Thomas Hicks

Thomas Hicks (January 7th 1875 - December 2nd 1963) was a athlete American, victorious of the Olympic Marathon in 1904.

Born in England, it finished initially second of the Marathon of Boston 1904, then gained the marathon with the Olympic Games of summer of 1904, left the World Fair with Saint-Louis to the the United States). The conditions of play were bad, the race had been played on a dirty course, with clouds of dust coming from the accompanying cars. Hicks was not the first to cross the line; Fred Lorz arrived before him but it gave up with the ninth mile, continuing the race in the car and returning in the race 5 miles before the end. The official ones were informed by it and one thus disqualified Fred Lorz - which then spoke about a joke - making it possible Thomas Hicks to gain the gold medal.

With the current rules of race, Hicks would have been disqualified, owing to the fact that it received an amount of one sixtieth (approximately 1 Mg.) of Strychnine and Eau-de-vie of its assistants whereas it slowed down; the first strychnin amount did not give him the sought effect, it thus accepted a different second from it. It fell after having crossed the finishing line: another amount could have been to him fatal - starting from certain amounts produces it is a mortal poison. The Strychnine is since prohibited for the athletes.

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