Editor Evan ordered the Blog Staff to find Funny Stories from History. Jake found the most intriguing series of events in Olympic history.
By Jake Sonderman
Since the dawn of the ancient Greek city-states, countries have gathered despite differences to compete in an event called the Olympics. The Olympic games discontinued for thousands of years after the fall of the Greek city-states, but they were revitalized in 1896 in Europe. After almost a decade of the Olympics, the United States sought to host these reputable games. So, in 1904, the third Olympic games came to St. Louis, Missouri. This was a landmark Olympics in many ways. It was the year the gold medal was introduced (the silver medal was the highest previously), and American gymnast George Eyser won six medals even though he had a wooden leg (The Atlantic). German-American Frank Kugler won four medals in three different sports, making him the only competitor to ever win medals in three different sports (bleacherreport). Boxing was also introduced at this Olympics. But by far, the most peculiar part of these Olympics was the Olympic marathon.
Today we look to keep our athletes in peak condition and performance. But, in 1904, not so much. The 24-mile course was an entirely dirt road with 100-300 foot hills, and on the day of the race, it was 92 degrees and humid (I put the numbers into a heat-index indicator: it felt like 135 degrees in St. Louis). On top of all of this, James Sullivan, the organizer of the race, decided to put only one water station in the entire race to “purposefully dehydrate” the runners. This was because he had a hypothesis that dehydration would help the runners do better. Because of this, only 14 of the 32 runners finished the race, and the winning time is still the worst in Olympic history by 30 minutes! (AV Club)
The gun fired to begin the race, and Fred Lorz was in the lead. A short way into the race, William Garcia, from California, collapsed after inhaling so much dirt from the unpaved road and passing traffic it blocked his esophagus. He was rushed to the hospital, just in time. If he had continued for even a couple more minutes he would have likely died (Smithsonian).
Two racers had come all the way from South Africa, and they ran barefoot. They were fast and likely would have won if they hadn’t been chased a mile off course by dogs (Quartz).
The only Cuban in this Olympics, Andarin Clervajal, was in the marathon. Upon his arrival in the US, he gambled away all of his money. He hitchhiked and walked from New Orleans to St. Louis. He had not eaten in 40 hours and only had pants and a dress shirt on. He cut his pants and rolled up his sleeves and began the race anyway. On the track through the town, Clervajal saw a tasty lookin’ peach cart, and begged the owners for a couple. When the owners of the cart refused he grabbed one anyway and ran. Farther down the track, Clervajal saw an even TASTIER looking apple orchard. He took a quick stop and ate one of the apples, but the apples were rotten! Clervajal decided to nap it off and then woke up, and continued the race. He finished 4th. (AV Club)
Even though Fred Lorz was leading at the start, Thomas Hicks passed him fairly quickly. Lorz tried to catch up and burned out around halfway through the course. Lucky for him, he hitched a ride on a passing car, and waved at the runners as he passed them. The car broke down a couple miles from the finish line, and from there Lorz continued the race. Lorz ended up crossing the finish line first. He was even awarded the gold medal by Alice Roosevelt! Then, the truth came out–in just minutes. Lorz said he was only joking. (AV Club)
Thomas Hicks, the real leader in the race, found he could not keep going seven miles before the race ended. But his trainers wouldn’t let him give up. They gave him some strychnine (rat poison) and brandy to keep him going. Safe to say this didn’t help, and Hick’s trainers carried him the rest of the way to win him the gold medal. Hicks needed immediate medical attention for his dehydration combined with the rat poison in his system. Though he finished first, he lost eight pounds in the couple hours of the race. (Medium)
*I almost don’t feel the need to include sources for this story because you really can’t make this kind of stuff up.
Sources:
https://bleacherreport.com/articles/1182023-30-greatest-athletes-in-summer-olympic-history
https://www.boredpanda.com/1904-olympic-marathon-st-louis/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=organic
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1904_Summer_Olympics
https://qz.com/758181/the-long-and-bizarre-history-of-the-olympic-marathon/
https://www.avclub.com/the-1904-olympic-marathon-was-the-worst-race-ever-run-1842740808
Funny Stories in History Editor: Evan Spry
The Marathon, what a debacle! You really couldn’t make these stories about it up! The Cuban reminded me of the Hare that raced the tortoise and stopped to nap! Lortz jumping in a car and
an obvious cheat, but running across the finish line , accepting the medal and then “pretending” he was just kidding, . Hmmmmm….
The cheating scandals of future “modern” Olympics have their roots embedded in these early scandals, and are just following tradition of sorts. Not a great, honorable tradition, but a time “honored” one none the less. Thanks for a peek into the Olympic time capsule.
Since then, a USC athlete has won a gold medal at every Olympic Games since 1912. With 309 medals, USC lead all colleges in medal count and, if they competed as a nation, would find themselves in 20th just behind South Korea.
Since I know Ms. Zachik sees / reads aloud every comment, I must also point out that UCLA trails with a measly 254 medals. That is all.