The
Guardian Olympics supplement
"Trivia Wars
" feature
Amaze your friends with arcane Olympic trivia, by Mark McDowall
Athens 1896
The Americans planned to arrive in Athens 12 days early, but overlooked
the fact that the Greeks were still using the Julian calendar so they
only just made it with one day to spare. Twelve years later, the Russian
shooting team pitched up in London to find that the games had finished
and everyone had gone home.
Paris 1900
It's a good thing Baron Pierre de Coubertin didn't release a single declaring
"the Olympics are coming home". Organisation was so bad that,
in some cases, athletes never got to compete. At the request of Bascom
Johnson, Charles Dvorak and Daniel Horton of the American pole-vaulting
team, their event was moved from Sunday. But when Sunday came a few pole-vaulters
were hanging around so the officials went ahead anyway. Irving Baxter
of the USA won with a vault of 10ft 10in. in the consolation final Dvorak
jumped 11ft 1 3/4 in, Horton 11ft 3 3/4in, but both left empty-handed.
St Louis 1904
Who says you have to come first to win? J Scott Leary, swimming his 50-yard
freestyle final in front of his home crowd, struggled against Hungarian
Zoltan Halmay. Halmay won by a good foot, but the US judge declared Leary
the winner. Fighting broke out, so Leary and Halmay swam again - and this
time Halmay not only won but was also declared the winner.
London 1908
It is a testament to this country's standing as a sporting nation that
while organising the event it still found time to notch up its greatest
ever medal haul: 146 gongs, including 56 golds. Indeed, in the Rackets,
Polo, Motorboating and Tug-of-war, Britain took all available medals.
Curiously, none of the above sports are played at the Olympics any more.
Stockholm 1912
When Errol Brown of Hot Chocolate sang "Everyone's a winner, babe"
he had obviously overlooked the final of the Greco-Roman Light Heavyweight
wrestling competition that enthralled viewers at these games. The Swede,
Anders Ahlgren, and Finn, Ivar Bohling, were rather too evenly matched.
They fought and they struggled. The struggled and fought. They even tussled
and heaved. But after a bone-aching nine hours, an official could take
no more, throwing in the towel and declaring the bout a draw.
Antwerp 1920
Frenchman Joseph Guillemot gained an almost singular distinction when
he beat the Finn, Paavo Nurmi in the 5,000m. And in the 10,000m he gained
another. As Nurmi raced ahead to win by eight yards, Guillemot threw up
on the victor. He had been eating lunch when he found out his race had
been brought forward. Guillemot's digestion was slower than his running,
so he was destined to taste defeat - and it didn't taste good.
Paris 1924
Gallic enthusiasm peaked in the rugby final against the US during which
the French national anthem was booed, an American art student was thrashed
soundly by an irate Frenchman and fighting broke out in the stands. The
US team, which won 17-3, had to be escorted from the pitch.
Amsterdam 1928
As the French team made its way to the stadium the day before the opening
ceremony full of athletic joie de vivre, a bullish gatekeeper refused
them entry, even punching an athlete who had suggested that as participants
in the games they should, er… participate. The following day the
same official wouldn't let them in again. The French missed the Olympic
parade and announced their withdrawal from the games. The Dutch intervened,
suspended the gatekeeper and stopped the French team heading for home.
Los Angeles 1932
The French encountered problems this time too. To their horruer, America
was in the icily temperent grasp of Prohibition. They campaigned for dispensation
on medial grounds. They won it, and had a merry old games, with athletes
such as discus thrower Paul Winter and Jules Noel nipping off for a glass
of champers in between throws. They only managed third and fourth place
respectively, but who cares about the winning when the taking part is
like this?
Berlin 1936
German athlete, Gretel Bergmann, was the finest high-jumper of her generation.
She was also Jewish, so her Olympic trial performance was dubbed "mediocre"
and she was forbidden to compete. To compound the brilliance of Nazi ideology,
she was replaced by the undeniably Aryan but, ahem, male "Dora"
(aka Herman) Ratjen. In 1966 Herr Ratjen finally came clean. No comfort
to Bergmann, of course, who never got to compete in those Olympic games.
The 1936 winning height was 1.60m. Bergmann's "mediocre" qualifier?
1.64m.
