Kouros, the Original GOAT

In the world of ultramarathons, one name always comes up when the limits of the human body are being discussed: Yiannis Kouros. “The Running God,” “The Modern Pheidippides,” “The Unstoppable.” The Tripoli native collected nicknames at the same rate he dominated the roads. Over the course of his career, Kouros set more than 160 world records. Put simply, almost every time he raced, it was practically synonymous with a world record. Some of them still stand. Look closely at the distances and the records themselves, and you are dealing with someone out of the ordinary. Even the brilliant Kilian Jornet came up short against one of Kouros’s records when he took it on in 2020. The Spaniard was trying to add the 24-hour track world record to his remarkable list of achievements. Kouros had held it since 1997. Since then, Aleksandr Sorokin has overtaken him in that particular event, covering 319.61 km to Kouros’s 303.506 km.

Legacy and records: numbers that defy time

Mention Kouros and you unleash a dizzying list of performances. At his peak, the Greek athlete held almost every major ultramarathon record, from 100 km races to multi-day events. An exhaustive list would be difficult, given the sheer number of achievements, but these records still stand: 

• – 48 hours on the track: 473.495 km covered in Surgères, France, in May 1996. Need some perspective on that performance? The Greek maintained an average speed of 10 km/h for two days, with virtually no rest. This record could soon be taken away from him: in June, Belgium’s Matthieu Bonne covered 485.099 km in 48 hours at the World Championships in Pabianice, Poland. The new record is awaiting ratification.
  – 1,000 km on the track: 5 days, 16 hours and 17 minutes, set in Australia in 1984
  – 1,000 miles: 10 days, 10 hours and 30 minutes in New York in 1988

Truly monumental numbers. These performances are so demanding that they are rarely attempted today. They require not only extraordinary endurance, but above all a mindset beyond comprehension. Kouros summed it up like this: “When the body collapses, the mind has to take over. Pain is an illusion.” His four victories at the Spartathlon, a 246 km race between Athens and Sparta, earned him the nickname “The Modern Pheidippides” and remain etched in the collective memory. He won every one by a huge margin and in record time, establishing Kouros as the undisputed benchmark for this legendary event. “Running against Kouros meant running for second place,” said one of his rivals, American Joe Fejes, no slouch himself in the discipline, with an impressive record to his name.

Kouros, a tireless poet

Born in Tripoli, Greece, in 1956, Yiannis Kouros was not destined to become one of the greatest runners of his generation. A poet and musician, he first expressed himself through art before turning to running. You can still find traces of his music on his official website. Kouros ran his first marathon at the age of 21 in 1977, recording 2:43:15. His times then continued to improve, reaching 2:25 in 1981. That same year, Yiannis won the Athens Marathon. In 1983, six years after taking up the classic distance, the Greek runner had completed 25 marathons. The machine was up and running. That year, he lined up for the Spartathlon, a 246 km race bringing the ancient legend of Pheidippides back to life. Forty-five runners started. He did not merely win: he obliterated the organisers’ expectations, finishing in 21:53:42. In 1984, he ran it in 20:25. His record stood until 2023, when compatriot Fotis Zisimopoulos finally surpassed it after 40 years of waiting, clocking 19:55:09. After those first landmark performances at the Spartathlon, the victories and records kept coming. But unlike the marathon or mainstream athletics, ultradistance running was still a niche pursuit at the time, and Kouros’s exploits remained largely unknown to the wider public. It hardly mattered. The Greek built an almost mythical reputation, with rivals describing him as “inhuman,” capable of stacking up kilometres with robotic consistency. In Colac, Australia, he set some of his most iconic marks. In New York, he took on the most extreme distances, including the 1,000 miles. Everywhere he went, he dominated. “He ran as if he came from another planet,” recalled Frenchman Jean-Gilles Boussiquet, organiser of the Surgères 48-hour race.

His successors: Sorokin, Bonne and the new generation

Forty years after his first major achievements, Kouros’s legacy remains indelible. But a new generation of ultramarathoners has begun taking aim at it. Among them is the emblematic Aleksandr Sorokin, a former poker player from Lithuania who switched to running. Since 2017, he has accumulated records over 100 km, 12 hours and 24 hours. In 2022, he erased one of Kouros’s “totems,” the 24-hour record, with 319.6 km. “Kouros showed what was possible. Without him, I would not have dared to dream of covering these distances,” Sorokin said in tribute to the Greek after his achievement. In 2024, it was Belgium’s Matthieu Bonne who followed in the giant’s footsteps. A triathlete, he had already made a name for himself through personal challenges, including swimming the English Channel and completing a lap of Belgium by triathlon. In Policoro, Italy, he broke the six-day world record in 2024, passing the symbolic 1,045 km mark. “Breaking a Kouros record is like climbing Everest. You know you will never be the first to do it, but you want to prove that it is still possible,” the Belgian explained after the performance. These new champions openly acknowledge their debt to the master. But their approach is different: where Kouros relied on his mind and instinct, they benefit from modern training, nutrition, monitoring and more. That fundamental difference only adds to the Greek’s aura. Without sensors, GPS tracking or scientific support, he set benchmarks that today’s champions still struggle to surpass. His extreme records, including the 1,000 km and 1,000-mile marks, remain untouched and will probably do so for a long time. As American Scott Jurek, another ultradistance icon, put it: “We all run in Kouros’s shadow.” The shadow of a giant.

Still in great shape at 69, Yiannis Kouros remains an ambassador for his passion, supporting numerous ultramarathons. He still devotes himself to his other passions, music and poetry, because for him, “running is an art. I do not run to win, but to express myself. It is like writing a poem. Every race is a different poem.”

A truly singular human being.