DID YOU KNOW: When Greek runner Konstantinos Kenteris won gold at the 2000 Olympics for the 200-meter dash, he was the first Greek athlete to win an Olympic sprint since Dionysius of Alexandria in 269 AD.
True story! This is how the Olympic sprinting went for the Greeks after 269:
AD 269: Dionysus of Alexandria wins the 200-meter dash.
AD 271: Dionysus of Alexandria is in the lead when he goes off-course to chase a butterfly.
AD
473: Epimedes of Athens wins the race but is disqualified when it is
discovered that he was the one who tied everyone else’s sandals
together.
AD 501: Justinianos of Cydonia runs 200 meters in the
opposite direction. Despite this mishap, all the spectators agree that
he reached the -200M mark before anyone else reached 200M.
AD 995:
Basilos of Dyrrachium nearly finishes in fourth place but is beaten out
by a souvlaki vendor who got onto the course by accident.
AD 1171: Entire Greek team trips at the start.
AD
1454: Greek team boycotts the Olympic Games and forgets to tell their
coach, who is forced to do all the races on his own and manages to come
in third in the 100-meter dash.
AD 1556: Alexios of Gördes is in
second place when a wasp lands on him and he instinctively smacks it,
the resulting sting causing him to trip and fall, thus tripping up
everyone behind him. In the ensuing scrum, Beyzid of Ankara manages to reach the end while everyone else is still trading blows.
AD 1739: Constantinos of Izmir is in last
place when everyone in front of him trips and falls, putting him in
first place, until he also trips and falls.
AD 1830: Andreas
Kolokotronis comes in first place with a recorded time of two seconds,
which leads the Olympic Council to investigate the matter and discover
that Kolokotronis had ants in his pants. This is deemed a
performance-enhancing substance and Kolokotronis is disqualified.
AD 1968: George Papadopoulos forces his way onto the Greek team and manages to come in second in the 100-meter dash.
AD 2000: Konstantinos Kenteris wins the 200-meter dash.