DECEPTION: The Worst Race Ever Run: The Olympic Marathon of 1904

Hi, everyone. Before today's episode, we want to tell you about What the Fact. It's a new show from Conor Tomlinson, you know, from Netflix's Love on the Spectrum, and Carter Roy from Murder, True Crime Stories. Every week, they take three unbelievable true facts from history and tell you the full story behind them. Conor's infectious energy will make you realize history is the most fascinating thing on Earth. Follow What the Fact wherever you listen or subscribe on YouTube at What the Fact Pod. Imagine running a marathon in 90-degree heat with no water. But who needs water when the people on the sidelines hand you brandy and rat poison? One runner stops to take a nap. Another gets chased off course by a dog. And the first person to cross the finish line? He got there by hitching a ride with a car. So, sounds fake, right? Except this was completely real. This is the very true story of the 1904 Olympic Marathon. Welcome to Crimes of Deception. I'm Sabrina D'Anaroga. I'm Corinne Vienne. And this season, we're diving into stories where ambition, ego, and a little bit of delusion turn everyday scandals. Schemes into headlines. And in this case, what should have been a routine sporting event turned into a literal death race. Subscribe now and step inside the world of Crimes of. The case of the 1904 Olympic Marathon starts right now. Welcome to Crimes of Deception, a Crime House original powered by Pave Studios. We are your hosts, Sabrina D'Anaroga and Corinne Vienne. Every Tuesday, we're exploring the world of crime. We're exploring a different corner of the true crime universe, examining cases that left a permanent impact on society. This season, we're stepping into some of the boldest and most unbelievable crimes ever committed. The kinds of crimes where reality is stranger than fiction. If you're loving Crimes of, please follow, rate, and review us wherever you listen. It helps us build this community of jurors, and we love hearing from you. To get early access and ad-free listening, subscribe to the Crime House Plus community on Apple Podcasts. And you can find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. You can also catch us on YouTube, where we include visuals that bring every case to life. Today, we're headed to St. Louis, Missouri, where over 100 years ago, the Olympics came to the U.S. for the first time, and they were almost ruined forever. The man in charge of the Olympic Marathon had some big ideas about how to revolutionize the event, and instead, he nearly killed all of the competitors. So, let's get into it. Felix Carbajal stands in the starting line. Felix Carbajal stands in the starting line with 31 other men. His competition. The air is thick with heat and anticipation as they await their starting pistol. This is it. The Olympics. Felix is a mailman from Cuba. He's a simple man, and yet, here he is. The starting line isn't just for the race, but for Felix's life. An opportunity of a lifetime, a door opening to possibilities that he had never thought possible. He examines the other men beside him. The marathoners, men who look like they belong. But Felix takes a breath and slows his heart rate. He belongs here, too. Bang. The starting pistol fires, and the pack surges forward. Felix pumps his legs, feeling strong, determined. Time moves differently during a marathon, and Felix feels good for the first couple of miles. But he can't deny his throat feels dry, and the Missouri heat is relentless. Heavy. Humid. Felix needs water. But there's none in sight. It's all he can think about. And soon, he is struggling. But he's not the only one. A man in front of him stumbles, and another runner bends over, vomiting onto the track. Felix pushes forward, the pack is now fractured, and he finds himself running with just his thoughts. His legs feel heavy. The heat presses down. The dust clings to his skin. His lungs. The conditions are brutal. And he knows that this is all a mental challenge. He can do it. But without water, he begins to doubt himself. He thinks he sees a dog chasing another runner on the course. He thinks he sees a friend from Cuba cheering him on. But none of that's real. He's starting to lose his mind. And then he smells something. Something sweet. And before him, as if peering through the curtain of dust like a mirage, he sees an apple. An apple orchard. And Felix is so delirious, he doesn't know if it's real or if it's an illusion. But it is real. And so Felix veers off course to grab some fruit and take a breather. He knows that it will cost him a lot of time, but right now, that is the least of his worries. As he bites into the sweet apple and the juice dribbles down his chin, the noise fades and he feels strong again. The break is exactly what he needs, and he gets back onto the course. But the chaos. Is worse than before. A dog really is chasing a runner off the course. Another man collapses to the ground, and then he sees blood, lots of it. His eyes widen, and Felix worries that he won't be able to finish the race. He starts to wonder if any of them will. Blood. Fruit. Dogs. And if you're wondering if this is a dramatized narrative, it was not. Every part of that was real. Not even the worst of it, because the chaos has literally just begun. It's truly one of the most outrageous chain of events. Less than half of the marathon runners actually finished the race, and the man who was eventually named the winner only got that far because he drank brandy and rat poison along the way. Oh my god, it's just so wild. It doesn't feel real. No. At all. At all. But we're getting ahead of ourselves. We're gonna bring you the story of the bizarre 1904 Olympic marathon, truly one of the most bizarre, chaotic, and honestly dangerous sporting events in history, but this didn't just happen accidentally. There were a lot of calculated decisions that led to this, and in order to understand how it came to be and how we got here, let's go back to the World's Fair. Because it doesn't start