Albert Corey, French runner and silver medalist in the 1904 St. Louis Olympics marathon event, dies in Paris. He was 48.
For those unfamiliar with the 1904 St. Louis Olympics marathon event, it is one of the chaotic incidents in athletic history: the Cuban runner lost all his money and had to hitchhike to the games, and he raced in trousers; the route hadn’t been sealed off, so the competitors constantly had to dodge traffic; and there was only one water station along the entire marathon route, as James Sullivan, the chief gamemaker, wanted to deliberately test the limits of human endurance.
American runner William Garcia collapsed and almost died, and South African runner Len Tau was attacked by a wild dog.
The hapless Cuban runner, who hadn’t eaten in days, stopped to eat some apples, but they were rotten and he dropped out due to cramping.
American runner Fred Lorz got tired and he hitched a ride to the finish line, then was declared the winner before officials realized his ruse.
Officials also discovered American runner Thomas Hicks collapsed from dehydration, but instead of giving him water they gave him strychnine, brandy, and eggs, and he got up and resumed running, but spent the race staggering around and hallucinating. Officials shadowed him and fed him more brandy and eggs whenever he appeared to collapse. He finished the race.
The counterpoint on Dulles from @AdrienneLaF: “The truth is, I love it. It’s a great airport, even a miraculous one. And while I’ll grant that the sardine-can quality of the people movers is undignified, a little part of me loves them too.” https://t.co/30jG1v6TKF