PRESS RELEASE: Olympic & Paralympic News
In the lead-up to the Paris Olympic & Paralympic Games, the Author of CHASING GOLD, Max Hitchins, will regularly share little known facts about outstanding athletes.
Did you know:
• Obstacle race: The 1900 Paris Olympics included a Men’s 200 metre swimming obstacle race. There were three obstacles. The competitors first had to climb over a pole, then climb over a row of boats, and then swim under another row of boats. It was won by Frederick Lane of Australia.
• He ‘decked’ Joe Frazier: The first man to ‘deck’ American boxing legend Joe Frazier was Aussie Athol McQueen from Kyogle, NSW. He did it in the 1964 Olympics Games in Tokyo. Athol says he should have ‘sat on’ Joe once he had knocked him down. A maddened Joe got up and gave Athol a ‘hiding’. Listen to a 2019 interview with Athol McQueen @ https://youtu.be/vYjezhYV_Po?si=tYklsGdVxF5sZYNc (Or search YouTube for: Athol McQueen talks about ‘dropping’ Joe Frazier at 1964 Olympics.)
• Oldest Olympian: Swedish shooter Oscar Swahn competed at three Olympic games and won six medals, including three gold. Swahn holds records as the oldest Olympian at the time of competition, the oldest person to win gold, and the oldest person to win an Olympic medal. He competed at the 1908 Olympics (London); 1912 (Stockholm); 1920 (Antwerp). He was 72 when he competed in Antwerp.
• Kobe Bryant: Only one Olympian has won an Olympic gold medal and an Oscar. In 2008 American basketballer Kobe Bryant took home his first gold medal from the Beijing Summer Olympics. Four years before he would replicate the feat in 2012 during the London Games. In 2018, he won an Oscar for an animated short film he wrote and narrated: Dear Basketball.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUcdx4W8Xes (Or search YouTube for Dear Basketball.) It ultimately became a tribute to the life and legacy of the star who tragically lost his life in a helicopter accident in 2020.
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