Which historic figure inspired the organizers of the modern Olympics during the creation of the marathon race event?

Pheidippides (Greek: Φειδιππίδης) is the central figure in the story that inspired a modern sporting event, the marathon race. Pheidippides is said to have run from Marathon to Athens to deliver news of a military victory against the Persians at the Battle of Marathon.

The traditional story relates that Pheidippides (530–490 BC), an Athenian herald or hemerodrome, was sent to Sparta to request help when the Persians landed at Marathon, Greece. He ran about 240 km (150 mi) in two days. He then ran the 40 km (25 mi) from the battlefield near Marathon to Athens to announce the Greek victory over Persia in the Battle of Marathon (490 BC) with the word νικῶμεν (nikomen "We win!"), as stated by Lucian chairete, nikomen ("hail, we are the winners") and then collapsed and died.

When the modern Olympics began in 1896, the initiators and organizers were looking for a great popularizing event, recalling the glory of ancient Greece. The idea of a marathon race came from Michel Bréal, who wanted the event to feature in the first modern Olympic Games in 1896 in Athens. This idea was heavily supported by Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympics, as well as by the Greeks. It has become a tradition for the men's Olympic marathon to be the last event of the athletics calendar, on the final day of the Olympics.