Ham Kee-yong

Life & Legacy

Ham Kee-yong (Korean: 함기용; 14 November 1930 – 9 November 2022) was a South Korean marathoner, best known as the winner of the 1950 Boston Marathon.
On 19 April 1950, he won the Boston Marathon with a record time of 2:32:39, under coach Sohn Kee-chung, the marathon winner at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. The second and third-place finishers that year, Song Gil-yun (송길윤, 宋吉允; 숭문중학) and Choe Yun-chil (최윤칠, 崔崙七; 연희대학) were also South Koreans. A South Korean male would not win the Boston Marathon again until 2001.
The Korean War broke out on 25 June 1950, so a planned victory celebration did not take place that year. On 18 April 2004, his feat was finally celebrated in his hometown, Chuncheon, with Ham in attendance.