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This Olympian made a FATAL mistake - MrBallen · Crime and Horror

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Today we have two stories about people who finally got
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: to attend an event that they've been working toward for years,
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: but in both cases, actually going to these events would
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: turn out to be.
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: The biggest mistakes of their lives.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: But before we get into today's stories, if you're a
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: fan of the Strange, Dark, and Mysterious delivered in story format,
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• 0:42
  Speaker 1: let's get into our first story called The Evidence. On
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: the morning of November 18th, 2019, 54-year-old detective Muzi Makizi
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  Speaker 1: stood in a long line waiting to get into a
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  Speaker 1: courthouse in Ekapa, South Africa. So Muzi was an investigator
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  Speaker 1: on a very violent robbery case that was finally being
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  Speaker 1: tried today, even though the robbery itself had happened almost
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: six years earlier. Back in 2014, a group of armed
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  Speaker 1: men had stormed into a couple's farmhouse in Ekapa and
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  Speaker 1: brutally beat the couple before making off with a bunch
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  Speaker 1: of electronics and jewelry and weapons.
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  Speaker 2: And other valuables.
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  Speaker 1: And so Muzi and his team had eventually caught and
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  Speaker 1: arrested these criminals, and in fact, they were even able
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  Speaker 1: to recover some of the items that had been stolen.
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  Speaker 1: In fact, now, Muzi had one of those stolen items
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  Speaker 1: with him to present as evidence at today's trial. Muzi
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: had done this kind of court duty plenty of times
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  Speaker 1: in his career, but today, he felt really drained. On
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: top of his trial prep for, you know, this case,
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: he'd also been working other active cases and also mentoring
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: junior detectives. And Muzi was not young and energetic anymore.
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: He was nearing retirement age, and all these obligations were
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: really starting to take a toll on him.
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: But the biggest thing.
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  Speaker 1: That was really exhausting Muzi was this robbery case itself.
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  Speaker 1: It had been an extremely long process, full of an
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: unusual number of delays and complications. It had actually taken
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: so long to bring this to trial that the evidence
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: Muzi was holding, like literally right now, had actually been
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: returned to the victim couple so they could use it
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: until the trial finally happened. So getting this case to
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: this point had been extremely tiring, but Muzi and his
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: team were determined to see it through no matter what,
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: because the criminals that did this, I mean, they were
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: in violent and genuinely needed to be behind bars to
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  Speaker 1: protect the public.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, they'd severely beaten.
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  Speaker 1: This couple to the point where they were hospitalized and
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: it was lucky.
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  Speaker 2: They hadn't been killed.
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: As Muzi entered the courthouse and passed through the court
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  Speaker 1: security checkpoint, he hoped the security guards were appropriately on alert.
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: In his experience, violent offenders like the often had violent friends,
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: especially in Ikepa, where this kind of crime was unfortunately rampant.
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: It wasn't unheard of for criminals or gang members to
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: barge into court proceedings and retaliate against cops or prosecution.
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: But Muzi was able to get through security. You know,
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: there was no suspicious people or any sort of disruptions
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: of any kind. And so Muzi, once through, made his
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: way into the courtroom. And he saw the space was
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: already full. The defense and the jury and prosecutors and
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: judge were all there, And there were members of the
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: public in the gallery. Muzi went over and sat down
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: at the prosecution table and he would remain there until
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  Speaker 1: it was his turn to go up to the judge
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  Speaker 1: and present, which would include, you know, showing this evidence.
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  Speaker 1: As Muzi got settled into a seat and, you know,
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  Speaker 1: put the evidence down in his lap, he turned and
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: sort of gave a quick wave to the prosecutor. a
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: woman named Adelaide Ferreira Watt, who was sitting at the
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  Speaker 1: table as well. She was going over her trial notes.
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  Speaker 1: Muzi had worked with Adelaide before, and they got along
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  Speaker 1: really well together. And she was a total pro, at
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  Speaker 1: least in Muzi's mind. So he knew that, you know,
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  Speaker 1: her being on board meant this case had a really
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  Speaker 1: good chance of getting a conviction. Adelaide waved back at
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  Speaker 1: Muzi and then quickly got back to her notes.
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  Speaker 2: And Muzi took a look around the courtroom and everything
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  Speaker 2: seemed quiet.
