Bizarre Olympics
The Olympics used to have some pretty bizarre events, says John Lloyd in The Oldie. The 1900 Games included “live pigeon shooting”, long jump for horses, and croquet (which was subsequently dropped as an event “because only one spectator turned up to watch”). At the 1908 London Games, Britain won gold, silver and bronze in the tug of war. In 1924, Jack Yeats, the artist brother of poet WB Yeats, won Ireland’s first-ever Olympic medal – “a silver for painting”. Going back rather further, the ancient Greek city of Megara held a version of the Olympic Games which included a kissing contest. “Only boys were allowed to enter.”
Animals have long played a part. Horses competing in the Olympics have their own passports and fly in business class. When they can fly at all, that is: quarantine laws meant the equestrian events at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics took place in Stockholm. At the 1928 games, oarsman Henry Pearce stopped to let a family of ducks cross his lane “and went on to win the gold medal”. The doves released at the opening ceremony of the 1988 Seoul games weren’t so lucky. Many were “roasted alive when the Olympic flame was lit”.
⏱️🤦 At the 1932 Olympics, the 3,000-metre steeplechase was run over 3,400 metres “because an official lost count of the number of laps”
Animals have long played a part. Horses competing in the Olympics have their own passports and fly in business class. When they can fly at all, that is: quarantine laws meant the equestrian events at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics took place in Stockholm. At the 1928 games, oarsman Henry Pearce stopped to let a family of ducks cross his lane “and went on to win the gold medal”. The doves released at the opening ceremony of the 1988 Seoul games weren’t so lucky. Many were “roasted alive when the Olympic flame was lit”.
⏱️🤦 At the 1932 Olympics, the 3,000-metre steeplechase was run over 3,400 metres “because an official lost count of the number of laps”
61-69, M