with the Olympics, it starts with the World's Fair, which the World's Fair, for context, it was a massive deal back in the 1900s. It was a global spectacle, an opportunity for countries and cities to participate in. They used to show off their inventions, their achievements. Basically, it was a way to show off for countries, cities, people within those places to brag. The very first one was held in London in 1851, and then ever since then, cities all over the world duked out to host the event. For example, this is one of my favorite stories about the World's Fair. Back in 1889, the World's Fair was held in Paris, and that was when the Eiffel Tower was built and revealed to the world. You think of the Eiffel Tower. You're like, that's an iconic structure. People go to Paris to see it, the twinkling lights. But when it was first revealed to the world, people were like, this is the ugliest, most hideous thing in the world. Get this out of here. Well, because now it's a symbol that we equate with Paris. But at the time, I guess, yeah, it did stand out. They were like, this is disgusting. Point being, it was a big deal, and hosting it was an even bigger deal. So then, in early 1900s, the city of St. Louis, Missouri, was like, hey, can it be our turn yet? Which, St. Louis, this surprised me, was the fourth biggest city at that time. Isn't that, yeah. That does surprise me. You don't think about that. But it didn't have the same, like, clout that New York and Chicago did. Right. But that did not stop Missouri's governor, David R. Francis. He was like, mm-mm, it's our time to shine. We need this moment. And finally, he got the chance. And St. Louis was officially the city to host. The 1904 World's Fair, which is a huge accomplishment. Governor Francis was on cloud nine until he got some unwanted news. Yeah. There was another big event being planned at the moment. The Olympics. Kind of a hard thing to go against when it comes to planning. Yeah. The International Olympic Committee, or the IOC, had decided that the 1904 Games would take place at the exact same time, but 300 miles away, in Chicago. So dramatic. Oh, my gosh. Governor Francis and the other Missouri state officials had already been planning to put on a major athletic showcase for the World's Fair, and so the last thing that they wanted was to be— Upstaged. Exactly. Yeah. It's like everyone's going to go to the Olympics, so— It's like when someone plans a birthday party the same day your birthday party is happening. Right. And it's gold— You put your invitations out in the mail a week before. Goldfish-themed. And you're like, what? How dare you? I'm going to have goldfish, too! You can tell you're a mother. Yeah. We were just at the doctor's watching goldfish this morning, which is why I'm thinking of it. My brain went to, like, the Sweet Sixteen drama. Oh, and I'm like, goldfish? Yeah, my brain is computing at, like, a two-year-old's. Noah just named his baby brother, too, who's currently in womb. His name is going to be pronounced exactly like this: pom-pom. So, yeah. I'm going to have goldfish. Get ready. Oh, I can't wait to meet. So cute. Okay, so drama, right? They're like, we don't want to compete here. There can only be one of us because we can't have other people in Chicago. So they immediately contacted Pierre, who was the co-founder of the Modern Olympics, to try to convince him to bring the games to St. Louis. They were like, you don't have to cancel the Olympics, but they should all be in one place. Everyone, the whole audience, one city. And that is St. Louis, not Chicago. At first, Pierre is like, no, that's ridiculous. But officials from St. Louis started to play hardball, and they kind of made some light threats. I love that for them. Yeah, they're like, oh, you have sporting events? Well, we are also going to have sporting events, and we are going to make the event bigger and more spectacular than anything the Olympics can even dream of. So good luck getting an audience of spectators at your Olympics in Chicago. And so Pierre's like, oh, my God, you guys are being so dramatic. Fine, we'll just go to St. Louis. Whatever. And so that's what happened, Pierre, even. The fair would run from April to December, and the Olympics would take place between July and November. It's so crazy to think about the fair happening the majority of the year. Yeah, it's wild. Which makes a little more sense, because when I think about, are you into, like, the conspiracies of the World Fair? No. I mean, there's dark history, which we're going to get into, like, the actual history. But there's plenty of, like, down-the-rabbit-hole conspiracies of the World Fair. And I feel like whenever I think about it, I'm like, oh, my God. I think of a fair. I think of the version that we have in America today, where it's like— Deep-fried Oreos? Yeah, go for, like, five weeks or whatever to, like, this one dirt field and have a fried Oreo and watch pigs race. And it makes sense how they had such huge structures and how intense the World Fair was. Yeah. Because it literally was lasting almost the whole year. It was a long-term thing. Yeah. And also, back then, the Olympics were not what they are today. Do you ever watch old clips of people— Yeah. Yeah. But also, like— Not to diss any of the athletics. Not to diss any of the athletics back then. But it's very different. I think they had, like, restarted it and, like, revamped it, like, three or four times up to this point. So they were trying to become a bigger entity, but they weren't yet, which is why the World Fair kind of did take precedent. But with the Olympics, they were a lot more disorganized and more experimental at this point. So there weren't many rules and regulations, which is important to keep in mind. When talking about this case and wondering how the heck things could happen, it's because there really weren't many rules and regulations. So the combination of the World Fair and Olympics, both happening in St. Louis, was a huge opportunity for something special. The fair's exhibits