Since Pierre de Coubertin revived the Olympic Games from ancient Greece in 1896, they have been held almost continuously every four years (with exceptions in 1916, 1940, and 1944 due to world wars). In each edition, changes and additions to the list of admitted sports, whether competitive or exhibition, are often considered. A glimpse into […]
Sports
Posted inAncient Rome
Gaius Appuleius Diocles, the invincible charioteer considered the highest-paid athlete in history
They probably don’t know it, but Fernando Alonso, Michael Schumacher and all the champions in motorsports, whether Formula 1 or other specialties, had a historical predecessor who surpassed them all in victories and fame, and by a wide margin. We’re talking about Gaius Appuleius Diocles, the most famous charioteer of Antiquity, a Spaniard who stirred […]
Posted inModern Era
The German female athlete at the 1936 Berlin Olympics who turned out to be a man
A recent case is that of Caster Semenya, South African athlete twice Olympic champion and three times world champion in the middle-distance (800 meters, to be exact), who in medical analysis was found to have a chromosomal abnormality that makes her produce three times more testosterone than normal and have internal male sex organs, which […]
Posted inModern Era
Luz Long, the German athlete who befriended Jesse Owens and helped him win at the 1936 Berlin Olympics
On 13 July 1943, a death occurred in the British field hospital in Acate, in the Sicilian province of Ragusa (Italy), which did not particularly attract the attention of the staff. After all, it was an enemy, a Luftwaffe obergefreiter (lance corporal) who was badly injured in defence of the island during the Allied invasion […]