Things I Didn’t Know About the Olympics

I’m sitting here sipping a hot cup of mud (that’s turmeric tea—a brew that I highly recommend if you’ve already lost the will to live). I’m doing this because, a few nights ago, I watched the Canadian women’s hockey team compete in the Olympic games and now I’m inspired. Not to play hockey, of course—that would be ridiculous. The last time I put on skates, I staggered out onto the ice and my feet—guided by some evil otherworldly force—were sucked out from underneath me and I landed flat on my back. I’d still be there today, if not for some kind strangers who helped me up after peeing themselves laughing.

So, no, I’m not inspired to try hockey—or any other sport that involves ice, snow, sharp blades, steep hills or speed. But I am inspired to find something that will help me feel even half as healthy and energetic as those amazing Olympic women. So I’m drinking a hot cup of mud, fighting my gag reflex, and doing a little research about earlier Olympic Games (the summer ones, since I’m feeling chilly). Here are some facts that I didn’t know:

In the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens, athletes prepped for competitions by binging on cheese. Also of note: Swimmers were taken out in boats and dumped in the water, then left to paddle back the required distance to shore.

In the 1904 Summer Olympics, George Eyser won six medals—three gold, two silver and a bronze—in one day. This, despite having a wooden leg (his left leg had been run over by a train when he was a kid).

During the 1912 Stockholm marathon, one competitor (Japan’s Shizo Kanaguri) mysteriously disappeared. Kanaguri had stumbled—exhausted and dehydrated—off the course and into a family’s yard. They gave him juice and put him to bed, and when he awoke several hours later, he was too embarrassed to face his teammates, so he caught a boat back to Japan without telling anyone.

In the 1928 Summer Olympics (held in Amsterdam), Australia’s Henry Pearce stopped rowing so a family of ducks could pass safely in front of his boat. He was so far ahead of the other competitors that he still won the gold.

Betty Robinson won two medals (a gold and a silver) at the same Amsterdam Olympic games. Three years later, she was in a biplane that crashed in Chicago. A bystander pulled her from the wreckage and—believing she was dead—tossed her in the trunk of his car and drove her to the morgue. Turns out Robinson was alive, and after recovering from a seven-month coma, she competed in the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games.

Delays due to bad weather meant the final two events in London’s 1948 Summer Olympics were held at dusk. Outdoor lighting wasn’t a big thing back then, so the athletes were illuminated by car headlights.

The official shoe manufacturer for the 1960 Rome marathon was Adidas. Unfortunately, Adidas didn’t make any running shoes that fit Ethiopia’s Abebe Biikila comfortably, so he ran—and won—the marathon barefoot.

In 1964, after winning eight Olympic medals, Australian swimmer Dawn Fraser was banned from competition for 10 years. Her crime? Swimming drunk through a moat to steal an Olympic flag from outside Emperor Hirohito’s palace. She was named Australian of the year. Of course.