75th Anniversary of the Death of Spyridon Louis

Spyridon Louis and the Bréal Silver Cup — named after Michel Bréal, who conceived the idea of the modern marathon — set against the Panathenaic Stadium. Running along the inner edge are the issuing state "HELLENIC REPUBLIC" and "75 YEARS IN MEMORY OF SPYROS LOUIS" in Greek. The issue year 2015 appears above the cup, with the palmette of the Greek mint engraved to its right. The monogram of coin designer Georgios Stamatopoulos runs along the lower edge of the design.

Spyridon Louis was a water carrier from the village of Marousi near Athens when, in 1896, he became one of the most famous sporting legends in Greece by winning the first modern Olympic marathon. He covered the roughly 40 kilometres from Marathon to the Panathenaic Stadium in Athens in just under three hours, becoming the only Greek track and field athlete to win at the 1896 home Games. Louis received the winner's trophy donated by the French philologist and originator of the marathon idea, Michel Bréal, as an emblematic testament to his achievement that endures to this day. His triumph came at a time when Greece, after decades of foreign rule, was renegotiating its national identity — the Olympic victory of a simple man of the people contributed to the emergence of a modern Greek national myth that resonates to the present day.

After his victory, Louis withdrew into private life and declined commercial offers. At the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, he appeared as an honoured guest and presented Adolf Hitler with an olive branch — a gesture that is viewed with controversy in hindsight and complicates his image in the culture of remembrance. He died on 26 March 1940 in Marousi. Greece paid him numerous tributes, including the Olympic Stadium in Athens named after him, which was renovated for the 2004 Games. The Hellenic Republic issued a 2-euro commemorative coin in 2015 on the 75th anniversary of Spyros Louis's death, recalling an athlete whose name is inextricably linked to the origins of the modern Olympic movement.