Latest / Crime and Horror / This Olympian made a FATAL mistake - MrBallen

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