were meant to shock and amaze, to showcase innovation and industry. And it was an atmosphere that was more about, like, the drama and carnival than it was anything else. Well, the two events coinciding. They really just had— They really just had one goal in mind, and that was to create something unforgettable. The powers that be appointed to one man to be in charge of organizing all athletic competition would be James E. Sullivan. So now we have one guy who's working on both the World's Fair and the Olympics. And I'm going to tell you a little bit about James E. Sullivan. He was nationally famous for sponsoring and officiating athletic competitions. So he had a lot of experience doing so. He wasn't some random guy that was brought in. Like, he was qualified for the job. He was one of the founders of the U.S. Amateur Athletic Union, which regulated rules and guidelines for amateur sports leagues throughout the country and helped promote the U.S. in international athletic competitions. Okay. Very important, right? And it would make sense, too, like, with the World's Fair happening and everyone in the whole world looking at you, that this is an important person to be a player. So on paper. On paper. Yeah. On paper, he's the perfect man for the job. Great resume, respected, years of experience. You can see why he was appointed to be the head of the Department of Physical Culture for the 1904 World's Fair. Here's the thing. James E. Sullivan, he's the antagonist for today's episode. He goes rogue. Yes. Well, I think he was always going rogue. For him, sports weren't just about health and recreation. They were actually a way for him to prove. Something that is very racist. He believed that white American men were superior. Yeah. So the 1904 World's Fair and Olympics literally became a tool for him to prove his deep-seated racism. Propaganda. Yes. And even more, and even worse, he viewed his role as a way to kind of run experiments on humans. Sullivan was obsessed with endurance and obsessed with testing how far the human body could be pushed. And. And that combined with his belief that white American men would always perform best, plus this power that he now has, he used the World's Fair and Olympics to prove this very twisted ideology. I want the glip from New Girl to come up where it's Schmidt going, oh, white man. No. Yes. And us, as the judges here and the jury banging our gavels. Guilty. Guilty. Of being a racist. Send him to jail. It also feels like the Amanda show where, like, we're judges. And Trudy. Bring in the dancing lobsters. Honestly, totally. Kyle's probably the only reason I moved to California. It's, like, so cool. But, no, okay. In all seriousness, this man sucks. And, unfortunately, that also means a lot of the background we're about to talk about does suck, too. Right. And also, not that this is any excuse, but let's remember when this story takes place. It is 1904. Segregation is legal. Racist ideology is mainstream and will be forever. For many more decades. Yeah. James E. Sullivan was not alone in his beliefs, unfortunately. Many people believed in racial hierarchies backed by the so-called science, quote-unquote, science. And despite people trying to push back, this mentality just, like, dominated the world and was so deeply rooted in American life. And today we know that that's deeply wrong and dehumanizing and harmful and that all humans are equal and a white man can't run faster than anyone else. If anything, white men don't run faster. Yeah. Actually, if we really want to get into genetics here, they're probably not coming in first. No. Anyway, so it's really messed up. And as a heads up, what we're about to talk about is really disturbing. It's like, I can't believe this ever happened. And it really does show you the type of man we're dealing with when it comes to James E. Sullivan. Because, as a reminder, in addition to organizing the Olympics, he was also in charge of showcasing athletics in the World's Fair. And he decided to do so with something. He called the Anthropology Days. But it is better known as, and it's like what people talk about and refer to it today, the human zoo. It's pretty much exactly what it sounds like. He put indigenous and colonized people literally on display at the World's Fair and forced them to participate in Western athletic events. Not because they volunteered, but because Sullivan wanted to prove that they were inferior. There was a lot of racism. And that's just one of the very unsettling exhibits featured at the 1904 World's Fair. But it's just the context that reveals the bigger picture as to both society and also James Sullivan and his extremely messed up way of seeing things. And it speaks to what he then implemented in the Olympic marathon race. He viewed human bodies as objects to be measured, compared, tested, and experimented on. An experiment is the perfect way to describe his philosophy when it came to Olympic events. Because to him, these were not people. They were test subjects. Which brings us back to the 1904 marathon and James Sullivan's unique take on hosting a marathon. Sullivan didn't want just a race. He wanted this to be an experiment. And like Sabrina said, he was all about testing. Testing the limits of human endurance. And at this time, he was obsessed with the concept known as purposeful dehydration. Which like when I first read that, I was like, it kind of reminds me of that one cult where the woman was like, oh, the sun, let's like, we photosynthesize. Like we just, I eat from the sun. Like this is like delusion. Like where are you getting this? The idea behind purposeful dehydration was basically like the less water you drink, the better you perform. And this is not just Sullivan. Like this was, I think, like a theory that people in the athletic field were testing. Yeah. It was like, you're still drinking some water. But Sullivan took it to an extreme when it came to the Olympics. He was like, instead of just minimizing, what if we completely deprive these runners of hydration? Yeah. Which