Portugal's Rosa Mota has the distinction of becoming not just the first ever women's marathon champion at the European Athletics Championships but the first winner of a women's marathon in any major championships.
And after winning gold in the fitting setting of the Panathenaic Stadium in Athens 1982, Mota went on to defend her title in 1986 and 1990 and remains the only athlete - male or female - to have won three European marathon titles.
In the lead-up to Birmingham 2026 from 10-16 August, we are taking a look back at 26 classic moments from the European Athletics Championships, including Rosa Mota’s unparalleled marathon hat-trick.
The background
When the women’s marathon was introduced to the major championships programme at the 1982 European Athletics Championships in Athens, only six women had broken the 2:30-barrier for the marathon.
This modest list did not include Rosa Mota who had never even contested a marathon, nor was she seriously considering the daunting prospect of tackling the notoriously undulating classic Marathon to Athens course during the near-height of the Greek summer.
"I didn’t even want to take part in the race," recalled Mota who had finished a distant 12th and half-a-lap behind the winner Svetlana Ulmasova in the 3000m final just three days earlier.
"Even in training I had never run further than 20 kilometres. It was my coach who convinced me that I had a chance here. He told me that with the heat I would be more at ease than most of my rivals. I was afraid during the first part of the race and until the 15th kilometre I was at the back of the field.
"Then, when I realised I would finish, I started to get more confident and accelerated," she added.
What happened?
The reluctant marathon runner ended up winning the title in wholly unexpected circumstances, catching up with the leaders before pulling away in the final mile from Italy’s Laura Fogli and Norway’s future world record-holder Ingrid Kristiansen to win in 2:36:04, becoming the first ever winner of a women’s marathon at a major championships.
In doing so, Mota also saved her country’s blushes as she won Portugal’s only medal in Athens 1982 but even her federation had their reservations about allowing Mota to contest the marathon.
"The marathon was not a normal distance in Portugal. Only a few men ever ran it, and it was at the end of their careers, as a way to say goodbye to track and field. It was supposed to kill athletes," said her coach and partner Jose Pedrosa.
In the ensuing four years, Mota had ascended from an unknown to one of the world’s best marathon runners. She dominated the 1986 European Athletics Championships in Stuttgart in gun-to-tape fashion, beating Fogli for the title again but this time by over four minutes.
Mota’s reputation as the world’s best championship racer would be embellished significantly in the next two years. She won the world title in Rome in 1987 by more than seven minutes - by far the biggest winning margin in World Athletics Championships history - before completing the full set of titles with Olympic gold in 1988, becoming the first Portuguese woman to win an Olympic title in any sport.
Mota duly won her third European title in 1990 but rather than being a procession, she prevailed in a race of guts and attrition against the little-known Soviet Valentina Yegorova, who would succeed Mota as Olympic champion in 1992.
Having set off at an ambitious pace on an undulating lapped course in Split, Mota’s lead of almost two minutes at the halfway point dwindled significantly to the extent Yegorova caught up and moved alongside the tiring two-time champion in the latter stages, threatening to cause the upset.
But digging deep into her reserves, a grimacing Mota applied the pressure again and manufactured a small - but by no means decisive lead - on the Soviet by the time they entered the Poljud Stadium. Mota glanced anxiously and repeatedly over her shoulder as Yegorova loomed, eventually crossing the finish-line in a weary 2:31:27 with a determined Yegorova just five seconds in arrears and providing a glimpse of what would follow in Barcelona two years later.
"In her life, Rosa Mota has come into the stadium four times to collect gold medals but I bet she has never been so relieved to see the stadium," said 1974 European 5000m champion-turned commentator Brendan Foster in commentary for the BBC.
The aftermath…
Mota’s victory at the 1990 European Athletics Championships marked a final hurrah in terms of championship racing. Mota won the 1991 London Marathon but stomach pains caused her to drop out of the marathon at the 1991 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo before injury prevented her from defending her Olympic title in 1992.
But Mota paved the way for future Portuguese distance greats to leave their mark. Manuela Machado ensured the European marathon title would remain in Portuguese hands by winning back-to-back titles in 1994 and 1998 while on the track, Fernanda Ribeiro emulated Mota by winning all three major titles over 10,000m between 1994 and 1996.
Portugal also enjoyed an excellent run of success in the senior women’s race at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships, winning the team title on eight occasions between 1998 and 2010 when the likes of Jessica Augusto, Sara Moreira and Dulce Felix - all of whom won European senior titles at various junctures of their respective careers - were all at the forefront of their ranks.
However, Mota’s national marathon record of 2:23:29 withstood not just this second golden generation of Portuguese distance running greats but still endures even in an era of carbon-plated super shoes more than 40 years after she set that time in the 1985 Chicago Marathon.
And even in retirement, Mota is breaking records. As recently as 2024, Mota clocked a remarkable 38:25 for 10km to shatter her very own world V65 record.
"I never stopped loving this sport. I still wake up every day excited to run, to challenge myself, and to show others that age is not a limit - it’s an opportunity," said Mota.
