Curio Cabinet / Sporty Curio

Keep up the pace—no, not like that! A half-marathon in Beijing recently went viral for its unusual finish, and now the results of the race have been canceled after an investigation. On April 14, during the race organized by World Athletics, four runners were in the lead: Robert Keter and Willy Mnangat of Kenya, Dejene Hailu of Ethiopia, and He Jie of China. But it’s how the race finished that had people questioning the results. As the pack of four approached the finish line, He Jie took the lead after seemingly being waved forward by the other three. As he crossed the finish line, his competitors seemed to trail behind at a leisurely pace. When asked about the race, Mnangat explained that he allowed Jie to win, “because he is my friend,” and that he wasn’t racing competitively during the event. Elaborating, he said, “I don’t know why they put my name on my bib/chest number instead of labeling it as a pacemaker. My job was to set the pace and help the guy win but unfortunately, he did not achieve the target, which was to break the national record.” Yet the Beijing Sports Bureau and World Athletics weren’t completely convinced, and both organizations investigated the race. In the end, the scores for all four runners were canceled along with their trophies, medals, and bonuses. Was it a case of poor sportsmanship or too much of it?

There aren’t any sharks in the Seine, but it turns out you can still lose a leg in it. The 2024 Summer Olympics is set to start soon, but the swimming leg of the triathlon is under threat due to the unsanitary conditions of the river Seine’s waters. Although city and Olympics organizers have both been working to improve water conditions, officials say that it might be necessary to delay or cancel the swimming portion entirely. The major culprit behind the water’s unsafe conditions is E. coli, which is present due to sewer overflows discharging into the Seine during heavy rains. To their credit, city officials have spent a whopping $1.5 billion to update the city’s centuries-old sewer system in anticipation of the Olympic event. When the water was deemed unsafe for swimming last year during a mixed relay test event, the organizers simply dropped the swimming portion, turning the triathlon into a duathlon. That might happen during the actual event this summer, but some are more optimistic, with Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo and President Emmanuel Macron both promising to go swimming in the Seine before the opening ceremony to prove the water’s safety. Maybe they should at least dip their toes in first.

[Image description: Boats on the Seine with the Eiffel Tower in the background.] Credit & copyright: Syced, Wikimedia Commons. This file is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication. The person who associated a work with this deed has dedicated the work to the public domain.
 

There’s nothing artful about this brutal martial art. That didn’t stop it from being the most esteemed sport in ancient Greece, though. While the 2024 Summer Olympics are due to start in a few months, pankration, one of the very first Olympic sports, is unlikely to be featured this year or ever again on account of its brutal nature. Pankration, which means “all power” or “all strength,” was first introduced to the Olympic games in ancient Greece in 648 BCE. In many ways, it was the original mixed martial art. While combat sports like boxing and wrestling had been around for a while by then, pankration was more brutal and dangerous mainly because of its very simple set of rules: no biting and no gouging. Everything else was allowed, and fights went on until one of the combatants either signaled surrender or became unable to do so. Many bouts ended with someone being rendered unconscious, but there were also occasional deaths in the ring. Most bouts involved strangling, punching, kicking, and all manner of nasty blows and jabs. Greek writings tell of one match, at the 54th Olympiad in 564 BCE, in which the famed pankration fighter Arrichion of Phigaleia broke his opponent’s ankle in an attempt to escape a stranglehold. His opponent surrendered, but Arrichion still died in the ring due to the effects of strangulation. Since the match had ended at the surrender, though, Arrichion was still declared the winner. Had he lived, he would have been treated as a hero on his return home, as all winning Olympic athletes were. As for the other guy, we’re guessing it was hard for him to live down losing to a dead man.

[Image description: A photo of the ancient Greek parthenon against a blue sky.] Credit & copyright: User:Mountain, Wikimedia Commons. The copyright holder of this work, has released it into the public domain. This applies worldwide.
 