like even today in certain sports, you'll see where like people will just like wet their mouths with sponges or something like that. Because like if you have too much water when you're doing something. It's not great for you. You get cramps. You get cramps. You could throw up. You might overdo it. But you need water. But that doesn't mean no water. You need the water. Yes. He didn't get it. Anyway, he thought that along with furthering white supremacy, the Olympic marathon would be the perfect place to prove that drinking water was a bad thing. So clearly, what does that make you think of James Sullivan and his thoughts on literally everything? Boo. Smack the invisible gavel. Weirdo. but a bad one. We all experience petty grievances in life. A bachelorette party that resulted in a runaway bridesmaid. A neighbor who has trained their dog to poo in your yard. An ex-friend who writes a semi-autobiographical book about your friend group and then kills off your character. Maybe these aren't completely relatable, but they are all petty crimes we've investigated on our podcast. I'm Griff, your average biracial farm-raised queer actor and retired model who's living and looking for love in Los Angeles. And I'm Kira, I'm an SNL writer, a movie writer, a comedian, and I'm the only person pettier than Griff. Petty Crimes is a true crime comedy podcast that exclusively investigates non-crimes. Meaning, real-life, low-stakes, petty drama that's submitted each week by our listeners and ruled on by us. Some weeks, we're joined by comedian friends like Ego Wodum, Gianmarco Seresi, Chloe Fineman, Sarah Sherman, Jeremy Colhane, Carl Tartt, Lacey Mosley. But most of the time, you're just stuck with us. If you're the type that tells your boyfriend to shh so you can eavesdrop on the tea unfolding at the table, next to you, you've found your people. Subscribe to Petty Crimes wherever you get your podcasts. So even though most marathons had water stations every couple of miles, he was like, we're only going to have one and we're going to put it at the halfway point. And today, marathons are 26.2 mile races, but back then it was 24.85. So basically, one water station for over 24 miles of running. That's crazy. That is so crazy. It's crazy. It's crazy. Also, on top of that, because there weren't so many regulations on, especially with marathons, there were not like regulations on the courses or how it had to be mapped out like they are today. So he was like, I'm going to design a course with very few water stations and obstacles and make it a free-for-all, basically. It's so weird. He really did take things to the extreme. So he built a dirt track on the fairgrounds that was really hilly and windy. It was for kicks to make it harder. And basically, like his goal was to make this the hardest course. So he was like testing a million things at once. Oh, yeah. Which is also like, that's also not science. Like you can't come to any conclusion if you're testing a million things at once. Like how do you even know? Whatever. I think he had more of just like, he liked, it was torture. He was like, how can I torture humans? Yes. Yeah. Oh, God. Sick, sick man. Sick man. But he's dead now. Okay. So once the course was set, there was one. There was one thing left to do, which was pick the athletes who would run it. In total, 32 men entered the race representing just seven countries, which is so crazy. You know, thinking about marathons today and how many people are running. Like every photo has more than 32 people. Yes. So it had people from the United States, France, Canada, Great Britain, South Africa, Cuba, and Greece. And Sullivan got to hand select some of them himself. So true to form, trying to push the narrative that the white man is best. He chose the strongest American runners who are white, who had won events like the Boston Marathon and made sure that they would be there. But then he also filled in some of the gaps with less experienced athletes from other countries. Like the narrative, he was a mailman from Cuba. Exactly. Yeah. And then also a seasoned marathon runner from the Boston Marathon. Yeah. White man will race against him. Let's see who wins. A rigged race. Science, man. Oh, God. He knows the crap out of me. I'm going to get more mad at him. I know. I know. This is the word, like, because we're really digging into his background and like hearing how terrible of a person he is. But when we get into the actual race, I mean, it's awful, but it's also chaotic. It's very chaotic. Yeah. So while this lack of diversity and like proving his agenda was top of mind for Sullivan, a lot of the Olympic events outside of the marathon also basically lacked diversity and most of them didn't even include a single non-American competitor. Yeah. Getting around also wasn't easy back then. So it was a lot to ask all of these athletes from all around the world to come all the way to St. Louis. So really, a lot of the best runners couldn't even make it even if they wanted to. So like, it's already rigged from the beginning. It's not going to prove anything that he wants it to prove. Some of the guys who showed up for the 1904 marathon weren't even long distance runners. Some of them weren't even trained runners at all. And none of them. And none of them knew what they were about to face. They didn't know about the lack of water. They didn't know about the conditions. They didn't know that this was being treated like an experiment. They thought that they were just going to run an Olympic marathon and honor very few people had the opportunity to do. But in reality, they were about to be pushed beyond their limits in a race that was never designed for them to succeed. The 1904 Olympic marathon was supposed to be a spectacle for the ages, but the runners really had no idea of the disaster. that awaited them. A lot of the men were completely inexperienced and had been set up to fail as a way for James Sullivan to prove his racist ideology. And the American men that he had selected were trained. But the event was a huge deal. And they weren't about to say no to the opportunity. So around 3 p.m. on August 30th, sun beaming down on you, it's 1904, all 32 runners stood at the starting line. It was already night. It was already 90 degrees at the time the race began. 