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The 1904 St. Louis Marathon Was Absolutely Bonkers · Ridiculous History

0:00
Speaker 1: Ridiculous History is a production of I Heart Radio. Welcome
0:27
Speaker 1: back to the show Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always
0:31
Speaker 1: so much for tuning in before we begin this marathon.
0:35
Speaker 1: Let's give it up for the man, the myth, the legend,
0:38
Speaker 1: the one and only super producer, Mr Max Williams. They
0:43
Speaker 1: called me Ben, our good friend, rider die better half
0:47
Speaker 1: of the show. Mr Noel Brown is returning very soon
0:52
Speaker 1: and sends his regards. In the meantime, we have a
0:58
Speaker 1: special event here in today's episode. We are talking Olympics.
1:05
Speaker 1: We are talking the history, what went right, what went wrong?
1:09
Speaker 1: We're drilling down into something specific and ridiculous. We're not
1:14
Speaker 1: doing this alone. Uh. Fellow Ridiculous Historians, please join me
1:20
Speaker 1: in welcoming our special guest, a world renowned expert on
1:26
Speaker 1: the four Olympics, Mr Max Williams. By how do how do?
1:47
Speaker 1: How do? How do I am here? Yes, astute, astute historians.
1:53
Speaker 1: You may recognize this voice. This is the guy who
1:58
Speaker 1: produces this show. This is also the guy who helms
2:03
Speaker 1: some notable episodes of one of my favorite podcasts, of Femeral.
2:08
Speaker 1: Uh Max, can you tell? Can tell any of the
2:12
Speaker 1: uninitiated a little bit about ephemeral. Yeah, Femeral is a
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Speaker 1: story where we kind of just trying to dig into,
2:19
Speaker 1: you know, stories that aren't told enough. So Femeral its
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Speaker 1: definition kind of means this is a bad s scribing
2:25
Speaker 1: of it. But um like things that are lost or
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Speaker 1: or easy to be lost. So easiest direct comparison would
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Speaker 1: be like fleeting. So what we try to do is
2:37
Speaker 1: gifts stories that could be fleeting or easily lost to
2:39
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2:43
Speaker 1: is the bed of podcasting is it's you know, in
2:46
Speaker 1: its digital form, it is easy to be up. But
2:48
Speaker 1: then you know that brings up a whole other debate
2:50
Speaker 1: about how ephemeral our podcast We don't know that yet.
2:53
Speaker 1: We are still in the early stages of the life
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Speaker 1: cycle of podcasts, so we won't know that for a while.
2:59
Speaker 1: So full disclosure, folks. Uh, Noel and I both play
3:06
Speaker 1: a little bit of a role in the show of Femeral.
3:10
Speaker 1: I think it is fascinating, uh, and I think he
3:15
Speaker 1: nailed the definition max. Uh. If you if you have
3:20
Speaker 1: ever parted by yourself and asked whether a fart that
3:26
Speaker 1: no one hears is natural part these are the questions
3:31
Speaker 1: ephemeral tackles, as well as additional Max, You're shaking your head,
3:37
Speaker 1: as well as questions about things like the fascinating film
3:45
Speaker 1: Carnival of Souls, as well as things like the um
3:51
Speaker 1: oh gosh, the evolution and dissolution of so many, so
3:58
Speaker 1: many errors pop culture, Like, Max, can you tell everybody
4:03
Speaker 1: a little bit, a little bit more about specific episodes
4:06
Speaker 1: that are close to your heart. Yeah, so like some
4:08
Speaker 1: of the ones I've worked on in the last year plus.
4:10
Speaker 1: I did uh an episode about her Carvey, which is
4:13
Speaker 1: a dive into he was obviously the director of Carnival
4:15
Speaker 1: Soul is one of your favorite movies. Ben. He has
4:17
Speaker 1: a career uh similar to like George Romero, where it
4:20
Speaker 1: wasn't like he was a director and doing all stuff.
4:23
Speaker 1: He made educational films for this company called Centron, located
4:26
Speaker 1: out of Oklahoma. So it's kind of an interesting tale
4:30
Speaker 1: of like this guy who made educational films, then made
4:32
Speaker 1: this one movie, and then went back and made educational
4:35
Speaker 1: films again. So it was It's it's cool because not
4:37
Speaker 1: a lot of his work is known. Um, that was
4:39
Speaker 1: my first one. We did one about like, you know,
4:41
Speaker 1: the evolution of trash, which he wouldn't think is that
4:44
Speaker 1: infemeral thing, but it's really changed its whole consumerism trash thing.
4:48
Speaker 1: But then most recently I worked on I call It,
4:52
Speaker 1: a two and a half part series about the history
4:54
Speaker 1: of video games, which was my favorite. That's that that
4:58
Speaker 1: that that's like my child to me, honestly at this point.
5:02
Speaker 1: Now Max broke his heart for some of this stuff, folks.
5:05
Speaker 1: And when you check out these episodes that Max and
5:10
Speaker 1: I have have described to you in brief, you will
5:14
Speaker 1: understand there's, uh, there's a marathon here. Uh and Ephemeral
5:21
Speaker 1: again is one of my absolute favorite shows. I don't
5:25
Speaker 1: say this lightly. So we are very very fortunate to
5:30
Speaker 1: have to have Max Filly not just double duty, not
5:35
Speaker 1: just superproducer, not just hosts, not just guest host uh,
5:40
Speaker 1: but also research associate here because Max, you have been
5:47
Speaker 1: researching a marathon and it's not it's not um, you know,
5:53
Speaker 1: it's not an editing marathon. It's not it's not a
5:58
Speaker 1: late night sound cute marathon. It's an actual marathon that
6:05
Speaker 1: took place in nineteen o four. What's going on? Man?
6:09
Speaker 1: What what caught you about this story? So funny story.
6:12
Speaker 1: We actually have these like monthly or bi monthly pitch
6:16
Speaker 1: meetings we do. It's so it's you me, Noel, Jeff Bartlett,
6:19
Speaker 1: and Zach Williams are lovely researcher socialists. And we were
6:22
Speaker 1: all sitting down on the most recent one and I
6:25
Speaker 1: had a list of there's a couple of like quick ones,
6:27
Speaker 1: and I was like, yeah, this nineteen o four one.
6:29
Speaker 1: This seems like this seems like something we would have done.
6:31
Speaker 1: And we start off the meeting and Noel opens up mouth,
6:34
Speaker 1: I can't believe we haven't done this story yet, guys,
6:36
Speaker 1: but I can't find it record it. Have you guys
6:37
Speaker 1: heard of this thing called the nineteen o Full Marathon?
6:40
Speaker 1: And I just read at him, like, like you thieve
6:43
Speaker 1: you stole that from me? Obviously you did not steal
6:46
Speaker 1: it from you. I think we're probably looking at similar sources.
6:48
Speaker 1: But yeah, the nineteen o four Olympics, I mean, again,
6:52
Speaker 1: this is really early on in modern Olympic history, Like yeah, yeah, um,
7:00
Speaker 1: they were not a very normal Olympics, so like there
7:04
Speaker 1: was a lot of things happening. I mean, first and foremost,
7:07
Speaker 1: the Olympics was tied directly with the World's Fair, which
7:11
Speaker 1: was celebrating the one year anniversary of the Louisiana purchase.
7:15
Speaker 1: So there was some weird timeline things. There was some
7:18
Speaker 1: other weird things we'll get to as well, which are
7:21
Speaker 1: definitely not good. Um yeah, I mean there was some
7:25
Speaker 1: great moments, like there was this guy named Georgia iSER
7:28
Speaker 1: who earned six medals, three of them gold, which is
7:30
Speaker 1: very impressive concerning he had a wooden leg. Oh put
7:34
Speaker 1: the sound cue in. Yeah, but there was some parts
7:52
Speaker 1: of this Olympics that were not as good, such as
7:56
Speaker 1: the Anthropology Days. Love it next, tell everybody what the
8:02
Speaker 1: Anthropology Days was. Uh, this really super racist thing they
8:07
Speaker 1: did from white people and enjoy to really break it
8:09
Speaker 1: down more so, they would recruit a group of savages
8:14
Speaker 1: the air quotes are doing heavy work. They're too uh
8:18
Speaker 1: compete in this international village showing all the different you know,
8:23
Speaker 1: people of the world. I guess that's what they were
8:26
Speaker 1: trying to when they would have them do these terrible
8:28
Speaker 1: competitions like grease, pole climbing, ethnic dancing whatever that means,
8:33
Speaker 1: and mudslinging, and it was pretty much primarily for entertainment.
