow Greek, Spyridon Louis, winner of the first modern Olympic marathon, held in Athens Greece in 1896, showing Kyriakides the way forward.

A twin version of the statue stands in Marathon, Greece, Hopkinton’s sister city.