90 degrees. Humid. Hot. Horrible. And the conditions only got worse. The starting pistol fired and the scene exploded into a cloud of dust. Literally. Because the runners weren't the only ones on the track. Keep in mind, it's a dirt track. Their coaches, doctors, support teams, and even journalists rode alongside the runners in their cars and on horseback, creating this massive dust. It was a dust storm that was going straight into the runners' noses and lungs. God. The allergies. I could just like see everyone snotting and crying. The dust was so thick that spectators could barely even see the runners. And you would think, oh, okay, as a support team, you see how terrible you're making this road and condition. Like, let's stop driving. But no. They keep going. So almost three miles in, this dust cloud still enveloped all 32 racers. And remember, we have to be careful. We have heat, we have no water, and now we have a dust storm. Sounds like Coachella. Literally. I was like a stagecoach. I've never been to Coachella. Or what's the other one? Burning Man? Burning Man. Oh, my God. Okay, so less than three miles in. Already, this race is proving to be too much. An American runner named John Lorden, who had won the Boston Marathon the year before, suddenly doubled over and starts throwing up in the course. Three miles in. He swallowed so much dust that he physically could not keep going. And after that, he was just like, nope, I'm over it. He walked straight off the track and became the first DNF, which stands for did not finish. And he wouldn't be the last. Okay, so three miles in, we're down to 31 runners left. This feels like the No More Monkeys Jumping on the Bed song. 31 runners ran through the dust. One fell down. This isn't going to go well. Okay. No. All right, so the remaining 31 men continue running. They're running for the next few miles, and things are going okay. It's relatively uneventful. That is until the 10-mile mark when a man named Felix Carvajal made a pit stop. Felix is the man who stopped to eat some fruit from the apple orchard, and he is the one that we started the episode on. So he has this incredible story. He's a mailman from Cuba. He almost wasn't able to even make the race because he didn't have money for it. But at the very last minute, he raised enough money to make his way all the way to the States. And live out his dream of running in this marathon. And fortunately, he then gambled it all the way in New Orleans. And then he had to hitchhike the rest of the way to St. Louis. But he made it there. This guy has stamina, which is why he made it, I think, as far as he did in this race, too. So when the race day rolled around, Felix was in pretty rough shape to begin with. He wasn't the most experienced guy. And adding on to the stress of his travels, he showed up to the race wearing a long-sleeved shirt, a hat, long pants, and heavy shoes. In 90-degree weather. Yeah. Oh, and a giant mustache, too. Of course. A lot of extra heat on his face. Absorb that sweat. Wicked away. So thankfully, someone helped him cut his pants into shorts before the race started. But really, that would be the least of his problems. Because like all of the other runners, he became severely dehydrated. He was swallowing a ton of dust. Yeah. And so it's no surprise that when he gets to the 10-mile mark, before the race, he spots an apple orchard, and he decides to stop. Because keep in mind, there has been no water. No. None. And also, like, with his travels and hitchhiking, he'd barely eaten for days. Yeah. So he had, like, no food in his stomach, no water. Oh, a sweet, juicy, crisp apple. He had been drinking quite a bit with that gambling. Probably. Yeah. Whatever delirious state he was in, he decided, I gotta stop. It's not like he just, like, picked an apple and came back. He just kept running. Now, before this, he did try to swipe some peaches from spectators, because he'd been also, like, apparently chatting it out with spectators and making them laugh. And I'm like, was he stopping and just, like, chatting with people along the way? I was kind of confused by it. Or was it, like, a drive-by joke session? I'm not sure. Yeah. In any case, he stopped because he could not resist this fruit. And he made himself a picnic mid-race. And then once he was satiated, he got back onto the course and continued running. I love that. I love that so much. But. Also, running a marathon and stopping to eat multiple apples doesn't really serve you well. So, of course, he starts to get pretty severe stomach cramps. They were so bad that once again he decides, I need to go off the track. But this time, he lays down on the side of the course and takes a nap. Sounds like my first season of T-Ball. So, he is napping. All the other runners who are equally struggling are, like, running by him, confused as to why this other runner is just, like, lounging in a field, resting and napping. But Felix is there, napping and race, meaning that there are only 30 runners left. So, now they're halfway through the marathon, which means, finally, there's a water station. Although there's only one water station on the course, which I don't even think they knew. So, they're thrilled to see water. They're like SpongeBob and Sandy's bubble. Water! Sandy! Water! Yes. And they gather around this table and chug water before continuing the race. But so many of the runners drank so much water at this mid-race water station that it actually hurt them. One man, an American runner named Sam Miller, who also won the Boston Marathon a couple years prior, chugged so much water at this station that by mile 16, he was doubled over with stomach cramps. He slowed his pace and eventually walked off the track, becoming the next DM. So, now we're down to 29. Pretty