Meet 7 of the most memorable and bizarre stories of world sport
The sport, in general, is very aggregating and provides people with some of the most beautiful moments seen by humanity. The overcoming and life lessons that some athletes present in their stories become amazing examples. Whether it's the Olympics, the World Cup, the NFL Super Bowl, Formula 1 or any other sport and big event, these are moments we all love to revisit and remember.
Here at Mega Curioso we already feature four unforgettable Olympic moments that spell out some of these exciting sports stories. However, not only from happy and emotion-filled passages does this branch live. In it we can also find curious situations and unexplained oddities, as shown in the following list, produced based on a publication of the List Verse site. Check out:
7. Boxing with Fireworks
If you ever wondered how boxing could be connected to a pyrotechnic show, well, history can help you answer. That's because in London, in 1937, two boxers had a metal structure with fireworks attached to their bodies to be fired during combat.
So that the public could also be enchanted by the lights, the fight was held at night in the dark, making the situation of the athletes even more difficult. However, both were also equipped with fireproof clothing, which gave them a little more security despite the danger of the situation.
6. The soccer player who despised Hitler
Austria's squad qualified for the 1938 World Cup when the country had already been taken over by the Nazis. A final team match was played in April of that year against Germany, and then the players were incorporated into the German team itself. This match was to be celebrated by the fact that the Austrians were returning to be part of their home nation.
However, on that team was a renowned soccer player who had been captain during the 34th Cup: Matthias Sindelar. And it was he who challenged the Nazis, as he saw in this match the great opportunity to express his feelings and his dissatisfaction with the situation his country was experiencing. His first move was to convince the team to wear red and white uniforms that represented the Austrian nation rather than the traditional German white and black.
In the game, Sindelar scored the first goal and celebrated in front of a VIP box in which were members of the high-ranking Nazi officers. Austria eventually won 2-0. However, rumors throughout history say that the team had been ordered to lose the game or play for a draw. Witnesses who witnessed the match even reported that Austrian players lost some goals, apparently on purpose and only then did they play with their hearts.
After the event, Sindelar claimed that he was already old and injured, so he would retire, refusing to wear the German shirt. He died of accidental carbon monoxide poisoning less than a year after it happened. Many people have even wondered if it really was an accident.
5. The Kirkwall Ba Game
Kirkwall is the capital of the Orkney Islands archipelago, located to the north of Scotland. Every year, on Christmas and New Year dates, the city is divided into two parts, the Uppies and the Doonies, abbreviated nomenclatures for "Up-the-gates" and "Doon-the-Gates". These two groups represent the teams competing for the largest and most traditional version of the "Ba" game.
Ba is a derivation of medieval football played on the streets in various cities around the world, but it is estimated that in Kirkwall the tradition is over 300 years old. The current version of the game has been played like this since the middle of the 19th century and the goal is to take the ball to the goal, which is in Kirkwall Bay for the Doonies and in the old city portals for the Uppies. The two points are separated by several streets and blocks, miles away, but thousands of competitors participate in the event. The video above gives a good idea to understand how the game happens.
If the contest itself already seems kind of bizarre, the legend of the game's creation is a bit more. According to history, Kirkwall Ba emerged as a commemoration of the death of a terrible tyrant Viking named Tusker. Known for his long, protruding teeth, the evil Tusker was defeated and killed by an unknown young warrior.
The boy was injured by the Viking's teeth before beheading him, which caused a fatal infection. But in his last breath, the warrior, already in the city of Kirkwall, threw Tusker's head at the crowded people. Sad about the death of their young hero and happy for the bandit's overthrow, the citizens began to kick their heads from side to side, and thus began the practice of Kirkwall Bay.
4. Charles Blondin and his incredible routine of crossing Niagara Falls
Charles Blondin arrived in the United States in 1855 and became rich and famous for crossing Niagara Falls on a taut rope. The tightrope walker planned his goal as soon as he arrived on the American continent and, understanding well the human fascination with morbid people, used it to his advantage.
He even encouraged others to bet on his own death, so about 25, 000 people went to watch his feat. On June 30, 1859, Blondin became the first person to cross Niagara's throat on a taut rope. He met most expectations and not only managed to cross the falls, but stopped halfway down the rope and sat down for a bottle of wine.
Before returning to the American side of the river, the man rested for 20 minutes and on his return still took a camera that he used to take a picture in the middle of the course. The tightrope walker repeated the feat a few times after the first, and each time used something different to attract the public's attention. In one of them, for example, Blondin crossed his back. In another, he did blindfold.
