Bhutan's marathon runner gets standing ovation for last-place finish

PARIS — The last athlete to finish Sunday's marathon, an hour and a half after the winner, did so to a standing ovation on the final day of the Paris Games.

Bhutan's Kinzang Lhamo finished the hilly and hot course in three hours, 52 minutes and 59 seconds, slowing to a walk at points but encouraged through the last kilometres by spectators cycling and running alongside her.

As she ran down the home straight, fans in the stands in front of the Invalides monument got to their feet to cheer her on as she crossed the finish line, the 80th woman to complete the course.

Spectators around the world saw Lhamo as an embodiment of the Olympic spirit — the idea that the Games are not about winning but about taking part.

Lhamo, 26, was participating in her first international competition, and was the Himalayan nation's flagbearer in the opening ceremony as well as being the only woman in Bhutan's delegation of three athletes.

She took up running after joining Bhutan's army. She won the Bhutan marathon last year and this year, clocking 3 hours and 26 minutes in March, and came second in 2022 in the Snowman Race, an extreme event covering 203 km through the Himalayan mountains.

"It has always been one of my dreams, to compete at such a stage," Lhamo had said ahead of her Olympic debut, in an interview with Deutsche Welle.

"My first goal is to complete the marathon and then break my own personal record," she said. While her time on Sunday was slower than her personal best, she certainly finished in style.

To some, Lhamo's grit and determination in completing the Paris course also brought to mind Tanzania's John Stephen Akhwari who was injured but still limped to the finish line of the Olympic marathon in 1968.

He was asked why he had carried on, and his reply went down in history.

"My country did not send me 5,000 miles to start the race," he said. "They sent me to finish the race."

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