26Olympics
The state of Kuwait is banned from the Olympics due to government legislation that permits the state to interfere in elections of sporting organizations. As a result, Kuwaiti athletes compete as independent athletes under the Olympic Flag instead of their own flag.
27. Betty Robinson, an Olympic runner, was involved in a plane crash in 1931 and was wrongly pronounced dead upon first being discovered. She spent 7 months in a coma and it took her 2 years to learn to walk normally again. In 1936, she returned to the US Olympic team and won gold in the relay.
28. The night before the Olympic final, Michael Jordan apparently spent the night drinking and gambling all night, then he went on a long day of press appearances, plus 18 holes of golf in Barcelona, before he went on to lead Team USA in a gold-medal winning victory over Croatia.
29. During 1936 Berlin Olympic games, the Nazis ridiculed the US for relying on "non-human black auxiliaries." American black athlete Jesse Owens went on to win 4 gold medals and beat a German at Long Jump in front of Hitler. Four years after Owens' death, a street in Berlin was renamed after him.
30. Czechoslovak runner Emil Zátopek decided to compete in the marathon in the 1952 Olympics, despite never having run that distance in his life. Zátopek asked fellow runner Jim Peters, who he was racing alongside if the pace was fast enough. When Peters said "no", Zátopek sped up and won the race
Latest FactRepublic Video:
15 Most Controversial & Costly Blunders in History
31MMA
MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) was included in the ancient Olympics. It is called Pankration and is the only event that wasn't reinstated with the creation of the modern Olympics.
32. Young Greek hoplites (citizen soldiers) had to dress in heavy armor and run a foot race of 1,300 ft in the Olympics. This was done to develop the battlefield tactic of rushing to the Persian lines in rapid pace so as to counter their archers.
33. Luxembourg's gold medal at the 1952 Olympics was so unexpected that the organizers had neglected to give the band a score for their national anthem. The musicians "hurriedly improvised a tune which bore little resemblance to the Luxembourg anthem".
34. In 1968, Olympic long jumper Bob Beamon's first attempt exceeded the limit of the official measuring equipment. It took over 15 minutes before a distance was posted, and only then did he realize he had broken the world record by nearly 2 feet (0.6m).
35. Because Brazil couldn't afford to send its athletes to the 1932 Olympics which was held in Los Angeles, they loaded their ship with coffee and sold it along the way.