soon, another runner veered off the track as well. But this was for a completely different and terrifying reason. Lin Tanayani was one of two men representing the South African Sowana tribe. This was actually the first marathon that he and his fellow countryman, Jan Mashiani, had ever been in. So, that's a big deal. And apparently, they had been the only Black athletes to represent South Africa in the Olympics until apartheid. Apartheid ended almost 90 years later. Yeah. So, truly an amazing moment for them as runners and as, like, men. But the reason they were there wasn't exactly inspiring because they were part of the World's Fair's exhibits for reenactments of battles from the Second Boer War between Dutch settlers and British troops in South Africa. So, they were also being mocked, kind of. But they were runners, in a sense, because both of them had actually participated in the war-running message. So, it's just back and forth. Damn. Yeah. What a, like, wild way to obtain the title of runner. I know. I know. It's unfortunate, but it's also extremely impressive. Very, very impressive. And, like, such incredible men. But they had no experience as far as running actual marathons, but they did manage to hold their own for some time. That's such a bummer because it's like they have zero experience running actual marathons, but, like, this isn't an actual marathon. No, this is not an actual marathon. This is not representative of what an actual marathon is. And this part's actually sad to me because, I mean, while we don't know the story of how it actually happened, I have a theory that makes me angry. So, it's mile 16, and Lynn is going past mile 16 mark when all of a sudden he sees something out of the corner of his eye. He turns his head and sees a dog sprinting right at him, and this dog starts chasing him. And it's not clear if this is someone's pet or what, but considering the racism going on, I'm wondering if it is a dog someone intentionally lost. It's not clear if this is someone's pet or what, but considering the racism going on, I'm wondering if this is someone's pet or what, but considering the racism going on, I'm wondering if it is a dog someone intentionally lost. If this is someone's pet or what, but considering the racism going on, I'm wondering if this is someone's pet or what, but considering the racism going on, I'm wondering if this is someone's pet or what, but considering the racism going on, I'm wondering if this is someone's pet or what, but considering the racism going on, I'm wondering if this is someone's pet or what, but considering the racism going on, I'm wondering if this is someone's pet or what, but considering the racism going on, I'm wondering if this is someone's pet or what, but considering the racism going on, I'm wondering if this is someone's pet or what, but considering the racism going on, I'm wondering if this is someone's pet or what, but considering the racism going on, I'm wondering if this is someone's pet or what, but considering the racism going on, I'm wondering if this is someone's pet or what, but considering the racism going on, I'm wondering if this is someone's pet or what, but considering the racism going on, I'm wondering if this is someone's pet or what, but considering the racism going on, I'm wondering if this is someone's pet or what, but considering the racism going on, I'm wondering if this is someone's pet or what, but considering the racism going on, I'm wondering if this is someone's pet or what, but considering the racism going on, I'm wondering if this is someone's pet or what, but considering the racism going on, I'm wondering if this is someone's pet or what, but considering the racism going on, I'm wondering if this is someone's pet or what, but considering the racism going on, I'm wondering if this is someone's pet or what, whose coaches gave him a sponge bath was being ushered over the finish line by two of his trainers he was in super rough shape his trainers swore that thomas ran the entire race himself and they were just there to see him through to the finish line because he was literally on the brink of a collapse and he was fully hallucinating at this point too so they're like supporting his body that is about to collapse go limp yes make its way across the finish line so technically he did cross the finish line by himself on his own because his trainers had given him strychnine a poison a rat poison specifically that had a stimulating side effect to get him to finish so once again the person who they thought had won the race had cheated and was now also near death is that cheating though or is that just proof of the human spirit you get rat poisoned by your trainers and you still make it across the finish line it's cheating okay well okay see thomas hicks had similar to the other runners in the race been exhausted and dehydrated and unable to continue the race and his trainers like you were saying didn't want to give him water because they didn't want to break the rules that would be cheating that james sullivan had made but they were like well we can't give you water but we could give you strychnine instead give you a sponge bath and a little poison which was a fad at the time which i had no idea but apparently it people were using small amounts of strychnine as a stimulant so that is cheating it's just so scary because it's like now watching television shows and it's like so and so gets poisoned to death and it's it's this it's this so when thomas started to lose speed during the race they pulled their car to the side of the track and gave him a lovely cocktail of strychnine egg whites and brandy it's like a twist on the whiskey sour now with more rat poison it's delicious also like you're struggling so much with your lack of water and so then you get give whiskey yeah alcohol and poison and here's the thing as you can imagine too much of strychnine can kill a person so based on thomas's appearance at the finish line he was in bad shape like so he crosses the finish line and his trainers are