He led the marathon into the stadium — then turned the wrong way

On August 25, 1954, Soviet marathoner Ivan Filin reached Bern's Neufeld Stadium first after more than 26 miles of European Championship racing. Then he turned left on the track instead of right, and the gold medal went the other way. 123

The men's marathon closed the opening day of the fifth European Athletics Championships in Bern, Switzerland. The course ran over difficult Swiss terrain before finishing with a lap inside Neufeld Stadium, where about 15,000 spectators waited. 145

Filin, a Soviet coalminer in his first major international race, entered the stadium about 20 yards ahead of the next man. On the track he swung left. Finland's Veikko Karvonen came in behind him, turned right, and started the correct final circuit while the crowd roared. Filin was redirected, but the lead was gone. 1235

Karvonen finished in 2:24:51.6, a championship record. Soviet teammate Boris Grishayev took silver in 2:24:55.6. Filin crossed third in 2:25:26.6. 46

The result still carried weight beyond the wrong turn. Karvonen had already won the Boston Marathon earlier in 1954 and had finished fifth at the Helsinki Olympic marathon in 1952. Filin's mistake turned a race he led into the stadium into a bronze-medal finish, and later accounts called the race the "wrong way" marathon. 257

The shareable version is simple: on August 25, 1954, the first man into the European Championship marathon stadium turned the wrong way on the track—and finished third.