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  Speaker 1: And, you know, again, there was no sign of any
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: gang members or criminal friends charging in to cause problems. And,
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: you know, Muzi just hoped it would stay this way
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  Speaker 1: and that the trial would go smoothly and end the
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: way he hoped it would. A few minutes later, and
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: the judge sort of called the court to order and
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  Speaker 1: got the trial started, at which point Adelaide got up
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  Speaker 1: and began to present the case. And at this moment,
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: despite the fact that Muzi had waited almost six years
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: to get to this point, At this moment, when it
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: finally was happening, he just felt this enormous wave of
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: exhaustion sweep over him. He wasn't energized. It was sort
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: of the opposite. It was like relief. And also, the
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: room they were in was pretty hot, and, you know,
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: he was pretty tired. And before long, his eyelids got
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: heavier and heavier, and eventually his head kind of slumped
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: over to the side, and he dozed off.
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: And at first... Everything was fine.
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: You know, for a couple of minutes, Muzi just slept
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  Speaker 1: in the courtroom and.
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: Nobody even noticed or cared. Everything was okay.
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: But then at some point there was this sudden, very
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: loud scraping sound. It was the sound of a bunch
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: of chairs in the courtroom moving across the ground. And
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: it was just very loud and it woke Muzi up,
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: but like really abruptly, he was startled by the sound.
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  Speaker 1: And when he woke up, like in his, you know,
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: sudden jolting awake, he dropped the evidence that he was
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: supposed to be in charge of onto the ground. And
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: so he's, he's getting up, he's getting his bearings, you know,
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  Speaker 1: realizing that it's kind of embarrassing.
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: He was asleep. Did anybody see him?
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: Like what's going on? Everyone's moving around. He sees the
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  Speaker 1: evidence on the ground. So he goes under the table,
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: he scoops the evidence back up. And as he's sitting
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  Speaker 1: back up, he hears this loud, like deafening bang echo
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  Speaker 1: through the courtroom. And he still really doesn't know what's
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  Speaker 1: going on.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, he just woke up. It's sort of chaotic
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: in the room.
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  Speaker 1: And then he hears the scream coming from the side
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  Speaker 1: sort of over to his right. And he turns and
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: he realizes the scream came from the prosecutor, Adelaide. And
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: so Muzi looks over the table and he sees Adelaide
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  Speaker 1: laying on the ground and she's clutching her hip. And
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: her hip is now gushing blood. And so obviously she's
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: been attacked. That loud banging sound he heard was almost
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: certainly a gunshot or an explosion of some kind. And
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: so Muzi immediately is thinking... Clearly, the friends or affiliates
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: of these criminals on trial have stormed the courthouse and
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  Speaker 1: they've attacked us.
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  Speaker 2: They've attacked Adelaide. Are there more shooters here? Are there
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: more attackers in the building?
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: And so Muzi, who again, he's only woken up like
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: 30 seconds ago.
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  Speaker 2: He's still sort of confused.
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  Speaker 1: He begins looking around the courthouse for perpetrators, someone who's attacking, a.
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: Gunman or something.
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  Speaker 1: But all he sees is just the chaos of people
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  Speaker 1: trying to flee the courthouse. and others rushing up to
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  Speaker 1: Adelaide to try to render care. Like there were no perpetrators.
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  Speaker 2: There were no gunmen. There was nothing. It was just chaos.
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  Speaker 1: And so for a second, Muzi is just sitting there,
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  Speaker 1: not really even sure what to do, almost like paralyzed
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  Speaker 1: by shock.
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  Speaker 2: And also, again, he's just woken up.
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  Speaker 1: He's sort of getting his bearings. And then he thinks
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  Speaker 1: of something. You know, he's looking around the courthouse, this
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  Speaker 1: crazy scene. And he realizes that there is no gunman.
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  Speaker 1: There's no perpetrator. There's nobody. There's nothing.
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  Speaker 2: Which can only mean one thing.
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  Speaker 1: So to understand what happened inside of that courtroom, you
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: first have to understand something about South African police procedure.
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: And that is that in South Africa, as in most countries,
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  Speaker 1: after evidence is taken from the scene of a crime,
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: it's examined and determined to be safe and then transferred
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: to an exhibit room until it's time for trial. However,
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: unlike in other parts of the world, In South Africa,
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  Speaker 1: there are exceptions to this procedure. And this trial had
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: taken almost six years to start. And because of that
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: huge time lag, some of the evidence that was recovered
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  Speaker 1: from the robbers' homes had actually been returned to the
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  Speaker 1: victim couple it was taken from. so they could just
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  Speaker 1: use it until the trial finally happened. The couple had
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  Speaker 1: returned that particular evidence to the police that morning, and
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  Speaker 1: Muzi had been charged with bringing that evidence to court
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  Speaker 1: and literally holding that evidence. But Muzi, when he did this,
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  Speaker 1: didn't double-check to make sure this evidence was safe to
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: be in a courtroom. And sometime after Muzi fell asleep
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: in the courtroom, the judge had announced that it was
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: time to take a break.