like holding him up keeping him up off the ground but he is still running so like his legs are off the air but he's running as if he's still running the race and he like says out loud thinking that he's at mile 20 still damn we're blaming sullivan for a lot of this and he really is the main person to blame but like i feel like half these trainers are also about to kill their runners oh for sure yeah they were like let's do anything to win yeah thomas hicks had no idea where he was or what was going on he looked skeletal too apparently he lost a full eight pounds from the beginning of the race to the end like that is so unhealthy that i can't believe he didn't have a heart attack and if he didn't get help soon he was like at risk of dying so thomas was immediately rushed from the course to get medical care despite using poison to win thomas hicks was given the rightful winner title technically he cheated but sullivan had only imposed rules against water not poison or brandy so the title belonged to thomas and thomas's marathon performance went down in history as the first time performance enhancing drugs were used in a marathon performance and thomas's marathon performance went down in history as the used in the olympics you know steroids rat poison what's the difference do they test for rat poison these days hey athletes instead of being caught i love that that's your take strychnine enhance your performance today okay so now there has been a winner officially crowned but there are still some 20 plus men running this marathon albert corey a slaughterhouse worker from chicago came in second at three hours before the marathon and he was the first to win the marathon hours and 34 minutes which was just a few minutes behind thomas 13 minutes later another american runner named a.l newton took third and newton had actually had a pretty impressive resume the day before he'd won bronze in the steeplechase and four years earlier he had finished fifth in the olympic marathon in paris so again i just love that like the clown and the slaughterhouse worker are not professional runners they come in first and second yeah and then felix our mailman he's a professional runner he's a professional runner he's a professional runner he's a professional runner they also stop for fruit stop for fruit had a picnic then had a nap ran in jorts yeah he ends up getting back on the track and he finished in fourth i love felix lynn and yawn from south africa lynn came in ninth even after being chased off course a whole mile by a dog wild and yawn followed closely behind coming in 12th place in the end only 14 of the original 32 runners crossed the finish line which is wild yeah less than a surprise that any of them even made it to be honest and then also at least two that we know have cheated so you would think that james sullivan would be like oh my god what a failed experiment right no he was pretty proud of himself he thought yeah this is great proof of my racial superiority that i believe in and he was bragging about it well let's not forget he literally rigged the entire thing also mostly recruited experienced white runners and inexperienced men from other countries and he was the one who was the one who was the one who was the one who was the one who was the one who was the one who was the one who was the one who was the but fortunately the spectators watching could see that it's like what was going on and they got pretty angry with james sullivan they saw him and the race for exactly what it was inhuman and dangerous two days after the race the st louis post dispatch called the marathon a quote man killing event now no one actually died but there were literally emergency surgeries and people on the brink of death yeah but according to the paper the event was so disastrous some members of the international olympic committee were calling for the marathon to be removed from the games altogether what about james what about james sullivan being removed from his position yeah is marathon running the problem or is james and his course and his dumb mind after that article hit the stands james tried to walk it back and he basically made this public statement saying that the olympic marathon quote asked too much of human endurance and that he wasn't talking about his marathon he was referencing just like the whole concept of marathons as a whole taking zero accountability and putting all the blame on the event itself then why didn't this happen in any other marathon events james sullivan so people again they saw through him they knew exactly what was going on they knew it was his design of the race that made it so dangerous and so marathons continue to be a part of the olympic games in the future and even still today so a few years after this whole scandal james sullivan was told that of the 1904 marathon once it had cooled off james sullivan wrote a book called marathon running and in his book he doubled down on his idea of purposeful dehydration and continued to not take accountability okay james sullivan you run the marathon then without water right you do it yeah so today and this is something we talked about earlier but like science has proven that even mild dehydration can reduce endurance and performance as a whole drinking before and during exercise improves your outcome and while purposeful dehydration is dangerous so too is over hydration in 1914 so 10 years after this disastrous marathon james sullivan died of intestinal troubles that's it no consequences no accountability whatsoever just one of the most dangerous olympic events in history and the man behind it walked away totally unbothered okay so as for the runners thomas hicks ran a couple more marathons after that and after that he basically disappeared from recorded history and so did lynn and yawn but some of the others kept at it so a few days after the 1904 marathon wrapped al newton won an olympic gold medal in the four mile team race albert corey continued racing in chicago and even won an early version of the chicago marathon in 