... that the
2000 Summer Olympics
gold medalist in the
heptathlon was
Denise Lewis? (10 April 2004)
|
... that as part of a
publicity stunt, the
1927
Texas Relays held a 89 mile (143 km)
running
race from
San Antonio to
Austin? (23 February 2007)
|
... that
Czech
decathlete
Roman Šebrle, world record holder and
2004 Olympic winner, was injured in January 2007 when a
javelin which had been thrown 55 metres pierced his shoulder? (5 March 2007)
|
... that at the
2001 World Championships in Athletics,
Yipsi Moreno became
world champion in the
hammer throw at the age of twenty, improving from an eighteenth place finish in
1999? (11 March 2007)
|
... that
Erica Larson, a chemist at the
Los Alamos National Laboratory, won the
Pikes Peak
mountain
marathon five times in six years between 1999 and 2004, more than any other woman in the event's history? (12 June 2007)
|
... that all four deaths in the thirty annual
Chicago Marathons have occurred in the last ten years? (31 July 2007)
|
... that
wind assistance has caused the non-ratification of many potential
world records in athletics? (10 September 2007)
|
... that
Patrick Ivuti's
photo finish victory in the 2007
Chicago Marathon, one of the five
major marathons, was his first
marathon victory? (15 October 2007)
|
... that 1985
NCAA
hurdling champion
Thomas Wilcher won the
Michigan High School Athletic Association team
track & field championship three consecutive times, both as an athlete and a coach? (27 January 2008)
|
... that
Charlie Fonville broke a 14-year-old
shot put world record by almost twelve inches at the 1948 Kansas Relays but was not allowed to stay with the other athletes because he was
African-American? (8 February 2008)
|
... that the
Peachtree Road Race, held annually on
July 4 (
U.S. Independence Day) in
Atlanta,
Georgia, is the world's largest
10 kilometer
road race with 55,000 runners participating in 2007? (11 February 2008)
|
... that
Gerald Ford threatened to quit the
Michigan
football team when
African-American player
Willis Ward was kept out of a 1932 game in response to
Georgia Tech's refusal to play an
integrated team? (14 March 2008)
|
... that in January 2006,
British
Paralympic
sprinter
John McFall's racing
prosthesis was stolen, but anonymously returned a week later? (3 June 2008)
|
... that
US
Olympic
discus throw gold medalist
Stephanie Brown Trafton said that the downside of the
Beijing Games was that they conflicted with the opening of
hunting season in
California? (28 August 2008)
|
... that
Taisto Mäki, one of the so-called
Flying Finns, was the first man to run
10,000 metres in under half an hour? (31 August 2008)
|
... that despite being the fifth fastest European of all time in the
100 metres,
Ronald Pognon failed to reach the semifinals in
his event at the
2008 Olympic Games? (4 September 2008)
|
... that Olympic distance runner
Matt Centrowitz was the number one high school mile runner in America in 1973? (1 October 2008)
|
... that at age 17 years and 331 days,
Polish
hammer thrower
Kamila Skolimowska (pictured) was the youngest
Olympic champion in the
2000 Summer Olympics? (4 January 2009)
|
... that
New York Road Runners CEO
Mary Wittenberg was the first female director of a major international marathon? (30 January 2009)
|
... that
Eddie Tolan, the first African-American to be the "world's fastest human" after winning double gold at the
1932 Olympics, returned home jobless and appeared in
vaudeville with
Bill "Bojangles" Robinson? (1 February 2009)
|
... that
Senegalese
long jumper and
triple jumper
Ndiss Kaba Badji was the only person from
his country to reach a final at the
2008 Summer Olympics? (3 February 2009)
|
... that
Ugandan
800 metres runner
Abraham Chepkirwok missed out on the
2007 World Championships bronze medal by only 0.02 seconds? (6 February 2009)
|
... that, although she was born in
South Africa,
Kate Dennison now holds the indoor
British record for the
pole vault? (22 February 2009)
|
... that Kenyan
long distance
athlete
Evans Cheruiyot and his teammates were stranded in France by their manager without food, money, or shelter? (25 February 2009)
|
... that
Charles Hoff was the first
Norwegian to set a
world record in a
track and field event? (1 March 2009)
|
... that when 2001
Chicago Marathon winner
Catherine Ndereba set the world record, she joined four-time winner