8:39
Speaker 1: So yeah, as you can see, these Olympics were weird.
8:41
Speaker 1: They're not what you would think of as like we
8:44
Speaker 1: did with you know, the most recent Beijing Olympics or
8:48
Speaker 1: the Olympics, they're not to that level yet. But the
8:52
Speaker 1: weirdest thing, or at least the most famous weirdest thing,
8:55
Speaker 1: and this thing was the marathon, which is a super
9:00
Speaker 1: ancient part of the Olympics. The idea of yeah, the
9:04
Speaker 1: idea of basically running your butt off, and that's it.
9:12
Speaker 1: That's what like. The marathon is not necessarily a team sport.
9:18
Speaker 1: It's one individual going very far on foot. That's the
9:24
Speaker 1: concept of the marathon. We can, we can play a
9:28
Speaker 1: little bit with the history of it. But what you
9:31
Speaker 1: need to know, folks, is that in four as as
9:37
Speaker 1: Max just described, in St. Louis or St. Louis, however
9:43
Speaker 1: you feel, uh, the the idea of holding these ancient
9:50
Speaker 1: Olympic sports was seen as a kind of mark of authenticity.
9:56
Speaker 1: So in the in the marathon, there's this concept of acknowledging,
10:07
Speaker 1: paying tribute to the old, old story of the original marathon,
10:13
Speaker 1: which is messed up on its own, it's super messed up.
10:17
Speaker 1: But the thing is with this, the reason Max, you
10:23
Speaker 1: and I are talking about it now is that from
10:28
Speaker 1: the beginning, this thing was not necessarily what you would
10:34
Speaker 1: picture as a quote unquote honest sporting event. It was,
10:41
Speaker 1: as Karen Abbott puts it writing for Smithsonian, it's kind
10:47
Speaker 1: of a side show. That might be the nicest way
10:50
Speaker 1: to discover it was a sideshow. Um, it was a disaster.
10:53
Speaker 1: So I have two things I want to preface with
10:56
Speaker 1: before we really dive into this. So the first one
10:58
Speaker 1: is no one died, and it's really important. We're gonna
11:02
Speaker 1: we're gonna have some fun with this one, and we
11:04
Speaker 1: want to start with that that nobody died during this.
11:06
Speaker 1: The reason why I bring that up is I reached
11:08
Speaker 1: out to a friend of mine who a little backstory
11:11
Speaker 1: is my friend Vic. He was born and grew up
11:13
Speaker 1: in the St. Louis area. He went to college at
11:16
Speaker 1: Tulane in Louisiana, New Orleans area, and now he lives
11:19
Speaker 1: in Atlanta. So he knows humidity. I was asking about this,
11:22
Speaker 1: and when I was telling about this race, he goes,
11:25
Speaker 1: he also used to run marathons. He's running like the
11:27
Speaker 1: Boston Oh, he he almost made the Boston Marathon a
11:30
Speaker 1: couple times. He's running like Atlanta Marathon. He's run a
11:32
Speaker 1: bunch of marathons in his life. Um, he gets it. Completely.
11:37
Speaker 1: And his first response was did someone die doing this?
11:41
Speaker 1: And I know, by a miracle no one died doing this.
11:43
Speaker 1: But I asked him about, like what the weather in
11:46
Speaker 1: around August in St. Louis's and he told me something
11:49
Speaker 1: about that. But I'll piece that in later in this
11:52
Speaker 1: But I think at first we should kind of look
11:54
Speaker 1: at the field of people competing in this event. So
11:58
Speaker 1: there was thirty two runners, and there were some legit runners,
12:01
Speaker 1: and there's some people who had competed in the Boston
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Speaker 1: Marathon or another Olympic events. But this is where that
12:07
Speaker 1: whole Anthropology Games thing feast. And they were also just
12:11
Speaker 1: kind of grabbing some people who are representing their countries
12:14
Speaker 1: at the Anthropology Games and making them run this god
12:20
Speaker 1: awful race. God awful is not a bad term for this, Max. Uh.
12:25
Speaker 1: There are there are people, as you said, who placed
12:30
Speaker 1: in earlier Olympics, right, But most of the folks are
12:35
Speaker 1: kind of I would say, publicity hires. They're like, if
12:41
Speaker 1: you look at the roster, then you can immediately see
12:46
Speaker 1: that there are a lot of folks who have placed
12:49
Speaker 1: in middle distance running we call it, which is uh
12:55
Speaker 1: okay to lay it out very simply, there's this, Brent, right,
13:01
Speaker 1: go as fast as you can for a short distance.
13:04
Speaker 1: There's the middle distance runners, and then there's the marathon.
13:10
Speaker 1: And to put in something that the sprint, it's like
13:11
Speaker 1: a hundred meters. Um Like the middle distance might be
13:15
Speaker 1: like one mile, which is not converted to meters very well,
13:20
Speaker 1: but we're gonna go with like five miles. A marathon
13:23
Speaker 1: is like twenty right, right, And so the majority of
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Speaker 1: people involved in this in nineteen o four, in this
13:33
Speaker 1: marathon are really good at a hundred a hundred meters
13:39
Speaker 1: where they're really good at a at a small collection
13:44
Speaker 1: of miles, and they are they're they're additionally considered um oh,
13:52
Speaker 1: how should we say it? Oddities like oh look at this,
13:56
Speaker 1: Look at this America, here's somebody running. We have to
14:01
Speaker 1: let's you know what, let's do a little sports center thing.
14:06
Speaker 1: Can we sound cue that real quickly? Sound don very sarcastically.
14:15
Speaker 1: So here we go. Uh so, Max and I are
14:19
Speaker 1: making sure we don't get sued, but we're going into
14:23
Speaker 1: the scene as ninety No. Four sports center commentators. All right,
14:29
Speaker 1: here we go. Now what you're here with? Max y
14:39
Speaker 1: O Williams lead American Commentito Nino for marathon and them
14:45
Speaker 1: big natural who dos the talk competitors? Yeah, oh man,
14:53
Speaker 1: I see San Miller as one of my favorite stuff
14:56
Speaker 1: for a L. Newton, do not doubt him at all.
15:00
Speaker 1: We have John Lorded, Michael Sprigge and of course Mr
15:03
Speaker 1: Thomas hes guy think he has good fortner. But I
15:05
Speaker 1: will have someone who should not look over. He's a bricklayer.
15:09
Speaker 1: He is earning his Olympic spot after qualifying in a
15:13
Speaker 1: five bile specially that is Mr Fred Laws Fred Loris
15:17
Speaker 1: us are my favorites in this race. Who do you have,
15:19
Speaker 1: Mr Ben where it appears that we are on the
15:22
Speaker 1: same page of the same mind, Mr Maxwell, who calls,
15:26
Speaker 1: of course you cannot speak of you cannot speak of
15:32
Speaker 1: a Saint Louis Marathon without speaking of Fred Lows the
15:36
Speaker 1: Underdome sponsored by the Amicure Athletic Union. Now I understand
15:43
Speaker 1: we have some ordergies here. Oh that's the other given
15:46
Speaker 1: a terrible term even at this point in time. But
15:49
Speaker 1: we have ten people Frown Greece competing in this race.
15:53
Speaker 1: They are not named, by the way, but we also
15:55
Speaker 1: have two men from the Sinner tribe and we did
15:58
Speaker 1: not get them shoes. They are running Airputa. But my
16:01
Speaker 1: favorite of all these is the Cuban national and for
16:13
Speaker 1: you worked on that, okay and seen, so it's right
16:20
Speaker 1: though it's all accurate. This this happened. Uh. The the
16:24
Speaker 1: idea of oddities is already you know, ages like milk Uh.
16:32
Speaker 1: This guy Felix, he uh, he has a lot in
16:37
Speaker 1: common with some of the folks we talked about in
16:41
Speaker 1: our earlier episode on Puerto Rico Nationals going to the Olympics.
