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Lamb on the Run: How not to win an Olympic marathon

By Jim Lamb

Published: Thursday, July 24, 2008 8:47 PM MST

The 2008 Olympics open in Beijing Aug. 8 and if past is prologue look for some ups and downs and embarrassing moments before they close…

…Some interesting (and sometimes tragic) moments over the years…

The Munich massacre occurred during the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, West Germany, when members of the Israeli Olympic team were taken hostage by Black September, a group with ties to Yasser Arafat’s Fatah organization….

…By the end of the ordeal, the terrorist group had killed 11 Israeli athletes and coaches and one German police officer…Five of the eight members of Black September were killed by police officers during an abortive rescue attempt…The three surviving terrorists were captured…

…At first, the games were going to be postponed, but they did resume…

In the 1904 games in St. Louis, Felix Carvajal, a Havana postman, competed in the Marathon…He had got his boat ticket to the United States by begging on Havana’s streets…Unfortunately, he lost all his money to gamblers in New Orleans, but ran to St. Louis begging for food and money on the run…

…He arrived about the tine the Marathon was about to start…With no money for a uniform, he planned to run in his long pants, long-sleeved shirt and hiking boots, but another athlete prevailed on him to cut off this pants and sleeves because of the 100-degree heat…

…Thirty-six men started the race, but after running the 26 miles in grueling temperatures, only 14 finished, including Caravajal, who finished fourth…

In that same Marathon, American runner Fred Lorz was running smoothly, but was overcome and dropped out…He caught a ride and near the finish got out to run the rest of the way, finishing in first place…

…He didn’t tell officials what he had done and was on the way to get a gold medal, but was revealed…He was later banned from competing in any amateur event for the rest of his life…

In 1976, 26 of the African nations boycotted the Montreal Games…Those countries were protesting New Zealand’s earlier series of rugby games in South Africa, which still observed apartheid…

…Because of this, much of the rest of Africa threatened the IOC to ban New Zealand from the Olympic Games or they would boycott the games…The International Olympic Committee, the IOC, didn’t include rugby as an Olympic sport. It felt it was powerless to force a boycott…

And four years later, the United States, led by President Jimmy Carter, boycotted the Moscow games…It was to protest the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979…

And good news (?) for dogs at this year’s Olympics…The Beijing Tourism Bureau has banned dog meat from restaurant menus for the next two months…

I don’t know if you can handle this…I probably couldn’t…

…A northern Virginia spa is now offering as part of its pedicures the chance to put your tootsies in a warm-water-filled tank filled with tiny carp that nibble away and the dead skin…

…The fish are toothless, so no one gets bitten…The treatment costs $35 for 15 minutes in the tank, $50 for half an hour…Customers also get a follow-up regular pedicure…

…Said one satisfied customer of the tingling sensation to her feet, “It kind of feels like your foot’s asleep”…

Jim Lamb’s a reporter for the Green Valley News who says he’d have to wear sneakers if he was going to put his feet where fish could eat on them.

jlamb@gvnews.com | 547-9749


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The following are comments from the readers. In no way do they represent the view of gvnews.com.

Matt wrote on Aug 9, 2009 11:41 PM:

" I liked the article. It gives good basic info about some ways to prevent problems with your pets teeth or at least to lessen a future dental problem if it should arise. I would however like to be able to find reference about vets in my area that have experience with pet dental health through continued education and more importantly, their real experience in. Ie. how many dental cleanings and extractions have they done and at what rate of success compared to a state average or a local average. It would also be nice to be able to link from here to someplace that keeps track of adverse findings and/or complaints against vets. This would help the pet owners and their pets stay very much and is a much needed service with so many vets out there today "

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