Khalid Khannouchi with a current world record time set at the
Chicago Marathon? (1 March 2009)
|
... that
Eline Berings won the
60 metre hurdles event at the
2009 European Indoor Championships ahead of
Lucie Škrobáková? (15 March 2009)
|
... that
Dan & Dave both won
Olympic medals, but lost their endorsement deal? (15 March 2009)
|
... that three members of the
Croatian
bobsleigh team at the
2006 Winter Olympics,
Dejan Vojnović,
Jurica Grabušić and
Slaven Krajačić, had all previously competed as
track athletes at the
Summer Olympics? (1 April 2009)
|
... that
Keila Costa is the
South American record holder in the women's
triple jump event? (13 April 2009)
|
... that
Spirit of the Marathon, a
documentary film about
marathon runners, won Best Picture at the
Mammoth Film Festival? (26 April 2009)
|
... that
Shamar Sands, the
Bahamian
110 metre hurdles national record holder, has a degree in
accountancy? (16 May 2009)
|
... that after a
hurdle was misplaced on the
running track,
Angelo Taylor said he would never again compete at the
Adidas Track Classic? (22 May 2009)
|
... that
Coby Miller is the only
track athlete to have run
100 meters in under ten seconds at
Olympic Trials and not make the Olympic team? (25 May 2009)
|
... that
Ivory Williams competed against
Usain Bolt in a 150-metre street race as part of the
Great City Games in
Manchester,
England? (8 June 2009)
|
... that of the 68 track
sprinters who have broken the
10-second barrier in the
100 metres, only
Patrick Johnson is not of
West African descent? (23 June 2009)
|
... that former
long jump
record holder
Carol Lewis tried out for the
2002 Winter Olympics
bobsleigh team? (27 June 2009)
|
... that
Ukrainian runner
Yuliya Krevsun ended her
track career in 2005 to start a family, but later made a comeback and reached the
800 metres final at the
2008 Olympic Games? (5 July 2009)
|
... that
sprint athlete and
British
200 metres champion
Toby Sandeman did a photoshoot for
Vogue with
Naomi Campbell? (26 July 2009)
|
... that 19-year-old
Panamanian
sprinter
Alonso Edward is a two-time
South American Champion and the fourth fastest
200 m runner this year? (16 August 2009)
|
... that
Bobbi Gibb was the first woman to run the entire
Boston Marathon? (23 August 2009)
|
... that because the
Foulées du Gois
road running race is held on a
tidal
causeway, participants are sometimes forced to swim to the finish line? (26 August 2009)
|
... that
William Sharman, a finalist in the
110 meter hurdles at the
2009 World Championships in Athletics, is also a classically trained
pianist and has a
master's in banking and finance? (12 September 2009)
|
... that American
sprinter
Walter Dix won two bronze medals at the
2008 Beijing Olympics but hardly competed at all in 2009 due to injury and a
legal dispute with his agent? (20 September 2009)
|
... that the first
United States national track and field championships were organized by the
New York Athletic Club in 1876? (29 September 2009)
|
... that the
Belgrade Race Through History and
Belgrade Marathon competitions were held in 1999, despite the fact that the
NATO bombing campaign had caused widespread damage to the city that year? (22 October 2009)
|
... that
long-distance runner
Zersenay Tadese was the first person from
Eritrea to win an
Olympic medal in any sport? (23 October 2009)
|
... that the annual
Emsley Carr Mile was created to encourage athletes to break the
four-minute mile, but by the second race in 1954,
Roger Bannister had already broken it? (29 October 2009)
|
... that in 2004
Kenyan runner
Florence Barsosio won the
Florence Marathon in
Florence, Italy? (8 December 2009)
|
... that
Tsegaye Kebede, an
Olympic and
World Championship medalist in the
marathon, worked as a child for 30
US cents a day so he could afford a daily meal and an education? (8 December 2009)
|
... that the
Obudu Ranch International Mountain Race is known as "the world's richest
mountain race" because of the large amounts of
prize money on offer? (8 December 2009)
|
... that
Penn State's
John Romig, the first
NCAA champion in the two-mile run, later became an explosives expert? (11 December 2009)
|
... that
Leonard Paulu won consecutive
NCAA championships in the
100 yard dash despite
war injuries that included the loss of an eye and a right-leg stride four inches shorter than his left? (13 December 2009)
|
... that American athlete