16:47
Speaker 1: He is raising money and he goes to the US
16:54
Speaker 1: based entirely upon the fact that he is very good
17:01
Speaker 1: and like this guy ran across Cuba, he got to
17:08
Speaker 1: New Orleans and what happened next? Ah, So he got
17:12
Speaker 1: to New Orleans. He had raised all this money to
17:13
Speaker 1: get in the competition, and you know, he's having fun.
17:17
Speaker 1: New Orleans is a fun stady. I'm assuming it wasn't
17:19
Speaker 1: nineteen o four, still too um and he ended up
17:23
Speaker 1: losing all of his money in a dice game. So
17:25
Speaker 1: now he's in this foreign country, has no money, has
17:29
Speaker 1: to get St. Louis, so he hitchhikes and walks all
17:32
Speaker 1: the way there. So he shows up at this marathon.
17:37
Speaker 1: He's also by the way, he's five ft tall. He's
17:39
Speaker 1: a very short guy. Yeah five full stop, not five
17:43
Speaker 1: sixs not five to not five and in like a
17:47
Speaker 1: third of an and no five ft tall. And he's
17:50
Speaker 1: wearing a white longsleeve shirt, dark pants, a beret and
17:56
Speaker 1: street shoes. It's actually it's funny because one of the
17:58
Speaker 1: other Olympians looked like the bad for the guy and
18:01
Speaker 1: found some scissors and cut is. It's in the cutoffs
18:03
Speaker 1: form of his pants, because it's like, dude, you're not
18:06
Speaker 1: seriously about to run this marathon, a marathon in full pants.
18:12
Speaker 1: I gotta air out the feet, gotta get some ventilation.
18:23
Speaker 1: Here we go. It's August. It's not three pm. It's
18:30
Speaker 1: three oh three pm. And a guy named David R. Francis,
18:36
Speaker 1: who is president of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Company, which
18:42
Speaker 1: he does the equivalent of throwing the starting pitch, right,
18:47
Speaker 1: He fires the starting pistol and off they go in
18:53
Speaker 1: the worst weather ever. Right. So this is why I
18:56
Speaker 1: reached out with my friend Vic. Initially, I was like, hey, Vick,
18:59
Speaker 1: we have terrible weather here in Atlanta. It is so
19:01
Speaker 1: sinking hot during the summer. How does that match up
19:04
Speaker 1: with St. Louis Around this time here he goes, so
19:07
Speaker 1: like May, in June St. Louis's humidity is not as
19:10
Speaker 1: bad as Atlantis, but in July and August, oh, it's
19:13
Speaker 1: like unlivable. So it's like it's like it's ninety degrees
19:18
Speaker 1: with ninety percent humidity outside. It is just awful. And
19:22
Speaker 1: we have to talk about this course. So it wasn't
19:24
Speaker 1: just bad but like like bad weather, this course is horrendous,
19:28
Speaker 1: just so god awful. It's twenty four eight five miles,
19:33
Speaker 1: that's the length, but it's not really in actual course.
19:38
Speaker 1: It's just like they're running just kind of through like
19:41
Speaker 1: the roads of St. Louis with just dust and dirt everywhere.
19:45
Speaker 1: A car is driving by, traffic, giant hills, people walking
19:51
Speaker 1: their dogs, railroads everything. Basically it's just kind of like
19:55
Speaker 1: looks like it would be something out of like a
19:56
Speaker 1: slapstick like silent movie, like sketch. Yeah, yeah, we're talking
20:01
Speaker 1: about we're talking about multiple hills. This is not a straightaway.
20:07
Speaker 1: They're not running miles just on an even stretch. They're
20:13
Speaker 1: going up and down and around and as you noted, Max,
20:20
Speaker 1: there's also a ton of obstacles there. There are stones
20:26
Speaker 1: that are across the roadway. So picture you're fourteen miles in,
20:32
Speaker 1: you know, and all of a sudden you have to
20:36
Speaker 1: jump over like you have to jump over some stuff
20:39
Speaker 1: of the road Mario Brothers style, uh or the up
20:51
Speaker 1: so you have to you have to like also dodged traffic.
20:57
Speaker 1: I shouldn't even said, like it's not a similar These
21:01
Speaker 1: people had to run almost five miles and play Frogger
21:08
Speaker 1: basically the entire way. And then there were like, okay,
21:13
Speaker 1: here's how unofficial it was. There are people walking their
21:18
Speaker 1: dogs right on the same pathway and here comes one
21:23
Speaker 1: of the favorites of the race or whatever, and now
21:28
Speaker 1: you have to now you have to watch out for
21:31
Speaker 1: this sharpai or this hound dog. And there are no
21:37
Speaker 1: real infrastructure systems. I think it it was were you
21:42
Speaker 1: saying there were just a there were like two places
21:47
Speaker 1: where people could get water. Okay, so it's like some
21:50
Speaker 1: really vault tech level like evilness behind the scenes shadowy ness.
21:55
Speaker 1: They were actually using this marathon to test how human
21:59
Speaker 1: bodies were going to react from dehydrations. So the chief
22:03
Speaker 1: organizer for the games, this guy named James Sullivan, had
22:06
Speaker 1: it set up that there was only two places in
22:08
Speaker 1: this entire stretch where you can get water, one out
22:11
Speaker 1: of water tower six miles in and another one at
22:14
Speaker 1: a like roadside well twelve miles in. So that meant
22:17
Speaker 1: like the last half the race you couldn't even get water,
22:21
Speaker 1: and like there's just so many things wrong with it.
22:24
Speaker 1: So like there was like cars driving alongside with like
22:27
Speaker 1: doctors and the coaches because of course they need doctors
22:29
Speaker 1: because they thought somebody was gonna die during this thing.
22:32
Speaker 1: Keep it leg, I get it, yeah, but the cars
22:35
Speaker 1: that they were driving were just kicking up dirt in
22:37
Speaker 1: these guys faces and making the running even worse. And
22:41
Speaker 1: I mean, I think this is an important time to stay. Remember,
22:43
Speaker 1: there's thirty two people who entered this marathon. Fourteen of
22:47
Speaker 1: them finished, which is the lowest number even now in
22:52
Speaker 1: Olympic history, is the lowest number of people successfully completing
22:58
Speaker 1: a marathon. So Max, what do you say, knowing that
23:03
Speaker 1: we only have fourteen people who have finished, What do
23:08
Speaker 1: you say we do? Uh little laundry list? You want
23:11
Speaker 1: to round robin some of these folks and their fates,
23:15
Speaker 1: Like maybe we can, maybe we can picture it the
23:18
Speaker 1: way that so many eighties films about high school and
23:23
Speaker 1: where they have they have like the freeze frame of
23:26
Speaker 1: the person in the animal house where it says like
23:29
Speaker 1: what they all went on to do after just so okay,
23:34
Speaker 1: you start alright. Cool. So one of the first guys
23:36
Speaker 1: we're gonna talk about is this guy named John Lordon
23:39
Speaker 1: John London, like how I read his dame the first
23:40
Speaker 1: seven times I read this document, John Lordens. Remember he's
23:45
Speaker 1: one of the favorites that was crazy weird nineteen hundred
23:48
Speaker 1: sportscasters from earlier in this podcast listed him. He is
23:52
Speaker 1: just running along and then he just starts like throwing up,
23:55
Speaker 1: just like cannot stop throwing up, and he's like, nah,
23:57
Speaker 1: I'm done, I cannot do this race. Okay, yeah, yeah,
24:02
Speaker 1: And uh William Garcia of California, who's kind of like
24:07
Speaker 1: another person who's imagined to be really successful with True Contender.
