The very first American Olympics marked itself for its distinction. However, rather than being groundbreaking, this Olympic event was simply bizarre.
August 30th, 1904, Francis Olympic Field
Held during the 1904 World Fair, this marathon was not the spotlight at the event. Primarily due to poor management and planning, this marathon established its reputation due to it’s chaotic events.
While most marathons start in the morning before the sun fully rises, the officials fired the starting gun at 3:03 pm, the peak of American summer heat. Marking the first marathon in America, this was 40 kilometers of running, mostly on dusty off road paths. The officials drove in vehicles in front and behind of the runners, amplifying that dust.
The first person to reach the finish line, Fred Lorz, a bricklayer, had suffered cramps near the first half of the race. He dropped out and was carried back to the stadium, claiming first place as a joke. He was promptly banned from competing again from this, though they vetoed that decision later on.
The actual gold medalist, the professional clown Thomas Hicks nearly passed out from exhaustion. Thankfully however, his trainers fed him a concoction of rat poison, raw egg, and brandy to push him that extra 16 kilometers. By push I mean, his trainers had to physically carry this man over the finish line due to his injured stupor. Hicks lost 8 pounds over the course of the race.
Felix Carvajal was the fourth place finisher, a postman who lost all of his money gambling before the race, and thus had to run in street clothes. He arrived at the last minute, without having eaten anything for 40 hours. He constantly stopped for broken-English banter with spectators, stole a couple peaches from some others, and midway he stopped at an off-road orchard to eat some apples. These turned out to be rotten however, and so Carvajal took a nap, yet still claimed fourth.
Len Taunyane claimed ninth place, despite being chased over 1.5 kilometers off course due to wild dogs. Most believed he would have placed higher however.
Results and Management
Overall only 14 runners actually completed the race. Many suffered extreme injuries due to the mass amount of dust and also dehydration. The Head of Physical Culture Department (but not Pixar protagonist), James Sullivan, decided to test one of his theories, that athletes should not drink water while running. In the dust. In 30°C weather. Despite having the slowest running times, and worst ratio of finishers to entrants, Sullivan still published a book based on his findings. Perhaps it was hubris, yet he ignored the empirical data before him to claim that water was not beneficial. Maybe he would have advocated for rat poison as a hydrating substitute.
Sullivan, also an avid white supremacist, claimed racial superiority stating that white men were clearly better at running. The event was pretty much only made up of white men though.