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: And so the.
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: Scraping of chairs that woke him up was the sound
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: of people getting up to leave. But for Muzi, you know,
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  Speaker 1: it startled him and he sat up really suddenly, you know,
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  Speaker 1: what's going on? And he dropped this evidence onto the ground.
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  Speaker 1: And it would turn out this was like the worst
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: thing that could have possibly happened because this particular evidence
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: was a shotgun. And when Muzi sort of in his panicked,
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  Speaker 1: instinctive state, when he first woke up and he saw
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: the evidence on the ground, He reached down to grab it,
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  Speaker 1: to pick it back up, because he was supposed to
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  Speaker 1: hold this thing for the whole trial and present it.
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: The last thing he needed is people to see that
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: he had fallen asleep and dropped it on the ground.
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: But when he scooped it up, the gun, again, because
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: it had not been reexamined, it would turn out it
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: was still loaded. And so as he scooped it up,
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: he accidentally hit the trigger and fired it, and it
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  Speaker 1: hit Adelaide, severed an artery.
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: And killed her.
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: But Muzi like was so confused by the chaos of
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: the scene that at first he didn't even realize he
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: had fired the gun. He just scooped up the gun,
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: heard the bang and he's like, what's going on here?
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: And it was when he realized there was no gunman
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: that he looked down and he realized the shotgun was
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: aimed right at Adelaide.
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: He must have shot her.
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: Muzi ultimately pled guilty to culpable homicide and negligence, and
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: he was ordered to serve a six-year prison sentence.
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: However, it was suspended.
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: Have you ever wished you could consume the strange, dark,
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• 12:06
  Speaker 1: On the morning of July 14th, 1912, a 21-year-old athlete
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: named Francisco Lazaro stood in his hotel room in Stockholm, Sweden,
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: getting dressed and ready for the day. And he was
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: in Sweden to run the marathon in the Olympics. So
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: a marathon is a race that covers exactly 26.2 miles.
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: And for elite runners, it usually takes them between two
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: and three hours to finish. Lazaro was representing Portugal, and
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: this was actually a really big deal. This was his
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: home country's very first Olympics, which meant Lazaro was one
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: of only a few Portuguese athletes at the Games. And
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: Lazaro believed that out of all of those people, all
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: those other Portuguese athletes, he actually stood the best chance
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: at bringing home an actual medal. So Lazaro had a
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: chance to do something really historic for his country.
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: And realistically, he wasn't even that.
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: Nervous because he knew he was a truly elite, incredible runner.
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: Even though he was just 21 years old, Lazaro had
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: already won three huge marathons in Portugal. So he was
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: already a star back home. But he knew that if
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: he wanted to win on the world stage, he would
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: need to come extremely prepared. So that's exactly what he'd done.
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: You know, he'd trained for months, obviously. He'd also recently
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: gotten a medical exam to confirm that he was very healthy.
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: And he'd even begun thinking about, you know, little ways
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: that he could potentially give himself a boost, like how
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: to fuel, you know, what to put in his body
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: and even what to put on his body. I mean,
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: even the smallest detail, like a shirt that wasn't breathable
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: or eating something that kind of sat heavily in his stomach,
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: could make the difference between winning or losing. Because again,
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: this is like the world's best runners. Any little edge,
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: he was going to take it. So now, Lazaro spent
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: the next hour putting on the very specific clothes that
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: he had selected for this race and also eating a
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: perfectly balanced light meal containing vegetables, carbohydrates and protein, basically
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: exactly what he had mapped out to help him in
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: this race, he'd been warned that it was supposed to
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: be very, very hot today on race day. But Lazaro
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: actually saw this as an advantage because being from Portugal,
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: where it often got much hotter than places like Sweden,
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: Lazaro already knew how to protect himself from the sun
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: and the heat and how to give himself an edge
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: in this weather. And then before he knew it, Lazaro
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: was ready to go and he had left his hotel
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: room he was on his way to the stadium to
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: actually compete in the Olympics. A few hours later, around 1.45 p.m.,
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: Lazaro walked out into the middle of Stockholm's.
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: Massive stadium where the race was going to start.
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: And as race officials directed him and his 67 other
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: competitors to their places at the.
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: Starting line, Lazaro was feeling really confident.
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: In fact, so confident that he called out to a
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: nearby reporter that he was going to be the winner, saying, quote,
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: I win or I die. Now, as Lazaro and the
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: others actually took their spots on the starting line, they
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: were in the direct sunlight and it was just unbelievably hot.