The eagle has landed! After 13 seasons, the Philadelphia Eagles’ star center, Jason Kelce, has officially announced his retirement. It’s hard to imagine now, but Kelce didn’t have the most promising start to his career as a sixth-round draft pick by the Eagles back in 2011. As the 191st pick that year, Kelce was seemingly under-powered and under-sized at 280 pounds. But he was uncommonly agile for a center and quickly earned his right to be a starter in training camp. Throughout his career, Kelce more than proved his worth by playing in seven Pro Bowls and being named first-team All-Pro six times. That, along with the Eagles’ 2018 Super Bowl win make Kelce the only player since the AFL-NFL merger to be a Super Bowl champion and a six-time All-Pro. During his emotional 45-minute speech, the 36-year-old said, "I've been asked many times, why did I choose football—what drew me to the game—and I never have an answer that gets it right. The best way I could explain it is what draws you to your favorite song…your favorite book. It's what it makes you feel. The seriousness of it. The intensity of it.” Fans will miss him for sure, but at least they got to see this legend soar.

[Image description: A goalpost in an empty football field.] Credit & copyright: royharryman, Pixabay
 

You can’t ground this Byrd. Parker Byrd of East Carolina University has become the first ever Division I baseball player to compete with a prosthetic leg. Byrd is a sophomore at ECU, but this is his first season following a devastating injury that left him unable to play during his freshman year. In July of 2022, Byrd survived a boating accident that severely injured his right leg. Even after the leg was amputated, Byrd had to undergo 22 more surgeries within 45 days. When he finally made his college baseball debut, he was congratulated on social media by Jim Abbott, a former pitcher for the New York Yankees who played for 10 seasons and threw a no-hitter despite being born with only one hand. Baseball actually has a long history of amputee players, though many of their names have been lost or obscured by time. There was reportedly a player named Con Yannigan in the 1880s who played with a “cork leg.” After American veterans returned from the front lines of WWI and WWII with missing or injured limbs, there were several well-publicized exhibition matches for amputee players. The most famous of these was the annual National Amputation Foundation fundraising game between Flat Tires (lower limb amputees) vs. Broken Wings (upper limb amputees), held between 1930 and 1950. Even after losing limbs to war, these players clearly never lost their senses of humor or their competitive drives.

[Image description: A baseball sitting alone on a baseball field.] Credit & copyright: cindydangerjones, Pixabay
 

The jig is up! On this day in 1989, the World Wrestling Federation’s CEO, Vince McMahon, testified before the New Jersey Senate that professional wrestling was scripted entertainment in order to deregulate the “sport.” Despite the colorful costumes, elaborate backstories, and the flamboyant acrobatics inside the ring, professional wrestlers maintained for decades that all of the sport’s fights and feuds were real. There were detractors, of course, but their criticisms were largely drowned out by the cheering crowds. The facade crumbled in 1989 when McMahon, not wanting his WWF (now World Wrestling Entertainment, or WWE) to remain subject to regulations like boxing and other high-risk sports, revealed that pro-wrestling was purely a performance, albeit a very athletic one. Much to the dismay of wrestlers and promoters who had been working tirelessly in and out of the ring to keep up the charade, McMahon admitted that matches were predetermined, and since the performers trained to avoid injury, they needn’t be subject to the same rigorous regulations that protect other athletes. It might have been a risky move, but the testimony paid off. A bill to deregulate professional wrestling passed the New Jersey Senate 37 to 1, and pro-wrestling is still a popular form of entertainment today. Does it really matter if drama is scripted, as long as it's entertaining?

Is Canada getting the cold shoulder? Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva was just retroactively disqualified from the 2022 Beijing Olympics following a doping scandal, but Canada might still be staying off the podium. In 2022, Russia took the gold in the figure skating team event, followed by the U.S., Japan, then Canada in fourth. However, Valieva and her trainers were already being accused of doping at the time, and now, years after the fact, the International Olympic Committee has stripped her of her gold medal after she lost her case with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Switzerland. The decision prompted the International Skating Union (ISU) to take away the 10 points she earned in her events, but declined to adjust the points by the other teams. Based on the points as they stand now, it means that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) will likely reallocate the medals, with the U.S. getting the gold, Japan getting silver, and Russia still getting bronze instead of Canada. Had ISU reassigned the points as if Valieva had never competed, then Canada would be getting bronze instead of Russia by edging them out by a single point. Canada, meanwhile, still has the option to appeal the decision and claim the team bronze, and it seems they plan to. Figure skating is just full of drama, both on and off the ice!

