Sports History Forum awarded Heritage Plaque for preservation of running history.

Oct 2025 : The Sports History Forum, Berlin, was awarded the World Athletics Heritage Plaque in the Culture Category on Tuesday 30th September for documenting and preserving athletics and running history since 1954.

The history of the Sports History Forum began with the founding of the Friends of Athletics (Willy-Kohlmey-Kreis) in West Berlin in 1954. The Forum, which incorporates the “AIMS Marathon – Museum of Running”, is based in the “Haus des Deutschen Sports” (House of German Sports) in the Olympic Park Berlin, which houses its collections including an image archive and the late David Martin’s extensive marathon library from the USA.

World Athletics President Sebastian Coe said: “With the award of the World Athletics Heritage Plaque we are delighted to recognise over 70 years of work by the Sports History Forum in Berlin, which has been methodically researching, preserving and promoting the history of running”. The Forum, which is led by its President Gerd Steins, has been supported by many passionate enthusiasts including Horst Milde, Martina Behrendt, Thomas Willaschek and Dagmar Beer, and continues to make an invaluable contribution to the chronicling of our sports history.

“Our thanks also go to the Association of International Marathons and Distance Races (AIMS), which has provided support to the Sports History Forum since 2008. The ‘AIMS Marathon – Museum of Running’, also known as ‘Marathoneum’, is maintained by the Forum and contains countless running treasures, including a mile marker from the 1908 London Olympic Games at which the current marathon distance of 26 miles, 385 yards was first run”.

President of the Sports History Forum Gerd Steins commented: “My colleagues and I are delighted to have been awarded the Heritage Plaque, which will spur us on to further efforts for the Marathon Museum in Berlin. We would like to thank everyone in Germany and abroad who has supported the Marathon Museum since 1994 with many objects, advice, assistance and donations. Without these many years of tremendous help, the Marathoneum would not have been possible, and we ask that you continue to support our Marathon Museum in Berlin”.

The World Athletics Plaque, which honours the long-standing work of the Sports History Forum and its founder, the Willy Kohlmey Circle, was presented on Tuesday by World Athletics Archive & Museum Manager Pierre-Jean Vazel. The occasion was at the end of the first day of a three-day conference organised by the Sports History Forum concerning German sports museums, archives and collections.

The World Athletics Heritage Plaque will be permanently displayed in the colonnade at the atrium in the “Haus des Deutschen Sports”.

Team Maverick