History

THE STORY OF THE OSLO MARATHON

1981

The Oslo Marathon was first held in 1981. Fred Lebow, founder and leader of the New York Marathon, participated and described the race as one of the best events he had participated in, and an example to follow for other organizers.

1982

Grete Waitz set an unofficial world record for a half marathon in 1982, with a time of 01:07:50.

1984

Grete Waitz and Ingrid Kristiansen ran equally over the finish line and shared the victory in the half marathon distance in the time 01:10:32.

1985

This year the proportion of girls increased considerably and the jogging wave spread rapidly.

1987

"Of course I will run the Oslo Marathon" was the slogan this year with more spectators and cheerleaders than ever. The Oslo Marathon was no longer just a race, it was seen as "Norway's third national day" together with May 17 and Holmenkoll Sunday.

1990

The Oslo Marathon has had runners who have run for the cancer cause and collected several million since 1990.

1992

In 1992, a serious police loss led to the Oslo full marathon being 1km too short. Three police motorcycles were supposed to lead the marathon runners through the streets of Oslo, but drove wrong in the middle of Karl Johan.

1994

Participant record! 14200 was the magic number, and it would be 15 years before this record was broken.

1998

The jogging wave came to an abrupt end in Norway. People would rather go to the gym than run long runs.
In the rest of the world, this was not the case.

2001

After several years of decline, the Bislett Alliance in 2001 had to cancel the marathon distance due to low registration numbers. The half marathon and mini marathon still went as planned where 1300 participants competed eagerly.

2002

Only half and mini marathons were held with only 1000 participants.

2003

With too low registration numbers, the Bislett Alliance had to cancel the Oslo Marathon!

2004

The trend reversed, and again the Oslo Marathon was held. This time it was Sportsklubben Vidar who took over the organizing command. It was a great start with three distances; marathon, half marathon and 5km.

2005

Vemund Wemundstad was taken by the jogging wave 25 years earlier when the Oslo Marathon was held for the first time. Finally it was his turn and in 2005 the marathon pensioner won the half marathon in 01:31:19 in the class 65-69 years.

2006

Grete and Jack Waitz were the front figures of Sportsklubben Vidar. Grete Waitz emphasized that the most important thing was to participate, not to win. This is a race for everyone.

2010

All records were again broken. It had again become popular to run marathons and the Oslo Marathon was again at a high international level. There was also nothing to say about the atmosphere around the trail where more than 100,000 cheered on friends, family and the brave participants.

2011

In 2011, race queen Grete Waitz died after battling cancer. The 10 kilometer to the Oslo Marathon was renamed "10 for Grete" after a name competition. The distance is a tribute to her, as well as to everyone who wants to embrace physical activity, set goals and complete them.

2013

All expectations were exceeded when over 23,000 signed up. SK Vidar had to set a ceiling on the number of registrations as the desire is to arrange a successful race where the runner is in focus.

2014

Participant record!
Danske Bank Oslo Marathon will be broadcast live for the first time on NRK.

#I am with

2015

The Oslo trip is being arranged for the first time!
Our charitable partner Right to Play arranges a 24-hour race in the Sports and Health Fair, for income for Syrian children. This will be broadcast live on our YouTube channel.

2016

BMW is the new title sponsor for the annual event. Triple teams are arranged for the first time, where three participants each run their own distance.

2017

Roller skiing is launched for the first time, a pilot with only invited participants to this exercise. This year's trail has been changed to a route closer to the city center.

2018

The Oslo Marathon puts the environment on the starting list and arranges 10 km of plowing for the first time, in collaboration with Gjensidige and the app Plogs. Plogging is a combination of garbage collection and jogging, you do something good for the planet and something good for yourself.

2019

Participant record! Never before have so many participants completed their distance during the Oslo Marathon!

2020

The Oslo Marathon was canceled for the first time since 2003 due to Covid-19, and a ban on arranging.

We had to find alternative ways to engage in physical activity, and arranged several virtual races. The first virtual race was the 17th Mairaton. A free race where we would contribute to joy and community on a different national day. We run alone - but still together.

Furthermore, we arranged the BMW Oslo Marathon Virtual Edition in September, as an alternative to this year's physical event.

In December, we arranged the Romjulsløpet, where all participants contributed to the Church's City Mission's campaign "Rejoice someone who dreads Christmas", and gave a hot meal to everyone who needs it.

2021

In 2021, the Oslo Marathon celebrated 40 years! On that occasion, we brushed the dust off and renewed the logo from 1981, and marked the anniversary by renewing the profile for the event.

But the celebration did not turn out as we had imagined, as Covid-19 still left its mark on society, placing restrictions on how the event could be carried out. There were still strict restrictions, and requirements for corona pass or negative tests on all participants. We were only allowed to have 3000 participants at each distance, and the participants had to be divided into cohorts at a good distance. In order to complete the race, we had to cancel the Marathon, the Oslo Triple and the Children's Marathon for reasons of infection control. The course was shortened from 21 kilometers to 10 kilometers, where the half marathon had to run two laps. This course set many new records especially for the participants in the Half Marathon, as it was much flatter than before - this created a lot of joy in the finish area! 😀

In 2021, we also arranged several virtual races, and the Easter race was arranged for the first time. The 17th marathon, the BMW Oslo Marathon Virtual Edition and the Romjulsløpet were also arranged.

In addition, we arranged a Running Weekend for the first time in June. This was held at Vestlia Resort in Geilo, and was a great success we will continue with. It was a weekend packed with inspiration and joy of running.

2022

Finally we were back in normal form, with all our distances included in the program and several thousand participants on the starting line! In addition, we had 3 for everyone back on the program on Friday, with a new distance: 3 on wheels. There was a folk festival and running festival on both Friday and Saturday!

BMW OSLO MARATON

@oslomaraton

MONICA
GUTUEN

AMBASSADOR

@oslomaraton

MONICA GUTUEN

AMBASSADOR

MONICA
GUTUEN