Tsinghua University has a fine sports tradition, and always regards sports as an important part of cultivating talents, giving full attention to it. From "educating people first, paying equal attention to physique and personality" to "without sports, there would be no Tsinghua", achieving the goal of "working for the health of the motherland for 50 years" has become the pursuit of every Tsinghua people, and sports has gradually become an indispensable part of Tsinghua people's life. Students even jokingly called their alma mater "Wudaokou Sports School".

Long-distance running has always been a distinctive tradition in Tsinghua, and it is also one of the first choices for physical education class and extracurricular physical exercise. Long-distance running exercise can not only strengthen physical fitness, but also exercise students' will quality and give play to the migration value of sports.

Starting from 1928, physical education class, Tsinghua University requires running 1 mile per class (about 1609m). Even in difficult times in The National SouthWest Associated University, physical education class requires students to run 1500m. 1998, Tsinghua University began to take boys' 3000m running and girls' 1500m running as the official assessment items in physical education class, and tested them among all undergraduates of 1 ~ 4 grade.

Since the 20th century, Tsinghua students have started to participate in the annual Beijing International Marathon in addition to the autumn cross-country running, "December 9th" student running and graduation running, and13 of Tsinghua undergraduates have participated in the marathon. In 2005, Tsinghua University set a record for more than 6,000 students to participate in the Beijing International Marathon. Students who have participated in the marathon have said that they have cultivated the spirit and perseverance of challenging themselves, fighting to the end and never giving up through long-distance running.