Luvsanlkhündegiin Otgonbayar, is a Mongolia

Mongolia

Mongolia is a landlocked country in East and Central Asia. It is bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south, east and west. Although Mongolia does not share a border with Kazakhstan, its western-most point is only from Kazakhstan's eastern tip. Ulan Bator, the capital and largest...

n athlete. She has represented her country by running the marathon

Marathon

The marathon is a long-distance running event with an official distance of 42.195 kilometres , that is usually run as a road race...

 at competitions such as the 2004 Summer Olympics

Athletics at the 2004 Summer Olympics - Women's Marathon

The Women's Marathon event at the 2004 Summer Olympics took place on August 22, 2004 in the streets of Athens, Greece. World record holder Paula Radcliffe of Great Britain started as favourite for the race, and led from the start. However, she was overtaken by Mizuki Noguchi, from Japan and...

, the 2006 Asian Games

Athletics at the 2006 Asian Games

An Athletics competition was contested at the 2006 Asian Games in Doha, Qatar from December 7 to December 12. Twenty-three events were contested for the men while 22 were on the slate for the women. Only the 3000 Meter Steeplechase was not contested for by the women...

, and the 2007 World Championships

2007 World Championships in Athletics - Women's marathon

The Women's Marathon event at the 2007 World Championships in Athletics took place on 2 September 2007 in the streets of Osaka, Japan.-Medallists:-Abbreviations:*All times shown are in hours:minutes:seconds-Records:-Results:-References:...

.

She achieved a degree of fame during the 2004 Olympics by completing the marathon, with a time 3:48:42, despite having dropped half an hour or more behind all the other competitors. Time

Time (magazine)

Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...

 magazine reported:

By 10 p.m. the race wasn't a race at all, just a solitary Mongolian inching along the track. Otgonbayar, the 22-year-old daughter of camel and sheep herders, didn't so much run into the historic stadium as microshuffle in, with a gait so unhurried that the thousands of cheering spectators could be forgiven for thinking the world had paused or, at the very least, shifted into super slo-mo. [...] Motion doesn't get any more triumphal than the descendants of Genghis Khan racing through the grasslands, in pursuit of the true Olympic spirit.

Similarly to Time, the BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 celebrated Otgonbayar as one of the "unsung heroes" of the Olympics. The Marquette Tribune

Marquette Tribune

The Marquette Tribune is the official student newspaper of Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.-External links:*...

 reported that the "Mongolian Luvsanlkhundeg Otgonbayar limped across the finish line 30 minutes after the second slowest runner" while "the remaining crowd clapped in unison as she approached the final 100 meters on her way to finishing the race." The newspaper suggested that she had thus "followed in the footsteps of Pheidippides

Pheidippides

Pheidippides , hero of Ancient Greece, is the central figure in a story which was the inspiration for a modern sporting event, the marathon.-The story:...

", running the marathon with notable "courage".

Describing her performance, Otgonbayar said:

"The sound of all the clapping from the fans pushed me forward, and I felt like I was running very fast. Even if I finished last, it was all right, because I still finished and many people, even famous people, didn't do that."

Achievements

• All results regarding marathon, unless stated otherwise

  Representing
  2004	Olympic Games Athletics at the 2004 Summer Olympics At the 2004 Summer Olympics, the athletics events were held at the Athens Olympic Stadium from August 18 to August 29, except for the marathons , the race walks , and the shot put...	Athens, Greece	66th	3:48:42 Athletics at the 2004 Summer Olympics - Women's Marathon The Women's Marathon event at the 2004 Summer Olympics took place on August 22, 2004 in the streets of Athens, Greece. World record holder Paula Radcliffe of Great Britain started as favourite for the race, and led from the start. However, she was overtaken by Mizuki Noguchi, from Japan and...

See also

• Pyambuugiin Tuul, another Mongolian athlete who completed an Olympic marathon but finished last
• Abdul Baser Wasiqi
  Abdul Baser Wasiqi
  Abdul Baser Wasiqi is an Afghan athlete.Wasiqi represented Afghanistan at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. He injured his leg before the marathon, but took part nonetheless. He completed the race despite his injury, after limping the whole way, with a time of 4:24:17, well short of his...
  
  , Afghan
  Afghanistan
  Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
  
  Olympic marathoner in 1996, who finished last and constituted his country's entire Olympic team