Marathon Wreath ceremony at the Royal Ontario Museum (October 15, 2019)

For the first time, this year, Greece will be awarding the winners of the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon with wreaths imported from Greece, crafted out of olive branches, which originate from the region of Marathon, and embedded in gold.

The Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon will be celebrating 30 years in 2019, and is one of the few marathon races in North America that has received the “Gold Race Label” from the International Association of Athletics and Federations. The olive branch wreaths will be presented by the Consul General of Greece in Toronto, Victor Maligoudis to two Canadian winners (a male and a female), who will also be qualifying for the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2020.

The wreaths have already arrived in Toronto and have been placed in special cases at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM), which is home to one of the most complete collections of Greek art in North America, with artifacts that date back to prehistoric years, and go all the way to the Byzantine era.

On Tuesday, October 15th at 6 p.m. the wreaths will be presented to the organizers of the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon at a special ceremony at the Royal Ontario Museum. The keynote speaker at the event will be Professor Kostas Bourazelis from the University of Athens who will give a lecture on “Current Research on the Battle of Marathon as a Landmark in History”. The event will also be attended by students from different schools in Toronto, who will be awarded with scholarships after having participated in an essay competition on this subject

This initiative for the presenting of the olive branch wreaths was inspired by a similar ceremony that takes place each year in Boston, U.S. in the context of the historic Marathon. In order to bring this initiative to Toronto, the Consulate General of Greece collaborated with the Hellenic Canadian Academic Association of Ontario (HCAAO), which brings together more than 150 professors of Greek heritage who teach in universities around Ontario. The Marathon initiative is financially supported by the Hellenic Heritage Foundation.

Date and time: Tuesday, October 15th, 6p.m. (doors open at 5:30 p.m.)

Location: Royal Ontario Museum, Signy and Cléophée Eaton Theatre, Level 1B

Tickets: Entry is free, but you must reserve a seat online