The stadium with the most records in the world

This Saturday a new edition of Stockholm marathona 42K event that brings thousands of runners together in the Swedish capital every year and ends at the Olympic Stadium, a venue that has gone down in history as the stadium where the most athletic records in the world have been broken.

Located on a wide avenue Lidingövägenwhere other sports facilities like Royal Tennis Hall and the Östermalms IPhe Stockholm Olympic Stadium It was built for the 1912 Olympic Games.

In that competition, where the United States and Sweden dominated the medal table with 64 and 65 metals respectively, more than ten world records were broken. The American Jim Thorpe is the great figure in the pentathlon and decathlon, and the Finn Hannes Kolehmainen He broke the 3,000m, 5,000m and 10,000m records.

Since then, many athletic legends have left their mark on Stockholm’s Olympic Stadium. A year after the Games, the legendary French runner Jean Bouin He established the world record for one hour at the same stadium, covering a distance of 19,021 meters.

In the early 1920s, the Finnish Paavo Nurmi broke many records at distances from 1,500m to 10,000m and, a few years later, the Swedish middle distance runner Inga Gentzel He broke the 800m world record to force the Swedish Olympic Committee authorities to let him participate in the Amsterdam Games.

Another legendary runner who broke records at the Stockholm Olympic Stadium was the Swede Gunder Hägg, great figure of world athletics in the 1940s who established records of 1,500m, 3,000m, one mile, two miles and three miles.

Since 1967, the site contains BAUHAUS Galaan annual athletics meeting that is now part of the Diamond League and has seen world records fall for the high jump (1987), 10,000m (1993) and 800m (1997).

The Diamond League website maintains a list of 83 records set at the Stockholm Olympic Stadium, the last being the work of Wilson Kipketer in 1997.