The 1904 Olympic marathon in St. Louis was arguably the most bizarre sporting event in history. Held in August, temperatures soared past 90 degrees Fahrenheit, yet organizers deliberately provided only one water station across the entire 24.
8-mile course to test the effects of purposeful dehydration. The unpaved dirt roads created blinding dust clouds as official automobiles drove alongside the runners, causing severe respiratory hemorrhaging in several athletes. First-place finisher Thomas Hicks did not complete the race on mere human grit; his handlers kept him going by repeatedly injecting him with strychnine, a lethal substance used in rat poison, mixed with brandy and raw egg whites.
Collapsing after crossing the finish line, Hicks had lost eight pounds during the race and barely survived. Meanwhile, original winner Fred Lorz was disqualified after revealing he drove 11 miles of the course in a car when he got tired. Another competitor, Cuban mailman Andrés Espinosa, ran in dress shoes, ate rotten apples from an orchard mid-race, suffered severe stomach cramps, fell asleep on the side of the road, and still managed to finish fourth.