1908 and the first cheating winner fred lortz who had been banned for life was able to run the marathon in 1908 and he was able to run the marathon in just a couple of months i agree with that i don't think he should i know yeah but it was a ridiculous thing that he did but he tried to get away with it yeah only until he was caught was he like it was a joke right but he very quickly admitted sure sure but in 1905 he won the boston marathon as far as we know it was legitimately and despite all the drama and the horrible conditions there was something to celebrate about the 1904 olympic marathon there was a runner named frank who while he did not finish the race he was the first ever native american to compete in the olympics so we'll we can remember it for that too yes and i'm sure you're wondering what happened to our bed bug mailman felix his life really truly should be a movie because he returned to st louis in 1905 to compete in the inaugural all western marathon and then one year later he was set to compete in greece to represent cuba in an olympics adjacent marathon but he never made it because somewhere along the way from cuba to greece felix disappeared truly disappeared no one heard from him or saw him for months that his obituary was printed in the papers and then a couple months later felix just suddenly re-emerges in havana with no explanation he doesn't say like oh where i was no explanation dude felix probably got abducted by aliens like that's a one person or he gambled his money away yeah he's shipwrecked or something then finally he's like makeshift float yeah back to cuba on the right he just liked the mystery oh man and he then he kept participating in amateur races until 1949 when he died of a heart attack oh man but his story i think what i got like yeah yeah that's who i'm gonna remember unfortunately i know that there's another winner and there's a lot of people who went through a lot but like he's the person i remember when i think of this event he's a character yeah he you root for him the whole time really do right the guy in jorts taking naps eating fruit he's great so there you have it that's the 1904 olympic marathon rat poison naps dog chases brandy blood feels much more akin to a psychedelic trip than an olympic marathon you know what it kind of reminded me of it was the movie the menu oh you ever watch that yes because it is like a it's like a messed up psychological experiment in a way except well can i spoil it the movie's been out for a while yeah skip ahead 30 seconds some participants in that were privy to what was going on one one plus the staff and the staff yes that's true yeah but anyway yeah it feel the the point being is that this feels like it's fictional but it was real it really happened and even though many of the runners legacies have been lost to time the bizarre and chaotic events of the 1904 olympic marathon are truly unforgettable truly and they led to some key changes and what's become a hugely popular olympic event the 1908 olympic marathon in london was the first modern games to feature a 26.2 mile course which is what we have today that year was also when anti-doping rules were first introduced in the olympics no more rat poison don't bring your rat poison folks and even though some athletes still openly cheated it brought some awareness to the issue and it prevented any more hicks situations it is really crazy to think that what's now considered the most prestigious marathon race in the world became what it is thanks to the whims of a very delusional man and even though james sullivan was never charged with any literal crime he could never have pulled this off today or we hope he could never have pulled this off today and in the end runners like felix and lynn did prove the value of human endurance just not in the way that sullivan had hoped so whether you're being chased by a dog or you need to lie down and take a nap for a while you can still beat the odds that's the lesson of today's episode thank you so much for listening we are your hosts sabrina diana roga and corinne vienne join us next tuesday for a brand new season of crimes of i'm excited for the season can you guess what it is any guesses any guesses actually there was kind of there was a little bit of a hint in this episode you did make a comment about there's a reference if you can guess if you can find it it's a whole season about spongebob a crabby body recipe we found it that actually would be a really fun episode to like truly like go through every single episode stealing the recipe try to figure it out so if there are any cases that you'd like us to cover let us know in the comments here at crime house we want to thank each and every one of you for your support if you like what you heard today reach out on all social media at crime house and don't forget to rate and review and follow crimes of wherever you get your podcasts your feedback truly makes a difference and with that court is adjourned did you know the most feared pirate in the atlantic the man who terrorized an entire ocean for years may never have actually killed anyone real golden age of pirates was the most democratic workplace in the western world i'm connor tomlinson from love on the spectrum and history is my thing and i'm carter roy and this is what the fact every week we take the most unbelievable true things in history and tell you the whole story behind them carter sets the scene connor brings the facts the deep cuts and the genuine belief that this is the most interesting subject in the world it is this is the history lesson you actually wished you had in high school new episodes every wednesday follow what the fact on apple podcasts spotify amazon music or subscribe on youtube at what the fact pod happy halloween crime house listeners i'm vanessa richardson join me every sunday this month on crime house 24 7 for crime house of horrors where i dive into four stories behind some of our favorite scary movies if you can't wait 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