The Christian emperor Theodosius I ended the Olympic games in 394ad citing the games as an outlawed pagan festival, thank you baby Jesus.
The original starting line on Olympic field, Olympia, Greece
The modern games were started again in 1896 in Athens, Greece. Organized by the International Olympic Committee, the rebirth of the games would be a much more conservative take on history.
Of course there have been the exceptions...
One of my favorite stories of modern Olympics was of American marathon runner Thomas Hicks.
In the 1904 Olympics held in St. Loius, 32 competitors lined up to take part in the marathon. It was a abnormally hot day with brutal humidity taking out the mental toughness before the opening gun.
Frederick Lorz of the United States would be an early drop out in the race. Being ran down dirt roads in the St. Loius country side, Fredrick Lorz tired and thirsty hitched a ride back to the stadium. The car Fredrick hitched a ride with died just out of sight of the stadium so Frederick chose to jog the rest of the way back.
Appearing back at the stadium he heard a loud cheer from the waiting crowd, understanding the mishap he chose to finish strong to the unsuspecting crowd. Crossing the finish line first he wasted no time in relieving his ruse.
Thomas Hicks would win the grueling marathon with the help of his trainers... Begging to quit the trainers feed Hicks a steady supply of strychnine, egg white's followed by shots of Brandy...
Thomas Hicks would collapse at the finish line nearly dying from the experience...
Thomas Hicks during the 1904 Olympic Marathon, trainers feeding him strychnine, egg white's followed by shots of Brandy
At the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City, Swedish pentathlete Hans-Gunnar Lilijenwall caused a stir.
Before the pistol shooting event he decided to have some beers to ease his nerves. Shooting good enough for the bronze medal, blood test reveiled he was over the alcohol limit and disqualified the team from the event...
Of course our friend cannabis makes its presence known in the Modern Games...
In the 1998 Olympic games in Nagano, Japan, after winning the first time event the down hill snowboarding race, Canadian Ross Rebagliati hands in his post event urine sample.
The sample came back positive for Marijuana, a newly banned substance in the Olympic games. The committee originally took his medal away. Claiming he must have been exposed to the smoke at his going away party before leaving for the games, after admittedly not smoking himself since april of 1997, he was given back his medal ruling marijuana was not a performance enhancing drug at his low levels of thc...
Canadian Ross Rebagliati at the 1998 games
Just a decade earlier at the 1988 Olympic games in Seoul, South Korea, 1,601 athletes were tested to compete at the games. 10 athletes came back positive for cannabis...
At the time Cannabis was not a banned substance for the games so no legal actions were taken.
So while cannabis is not a direct sponsor of the Olympics, it always has and always will be there in spirit...
The original starting line on Olympic field, Olympia, Greece
The modern games were started again in 1896 in Athens, Greece. Organized by the International Olympic Committee, the rebirth of the games would be a much more conservative take on history.
Of course there have been the exceptions...
One of my favorite stories of modern Olympics was of American marathon runner Thomas Hicks.
In the 1904 Olympics held in St. Loius, 32 competitors lined up to take part in the marathon. It was a abnormally hot day with brutal humidity taking out the mental toughness before the opening gun.
Frederick Lorz of the United States would be an early drop out in the race. Being ran down dirt roads in the St. Loius country side, Fredrick Lorz tired and thirsty hitched a ride back to the stadium. The car Fredrick hitched a ride with died just out of sight of the stadium so Frederick chose to jog the rest of the way back.
Appearing back at the stadium he heard a loud cheer from the waiting crowd, understanding the mishap he chose to finish strong to the unsuspecting crowd. Crossing the finish line first he wasted no time in relieving his ruse.
Thomas Hicks would win the grueling marathon with the help of his trainers... Begging to quit the trainers feed Hicks a steady supply of strychnine, egg white's followed by shots of Brandy...
Thomas Hicks would collapse at the finish line nearly dying from the experience...
Thomas Hicks during the 1904 Olympic Marathon, trainers feeding him strychnine, egg white's followed by shots of Brandy
At the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City, Swedish pentathlete Hans-Gunnar Lilijenwall caused a stir.
Before the pistol shooting event he decided to have some beers to ease his nerves. Shooting good enough for the bronze medal, blood test reveiled he was over the alcohol limit and disqualified the team from the event...
Of course our friend cannabis makes its presence known in the Modern Games...
In the 1998 Olympic games in Nagano, Japan, after winning the first time event the down hill snowboarding race, Canadian Ross Rebagliati hands in his post event urine sample.
The sample came back positive for Marijuana, a newly banned substance in the Olympic games. The committee originally took his medal away. Claiming he must have been exposed to the smoke at his going away party before leaving for the games, after admittedly not smoking himself since april of 1997, he was given back his medal ruling marijuana was not a performance enhancing drug at his low levels of thc...
Canadian Ross Rebagliati at the 1998 games
Just a decade earlier at the 1988 Olympic games in Seoul, South Korea, 1,601 athletes were tested to compete at the games. 10 athletes came back positive for cannabis...
At the time Cannabis was not a banned substance for the games so no legal actions were taken.
So while cannabis is not a direct sponsor of the Olympics, it always has and always will be there in spirit...