24:14
Speaker 1: He is in the front for a while, but as
24:18
Speaker 1: you mentioned, Max, there's a lot of dust getting kicked
24:22
Speaker 1: up from people who are still using these roads. Nothing
24:26
Speaker 1: is blocked off from civilians, and this guy is eating dust,
24:33
Speaker 1: which sounds, you know, counterintuitive. He's he's in the front
24:39
Speaker 1: and he's eating so much dust that his stomach rebels
24:46
Speaker 1: and he has a hemorrhage in his guts. He has
24:50
Speaker 1: a stomach hemorrhage, and luckily people get to him before
24:57
Speaker 1: he bleeds out, so he survives, but he does not win. Right,
25:02
Speaker 1: there's a reason we said very early on that nobody
25:04
Speaker 1: dies in this phrase. So you gotta want to make
25:06
Speaker 1: sure because there's some stuff that in here that it's
25:09
Speaker 1: a a little horrific. But uh, here is one that
25:14
Speaker 1: was almost an inspiring story. Uh it's one of the
25:17
Speaker 1: South African runners, Remember the guys who were like the
25:20
Speaker 1: oddities who didn't have shoes. This guy's name is Lenn Tanyan.
25:25
Speaker 1: I believe I'm saying that correctly. Apologies if i'd not so.
25:28
Speaker 1: He was not expecting to do really anything, none of
25:30
Speaker 1: these oddities where they were kind of unfortunately there just
25:33
Speaker 1: to be entertainment for people. But he was actually running
25:35
Speaker 1: really well. He was like competing for a medal. But
25:39
Speaker 1: then a wild pack of dogs chased him and he's
25:44
Speaker 1: running away from and they chased him a mile off course.
25:49
Speaker 1: And just to point out how bonkers this race was,
25:51
Speaker 1: this guy got chased a mile off course by a
25:53
Speaker 1: pack of wild dogs and finished ninth. He came back.
25:57
Speaker 1: That's the most bonkers thing about it. Max. He he
26:01
Speaker 1: is chased by a pack of dogs, feral canines, and
26:06
Speaker 1: then I guess he loses them or out runs them
26:09
Speaker 1: because he's that good at running. And it's too hot
26:13
Speaker 1: out here, man. So let's let's talk about next. Let's
26:19
Speaker 1: talk about Felix. Oh yeah, Mr carbon Hall. So I
26:23
Speaker 1: would say Tanyan's got the fourth once of the interesting
26:25
Speaker 1: story of this race, and carbon Hall is the third most,
26:28
Speaker 1: which says a lot because he's just jogging along and
26:32
Speaker 1: you gotta think this guy probably wasn't needing very well.
26:34
Speaker 1: Remember he's hitchhiking and walking all the way from New Orleans.
26:37
Speaker 1: There's a story about him at one point in his
26:39
Speaker 1: race seeing some people who are eating some peaches in
26:42
Speaker 1: the car and he just kind of runs up asking
26:43
Speaker 1: them for one. They say no, He takes two and
26:45
Speaker 1: runs off. But he's just jogging along and he's just
26:48
Speaker 1: like ridiculously hungry. He's he's this patch of apples and
26:51
Speaker 1: he's like, well, I mean, I guess why not? Why not?
26:55
Speaker 1: He goes over there and pick some apples, eats them,
26:57
Speaker 1: goes back jogging. He's like, oh, I don't feel so good.
27:01
Speaker 1: It turns out the apples are rotten and he lays
27:04
Speaker 1: down on the side of the road. He just says,
27:06
Speaker 1: I'm taking a nap. Man, I'm done. I'm taking a nap. Yeah.
27:10
Speaker 1: Also again, apples originally are from Kazakhstan. There is a
27:16
Speaker 1: super interesting story about the mutation of apples. We should
27:23
Speaker 1: do we should do an apples episode. Man, let's let's
27:26
Speaker 1: do it as soon as uh. But Felix still places. Yeah,
27:32
Speaker 1: he finishes fourth. The guy lays down and takes a
27:34
Speaker 1: nap during this stinking competition. They finished his fourth. That
27:37
Speaker 1: shows you how stupid this competition was. Oh my gosh,
27:40
Speaker 1: tell that's how you really feel. All right, let's talk
27:43
Speaker 1: about Let's also talk about the um What would you
27:48
Speaker 1: call him? Man Fred Laure's Sam Yeah, yeah, crowd favorite.
27:56
Speaker 1: Uh let's see, uh a richer only he was in
28:01
Speaker 1: the papers as the winner of the nineteen old for
28:04
Speaker 1: Olympic Marathon. He was Yeah. Yeah, The title read on
28:08
Speaker 1: August thirty one, nineteen four and American has won the
28:11
Speaker 1: Olympic Marathon. I mean that that that's a pretty big
28:14
Speaker 1: deal right now. So yeah, uh, Fred Lauris crossed the
28:18
Speaker 1: finish life one and it's a big deal. Alice Roosevelt,
28:23
Speaker 1: the daughter of the president, is there. She's like like
28:27
Speaker 1: looping a gold medal around his neck and like they're
28:29
Speaker 1: taking photos together and everything's great, and all of a sudden,
28:32
Speaker 1: somebody from the crowd counsel. He goes, hey, that guy cheated. Yeahfoni, yes, so,
28:43
Speaker 1: oh gosh, this is so this, This is immensely and
28:48
Speaker 1: endlessly hilarious to me. And Max, you're the one who
28:52
Speaker 1: hit me to this. So the honors go to U, sir.
28:56
Speaker 1: Why why is Fred not the winner today? Yeah? So um.
29:03
Speaker 1: This is how it was reported in the Louisville Courier Journal.
29:07
Speaker 1: Fred Lord, which is just how they spelled his name.
29:09
Speaker 1: I guess Fred Lord of New York City was the
29:11
Speaker 1: first to cross the goal line, but he was immediately
29:14
Speaker 1: disqualified on the charge he had written about three miles
29:17
Speaker 1: in an automobile traversing the course over country roads. Lord
29:22
Speaker 1: readily admitted that he had done so a physical exhaustion
29:25
Speaker 1: at the time. There's something wrong with that past statement
29:28
Speaker 1: with there and this is it. They said, he rode
29:29
Speaker 1: in the car for three miles. Let's try eleven miles.
29:33
Speaker 1: Eleven miles almost half of the course he did, right,
29:38
Speaker 1: So he was joggingline. He went the first nine miles
29:41
Speaker 1: and member like, that's a lot. I mean, mamb eighteen
29:45
Speaker 1: of these guys didn't finish this race. And he just
29:48
Speaker 1: started cramping up, and you know, I kind of imagine
29:51
Speaker 1: he had this whole like a screw this, this is stupid,
29:54
Speaker 1: and so he jumped in the car with his coach
29:56
Speaker 1: and he's just like, take me to the end of
29:57
Speaker 1: this thing. And I personally, later on, he would go
30:00
Speaker 1: on to say that he did this all as a joke.
30:02
Speaker 1: He was never gonna accept the honors. He just gave
30:05
Speaker 1: up and quit. That's what he said. Who knows if
30:08
Speaker 1: that's true or it's probably not. But so he gets
30:10
Speaker 1: in the car and there's driving by it. He's waving
30:13
Speaker 1: it everyone like he's not like hiding it at all. Oh,
30:15
Speaker 1: he's waving it other runners as well. Yeah, spectators, runners, coaches, everyone,
30:22
Speaker 1: and I'm guessing when they're driving he's driving by like
30:24
Speaker 1: everyone just assumed that he had to quit the race
30:26
Speaker 1: or something like that. I mean, there's people like, I mean,
30:28
Speaker 1: there's a guy who in the first couple of miles
30:29
Speaker 1: almost dies of a stomach hemorridge, Like there's gonna be
30:32
Speaker 1: people who are gonna up be we're on the cars.
30:35
Speaker 1: But you know, with like like, what is like four
30:38
Speaker 1: miles left? He says, you know what, I'm feeling pretty good.
30:40
Speaker 1: Let me out. I'm gonna jog the rest. And at
30:42
Speaker 1: that point Thomas Hicks one of his coaches season and
30:45
Speaker 1: he goes, hey, get off the course and and like
30:48
Speaker 1: Lord's like, what do you do? Run me down? And
30:49
Speaker 1: so he just runs some finches at the race, and
30:54
Speaker 1: we are we are introducing the decided winner. Eventually after
31:02
Speaker 1: after this Shenanigan gets revealed to the public, Thomas Hicks
31:09
Speaker 1: wins and is considered the winner of the four Olympic marathon.
31:16
Speaker 1: It's the slowest in Olympic history up to this time.
