The 1904 Olympic marathon in St. Louis remains the most chaotic sporting event in modern history. Held on a brutally humid 90-degree day, the course consisted of unpaved, dusty roads churned up by race officials' automobiles.
The dust was so thick that runner William Garcia nearly died of internal hemorrhaging after inhaling it. To make matters worse, chief organizer James Sullivan wanted to test the effects of purposeful dehydration, providing only a single water stop at the 12-mile mark. The resulting race was pure insanity.
Cuban postman Andarín Carvajal ran in street clothes after losing his money gambling in New Orleans; he paused mid-race to eat rotten apples from an orchard, suffered severe stomach cramps, took a nap, and still managed to finish fourth. Meanwhile, South Africa's Len Taunyane, one of the first Black African Olympians, finished ninth despite being chased a mile off course by aggressive dogs. The first man to cross the finish line, Fred Lorz, actually quit at mile nine, hitched an 11-mile ride in a car, and trotted to the finish line as a joke before being exposed.
The official winner, Thomas Hicks, barely survived. Collapsing from exhaustion, his support team refused to let him stop, instead administering doses of strychnine sulphate—a common rat poison used then as a stimulant—mixed with brandy and egg whites. Haltingly shuffling forward while hallucinating, Hicks was practically carried over the finish line by his trainers, his legs dragging in the dirt.
He lost eight pounds during the race and required emergency medical intervention immediately afterward.