[Image description: A close-up photo of an ice skater’s white skates.] Credit & copyright: anncapictures, Pixabay
 

It was a glimmer of hope in the wake of unthinkable tragedy. On this day in 1968, Peggy Fleming won the only gold for the U.S. during the Olympic Winter Games in Grenoble. The U.S. generally gets a fair share of gold medals during any Olympic Games, but 1968 wasn’t like any other year. Seven years prior in 1961, Sabena flight SN548 crashed in Belgium while carrying all the members of the U.S. Figure Skating team, their coaches, and many of their family members on their way to the 1961 World Championships in Prague. There were no survivors. By 1968, the U.S. could only field a single skater with Fleming, but she was determined to make it count. Fleming was already a force to be reckoned with, having placed first for three consecutive years in the world championships leading up to the Olympics. Once she took the ice in Grenoble, she continued her winning streak and took the only gold that the U.S. would claim that year. Grenoble was also the first time that the Olympic Winter Games were broadly televised both live and in color, and Fleming’s stunning victory received wide international exposure. Shortly after the crash that dealt such a harsh blow to the U.S. figure skating community, U.S. Figure Skating’s President, F. Ritter Shumway, established a Memorial Fund to honor their lost members. Fundraising efforts began immediately, helping aspiring skaters at the time, like Fleming, pay for their equipment. That fund is now worth around $20 million and continues to help skaters in the U.S. If anyone knows how to get up after a hard fall, it’s figure skaters.

[Image description: A close-up photo of white figure skates in use.] Credit & copyright: anncapictures, Pixabay
 

The early bird gets the worm… blood. French biopharmaceutical company Hemarina has discovered a way to turn worm blood into a “universal blood substitute.” This could lead to all sorts of medical advancements, but at the moment, one unlikely group might be trying to use the blood to gain an unfair advantage in their sport: pro-cyclists. Lugworms, also known as sandworms, are a common marine worm frequently used as fishing bait. Hemarina recently discovered a way to extract hemoglobin from lugworm blood, which can carry 40 times more oxygen than human hemoglobin. The blood can also be stored at room temperature, doesn’t require a cofactor to activate it, and is compatible with all blood types. That’s all great news, but the product still has its creator and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) worried about its potential for abuse in a competitive setting. Dr. Franck Zal, the founder of Hemarina, claims that he was approached by an unnamed but purportedly high-profile pro-cyclist back in 2020 about the product, after which he contacted authorities in France. But the proverbial can of worms is already opened, and their hemoglobin will soon be widely available in clinical settings. It’s possible that worm blood might not catch on since it’s detectable via a blood test. Still, when it comes to cheating, where there’s a will (and possibly a worm) there’s a way.

[Image description: A pile of sand-covered lugworms on a beach.] Credit & copyright: Hans, Pixabay
 

Who invented baseball? It’s a simple question with no clear answer. However, on this day in 1907, the Mills Commission determined that baseball was invented by a man named Abner Doubleday. Unfortunately for them, this claim has since been proven completely false. The Mills Commission was the brainchild of Albert Goodwill Spalding, the founder of the sporting goods company that bears his name. A former baseball player, he grew his company (which mostly sold baseball equipment at the time) by promoting the sport. This promotion included creating an all-American mythology about the history of baseball, ultimately crediting a decorated Civil War officer, Abner Doubleday, with its invention. Heading the commission was A. G. Mills, then the president of the National League, but the report crediting Doubleday came from one Abner Graves, who claimed to have been Doubleday’s playmate growing up in Cooperstown, New York. It soon became apparent that the claim had some holes. In 1839, when Doubleday supposedly played the first game of baseball in Cooperstown, Graves was just five years old and Doubleday was 140 miles away at West Point. Additionally, Doubleday’s letters and personal records are well-preserved, yet baseball is never mentioned in any of them. Mills should have seen through the lie since he was also a friend of Doubleday, but he and the rest of the commission decided that the myth would serve its purpose of promoting the sport. The story became so prevalent that the baseball hall of fame was even built in Cooperstown. In truth, baseball probably evolved organically from similar bat-and-ball games that were popular for centuries, but the “Doubleday Myth” was considered fact for a long time. They really thought this tale was a home run, but it turned out to be a foul.