31:23
Speaker 1: We're looking at three hours, twenty eight minutes and fifty
31:27
Speaker 1: three seconds, which is, honestly, for most of us listening,
31:32
Speaker 1: an awesome time. If you run a little less than
31:36
Speaker 1: twenty five miles in less than four hours, well done.
31:43
Speaker 1: But um, but Hicks had some stuff going on as well.
31:47
Speaker 1: This this whole thing is is a mess of spaghetti. Like,
31:53
Speaker 1: let's talk about Hicks for a second. Yeah, I mean
31:55
Speaker 1: the line that this is a side show is correct.
31:58
Speaker 1: I mean this is this is just this. This is
32:01
Speaker 1: not good. I mean putting something like the stuff that
32:04
Speaker 1: Hicks and his camp did during this phrase would disqualify
32:08
Speaker 1: anyone in modern day Olympics. I mean, there are most
32:11
Speaker 1: things he did, but I mean, so look, remember early on,
32:14
Speaker 1: Hicks is one of the favorites in this phrase. He
32:16
Speaker 1: was just one of the front runners from the entire time.
32:18
Speaker 1: But around like the ten mile mark, he starts cramping
32:21
Speaker 1: and feeling terrible, and he like waves down his support
32:24
Speaker 1: crew and he's like, hey, I need some water, guys.
32:26
Speaker 1: And you know, I feel like his crew had a
32:28
Speaker 1: lot of weird conceptions of what was good for the runners,
32:30
Speaker 1: what was bad for the runners, so they refused to
32:33
Speaker 1: give him water. No water, they and eventually they go like, okay,
32:36
Speaker 1: you can have this distilled, warm water that's gonna sponge
32:40
Speaker 1: around your mouth. And then like he somehow recovers, he
32:44
Speaker 1: keeps going. He was about like eight more miles and
32:46
Speaker 1: then he's like, guys, I can't seriously, I cannot go
32:48
Speaker 1: any farther. I cannot go in from the Remember, like
32:50
Speaker 1: nobody's really making it that far in this run, Like
32:53
Speaker 1: this guy's out in the front and they're like okay,
32:55
Speaker 1: you gotta push through and making this concoction of Strict nine,
32:59
Speaker 1: which is is still in use today. It's mostly used
33:02
Speaker 1: in rat poisons, but it is has some other less
33:06
Speaker 1: legal purposes as well. They take the Strict nine and
33:09
Speaker 1: mix it with egg whites into this concoction and he
33:12
Speaker 1: chugs it like you know, it goes full blown, like
33:14
Speaker 1: Rocky Balboa, if Rocky Balboa had, um, you know, some
33:19
Speaker 1: rats living inside of me you want to get rid of.
33:21
Speaker 1: I don't know, but like the reason, the reason why
33:23
Speaker 1: he used the Strict nine is in very small doses
33:26
Speaker 1: it has a stimulant esque effects. So not only is
33:30
Speaker 1: this guy poisoning himself, but he's, you know what, doing
33:33
Speaker 1: what we call nowadays an Olympics doping. He's literally doping
33:37
Speaker 1: in the middle of the race. It was funny is
33:39
Speaker 1: they also had a flask of brandy, French brandy by
33:43
Speaker 1: the way, not not kon yak, it wasn't from but
33:45
Speaker 1: French brandy. And they said, you don't need it yet,
33:48
Speaker 1: we'll give it to you later. Okay, Yeah, you're good,
33:52
Speaker 1: You're good, bro, Just you don't check up, get your
33:56
Speaker 1: stuff together. This CK nine that is going through this
34:03
Speaker 1: man's system is damaging him obviously spoiler alert. He is
34:11
Speaker 1: having a hard time running because he has poisoned himself.
34:16
Speaker 1: And when he hears that our buddy Lores called, well,
34:23
Speaker 1: he hitchhiked, but he basically called an uber, I would
34:26
Speaker 1: say when when when he hears that guy has cheated
34:30
Speaker 1: and been found out, he says, I still got it.
34:35
Speaker 1: I still got it despite the rat poison. And he
34:38
Speaker 1: tries to run, but the best run he can do
34:41
Speaker 1: is kind of a clop clop clop clop clop clop trot,
34:45
Speaker 1: you know, And and his trainers are like, you know
34:48
Speaker 1: what will fix this? A little more strict nine? Yeah, yeah,
34:57
Speaker 1: So they gave him some more strict nine. And this
35:00
Speaker 1: time they gave him some brandy to go along with
35:02
Speaker 1: those delicious egg whites, and they got something like warm
35:06
Speaker 1: water and they just dumped it all over him because
35:08
Speaker 1: you know what, it feels great when you're at in
35:10
Speaker 1: this probably what what would you guess, probably a hundred
35:12
Speaker 1: five hundred ten degree heat index weather. Let's just stop
35:16
Speaker 1: some dump some hot water on you, because even if
35:20
Speaker 1: it started warm, it's gonna be hot by the time
35:21
Speaker 1: we dump it on him. There is a quote from
35:24
Speaker 1: a race official by the name of Charles Lucas, where
35:27
Speaker 1: he goes on to say, over the last two miles
35:30
Speaker 1: of the road, Hicks was running mechanically like a well
35:33
Speaker 1: oiled piece of machinery. His eyes were dull, lusterless, the
35:37
Speaker 1: ash and color of his face and skin had deepened.
35:40
Speaker 1: His arms appeared, his weights well tied down. He could
35:43
Speaker 1: scarcely lift his legs. His knees were almost stiff. So
35:47
Speaker 1: this guy is trippy. Now, okay, just to be very clear, folks,
35:53
Speaker 1: this guy is actively hallucinating. He does not really know
35:59
Speaker 1: where he is is in our reality and our shared dimension.
36:05
Speaker 1: He's off on this thing, you know, he's in the
36:08
Speaker 1: upside down or whatever you wanna call it. And he
36:11
Speaker 1: thinks the Finnish line is still twenty miles away. So
36:17
Speaker 1: in the very last mile he starts asking like anybody
36:22
Speaker 1: will come buy, Please feed me, I'm starving. Oh please
36:27
Speaker 1: let me just let me lie down for a second,
36:30
Speaker 1: let me let me get a nap. And what does
36:33
Speaker 1: his team do. Well, they first hand him some brandy, right,
36:37
Speaker 1: they get him drunk again, and they say, also, we
36:44
Speaker 1: have some tea if you want, and he's like, dad,
36:47
Speaker 1: just anybody what's our egg white situation? Yeah, I mean
36:52
Speaker 1: that's kind of a slip in the face, like do
36:53
Speaker 1: you want this hot tea? I'm just assuming the teeth hot.
36:56
Speaker 1: It's like, it's like, why are you doing this to
37:01
Speaker 1: this guy? Why is this competition happening? Like how did
37:05
Speaker 1: no one die in this thing? That it is really
37:07
Speaker 1: a miracle that I really needs to be reashed. That's
37:10
Speaker 1: why we say it at the front. So old Boy
37:14
Speaker 1: is not running at this point, spoiler folks. He is
37:18
Speaker 1: walking and uh he walks up again. We said there
37:23
Speaker 1: were seven hills and they had a pretty steep incline,
37:27
Speaker 1: and so he is walking up these hills, just powering
37:32
Speaker 1: through it. Kind of day drunk at this point, definitely
37:37
Speaker 1: dealing with the consequences of rat poison. And he gets
37:42
Speaker 1: the max. He gets like to the downward slope and
37:46
Speaker 1: he says, Okay, I'll jog a little. I'll jog a little.
37:50
Speaker 1: I might run. I might want to get to the
37:53
Speaker 1: finish line running. You know, it's a marathon. That's what
37:57
Speaker 1: we're about. How's he doing? Uh not well. So he
38:01
Speaker 1: gets in there and he's trying to run and he's
38:03
Speaker 1: doing that whole like stumbling the leg thing like you'll
38:06
Speaker 1: see like people in marathon stuff to do that at
38:08
Speaker 1: the very because you know they've run like all his existance.
