by Orrin Konheim

Created on: December 24, 2008   Last Updated: December 25, 2008

Some of the more obscure and lesser-known moments in Olympic history:

1904 St. Louis Olympics, Marathon: Marathons traditionally have been the hardest events to account for but none have turned out more disastrously than the 1904 Olympic marathon. Evidence suggests the organizers of the race knew almost nothing about staging such an event. The course was run along 7 hills on dusty roads, made dustier by automobiles, made worse by the fact that it was scheduled in motivating in 90 degree heat. also, no water fountains. Only 14 of 32 starters made it back to the line. No one even noticed that the winner Fred Lorz, hitchhiked 12 miles of the race until well after he had gotten his medal and photo-op with first lady Alice Roosovelt. The winner was a guy who collapsed at the halfway point, where his handlers administered him a mix of raw eggs and something called stretching sulfate. A few miles later when he was appearing to collapse they give him more of the solution as well as brandy. Today this would be illegal. The best story of the day was a Cuban mail carrier who had absolutely no idea what he was doing, he was dressed improperly for the race in pants and "street shoes", stopped on multiple occasions to talk to bystanders and practice his English and discuss the progress of the race, he also raided an apple orchard when he was hungry and got attacked by a dog. Incredibly, he finished 4th!

1500 meter swim, 1896 summer Olympics Athens: The organizers decided to hold the Olympics in the open waters of the Mediterranean sea with 12-foot waves in extreme cold water, and the three small boats which took them out to the sea left them off and "left them at the mercy of the sea" according to the gold medal winner. In his account, the gold medal winner recounts that he basically was swimming not to get a gold medal but because he was very afraid he was going to die. Talk about finding the right motivation!

10,000 meter cross-country race, 1924 Paris Olympics:

Thirty-eight runners started a 10,000 meter cross-country race of which only 15 finished. The race course was unusually difficult with narrow stone paths, knee-high grassfields and weeds, but the race was run too close to an energy plant that was breeding out poisonous fumes. The winner Paavo Nurmi who was one of the best Olympic champions of all time, with something like 8 or 9 gold medals to his name over 8 years. He was enough of a badass that he got by unscathed. Well after Nurmi crossed the line (nearly 2 minutes passed until the 2nd place finisher came in, and well after that) athletes staggered onto the track dizzy and disoriented. The previous day's 10,000 medalist Sergio Aguillar of Spain his his head on a marker and collapsed. Reed Sewell of Great Britain went the wrong way and when directed in the right direction, he turned around and collided with another runner....On the roads there were even worse scenes of carnage on the roads as runners were scene vomiting and overcome by sunstroke (it was run on one of the hottest days on record), and the Red Cross took hours searching for all the runners on the side of the road.

Luge, 1964 Innsbruck Olympics:

The dangerous sport of luge in which athletes shoot down an icy track at 80+ miles an hour had its debut in 1964 but all didn't go as planned, as a British luger Kazimierez Kay-Skyszpeski careened right off the track and died during a training run. How secure do you think the rest of the luging competition felt when the Olympics started?

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