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Mark Tonelli

This collection of 60 short Olympic tales covers the past 125 years. From the early days of running on cinder tracks and swimming in rivers to today’s sparkling architectural precincts, the Games have become the world’s largest two-week sportsfest spawning hundreds of champions with their own background from all around the world.
Enjoy these stories, relive historical moments, remember the legends, celebrate the heroes… be inspired.


Michael Phelps

FLYING FISH

American Flying Fish Michael Phelps has rewritten the Olympic record book with amazing sportsmanship. At the 2004 Athens Olympics he was trying to equal Mark Spitz’s haul of 7 Gold in a single Games.  He got 6, along the way giving his finals spot on a relay to a team mate. Four years later in Beijing he collected a record 8 adding to career total of 23 Gold medals – proving nice guys don’t necessarily come last.

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4:26 mins – Play story


Lasse Viren

BLOOD DOPING

Winning 4 Olympic Gold medals ‘Flying Finn” distance runner Lasse Viren completed an historic double-double and changed the rule books in the process. Capturing the 5 and 10 thousand metres at the 72 Munich games, he repeated the feat 4 years later in Montreal amid allegations of blood doping – infusing oxygenated blood just before the competition. Not illegal at the time as it was supposedly his own blood… denied by Viren the practice has since been banned.

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4:57 mins – Play story


PLUNGE FOR DISTANCE

In the original long jump at the ancient Olympics contestants would throw lead weights backward mid air to propel themselves forward. The modern event now features a narrow runway where the competitor accelerates to maximum speed leaping into a rectangular sand pit. Swimming’s attempt at its own ‘long jump’ was a standing dive into the water and gliding face down until stopped. Mercifully the ‘plunge for distance’ made its one and only appearance at the 1904 St. Louis Olympics.

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5:31 mins – Play story

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