In a week’s time, the proud runners finishing the Sydney Marathon will receive a medal showing the landmarks they have just sped past – plus one they definitely didn’t. In what organisers have admitted was an “unfortunate error”, a stadium in Munich, Germany, was erroneously etched on to the event’s participation medal instead of a local Sydney landmark. In an Instagram post on the official Sydney Marathon account earlier this week, revealing the design of the participation medal, runners were told they would “find the story of the course in the details” of the design.
However, one of the “landmarks” on the medal is the Allianz Arena in Munich, Germany, rather than Allianz Stadium in Sydney (which the marathon route passes). The Munich stadium, which opened in 2005 and is home to the Bayern Munich football team, responded in the comments of one: “Oh wow, we didn’t have that on our bingo card!” The reverse of the medal features an indigo and gold design by First Nations artist Ambrose Killian, representing kilometres of the course, and the eight global major marathons. Killian told the BBC he was not involved in the other side of the design.
The marathon will take place on 30 August. In 2025, about 35,000 marathoners from more than 120 countries participated in the event – its first year as a World Marathon major event. Sydney Marathon organisers said it was “a beautiful medal, and now a little more unique”.
In 2012, some of the 23,000 runners in the Edinburgh marathon remarked on the rather phallic profile of their finisher’s award. Earlier this year, the Winter Olympics were plagued by reports of cracking and snapping medals. And in Paris in 2024 the bronze medals were replaced after they quickly discoloured.
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