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Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Memories of the 1896 Athens Olympics

Thomas P. Curtis won the 110 meter high hurdles event in the first modern Olympics games. Sixty years later, he shared some memories of the 1896 Games in this piece for the Atlantic. Curtis and other members of the Boston Athletic Association dominated the track and field events, but swimming was not a strength for the team:
For the aquatic events we had on our team a very fast short-distance swimmer, who had won many races in warm American swimming pools. He journeyed to the Piraeus on the day of the first swimming competition blissfully ignorant that even the Mediterranean is bitterly cold in the month of April.

He had traveled 5000 miles for this event, and as he posed with the others on the edge of the float, waiting for the gun, his spirit thrilled with patriotism and determination. At the crack of the pistol, the contestants dived headfirst into the icy water. In a split second his head reappeared. "Jesu Christo! I'm freezing!"; with that shriek of astonished frenzy he lashed back to the float. For him the Olympics were over.

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