[Image description: A baseball sits in the dirt on a baseball diamond.] Credit & copyright: cindydangerjones, Pixabay
 

Hockey might be a contact sport, but they should leave broadcasters out of it! Last week, Buffalo Sabres broadcaster Rob Ray was hit in the face by a puck during a game. As a former player himself, he brushed off his injury without issue and dutifully continued at his post, but he made it look easier than it really is. After all, hockey pucks are extremely hard and dense. They’re made of vulcanized rubber that is cut into small pieces and compressed at room temperature until one solid piece is formed. Vulcanized rubber is also used in car tires, and many pucks are actually made of recycled tires. An ice-cold slab of rubber flying at someone’s face is enough to make anyone wince, but it’s still an improvement over what they used to make pucks from. Originally, hockey pucks were made of wood, but they weren’t very durable and were very slippery. For a time, some pucks were made of cork, but cork tends to absorb water after a while, which made the pucks perform unpredictably. Rubber pucks were first used in the 1880s by the Victoria Hockey Club in Montreal, and the material was widely adopted soon after due to its durability and consistent handling characteristics. That’s all well and good, so long as the pucks stay on the ice.

[Image description: A close-up photo of the end of a hockey stick and a hockey puck.] Credit & copyright: soerli, Pixabay
 

There are a lot of zeros after that seven. Famed pitcher and designated hitter Shohei Ohtani just made Major League Baseball (MLB) history by signing a 10-year, $700 million contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers, but accepting deferred payment. It seems a bit odd at first glance, but it makes sense for both the team and its new star player. When Ohtani announced he was leaving the Los Angeles Angels, his future was uncertain—at least, in terms of where he’d be going. No matter who he signed with, it was obvious he was going to make piles and piles of money as one of the greatest living pitchers and hitters. But even for Ohtani, the Dodgers’ offer of $700 million was eye-popping. Then it was revealed that he would be taking home $2 million a year for those 10 years, with the rest paid out afterward. The reason for the deferred contract is two-fold. Firstly, even though the deferred payment will not gain interest in the 10-year term, Ohtani is still getting a historically colossal payout for his tenure with the Dodgers. $2 million a year isn’t anything to shake a stick at, either, but Ohtani also makes tens of millions in endorsements a year anyway, so he’s not exactly strapped for cash. For the team, the benefit is that the Dodgers’ management will be able to use the money they’re not spending now to court even more talent for their roster. So instead of banking on a single star, they’re going to pack their team with other players that may come with their own hefty salaries. The baseball diamond is getting awfully expensive.

[Image description: A baseball glove and ball in the grass.] Credit & copyright: stanbalik, Pixabay
 

According to some fans, it’s a dark day for the Sunshine State. College football fans in Florida are befuddled after the undefeated Florida State University Seminoles were denied a spot in the 2023 College Football Playoffs. For this year, the College Football Playoff Selection Committee chose the Michigan Wolverines, the Washington Huskies, the Texas Longhorns, and the Alabama Crimson Tide. Michigan and Washington both had a record of 13-0 in their respective conferences this season, like FSU, while Texas and Alabama were both 12-1 in theirs. That FSU wasn’t picked over Texas or Alabama has been a source of ongoing debate since the committee made their announcement. However, scores aren’t the only thing the committee focuses on. They also considered FSU’s current lineup, which is quite a bit different than it was at the beginning of the season. The committee specifically cited two injuries on the team’s roster. The team’s quarterback, Jordan Travis, suffered a broken leg that ended his season back in November, and his backup, Tate Rodemaker, suffered a concussion soon after, leaving third-stringer Brock Glenn to take his place for their final game against the Louisville Cardinals on December 2. In a statement to ESPN, committee chairman Boo Corrigan explained, "Florida State is a different team than it was the first 11 weeks.” However, Travis went on X, formerly known as Twitter, in support of his team, citing the team’s season record. He said, “I wish my leg broke earlier in the season” so that they could have had the chance to prove their worth without him. At least his supporters believe he has a leg to stand on.

[Image description: A brown football in a grassy field.] Credit & copyright: filterssofly, Pixabay