38:12
Speaker 1: He's doing it because as you said, he's day drunk
38:14
Speaker 1: and hallucinating. So this is this is another thing that
38:18
Speaker 1: obviously would have disqualified him and many other like racing
38:21
Speaker 1: events nowadays. Is he has two turns kind of run
38:24
Speaker 1: up and they go underneath his arms and they're basically
38:27
Speaker 1: just carrying him. His legs are just kind of like
38:30
Speaker 1: they're moving. They're moving. He's just like a puppet kind
38:33
Speaker 1: of going, but he's not doing in the moving. They're
38:36
Speaker 1: moving him the rest of the way and like you know,
38:38
Speaker 1: Loris has a crossed the finish line. They don't know
38:40
Speaker 1: where one of the South African dudes are. Carbon Hall
38:42
Speaker 1: is still taking a nap. These things that disaster. So
38:44
Speaker 1: they're like, sure he's the winner, why not, we're not
38:48
Speaker 1: like else. Roosevelt has to get somewhere, guys like we
38:51
Speaker 1: just got it. We gotta end this. Come on. So
38:54
Speaker 1: he gets crossed the finish line, he's declared the winner.
38:57
Speaker 1: He takes four doctors an hour to get him like
39:01
Speaker 1: good enough shape so you can leave, they said, he
39:03
Speaker 1: lost eight pounds during the race, which is ridiculous. Member,
39:06
Speaker 1: three and a half hours, that's how long this was.
39:09
Speaker 1: Eight pounds, three and a half hours. And he would
39:11
Speaker 1: go on to say, never in my life have I
39:14
Speaker 1: run such a tough course. The terrific hills simply tear
39:17
Speaker 1: Amanda pieces. Yeah, and again his team carried him across
39:25
Speaker 1: the finished line the same way for any for any
39:28
Speaker 1: of our ridiculous historians who are parents. You know, you
39:32
Speaker 1: remember how when you took your kid into a pool,
39:36
Speaker 1: you sort of held the kid by the belly and
39:38
Speaker 1: the kids like, I'm swimming and you're thinking, you're saying,
39:43
Speaker 1: sure you are, You're doing a great job. But super
39:49
Speaker 1: props to you kids. But later, Hicks and Lores compete
39:57
Speaker 1: in the Boston Marathon and Lore's doesn't call a car.
40:03
Speaker 1: He actually does run and respect where it's do. He wins.
40:09
Speaker 1: But Max, one thing that was really interesting to me
40:13
Speaker 1: about this when we were talking about this off air,
40:18
Speaker 1: and and again when you found this idea and we're
40:22
Speaker 1: in this pitch meeting and you said, here's here's something
40:25
Speaker 1: that really stood out to me. One thing that was
40:28
Speaker 1: fascinating was that you said the marathon wasn't the only
40:33
Speaker 1: weird thing about the nineteen o four Olympics. Well, and
40:44
Speaker 1: I do want to give equal credit to Mr Noel.
40:46
Speaker 1: He found it. We both were both looking in the
40:48
Speaker 1: same direction that we both found it. Brilliant story. Uh
40:51
Speaker 1: uh Yeah, the ninet enno four Olympics were really weird.
40:54
Speaker 1: I mean, I mean, this is really early on Olympics
40:58
Speaker 1: coming back. This does not temple what we have right now.
41:01
Speaker 1: So one of the first really weird things is calling
41:04
Speaker 1: this the Olympics is really not what you want. Olympics
41:07
Speaker 1: is a global event with countries competing. Here's the thing
41:12
Speaker 1: nineteen o four, getting the St. Louis that's not an
41:14
Speaker 1: easy city to get to if you it's smack dab
41:17
Speaker 1: in the middle of United States. Like the only way
41:19
Speaker 1: you're gonna get into you go to New Orleans and
41:20
Speaker 1: go up the Mississippi. It's not it's not in these ways.
41:24
Speaker 1: So by the time this Olympics started, there was only
41:26
Speaker 1: twelve countries. Five twenty three of the six thirty total
41:31
Speaker 1: athletes were Americans. Half the competitions only featured Americans. So
41:36
Speaker 1: Mr Ridlous and Americans won two hundred and thirty nine
41:39
Speaker 1: metals at this Olympics. This was not an Olympics. Yeah,
41:43
Speaker 1: I know, that's fair, that's fair. Another reason why this
41:46
Speaker 1: was an Olympics was, you know, Olympics are like like
41:48
Speaker 1: two weeks long, a little more than two weeks. This
41:49
Speaker 1: was five months long, so a lot of the track
41:53
Speaker 1: and field events did happen in a pretty short time period.
41:55
Speaker 1: But remember it was kind of designed and there's more
41:59
Speaker 1: stories to this. There were only the Olympics were supposed
42:00
Speaker 1: to be in Chicago. There's a lot more to this
42:02
Speaker 1: that you that you all can go research on your
42:04
Speaker 1: own if you are so inclined you want to learn
42:06
Speaker 1: more about this. It says there's a lot to this,
42:08
Speaker 1: but it was. This Olympics is designed to be mostly
42:13
Speaker 1: like a promotion for the fair, so it has to
42:17
Speaker 1: run the entire length of affair. Fairs last a lot longer, right,
42:21
Speaker 1: the World's Fair, the Louisiana purchase one years, blah blah blah,
42:25
Speaker 1: a huge big deal, anthropology, games, racist bs type Stuffeah,
42:31
Speaker 1: they hasn't really be a promotional for that, Yeah, very
42:35
Speaker 1: much boos. But so it runs this entire time. They
42:38
Speaker 1: have some ridiculous events, so they have a uh, military
42:43
Speaker 1: athletic Carnival, they have an Irish sports festival, which I'm
42:47
Speaker 1: just assuming was really racist, and a y m C
42:51
Speaker 1: A Basketball Championship, a y m C A Basketball champions Well, hey, hey,
42:56
Speaker 1: of the three, just named us probably the most Legitmac.
43:00
Speaker 1: That's probably they're probably actually playing basketball, folks. Max is
43:05
Speaker 1: our resident expert on sports in general. Please check out
43:10
Speaker 1: our curling episodes if you haven't heard them earlier. Uh,
43:15
Speaker 1: I know you have feelings about this, man, I know,
43:17
Speaker 1: are you a basketball guy? We haven't really talked about
43:20
Speaker 1: this huge basketball. I would always say basketball is about
43:23
Speaker 1: the major sports in America. Basketball's number two on my list,
43:26
Speaker 1: behind baseball. I used to be a bigger football fan,
43:30
Speaker 1: but I mean football I love, but it's hard to
43:32
Speaker 1: watch football when you know, you get like five minutes
43:35
Speaker 1: of football and then tis that's fine. Yeah, it's true.
43:40
Speaker 1: It's true of football. Football in the US is a
43:45
Speaker 1: different sport from football and the rest of the world. Right. Uh,
43:50
Speaker 1: the US residents call actual football soccer, and we have
43:55
Speaker 1: a thing that is an excellent vehicle for commercials, and
44:01
Speaker 1: that is that is what your US friends called football.
44:05
Speaker 1: But dude, it's killing me. I'm wondering you know, I
44:08
Speaker 1: always think about this, what makes us sport an Olympic sport?
44:13
Speaker 1: And you pointed out you and I both know this.
44:17
Speaker 1: There are many sports that kind of had tryouts in
44:21
Speaker 1: one year of the Olympics or the next year and
44:24
Speaker 1: don't make it into the official canonical roster of Olympic sports.
44:30
Speaker 1: Have I gotta ask, man, why isn't dodgeball in there?
44:37
Speaker 1: I feel like I feel like maybe it's because the
44:42
Speaker 1: Olympics UH typically prizes individual performance, that that's part of it.
44:51
Speaker 1: And if you have an idea for a solo dodgeball performance,
44:56
Speaker 1: let us know. But you pointed out, you pointed out
45:02
Speaker 1: one are your favorite Olympic sports of yesteryear? Please? They
45:08
Speaker 1: had tug at war, they had tugo war and this
45:11
Speaker 1: was and a couple of things I want to say.
45:14
Speaker 1: It's first of all, this had been in a couple
45:16
Speaker 1: of Olympics is already and was in the Olympics still
45:18
Speaker 1: nineteen twenty. And also tug a war is like such
45:22
Speaker 1: like when you look at it, it looks like a
45:24
Speaker 1: Greek Olympic sport, like like an old school of classic Olympic.
