Little bit of Athletics Trivia

ecoli

Gonna start this thread in an attempt to try generate a little more interest in athletics amongst the runners here. Rules of the thread:

You can only respond to a post or post anything in this thread as long as you put a piece of trivia in your post i dont care how trivial or massive it is just some little piece so here goes

"The 1908 London Olympics was the first marathon to be run at the standard distance of 26.22 miles (42.195 km) but this did not become the official distance until 1924"

dev123

ecoli wrote: »

Gonna start this thread in an attempt to try generate a little more interest in athletics amongst the runners here. Rules of the thread:

You can only respond to a post or post anything in this thread as long as you put a piece of trivia in your post i dont care how trivial or massive it is just some little piece so here goes

"The 1908 London Olympics was the first marathon to be run at the standard distance of 26.22 miles (42.195 km) but this did not become the official distance until 1924"

An the reason for this change of distance was, as lifted from Wikipedia:

"The original distance of 25 miles was changed to 26 miles so the marathon could start at Windsor Castle and then changed again at the request of Princess Mary so the start would be beneath the windows of the Royal Nursery. To ensure that the race would finish in the front of the King, the finish line was moved by British officials who, in response to shot putter and American flag carrier Ralph Rose's refusal to dip the American flag before the Royal Box during the opening ceremony, “felt compelled to restore the importance of the monarchy.”

shotgunmcos

Sammy Wanjiru was the first Kenyan to win an Olympic Marathon in Beijing in 2008! I remember that fact sticking with me as I just assumed Kenya more or less dominated Marathon running when Haile wasn't around His elation made more sense than just the Gold then...

robinph

London will be the first city to host the Olympics three times, something that annoyed the French as Paris has done it twice.

Assuming it still happens in 2012 though, it will actually be the first time that London has hosted the games when they were actually supposed to. 1908 was meant to be in Rome, 1948 was meant to be in Tokyo and the only previous time that London was actually awarded the games was in 1944, and there was a bit else going on at that point so they never happened.

ecoli

The Five rings of the Olympics were intially thought to signifiy the five continents yet Africa is the only continent (of the 5 without dividing America or including Antartica) to have never hosted the Olympics

Snickers Man

One of the first examples of the Olympics being used as a platform for political protest came at the 1906 "Intercalated" games in Athens.

Although no longer recognised as an official Olympic meet, it was widely regarded then as such, occurring as it did in Athens on the 10th anniversary of the first Olympiad.

Ireland was not allowed to compete as a separate nation, because it wasn't at the time, although some competitors had been led to believe that it would.

Consequently, when then world record holding long jumper Peter O'Connor arrived at the podium to collect his silver medal he decided to make his displeasure felt. He shinned up the flagpole with a flag comprising a gold harp on a green background and the words Erin go bragh emblazoned across it and used it to replace the Union Jack that had been flying there.

Stewards were "discouraged" from impeding him by the imposing presence at the base of the flagpole of Martin Sheridan, winner of both the discus and shot events at that games. The Irish born Sheridan, was a New York cop who competed for the USA, the country to which he had emigrated. Apparently he stood there impassively with his arms folded wearing a smug "Go, ahead. Make my day" look, or whatever the Edwardian equivalent was.

Black power me arse! That's the way to do it!

MacSwifty

Joan Benoit of the USA won the first women's Olympic marathon in Los Angeles in 1984.

rainbow kirby

MacSwifty wrote: »

Joan Benoit of the USA won the first women's Olympic marathon in Los Angeles in 1984.

And 26 years later, she ran 2:47:50 at the age of 53 for the marathon.

Dan man

American sprinter Jim Hines was the first man to run the 100m in under 10 secs when he won the Olympic title in Mexico City in 1968 in a time of 9.95secs. His record stood for 15 years until 1983 when fellow American Calvin Smith set new figures of 9.93secs.

shels4ever

In 1912 the world record for the 10000m was 31:20.8 , This would have only been good enough for 4th at this years nationals.

ecoli

Emil Zatopek is the only athlete to ever do the treble of the 5000/10000/Marathon at the Olympics

However Paavo Nurmi holds the record for most athletics gold medals in a single Olympic Games with five distance gold medals*

*This included cross country and team events which were abolished in 1924

robinph

Piere De Couberatin, or how ever you spell it, won a gold medal for poetry. Or something equally daft.

Had to enter under a false name though.

dev123

ecoli wrote: »

The Five rings of the Olympics were intially thought to signifiy the five continents yet Africa is the only continent (of the 5 without dividing America or including Antartica) to have never hosted the Olympics

I remember the following bit of trivia but again trusty Wikipedia provides assurance:

"According to De Coubertin, (the creator of the Olympic rings), the ring colors with the white background stand for those colors that appeared on all the national flags of the world at that time (1914)."

ecoli

39 Irish Men have broken the sub 4 min mile. the youngest being Paul Robinson(19) and the oldest being Eamon Coughlan (41)

ecoli

dev123 wrote: »

I remember the following bit of trivia but again trusty Wikipedia provides assurance:

"According to De Coubertin, (the creator of the Olympic rings), the ring colors with the white background stand for those colors that appeared on all the national flags of the world at that time (1914)."

That is why I said initially thought haha (damn wiki catching me out:D)

Sonia O Sullivan has Irelands only World record recognised by the IAAF which still stands today in the 2000m in a time of 5.25*

*Gillian O Sullivan also holds World best in the 5k walk (track) but is not recognised as an official record

robinph

The mile is the only imperial distance still recognised for records by the IAAF.

The marathon is apparently a metric distance too now, but I'll stick with my 385 yards and 26 miles thanks.

OKriomhaire

Former American record holder for the mile, Steve Scott holds the unofficial record for 'Speed Golf'.

From Wikipedia: "Scott is also regarded as the founder of speed golf in 1979; on December 2, 1982, Scott set a record for the fastest round of golf played on a regulation course, completing 18 holes in 29 minutes, 33.05 seconds at Miller Golf Course in Anaheim, Calif. Using only two clubs and running from hole to hole, he posted a respectable score of 95."

notsofast

I posted this on the throws thread recently but I reckon it's interesting enough.....

In the 1912 olympics, there was an event called the "Two handed javelin"