3. The Marathon of the 1904 Olympic Games
The 1904 Olympics were generally bizarre, starting with the fight over where they would be played. Initially scheduled for Chicago, the event took place in St. Louis, Louisiana. The change occurred because the city was also hosting the Universal Exposition of that year. Thus, their representatives blackmailed the organization of the games by claiming they would hold their own sporting event if the Olympics did not take place there.
Another curiosity of this edition of the largest sport event in the world is that among the American athletes, who constituted the majority of participants, was the gymnast George Eyser, who won six medals in the competition. The important detail is that one of its legs was mechanical, wooden. There are still other peculiar facts that occurred at the event, however, the great excitement was caused by the marathon.
The declared official winner was Thomas Hicks, even though he consumed strychnine, a poison that acts as a stimulant if given in small doses. But before him, there was another winner, runner Fred Lorz, who was disqualified. The reason? Lorz took 18 of the 42 km race aboard a car.
If that wasn't enough, the marathon runner-up Andarin Carvajal also had a crazy story. Officially a postman, the boy played the race in his street clothes and at one point in the marathon decided to stop in an orchard, where he ate some rotten apples by accident and had to doze for a few minutes to recover. Even so, Carvajal almost took the podium.
Finally, there is the case of the African Len Tau, who was the first black from the continent to compete in the history of games. He was chased by wild dogs and had to run a little faster over 2 km of the race. The unexpected effort earned him ninth place in the final standings.
2. The Return of France… or would it be “of shame”?
The Tour de France, or Tour de France, is among the biggest events in world sport. However, the history of competition scams and scandals is commensurate with its magnitude. Even though the biggest cycling spot in the Tour de France has happened in more recent years, the race has been controversial since its inception in 1903.
The first edition was organized by the L'Auto newspaper with the aim of attracting more readers and the success was great, so that a new test would be held in 1904. However, in the second edition is that things seem to have started to get off track. . The beautiful event gave way to a huge number of cheats. Some even are hard to believe.
Starting with the winner, who was initially cyclist Maurice Garin, repeating the feat of the first race the previous year. After months of investigation, Henri Cornet, then fifth, was declared the official winner of the 1904 edition. Along with him and Garin, 86 more competitors started the round, of which only 27 completed, but only 15 fairly and legally. .
The other runners who finished the competition, including the first four, were all disqualified for cheating. Among the irregularities presented were the use of shortcuts, car or train runs, and even the release of nails along the circuit. There were no doping scandals because at the time athletes could consume almost anything they wanted, so diets on alcohol, cocaine and chloroform were not restricted and remained so for several decades.
But the most serious case of the 1904 Tour de France was that of the crowds that competitors had to face along the way. People attacked cyclists passing through their cities. The goal was to get your favorite athlete to take the lead, like what happened in Saint-Etienne. In the municipality, about 100 people, crazy and armed with sticks and stones, assaulted several corridors for Antoine Faure to take the lead. One of the attackers, Giovanni Gerbi, became unconscious and had broken fingers. After this occasion, many athletes began to compete armed with revolvers.
1. The doping scandal with monkey testicles
What was supposed to be another case of doping in sports history became a ridiculous and absurd episode of English football in 1939. The pivot of the story was the Wolverhampton Wanderers team of the same name, which has a long and long history. traditional trajectory in the sport. The club was one of the founders of the country's main football league and has also helped to consolidate the so-called "European Cup", the forerunner of the current UEFA Champions League.
Wolverhampton's beautiful history of sport influence has the stain that the team pioneered the use of a technique, later considered doping, from monkey's testicles. At the time, the team was led by Frank Buckley, and it was he who heard about the “revolutionary method” developed by surgeon Serge Voronoff. The procedure, which was actually quite popular in the 1920s and 1930s, consisted of applying scrotal pouch tissue to human testicles as a method of rejuvenation.
Buckley announced to the press and other clubs that the use of this technique was not doping and therefore there was no ban. Thus, he subjected the team to treatment and apparently his athletes showed improvement in endurance and strength. However, all changes happened as the so-called placebo effect. We have already covered this subject here at Mega Curioso in the articles you can check by clicking here and here.
Other clubs have even adopted the technique used by Wolverhampton players, even knowing the source of the effect. However, some groups protested vehemently, prompting the British authorities to discuss in parliament the permission to use monkey testicles on athletes. The decision was not favorable to treatment and surgeon Voronoff's beliefs were ridiculed.
* Posted on 12/29/2015
