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OLYMPIC ODDITIES
********************
Faster,higher,stronger,well,usually.
An American Indian athlete,Jim Thorpe,won the decathlon and the
pentathlon in the Swedish games of 1912.The King of Sweden presented
him with his gold medal with the words," Mr Thorpe,you are surely the
greatest athlete in the world ".Slightly shorter on grammar than
athletic ability he replied," Thanks King ".
Strict prohibition laws were bent in Los Angles in 1932 to allow the
French to have wine with their meals.Their dormitory was also the
busiest in the place.
In the Moscow games of 1980,javelin competitiors compained that every
time the Russian athletes were to take their throws,huge doors were
opened at the end of the stadium to allow their javelins to go
further.
Down the years several events have been dropped from the Olympics,
including golf,lacrosse,tug of war,croquet and cricket.One of the
lesser known sports to be dropped was " Plunge for Distance ",which
involved competitiors diving as deep as they could below the water.
Fatalities put an end to it.
Scots swimmer David Wilkie who won gold in Montreal in 1976,had his
training interupted when his coach fell in the pool.Wilkie had to save
him as he couldn`t swim.
Fred Lorz,an American winner of the marathon in St Louis in 1904 was
disqualified when fellow competitors reported him for riding part of
the way on the tailboard of a passing lorry.
Stockholm sweltered in blazing sunshine on marathon day in 1912 and
more than half of the runners dropped out.One,Shizo Kanakuri of Japan,
swore that he`d return to the city and finish his race.He did.In 1967,
giving him a total time of 54 years 8 months 6 days 8 hours and 32
minutes.
Aptly named Swedish runner Enst Fast,got lost in the streets of Paris
in 1900.He asked a policeman for directions but was sent the wrong
way.The policeman felt so bad about it that he later committed
suicide.
In 1932 the Brazilians were so short of money that they sent tons of
coffee along with the competitors on the boat with instructions for
them to sell it when they got to Los Angeles.Unfortunately they could
only flog enough for 24 competitors to join the games,the rest stayed
on the boat.
Finally,a man born for his job in Atlanta `96 is the chemist in charge
of drug testing.His name is Dr.Barry Sample.
It`s a funny old game.