Eric Wilson won the 220-yard dash at the first
NCAA track and field championships in
1921? (14 December 2009)
|
... that
Stanford's
Flint Hanner, winner of the first
NCAA javelin championship, later coached the
Fresno State Bulldogs to 27 track and field championships? (17 December 2009)
|
... that
Michigan's
Don McEwen, two-time
NCAA champion in the two-mile run, also won consecutive
Big Ten cross country championships even though his school had no varsity cross country team? (18 December 2009)
|
... that
Michigan Wolverines Hall of Famer
Phil Northrup won three
NCAA championships in the
javelin throw and
pole vault? (19 December 2009)
|
... that athletes from
Michigan Wolverines men's track and field have won 43
NCAA individual event championships, 14 Olympic gold medals, and 57
Big 10 team championships? (19 December 2009)
|
... that the 6 foot, 6 inch
Swedish
Wolverine
Roland Nilsson won six consecutive
Big Ten
shot put championships in the 1950s? (20 December 2009)
|
... that
Alemayehu Bezabeh, the
2009 European Cross Country Champion, had to have
X-ray tests to estimate his age? (27 December 2009)
|
... that at the 2008
Great Brook Run, English politician
David Cameron ran through a muddy stream faster than a man dressed as
Spider-Man? (4 January 2010)
|
... that the first sub-
four-minute mile in athletics was achieved at the
Roger Bannister running track, then known as the Iffley Road Track? (1 February 2010)
|
... that
Bulgarian
middle-distance runner
Vesela Yatsinska failed to make it past round one in the
1980 Olympics despite achieving a personal best time? (15 February 2010)
|
... that
in 2009,
triple jumper
Fabrizio Donato set a new championship record for the
European Indoor Championships at 17.59 metres? (16 February 2010)
|
... that the
Beppu-Ōita Marathon in
Japan produced
world record-breaking
marathon runs in both 1963 and 1978? (18 February 2010)
|
... that the
Norwegian
long jump
record for women, which
Margrethe Renstrøm broke in 2009 with a 6.64 metres jump, was at the time the oldest Norwegian athletics record? (18 February 2010)
|
... that
marathon races only receive
IAAF
Gold Label Road Race status if organisers have taken steps to preserve the
environment? (19 February 2010)
|
... that
Kurao Hiroshima was a two-time
Olympian, two-time
Japanese marathon champion, and two-time winner of the
Fukuoka Marathon? (21 February 2010)
|
... that
Magnar Lundemo competed in international championships in both
running and
skiing in 1962? (25 February 2010)
|
... in 2007, champion runner
David Lelei tried to be the
Orange Democratic Movement candidate for the
Eldoret South Constituency seat but lost to the eventual winner
Peris Simam? (4 March 2010)
|
... that
Samuel Wanjiru, the
2008 Olympic marathon champion, won the
Fukuoka Cross Country competition when he was only 16 years old? (6 March 2010)
|
... that
Sisko Hanhijoki won 28
Finnish championship titles in the
60,
100 and
200 metres events between 1985 and 1993? (7 March 2010)
|
... that German
high jumper
Meike Kröger spent almost a year working in an
orphanage in
Bishkek,
Kyrgyzstan? (7 March 2010)
|
... that three-time
Olympian
Albertina Dias was the first
Portuguese woman to win at the
IAAF World Cross Country Championships? (8 March 2010)
|
... that the
Bulgarian female runners
Zlateva,
Yordanova,
Pekhlivanova,
Shtereva,
Tomova and
Petrova all won
medals in
800 metres at the
European Indoor Championships in the 1970s? (8 March 2010)
|
... that
Franjo Mihalić, winner of the 1958
Boston Marathon, set his first
Yugoslav record over 5000 m just several months after taking up
athletics? (9 March 2010)
|
... that
Moroccan
Elarbi Khattabi won five medals in team competitions at the
World Cross Country Championships, including Morocco's first such medal, the silver in 1994? (16 March 2010)
|
... that despite his international success,
Tunisian-
Swiss
1500 metres runner
Ali Hakimi only became Tunisian champion three times? (18 March 2010)
|
... that the
Almond Blossom Cross Country was created by the
District of Faro and the
Portuguese tourist board to promote
sport and
tourism in the area? (23 March 2010)
|
... that the career of
Asian Games gold medallist
Pinki Pramanik was cut short by serious injury suffered in a car crash? (23 March 2010)
|
... that
Olena Krasovska ran the fastest
100 metres hurdles race (12.45 seconds) by an athlete representing
