great moments in olympic history

for a good time, check out the wikipedia page on the 1904 olympics in st louis.

seriously wacky stuff, like that the olympics were supposed to be in chicago, but st louis was having an international exhibition and threatened to have their own sports event if the IOC didn't move the games. the olympics techincally lasted 4 1/2 MONTHS, but really that was all fluff events the fair invented that only had americans competing. the actual olympics was basically a long weekend.

a couple of highlights:

One of the most remarkable athletes was the American gymnast George Eyser, who won six medals even though his left leg was made of wood.

and

the marathon:

# A Cuban postman named Felix Carbajal joined the marathon. He had to run in street clothes that he cut around the legs to make them look like shorts. He stopped off in an orchard en route to have a snack on some apples, which turned out to be rotten. The rotten apples caused him to have to lie down and take a nap. Despite falling ill to apples he finished in fourth place.

# The marathon included the first two black Africans to compete in the Olympics; two Tswana tribesmen named Len Tau (real name: Len Taunyane) and Yamasani (real name: Jan Mashiani). But they weren't there to compete in the Olympics, they were actually the sideshow. They had been brought over by the exposition as part of the Boer War exhibit (both were really students at Orange Free State in South Africa, but this fact was not made known to the public). Len Tau finished ninth and Yamasani came in twelfth. This was a disappointment, as many observers were sure Len Tau could have done better if he had not been chased nearly a mile off course by aggressive dogs.