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: I mean, in the shade, it was already 90 degrees.
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: So it was like a sweltering day. But as Lazaro
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: looked up and down the line of the other competitors,
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: he saw everybody else look flushed and they were sweating profusely.
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: They looked not ready to go run 26.2 miles in
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: this heat.
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: They looked overwhelmed. But Lazaro, he was not overwhelmed. He
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: was prepared. In fact, Lazaro wasn't even sweating.
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: As Lazaro stood there waiting for this race to start,
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: he could hear the roar of the thousands of people
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: in the stands. And for a moment, he just stood
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: there taking it all in and just You know, appreciating
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: how special this moment really was. The marathon was a
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: major event in these Olympics. The stadium was completely sold out,
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: and even the king and queen of Stockholm were supposed
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: to be somewhere in the crowd watching this. And as
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: Lazaro stood there, having this moment, sort of taking it
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: all in, he also had this certainty that when this
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: race was finished, all those people in the stadium and
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: around the world, even royalty, would know his name. Just then,
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: he heard the announcer tell the runners to take their marks.
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: Lazaro felt a surge of adrenaline rush through him. A
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: big hush fell over the crowd, and Lazaro and the
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: rest of the racers stopped moving and just tensed, waiting
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: for the signal. A couple of seconds went by, and
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: then bang, the starting gun went off, and Lazaro and
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: everybody else lunged forward. There was a bit of jostling
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: as all the competitors surged off the line, and Lazaro
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: was pushed back towards the middle of the pack, And
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: right off the bat, you know, Lazaro was a little
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: surprised by how quick the overall pace was.
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: But Lazaro still wasn't worried.
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: He'd studied this course extensively, and he knew that he'd
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: have a chance to get out in front of his
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: competitors pretty soon. This marathon route was very flat, but
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: Lazaro was used to competing in Portugal, which had much
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: more mountainous terrain. So he was sure that once the
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: other runners invariably started to get tired, especially from this hot,
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: hot weather, He'd still be feeling fine and he could
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: move out in front. So Lazaro just decided to hang
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: back and wait to make his move as they moved
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: out of the stadium and onto the dirt road beyond.
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: And for the next hour and a half, he stuck
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: to his plan and just kept his pace steady in
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: the back. He knew, you know, at some point people
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: would begin falling off as the heat wore down on
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: them and they got tired and he'd be able to.
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: Make his way up.
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: So he wasn't rushing. He was just waiting, biding his time,
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: staying confident. In fact, as he was sort of keeping
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: his pace in the back, he even was able to
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: give another soundbite to one of the reporters that was
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: on the road, you know, telling her that he was
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: feeling great for the first half of this marathon. Lazaro
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: really felt like he was running the race of his life.
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: It was like.
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: Everything in his training and in his background had prepared
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: him to excel here on the world stage. He was
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: consistently moving past runners, you know, some of whom were
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: really struggling in the heat.
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: Because they clearly weren't used to it.
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: Some had actually stopped running altogether and just put their
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: hands on their knees while others just sat on the ground,
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: unable to get up. So basically everything was playing out
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: exactly the way Lazaro expected it to. He was, you know,
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: making his moves slowly but surely towards the front of
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: the pack.
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: However, as great as this race was.
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: Going for Lazaro, something changed at around the 19 mile mark.
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: He just felt really off. His legs got a a
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: really heavy, just like lead feeling. And a few minutes later,
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: his vision started to get blurry. Lazaro kept on running
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: and told himself he was fine and that this was
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: just late race fatigue kicking in. And for what it's worth,
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: it is pretty common for marathon runners to say that
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: at about the 19 to 20 mile mark, that's sort
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: of the real halfway of the race, not the 13
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: mile mark. The 20 mile mark is where your body
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: really starts to struggle. That last six miles is notoriously brutal.
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: And so he's.
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: Basically saying that like, oh, that's normal. This happens when
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: you hit about 20 miles. And so as Lazaro worked
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: as hard as he could to put one foot in
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: front of the other and just to keep on going,
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: he began telling himself that, you know, this was worth it.
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: At the end of this, there was a stadium packed
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: with people who would be screaming his name and he
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: was still making such great progress. He could still win
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: this race. But then just a little bit later, his
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: legs went from feeling heavy to just completely giving out.
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: and he slammed to the ground, and then his whole
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: body began to convulse. Within the hour at a local hospital,
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: an emergency doctor greeted a crew of Olympic medical staff
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: as they wheeled in a man on a stretcher. They
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: explained that this man was named Francisco Lazaro, and he'd
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: collapsed in the middle of the marathon.