45:29
Speaker 1: It looks like we just invented rope Let's make it anything,
45:33
Speaker 1: and then there's a there's a pit in the middle
45:35
Speaker 1: full of spikes, because we're talking about that that period
45:38
Speaker 1: of athletics where athletics usually ended with somebody being impaled.
45:43
Speaker 1: Squid games, I get it. Yeah, yeah, I mean these
45:48
Speaker 1: When you think of Olympics, do you think of modern Olympics,
45:51
Speaker 1: you think they would look a lot more like what
45:53
Speaker 1: Olympics look like right now. But there was a lot
45:55
Speaker 1: of oddities. Uh, We're actually gonna have another episode about
45:59
Speaker 1: a different, really weird Olympic sport that was on there
46:01
Speaker 1: for a very long time and not talked about. We're
46:04
Speaker 1: not gonna talk about it right now. We have we're
46:06
Speaker 1: working on the research for that one. That one's coming up.
46:08
Speaker 1: We're gonna have that one. Mr Knowles back. But yeah, yeah,
46:11
Speaker 1: this was some weird This is a weird as Olympics.
46:14
Speaker 1: Bat that's that's all that's saying. And you know the marathons,
46:17
Speaker 1: just like you know the cherry on top of it all.
46:20
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, this is our our way. And I
46:23
Speaker 1: think it's fair to say that the concept of the
46:27
Speaker 1: Olympics overall is really strange. It speaks to something universal
46:35
Speaker 1: and human about a lot of civilizations and cultures, but
46:41
Speaker 1: also it's been used for any number of purposes. I
46:47
Speaker 1: full disclosure, Max, I'm I'm writing an episode about the
46:52
Speaker 1: IOC for a different show called Stuff They Don't Want
46:56
Speaker 1: You to Know, And if you are interested, I'm gonna
47:00
Speaker 1: ask you on air. If you are interested, I would
47:03
Speaker 1: like you to guest on it. Oh, most definitely. I
47:06
Speaker 1: I have a very strong feelings on the IOC. I mean,
47:10
Speaker 1: I say, most corrupt sports organizations in the world. It's
47:13
Speaker 1: fifas number one. That's why they accepted IOC. Kind of
47:18
Speaker 1: like they stay sliding just underneath FIFA though. It's like
47:21
Speaker 1: right there and put in summary how close they're like
47:24
Speaker 1: n C double A, which literally serves no purpose in
47:27
Speaker 1: college football any longer or college basketball. We're at the
47:32
Speaker 1: end of the episode. You're popping off, You're popping off
47:34
Speaker 1: the hot shots real quick, right, you're running the clock out. IOC,
47:38
Speaker 1: by the way, folks, is International Olympic Committee. Yeah, n
47:42
Speaker 1: C double A super corrupt, terrible, um nowhere close to
47:46
Speaker 1: as bad as FIFA and io C R. IOC is
47:49
Speaker 1: just there's ben I bet you you'll cover a lot
47:52
Speaker 1: of that in the Stuff that I want you to know. Episode.
47:55
Speaker 1: But that's just my opinion on there right now. But
47:57
Speaker 1: I don't Ben, you want to turn this a little
47:59
Speaker 1: bit more positive on the end and just talking about
48:03
Speaker 1: the Olympics. Oh okay, he got me on that one.
48:07
Speaker 1: Uh yeah, okay, tell me tell me Hippus Hall. All right,
48:11
Speaker 1: So I want to hit us with a couple of these. Uh.
48:13
Speaker 1: So we have aspired on Belicus. He was lords before Lors.
48:18
Speaker 1: That's probably the best way to say. It's so in
48:20
Speaker 1: the eighth Olympic marathon he finished third, and everyone's like, yeah,
48:25
Speaker 1: and he was he was Greek. The first second place
48:27
Speaker 1: finishers were Greek. So it's like the Greek sweep the podium. No,
48:31
Speaker 1: the guy took a chariot. This guy was not a chariot.
48:34
Speaker 1: He didn't have he didn't have a gas powered car
48:36
Speaker 1: or whatever cars are powered off of that race, but yeah,
48:40
Speaker 1: he did that. Uh. Probably my second favorite one I found.
48:43
Speaker 1: We have Madeleine and Margaret tajy SU's they are correction Madeline,
48:50
Speaker 1: and this is important distinction. She is an Olympic athlete
48:53
Speaker 1: for Puerto Rico in the nineteen eighty four l A
48:56
Speaker 1: Summer Games. So she's gonna compete in two events. She's
48:59
Speaker 1: gonna do the long up and then she's going to
49:00
Speaker 1: be in the four by four relay. Problem is she
49:03
Speaker 1: pulls her hand string during long jumps. They're like, oh no,
49:06
Speaker 1: they got to the sub. They're gonna sub in or
49:08
Speaker 1: maybe they don't have sub who all knows. But she
49:10
Speaker 1: makes the miraculist recovery and runs the marathon. Except she
49:14
Speaker 1: didn't because she has an identical twin sister named Margaret,
49:18
Speaker 1: who ran in her place and make matters worse. It's
49:21
Speaker 1: not like Margaret was on the team. Margaret was just
49:23
Speaker 1: so they were watching the festivities. She I mean, granted
49:27
Speaker 1: she was, she had like tried off of the team.
49:30
Speaker 1: She didn't make the team, but she was a runner herself.
49:33
Speaker 1: But they just wouldn't grabbed her from the stadium and
49:35
Speaker 1: just said come down there. I mean, it's at least
49:37
Speaker 1: better than grabbing like you and me, but like not
49:39
Speaker 1: much better. And they were like immediately disqualified. Oh no, man,
49:44
Speaker 1: I think you would do I think because it's a relay.
49:49
Speaker 1: You know, we get by with a little help from
49:51
Speaker 1: our friends, so so we could, you know, we could strategize.
49:56
Speaker 1: I don't know if we would get the gold. I'm
49:58
Speaker 1: just gonna be honest with you. But between you, null,
50:02
Speaker 1: me and our fellow ridiculous historians, I think we could
50:07
Speaker 1: I think we could place. I'm gonna say, I think
50:09
Speaker 1: we could place. We got a lot of fast minds
50:12
Speaker 1: in the audience. Yeah, you know, they're gonna have to
50:17
Speaker 1: carry me. That that that that's the last Like I'm
50:19
Speaker 1: gonna be holding up the rear and my portion of it.
50:21
Speaker 1: But I'm fine with that. I've come to peace with that.
50:24
Speaker 1: But bro, I'll carry you. I know, I know the
50:27
Speaker 1: survival roles, all this stuff like U R O L
50:32
Speaker 1: L S. By the way, folks, Uh, you know I
50:34
Speaker 1: can actually we might be hanging out in person in
50:38
Speaker 1: a little bit, so uh, I will if you if
50:42
Speaker 1: you want to test it, let's test it. I will
50:45
Speaker 1: pick you up and see how far we can run.
50:47
Speaker 1: Sounds good. But there is one more group of cheaters
50:50
Speaker 1: I want to name, and then we can go ahead
50:52
Speaker 1: and exit this episode AUCT and that is the Tunisian
50:55
Speaker 1: modern ptathlon team. So we're over in nineteen sixties Olympics.
51:00
Speaker 1: For people who don't know what the patathlon is is
51:02
Speaker 1: being penta five sports. It is fencing, freestyle, swimming, equestrian
51:08
Speaker 1: pistol shooting and cross country running. So the Tunisian team
51:13
Speaker 1: was not doing well. So they're doing the horseback riding
51:15
Speaker 1: section and one of the guys falls off the horse.
51:19
Speaker 1: They're doing the swimming section and one of the swimmers
51:23
Speaker 1: nearly drowned. They get to the shooting sections air pistol shooting,
51:28
Speaker 1: they think they're gonna do really well and they nearly
51:31
Speaker 1: shoot a judge and get disqualified. Again. No one dies
51:39
Speaker 1: in this episode. No one dies in this episode. We
51:42
Speaker 1: were like ridiculous crime in this aspect. Nobody's dying in
51:45
Speaker 1: this episode. So they go into the fencing, and obviously
51:50
Speaker 1: they're like in the last place, and they say, we
51:52
Speaker 1: gotta make some sort of comeback. So they probably can't
51:55
Speaker 1: win it, but at least have more respectable showing. And
51:57
Speaker 1: so they say, you know what fence they were maths,
52:01
Speaker 1: Let's just send our best guy up there with every
52:03
Speaker 1: single time different number or whatever. But Sam mask I,
52:06
Speaker 1: no will notice. They noticed very quickly and they got
52:10
Speaker 1: the qualified like that. Uh well, that's how it happens sometimes.
