Looks like the srychnine was intended as a performance enhancing drug, but Hicks was carried over the finish line by his team, so he should have by rights been disqualified.
Not having eaten in 40 hours, he saw a spectator eating two peaches. He asked if he could have the peaches, and the spectator declined. He then stole both peaches and ran away.
I looked it up and the reasoning seems to have been that strychnine poisoning causes lethal, uncontrollable muscle spasms, so a very small dose might increase the strength or speed of muscle contractions in a way that improves athletic performance. They got the idea because it was sometimes used medically for the same reason, to try to treat heart conditions prior to the development of more effective treatments.
Looks like the srychnine was intended as a performance enhancing drug, but Hicks was carried over the finish line by his team, so he should have by rights been disqualified.
Some pretty crazy shit, all in all.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athletics_at_the_1904_Summer_Olympics_–_Men's_marathon
Lol
I mean, give the fucking man some peaches.
Got to be millions of those bastards.
???
Based solely on the adage of “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”.
I’m guessing the blood thinner was supposed to help somehow?
I looked it up and the reasoning seems to have been that strychnine poisoning causes lethal, uncontrollable muscle spasms, so a very small dose might increase the strength or speed of muscle contractions in a way that improves athletic performance. They got the idea because it was sometimes used medically for the same reason, to try to treat heart conditions prior to the development of more effective treatments.
Obviously it didn’t really work.
You’d think they would have tested it a couple times before trying it on race day
that wikipedia article is a work of art
That fucking wild!