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: And the doctor was really not surprised by this.
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: He knew the Olympic paramedics had been swamped all day,
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: helping other marathon runners who'd gotten sick from this really
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: oppressive heat.
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: However, as soon as.
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: This doctor began specifically examining Lazaro, he knew that this
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: case was different. and was much, much more serious. His
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: other patients that day had all relatively mild symptoms, like
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: sweating and general fatigue and dizziness, which had easily been
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: cured by providing water and cooling them off.
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: But Lazaro, I mean, he.
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: Was twitching and convulsing, and he was shouting deliriously that
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: he'd won the race. So the doctor rushed him into
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: an exam room and took his temperature, and when.
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: He saw it was 106.7 degrees Fahrenheit.
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: He knew this situation was critical. A temperature that high
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: was often fatal. And Lazaro's organs were likely already shutting down.
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: And so the doctor yelled for nurses and other medical
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: staff to bring in some water and some ice. But Lazaro,
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: he did not respond to the hospital's treatments. And as
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: the hours passed by, Lazaro actually got worse. The doctor
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: and his team, they worked through the night treating Lazaro
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: and trying to stabilize him.
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: But the next morning.
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: Lazaro died. After Lazaro's death, that doctor just could not
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: shake the idea that something just felt off about Lazaro's death.
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: I mean, heatstroke can definitely be deadly, and Lazaro had
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: seemed to have a very bad case of heatstroke, but
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: lots of runners had gotten heatstroke during this marathon, and
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: all of them had wound up being fine. So the
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: doctor ultimately decided to run some tests on Lazaro to
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: see if Maybe there was something else that had been
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: going on. Like maybe there was some underlying illness or
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: other factor that was to blame for his death. And
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: when the doctor finally did get those tests back, the
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: results made Lazaro famous. So remember, Lazaro had put a
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: lot of thought into how to prepare for this big race.
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: He trained extremely hard. He ate right. He chose the
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: right clothes, the right shoes. And, critically.
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: he took very specific measures to protect himself from the heat,
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: which he knew was going to be a factor. And
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: at first, it seemed like all the measures he had
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: taken in advance of.
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: This race had paid off.
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: Especially when Lazaro looked down the line at the start,
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: and he saw all the runners were like pouring sweat
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: and flush and just looking horrible. It just seemed like
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: everybody was already exhausted before they had even started.
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: But not Lazaro.
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: He wasn't even sweating because of one of the precautions
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: he had taken. But not sweating in this type of
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: heat was actually a very bad thing. Sweat is the
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: body's way of cooling itself down. So Lazaro's lack of
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: sweat was actually a sign that he was in danger.
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: And it was all thanks to Lazaro's extra, extra strong sunscreen.
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: Because it would turn out, Lazaro was so prepared that
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: he went out and found what he thought would be
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: the best and most powerful sunscreen option ever. It was
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: a substance called suet, which is a type of animal
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: fat that's typically used in cooking or making candles and soap.
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: It's also sometimes used for skincare, since it has a
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: lot of nutrients and is generally good for the skin.
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: And Lazaro believed that because suet is very thick, it
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: would act as a barrier against the intensity of the sun.
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: So he slathered a bunch of suet all over his body.
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: Just before the big race.
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: What he didn't anticipate was that this suet that was
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: now all over him would work too well.
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: It was so thick that it clogged the.
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: Pores in his skin and prevented anything from passing through,
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: even sweat. And without a way to cool itself down,
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: Lazaro's body essentially turned into a furnace, which cooked him
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: from the inside out. The weekend after Lazaro's death, the
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: Olympics held a memorial service for him, and over 20,000
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: people attended to pay tribute to him. And it's probably
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: not quite the type of fame he had hoped for.
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: But Lazaro's name is still frequently referenced today in Portugal.
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: The Portuguese refer to someone who.
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: Looks sick and bedraggled as looking like Lazaro.
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: Hey everyone, just a reminder, I'm going on tour this year,
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: which means if you go, you can experience never-before-heard stories
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: from me live and in person.
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: We did this in 2024 and people loved it.
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: So get your tickets today at tour.ballinstudios.com right now before
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: they sell out.
• 24:40
  Speaker 2: That's tour.ballinstudios.com. I can't wait to see you all at
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: the shows.
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much for watching today's episode. Let me
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: know what you thought of it in the comments below.
• 24:50
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• 24:53
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• 24:57
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• 25:00
  Speaker 1: All right, until next time, see ya.