Summer Games example essay topic

INTERNATIONAL NEWS During this past summer in St. Louis Missouri the summer Olympics for 1904 took place. These summer games were only the third of its kind so far. The first two took place in 1896 in Athens then in 1900 in Paris. These games were not so much competitive but the athletes tried their hardest and would stop at nothing to win, even if it meant cheating or taking different substances. In these summer games mostly Americans and Canadians attended. Out of 681 athletes 525 of those were from the United States.

These athletes had to find their own way of getting to the games and had to find their own places to stay. This is why it was mostly American competitors, because as we all know transportation / rooms are expensive and hitchhiking isn't easy. The games were originally going to take place in Chicago, but President Roosevelt wanted the games in St. Louise because the Exposition was being held at the same time there. The Expositions organizers built a permanent gymnasium and stadium which could hold 35 000 people. The Olympics games took place there and lasted for five days.

Unfortunately the games did not have a very successful outcome over all. Also whoever was the minority at these games had to compete in separate games against each other. These were known as the " Anthropology Days" which occurred on August 12 and 13, 1904. Some of the unusual games held at the Olympics this summer were: mud fighting, rock throwing, pole climbing and spear throwing. These games were not a big hit and will hopefully not be continued in further Olympics.

As stated before, these summer games were some what of a disaster. To give you an idea of the events that happened which were not positive experiences, we followed one race which has an almost unbelievable story. The race was ran in a very humid 90+ degrees and had a length of 40 km in total. The race began with the runners running five laps around the track then they were to leave the stadium. Once they were out of the stadium they began running on windy dirt roads that lead the racers up and down hills for a long way. The corse was marked with red flags and the runners were followed by doctors, judges and reporters.

As a result of this, the runners were forced to eat dirt because all the dirt was being unsettled and clouded the air. The first athlete to cross the finish line was a man known as Lorz. As Lorz was posing for pictures and going to except his award it was found out that he had cheated. Lorz had experienced cramps during the race and climbed into an automobile. The automobile had driven Lorz for a total of eleven minutes before it broke down, which was when Lorz got out and began to run the race to the end. So Lorz was disqualified and did not receive the gold medal.

The second athlete to cross the finish line was a British man named Tomas Hicks. Tomas was carried over the finish line by his two trainers, he then collapsed and it took several doctors to make him stable enough to leave the stadium. Luckily he survived but he had come very close to death. All this was caused by his trainers and how badly they wanted him to finish the race to win. They had given Tomas an oral dose of strychnine sulfate in egg whites and even had to give him shots of brandy to keep him going. Needless to say they would stop at nothing to win.

Even after these two crazy tales, there is another that goes with this race. A Cuban postman named Felix had entered this race. He had saved up some money before coming but reportedly lost it all in craps. When he arrived at the race he had no running gear so the race was post-pond while he cut his shirt sleeves and pant legs off of his clothes. Felix looked to be a very promising competitor in the race, for he did not get tired easily. Unfortunately it was a bad case of the munchies that ruined it for this man.

While running he stole peaches from someone but yet he was not satisfied, so he then turned off the running path into an orchard and began to eat the apples. Evidently he got cramps, dropped out of the race for a while then continued running and ended up with 4th place. You can now see how these games were not of great success, and we can only hope that more thought and pre-cautions will take place before the next Olympics.