London 1948
Audrey Patterson of the US won bronze in the women's 200m without coming
third. A photo-finish showed that Australian Shirley Strickland was ahead
of her. Unfortunately, the photograph did not come to light until 1975.
Helsinki 1952
Helsiniki in '52 was this place be. Unless you were Turkish wrestlers
Nasuh Akar, Celal Atik, Gazanfer Bilge and Yasar Dogu, who had all won
gold in 1948 and were favorites to do it again. But their federation forgot
to post their entries.
Melbourne 1956
Soviet rower Vyasheslav Ivanov beat Australian chicken-sexer Stuart Mackenzie
for first place. The 18-year-old received his medal, jumped for joy and
promptly dropped it into Lake Wendouree. The IOC gave him another, but
he was obviously worried about loosing that too so won two more in '60
and '64, just to make sure.
Rome 1960
When British javelin thrower Sue Platt's third-round effort landed beyond
the 177-foot mark, she leaped in delight, landed outside the circle and
was red-flagged for an illegal throw. Soviet Elvira Ozolina threw 183.8
to win gold. Czech Dana Zatopkova took silver with 176.5m. Platt ended
up seventh.
Tokyo 1964
It was not just the Nazis whose regime was fuelled by men who pretended
to be women. Ewa Klobukowska, Polish 100m bronze-medallist and 4x100m
gold medal winner, became the first athlete to fail a sex test.
Mexico City 1968
While '68 was marked by civil-rights struggles, it was also the Summer
of Love. Athletes resisted the urge to strip naked and form a human mandala,
but some aspects of hedonism were to be found. Swedish athlete Hans-Gunnar
Liljenvall downed two-bottles of beer during the pentathlon before being
detected. The team lost its bronze medal. Which is a shame - shooting
straight with a skinful is an art in itself.
Munich 1972
When 22-yea-old German student, Norbert Sudhaus, ran into the Olympic
stadium at the end of the marathon, over 20,000 spectators rose to their
feet and cheered. When a bemused Frank Shorter - who had led the race
from the 15kn mark - entered the stadium, organisers clicked: Sudhaus
had joined the race just a quarter of a mile outside the stadium for a
laugh. As he was bundled off in a maul of officials, it seemed that not
everyone got the joke, not least Frank Shorter. Having slogged his guts
out for two hours, he was greeted by booing. A bit of a downer…
Montreal 1976
The real struggle was not at the top of the medals tables, but the opposite
end. And it involved just one team: the Haitians. Wilnor Joseph finished
his first-round heat for the 800m in 2:15:26, the slowest Olympic time
this century. Team-mate Olmeus Charles, in the 10,000m, came home a quarter
of an hour after the winner. He ran his last six laps alone while officials
rushed around (somewhat faster) reorganising the schedule. Charles time
of 42:00:11 remains an Olympic record which should be dedicated to Haiti's
then leader, "Baby Doc" Duvalier, who had personally selected
the team.
Moscow 1980
Miruts Yifter had missed his chance of a 5,000m gold twice before when
the African boycott had kept him away from Montreal and he failed to show
up for his heat in 1972. This time he made it on time and won gold.
Los Angeles 1984
West German swimmer, Thomas Fahrner, approached the 400m freestyle heats
with a cunning plan to qualify with a time slow enough to give him an
outside lane. There was only one problem with his ninth-fastest qualifying
time: only eight made the final. American George DiCarlo broke the Olympic
record to win gold; Fahrner had the consolation of breaking it again in
the consolation final.
Seoul 1988
Korean boxer Park Si-hun in the light-middleweight division was a fighter
so poor that most observers could not see how he got to the final, let
alone win against the vastly superior Amercian, Roy Jones. Embarrassed
by the excessive generosity being shown by the judges to the host nation,
Park hailed Jones the true victor.
Barcelona 1992
Barcelona brought together two of the biggest names in sport: mighty Reebok
and equally mighty, though slightly more air-cushioned, Nike. With a $25
million ad campaign, Reebok focused on two decathletes: Dan O'Brien and
Dave Johnson, both of the USA. Unfortunately, Dan O'Brien failed to qualify
and Dave only won bronze. Fortunately, however, the winner Czech Robert
Zmelik, was wearing Reeboks too. Whew…