The athlete’s heart from Philippides to the modern marathon runners

Silvia Castelletti, Guido E Pieles

Joy to you, we have won!' the last words pronounced by Philippides before the occurrence of the first sudden cardiac death (SCD) in sport. Legend has it that Philippides died after running ∼40 km from Marathon to Athens to announce the victory of the Greek forces against the Persians. Further research demonstrated that Philippides had run actually almost 500 km, as he went from Marathon to Athens, from Athens to Sparta, and back to Athens. Indeed, despite this distance, he actually survived as his story was merged with that of another runner, Eucles, who 50 years later ran to Athens to announce victory and died...

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