Ukraine, but despite this she does not hold the
Ukrainian record? (28 March 2010)
|
... that
Ukrainian
sprinter
Anzhela Kravchenko has more national titles in the
100 and
200 metres than double
world champion
Zhanna Pintusevich-Block? (28 March 2010)
|
... that
Seteng Ayele was the oldest
track and field athlete at both the
2004 and
2008 Summer Olympics? (29 March 2010)
|
... that
Siraj Gena won the
Rome Marathon
barefoot to honour the 50th anniversary of
Abebe Bikila's marathon gold at the
1960 Rome Olympics? (29 March 2010)
|
... that about 30,000
runners cross the
25 de Abril Bridge as part of the
Lisbon Half Marathon each year? (30 March 2010)
|
... that
tree surgeon
Gaylord Silly has represented the
Seychelles twice at the
IAAF World Cross Country Championships? (4 April 2010)
|
... that
Swedish athlete
Lena Berntsson has competed at
World Championship-level in both the
60-meter dash and
weightlifting? (1 May 2010)
|
... that
Günther Weidlinger broke the 23-year-old
Austrian record in the
marathon in his second-ever race over the distance? (1 May 2010)
|
... that
Olympic
marathon runner
Lisa Weightman won the Award for Business Excellence from Australian
broadsheet
The Age? (2 May 2010)
|
... that the
Cursa de Bombers 10 km
road race in
Barcelona was created by
firefighters protesting about their
working conditions? (5 May 2010)
|
... that
Kenyan
long distance
runner
Eliud Kiptanui went on to win the
Prague Marathon after the
Eyjafjallajökull eruption prevented him from traveling to the
Vienna Marathon three weeks earlier? (29 May 2010)
|
... that American
sprinter
Jeff Williams won his first
World Championship medal at the age of 29 under the guidance of women's
Olympic medalist
Barbara Ferrell? (4 June 2010)
|
... that
1912 Olympic champion
Jim Thorpe was stripped of his
track and field medals after it was discovered he had played
baseball
professionally? (4 June 2010)
|
... that
Teruji Kogake set a
world record in the
triple jump at the
Japanese
Olympic Trials but only managed eighth in the finals at the
1956 Melbourne Olympics? (12 June 2010)
|
... that American athlete
Marla Runyan, who is
legally blind, won the national 5K
road running title three consecutive times at the
Freihofer's Run for Women? (13 June 2010)
|
... that
French
track and field athlete
Teddy Tamgho (pictured) became the third best
triple jumper of all-time three days before his 21st birthday? (19 June 2010)
|
... that the
New York Mini 10K, first held in
Central Park in 1972, was the world's first women-only
road running event? (21 June 2010)
|
... that
Norwegian MP
Arne Haukvik was a founder of the
Bislett Games? (24 June 2010)
|
... that, in 2007,
American
track and field athlete
Jake Arnold became the first man in 22 years to win back-to-back
NCAA Championships in the
decathlon? (25 June 2010)
|
... that
Karen Fladset,
team handball player and former coach for the
Norwegian women's national handball team, was also national champion in
discus throw? (26 June 2010)
|
... that the career of the
400-meter
world junior record holder
Darrell Robinson ended after he accused
Carl Lewis and
Flo-Jo of using
performance-enhancing drugs? (26 June 2010)
|
... that
Harvard
medical graduate
Brenda Taylor reached the
2004 Olympic final in the
400-meter hurdles? (8 July 2010)
|
... that
Claude Bracey, known as "the Texas Flyer," won the 100- and 220-yard sprints at the
1928 NCAA Track Championships and tied the world record in the 100-meter race in 1932? (18 July 2010)
|
... that in
1975,
Julie Ann Brown became the first American woman to win the
World Cross Country Championships? (20 July 2010)
|
... that the
Norwegian multi-sports club
Ski does not offer the sport of
skiing? (6 August 2010)
|
... that the
Chicago Half Marathon begins and ends near the
Museum of Science and Industry? (7 August 2010)
|
... that the inaugural
Paris Marathon in 1896 was won by
Len Hurst, an English brick-maker? (7 August 2010)
|
... that
Sandra Perković is the youngest ever
European champion in women's
discus throw? (15 August 2010)
|
... that
Ethiopian-born
Meryem Erdoğan, impressed by her countrywoman
Elvan Abeylegesse's success, illegally immigrated to
Turkey at age 16 in order to become a
distance runner? (18 August 2010)
|
... that the
Giro di Castelbuono is one of
Europe's oldest
road running competitions, having been first held in
Castelbuono,
