Vanderlei de Lima of Brazil, will be presented with a sportsmanship medal for his "exceptional demonstration of fair play and Olympic values", the IOC said in Athens on August 29.

The Brazilian was pushed off the road with six kilometers to go, by a former Irish priest Cornelius Horan, when he was leading the marathon, the last event of the Athens Olympic Games on Sunday.

"If that spectator didn't jump in front of me in the middle of the race, who knows what would have happened? Maybe I would have won. It disturbed me a lot," said De Lima who eventually finished third to take the bronze.

The award is called the Pierre de Coubertin Medal, named after the founder of the modern Olympic Games.

It was first given in the 1964 Winter Games at Innsbruck to Italian bobsled driver Eugenio Monti. Monti gave his own sled to British Tony Nash who was second behind Monti in the first run but eventually won the race.

Horan was arrested and taken to a police station.

"The man says he is Irish, he is also drunk. He had been to a taverna earlier," police sources said, adding Horan had arrived early on Sunday on a British Airways flight.

Last year, Horan interrupted the British Formula One Grand Prix by running on to the Silverstone track.

Horan, born in 1947, explained to police that he grabbed De Lima to prepare for the second coming of Christ.