52:17
Speaker 1: What we're saying, folks, is that there is a lot
52:20
Speaker 1: of trickery. There are a lot of shenanigans that occur
52:25
Speaker 1: not just in yesteryear, but often in Olympics today, as
52:32
Speaker 1: anyone checking out the Russian dope and scandal will be
52:36
Speaker 1: well aware. Uh, you know, I want to give props
52:40
Speaker 1: where they're due. Mr Max Williams here has in addition
52:43
Speaker 1: to producing every episode that you like and none of
52:49
Speaker 1: the episodes that you don't like, by the way he has, uh,
52:53
Speaker 1: he has brought to bear uh quite a bit of
52:57
Speaker 1: research that we may not get to day. So perhaps
53:01
Speaker 1: the best way to say it is the Olympics as
53:06
Speaker 1: a concept really nice. The Olympics as a practice, as
53:11
Speaker 1: a real world event, it's a It's always a lampoon.
53:18
Speaker 1: It turns out no. Do you know, Max, I want
53:25
Speaker 1: to give you the last word here. What what would
53:29
Speaker 1: you say to our fellow ridiculous historians who are wondering
53:35
Speaker 1: about more Olympics trivia? What would you what do you
53:39
Speaker 1: what do you want to leave people with? As our
53:41
Speaker 1: special guest today, I'm gonna go really sample here. And
53:45
Speaker 1: because this this came up very much in the most
53:48
Speaker 1: recent Winter Olympics. Put the Olympics in places where these
53:52
Speaker 1: sports should be performed. We should not have people running
53:55
Speaker 1: a marathon in ninetyree weather with nine humidity. We should
53:59
Speaker 1: not have a Winter Olympics in an area that does
54:02
Speaker 1: not go below freezing. This is just simple stuff. Uh yeah,
54:06
Speaker 1: some of the additional restarch we have. There was, unfortunately
54:08
Speaker 1: some talk about, you know, the ninety six Berlin Olympics,
54:12
Speaker 1: where like you know, they gave the Olympics to Berlin,
54:15
Speaker 1: then they elected Hitler and put Hitler in power. Don't
54:20
Speaker 1: hold you can hold these people accountable if you want to.
54:23
Speaker 1: I mean there has been some pandering the dictators over
54:27
Speaker 1: these last you know, a couple of decades by the Olympics.
54:30
Speaker 1: What are you talking about? To your point, Ben, the
54:35
Speaker 1: Olympics are a beautiful event. It is really cool and concept.
54:39
Speaker 1: But they will abuse it. They will siphon money, they
54:43
Speaker 1: will turn a blind eye to cheating and stuff if
54:46
Speaker 1: we don't hold them accountable. And you know, it's simple
54:49
Speaker 1: put these people on blast. And that's fine with me
54:51
Speaker 1: because I love the Olympics. I watched the Olympics NonStop.
54:54
Speaker 1: I have a Peacock subscription just for watching the Olympics.
54:57
Speaker 1: And now Sunday morning Baseball. I didn't think I would
55:00
Speaker 1: love it, but eleven a m. Baseball's amazing. On a Sunday,
55:03
Speaker 1: it is amazing. I sleep in, I wake up, I
55:05
Speaker 1: put on the Orioles versus the Cubs or whatever random
55:09
Speaker 1: teams they put on there, and it's great, guys. But
55:13
Speaker 1: limpics are awesome. The IOLEC sucks. That's my parting words. Wow,
55:17
Speaker 1: hot takes uh also takes. I agree with you know,
55:22
Speaker 1: whether we're saying the temperature of those takes is a
55:26
Speaker 1: nice uh nice spring day, or whether we're saying those
55:31
Speaker 1: takes are the temperature of the night. D no for St.
55:34
Speaker 1: Louis Marathon. So that's it for us today, folks, thank
55:38
Speaker 1: you so much as always for tuning in. Let's have
55:42
Speaker 1: a big hand for not only our super producer Mr
55:47
Speaker 1: Max Williams, but also our guest host Mr Max Williams,
55:52
Speaker 1: also our research associate for today's episode, Mr Max Williams.
55:57
Speaker 1: And if you're hearing this by yourself, I highly recommend clapping.
56:03
Speaker 1: It's weird to me that clapping is not an Olympic
56:06
Speaker 1: sport because there is an art and athleticism and a
56:10
Speaker 1: craft to it. Max. Who else should we think? Oh
56:15
Speaker 1: so many more people. But before I start thinking, people
56:17
Speaker 1: just don't clap if you're on a plane. No one
56:19
Speaker 1: likes you if you're clapping on the plane, but other
56:21
Speaker 1: people we should think. We should obviously think our full
56:24
Speaker 1: time research associates, Jeff Bartlett and Zach Williams say are amazing.
56:28
Speaker 1: We should thank Alex Williams who is making this lovely
56:31
Speaker 1: theme song and is also my older brother. Uh, Matt
56:35
Speaker 1: Frederick because he has a beautiful singing voice and is
56:38
Speaker 1: my work older brother. I guess I call him that
56:41
Speaker 1: one time, and I'm sticking to it. I don't know
56:43
Speaker 1: why it's weird. I work with my actual brother who knows.
56:47
Speaker 1: We'll go with it. Uh, let's see. I want to
56:49
Speaker 1: give a special shout out to all of our sisters
56:51
Speaker 1: shows Ridiculous Crime, Ridiculous Romance, and Ridiculous News for are
56:56
Speaker 1: all great shows. If you like this show and you
56:58
Speaker 1: have to check those shows out, then what are you doing?
57:01
Speaker 1: Why aren't you? They're amazing? Yeah, they're better than us. Yeah,
57:05
Speaker 1: the whole slate is better. To be honest. If you
57:09
Speaker 1: like I feel like our little show, then you're gonna
57:13
Speaker 1: love Ridiculous Romance and you really will. Uh, You're gonna
57:20
Speaker 1: adore Ridiculous Crime, and you are going to be over
57:25
Speaker 1: the moon about ridiculous news. Now, Max, Noel and I
57:30
Speaker 1: work assiduously to try to get guest spots, to try
57:35
Speaker 1: to have those folks on our shows. And the most
57:38
Speaker 1: important thing to remember is that all of these shows
57:43
Speaker 1: are free, and we have it on good authority that
57:47
Speaker 1: all of the people creating these shows are kind of awesome.
57:53
Speaker 1: There again, they're like a little I'm gonna say it objectively.
57:58
Speaker 1: Nol gets mad when I pointed out, but they're a
58:02
Speaker 1: little They're a little cooler than us. They're fast and
58:05
Speaker 1: more qualified than us too. We're just some like the
58:07
Speaker 1: foons that they gave them mikes to. They are actually
58:10
Speaker 1: very funny, very intellectual people. Okay, come on, Fine enough,
58:16
Speaker 1: moving on. Shout out as always to Eve's Jeff Go
58:21
Speaker 1: Christopher aciotis our boy, Gabe Lousier. Shout out as well
58:27
Speaker 1: to uh my number one, Mr Noel Brown, since his
58:32
Speaker 1: regards will be returning soon. We cannot wait to hear
58:36
Speaker 1: what you think, folks. You can find us on Facebook,
58:39
Speaker 1: you can find us on social media, whatever social media
58:43
Speaker 1: you happen to sip. Ridiculous history is probably there. Max,
58:48
Speaker 1: I gotta say you have outdone yourself. This is awesome
58:53
Speaker 1: and you and I are overdue to go see either
58:59
Speaker 1: I don't know, Atlanta United or The Brains together. Do
59:03
Speaker 1: you have a pick? Do you have a preference? How
59:05
Speaker 1: we could try to do both them one day. We'll
59:08
Speaker 1: see you next time, folks. For more podcasts from my
59:18
Speaker 1: heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast,
59:21
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.