Sprinters smoking

I thought it was a world class high jumper.

Remember - she smoked a bunch of German athletes on some rooftop?

dunno but wasnt there someone who used to down a load of shots before his races?

Hestrie Cloete

Last year, after 10 years of smoking a pack a day, the South African high jumper Hestrie Cloete, who likes to say that she jumps with her legs not her lungs, won silver in Athens.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/05/fashion/thursdaystyles/05smokers.html?_r=1

The Italian sprinter may have been Pietro Mennea. HJer Patrick Sjoberg was a smoker.

I don't know but that Russian HJ'er was totally cocked up before that meet last fall.

Guy Drut '76 110 gold. Same as Willie Davenport ('76 110 bronze) - Marlboro reds.

Off the Grid wrote:

Guy Drut '76 110H gold. Same as Willie Davenport ('76 110H bronze, '68 gold) - Marlboro reds.

Yep, I was just gonna post about Drut. After his Olympic win Drut, who was a tremendous all-round athlete, finally gave the decathlon a serious attempt. (He was a 17-foot vaulter, which was *highly* competitive for a decathlete then and rewarded by massive points under the then-current tables.) He was moving through the events well, on course for a good score. In the 1500, his pack-a-day caught up with him and he DNFed--never tried again, IIRC.

I think Liu Xiang was/is a spokesman for some chinese cigarette company

Oh, my bad. I thought this thread was about something else.

I think he got told off for that. I'm not quite sure why he'd do it - "oh yeah, I've got a HJ competition later, I think I fancy 10 vodka redbulls"

The funniest/strangest story I ever read about that kind of thing though was this:

Lebanese skier Georges Salameh says sinister nasty enemies sabotaged his urine sample from a ski meet last month. That blows. The New York Daily News carries the tale.

Lebanese ski racer Georges Salameh, who provided a urine sample containing traces of cocaine during last month's Alpine skiing world championships in France, blames his positive test on the work of mysterious saboteurs.

"I have enemies in Lebanon who may have pushed people to do this," Salameh said. "I never used these drugs. I don't know what happened."

The skier claims he was intoxicated the night before the race. As if that excuses it all:

In an interview with the Daily News Friday, Salameh repeatedly claimed he was extremely drunk at a nightclub in the early morning hours before he provided his tainted sample on Feb. 12.

Salameh said he was approached by strangers while partying at Doudoune, a nightclub in Val d'Isere, a small and vibrant ski town nestled deep in the French Alps at the head of a dramatic glacial valley.

"I was so drunk," Salameh said, "and someone came to me and said I have something for you that will help. Really, I was so f---ing drunk and I took it."

Great pre-race training. It get better though:

Salameh could not describe the substance he was given. The president of the Lebanese ski federation, Tony Kouhri, told the Daily News on Thursday that Salameh was handed a pill.

"A man who speaks Arabic came to me and said I have something that will wake you up," Salameh said. "I have a lot of enemies. Not just me, but the federation."

Salameh was out until dawn, but just after 10 a.m. he was scheduled to start 82nd of 105 racers in a special qualification race for the giant slalom. The qualification races are for low-ranked skiers representing their countries at the world championships.

After that race, Salameh told an Austrian reporter that he didn't feel good and hadn't slept. "I drank vodka and ate fish at 5:00 a.m," Salameh told the reporter from the Austrian Press Agency. "This was probably not a good idea."

lol?

Shirley Strong won Olympic Silver at the 100m hurldles and smoked

One of my former team mates did 1:53 800m and sub 4 1,500 and got through about 40 a day! He also managed to get himself a role in Chariots of Fire, on the beach running scene!

Patrick Soljber (the long haired Swedish high jumper whose name I can spell) was a chain smoker. He did it to control his appetite and his strength to weight ratio. He said in an interview that if he didn't smoke he'd be as big as a shot putter. He also said that if he wasn't a full time high jumper that he'd be a full time playboy.

More evidence that distance runners are smarter than sprinters.

Ostrich wrote:

Sjoberg (the long haired Swedish high jumper whose name I can spell if I could doubledot the o) was a chain smoker. He did it to control his appetite and his strength to weight ratio. He said in an interview that if he didn't smoke he'd be as big as a shot putter. He also said that if he wasn't a full time high jumper that he'd be a full time playboy.

..

JESSE OWENS!!! WHY THE F*CK IS LETSRUN SO STUPID?

I think Bordin was a smoker at one point. And wasn't he alleged to have grabbed a smoke on the massage table after his Olympic win. A little treat for his efforts.

Herb Elliott smoked for quite a while before giving his distance career a serious go.

Well, I smoked a shitload of weed last week at the beach and I will be running XC for a excellent D1 school this fall.