- Thomas J. Hicks
Thomas J. Hicks (
January 7 ,1875 –December 2 ,1963 ) was an American track and field athlete, winner of the Olympic marathon in 1904.Hicks, a brass worker from
Cambridge, Massachusetts who had been born inEngland and won a second place at the 1904Boston Marathon , was the winner of a remarkable marathon race at the1904 Summer Olympics , held as part of the World Fair in St. Louis,Missouri . Conditions were bad, the course being a dirt track, with large clouds of dust produced by the accompanying vehicles. Hicks was not the first to cross the finish line, trailingFred Lorz . However, Lorz had abandoned the race after 9 miles. After covering most of the course by car, he re-entered the race 5 miles before the finish. This was found out by the officials, who disqualified Lorz, who claimed it had only been a joke.Had the race been run under current rules, Hicks too would have been disqualified, as he had been given a dose of 1/60th of a grain (roughly 1 mg.) of
strychnine and somebrandy by his assistants as he was flagging badly during the race; the first dose ofstrychnine did not revive him for long, so he was given another. As a result, he collapsed after crossing the finishing line. Another dose may well have proved fatal. Strychnine is now forbidden for athletes.External links
* [http://www.databaseolympics.com/players/playerpage.htm?ilkid=HICKSTHO01 profile]
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