Sicily, in 1912? (20 August 2010)
|
... that
shot putter
Ivan Ivančić is the oldest ever finalist at the
World Championships in Athletics? (25 August 2010)
|
... that over two days
Sun Yingjie won both the
Beijing Marathon and a silver medal in
athletics at the 10th Chinese National Games, but lost her medal because a rival spiked her drink with
steroids? (28 August 2010)
|
... that
Dora Ratjen (pictured) was stripped of the women's
high jump gold medal from the
1938 European Athletics Championships because he was a man? (2 September 2010)
|
... that
Prudent Joye, the
1938 European Champion in the
400 m hurdles, escaped from a
Nazi
internment camp and joined the
French Resistance? (2 September 2010)
|
... that the
Youth Olympic champion in the girls' hammer throw,
Alexia Sedykh, is the daughter of two current
world record holders in athletics? (2 September 2010)
|
... that
Canadian Olympic
shot putter
Bishop Dolegiewicz admitted to selling
steroids in the
1980s but later warned athletes of their health risks as a throwing
coach? (24 September 2010)
|
... that
Oprah Winfrey completed the
America's Finest City Half Marathon in 1993, running under a pseudonym and accompanied by a bodyguard, a trainer, and a video crew? (3 October 2010)
|
... that
Sharon Cherop fell over at the
Toronto Waterfront Marathon but got back up and ran the fastest
marathon ever by a woman in
Canada? (6 October 2010)
|
... that
Kenyan athlete
Paul Malakwen Kosgei became the
World Half Marathon Champion in 2002 despite having never competed in a
half marathon before? (20 October 2010)
|
... that
Ethiopian
long-distance runner
Atsede Habtamu set a new course record at the
Eindhoven Marathon with her first marathon victory earlier this month? (22 October 2010)
|
... that 2006
National Capital Marathon winner
Amos Tirop Matui was disqualified and received
financial compensation due to a misplaced barrier on the course? (25 October 2010)
|
... that
Australian runner
Michael Shelley lost his
scholarship funding and suffered a
broken leg in 2009, but went on to win a
silver medal in the
marathon at the
2010 Commonwealth Games? (25 October 2010)
|
... that
Irene Kosgei, despite injuring her knee at a drinks station early in the
women's marathon at the
2010 Commonwealth Games, edged compatriot
Irene Mogaka to become the first
Kenyan woman to win a Commonwealth marathon title? (26 October 2010)
|
... that
Amane Gobena is the first
Ethiopian runner to win the
Osaka Ladies Marathon? (27 October 2010)
|
... that
Sy Mah, who held a
Guinness World Record for the most lifetime
marathons, completed his first marathon in the same race in which he coached 13-year-old
Maureen Wilton to a
women's world record? (5 January 2011)
|
... that
Gary Fanelli, who represented
American Samoa in the
marathon at the 1988 Summer Olympics, has competed in various costumes including
Elwood Blues, a
Ghostbusters
ghost, and
Michael Jackson? (11 February 2011)
|
... that 2012 Olympian
Janet Cherobon-Bawcom started running only as a means to get a college scholarship and says she never "really became interested" in the sport? (3 August 2012)
|
... that to deprive his body of oxygen in the five months before the Olympic trials, Olympic steeplechaser
Donn Cabral spent over 10 hours a day in a high-altitude tent he bought on
Craigslist? (3 August 2012)
|
... that race walker
Emerson Esnal Hernández, who is set to represent
El Salvador at the
2012 Olympic Games, started competing in athletics after accompanying a shy friend to tryouts? (3 August 2012)
|
... that California student
Sarah Attar is one of
Saudi Arabia's first female athletes at the Olympics, and is due to compete at the 2012 Games in an event she hasn't competed in since high school? (8 August 2012)
|
... that 2012 Indian Olympic competitor
Ram Singh Yadav is the second Indian athlete ever to be qualified for the Olympics marathon? (11 August 2012)
|
... that
Vahram Papazyan (pictured) and
Mıgırdiç Mıgıryan, the two athletes who represented Turkey in its first-ever Olympics, were both ethnic Armenians? (2 March 2013 )
|
... that Chinese athlete
Wu Shuijiao set an
East Asian Games record in
100 metres hurdles when she won gold in the
2013 Games in
Tianjin? (8 January 2014)
|
... that Australian
javelin thrower
Hamish Peacock has competed at the Youth, Junior and Senior World Championships? (11 June 2014)
|