Timeline of Oslo Marathon 1981 – 2017
1981
Oslo marathon arranged for the first time. Fred Lebow, founder of the New York Marathon, partook and called the run one of the best events he had ever done, and was an example for others to follow.
1982
Grete Waitz set an unofficial world record in the half marathon with a time of 01:07:50.
1984
Grete Waitz and Ingrid Kristiansen crossed the finished line with a time of 01:10:32, sharing the win of the half marathon.
1985
This year saw a substantial increase in female runners. The jogging trend has spread fast.
1987
”Of course I’ll run the Oslo Marathon” was this years slogan that saw a record number of runners and cheerers. Oslo Marathon was no longer just a run and is seen as “Norways third national day” together with 17. May and Holmenkoll Sunday.
1990
Oslo Marathon has had charity runners that have been able to gather several million kroner.
1992
1992 saw a large police error that led to the Oslo Marathon being 1km too short. Three police motorcycles that led the marathon runners through Oslos streets took a wrong turn at Karl Johan.
1994
New record in participants! It would take 15 years to beat this years 14,200 runners.
1998
A sudden end to the jogging trend in Norway. People would rather train in gyms than run long distances.
2001
After several years with declining numbers, Bislett Alliansen was forced to cancel the marathon distance. The half marathon and mini marathon went ahead as planned with 1,300 runners.
2002
This year saw only the half marathon and mini marathon being run with only 1,000 runners.
2003
With low sign ups across the board, Bislett Alliansen had to cancel the entire Oslo Marathon event.
2004
A sudden turn in trends saw the the Oslo Marathon being arranged again. This time, Sportsklubben Vidar took over and arranged three distances; the marathon, halv marathon and 5km.
2005
Vemund Wemundstad was caught up in the jog trend 25 years earlier when Oslo Marathon was arranged for the first time. His time had come and in 2005 he won the half marathon in the 65-69 year class with a time of 01:31:19.
2006
Grete and Jack Waitz were the figureheads for Sportsklubben Vidar. Grete Waitz emphasised the important thing was to participate, not win. This was an event for each and every person.
2010
All records are once again beaten. It was now popular to run the marathon and the Oslo Marathon was once again at an international level. More than 100,000 people supported their friends and family members from the sidelines.
2013
All expectations were surpassed when over 23,000 people signed up. Sportsklubben Vidar was forced to limit the amount of sign ups as they wanted to be able to focus on a successful event for the runners.
2014
Another record in sign ups!
Danske Bank Oslo Marathon is shown live on national TV for the first time.
#jegermed
2015
The Oslo Triple is arranged for the first time!
Right to Play organises a sponsored 24 hour run in the Sport & Health Expo. All proceeds go towards Syrian children. The event is streamed live on our YouTube channel.
2016
BMW becomes the new main sponsor for Oslo Marathon. The Triple Team event, where three runners each run their own distance, is arranged for the first time. BMW Oslo Marathon is shown Live on NRK.
2017
Rollerskis is arranged for the first time, a pilot with only invited participants to this exercise. The course is changed and located more to the centre of Oslo. BMW Oslo Marathon is shown live on NRK.
2018
Rollerskis was removed as a distance, due to logistics.
We joined the trend of plogging and created a separate distance for ploggers running the course and picking litter along the way.BMW Oslo Marathon was again shown live on NRK.
