Human Experiments_ Trafficked Athletes _ Poisoned Runners_ America_s 1st Olympics __Dark Summer

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No matter where you're listening to this podcast from, you're
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probably aware that we're about to start the Summer Olympics.
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The 33rd Olympics, actually, if we're being technical about it.
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The Games, which are said to have started some 3,000
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years ago, are a time where the world can come
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together for friendly competition and be amazed at what the
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human spirit can accomplish. I mean, I can't tell you
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how many TikToks of Simone Biles I've already cried over.
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But would you believe the Olympic Games don't have a
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squeaky clean history and that there's a lot of questionable decisions, coverups,
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and horrors that have occurred to make the games what
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they are today? Well, I'm sure you can believe that
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because this is Heart Starts Pounding. It's what you're here for.
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What if I told you that there was one Olympics
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where a mad scientist was allowed to run wicked experiments
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on the contestants? Where players didn't just travel from around
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the world to be there, but they were kidnapped from
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their homes, dragged to the games, and forced to compete.
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Where the bodies of those who died at the games
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were dug up and their brains stolen. I know, it
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sounds fake. It sounds like a strange conspiracy theory, but
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I promise it's all true. Today, I want to peel
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back the curtain for you a bit and shed light
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on the 1904 Olympic Games, known as one of the darkest,
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if not the darkest, games in history, even though history
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has largely forgotten about them. I've been sitting in the
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Rogue Detecting Society headquarters reading books and old newspaper articles
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about these games, and I can't wait to share with
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you what I've found. But first, before we get started,
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I wanted to give a quick shout out to everyone
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who has rated and reviewed the podcast. It's very kind
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of you to do, and it's really helpful for the
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charts algorithms. I've read through a couple of them in
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these past few days, and they're so kind. Someone named
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McKittens listened on Apple Podcasts and recently wrote, quote, me
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and my sister love to listen to this in her car.
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I love it so much, and it's so great, and
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you should definitely listen. And Zane JT, another Apple podcast
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subscriber who used the secret subscriber code in their review,
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said a lot of nice and wonderful things, including that they, quote,
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drive over an hour each way for work on top
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of a 12 hour shift. And a new episode is
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always something I look forward to while driving. Thank you
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for listening, Zane. Your words definitely don't go unnoticed. And
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I really appreciate you taking the time in your busy
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schedule to write a review. You have no idea. Zane
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also said that they like that I never go on
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and on, so I better get back to the episode.
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But thank you again to everyone who listens and for
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your reviews. Now, we're going to get into it after
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a short break. And as always, listener discretion is advised.
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Before I tell you about the 1904 Olympic Games, let
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me give you a brief history of the Olympics. Legend
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has it that the Olympics were created in Greece by
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the god Hercules himself, or Heracles as he was known
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in ancient Greece, around 3,000 years ago as a way
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to honor his father, the mighty god Zeus. That's why
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they were put on every four years at the end
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of the summer during a festival for the deity. And
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the original Greek Olympics were fit for the gods. They
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featured Greece's finest male athletes competing in races, pentathlons, wrestling matches, throwing,
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chariot races, and even something known as pancration, which has
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been described as a combination of boxing and wrestling with
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virtually no rules. The games were beloved by all, except
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for married women who were barred from attending them. probably
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because their out-of-shape husbands didn't want them lusting after Greece's
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finest athletes. Other than that, though, they were attended by
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tens to hundreds of thousands of people. But over time,
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the influence of the Christian Roman Empire grew. And although
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the games brought unity and excitement to the people, the
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new Christian government wasn't stoked about the pagan underpinnings of
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the event. And so they were banned in the year 393.
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And for 1,500 years, they were basically forgotten to ancient
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history until a man named Pierre de Coubertin became obsessed
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with the Olympics after visiting Athens, Greece and learning about them.
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He was able to drum up enough excitement around the
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idea of the games to revive them. And in 1896,
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he organized the first modern Olympics in Athens, Greece. And
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that first Olympics inspired the masses. It brought back all
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of the glory of the God-sanctioned games from centuries ago.
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280 athletes from 13 nations competed in original contests like wrestling,
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the pentathlon, and foot races. The track and field events
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were even held in the Panathenaic Stadium, originally built in
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330 BC. Runners were instantly transported 2,000 years prior and
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had the same view of 60,000 spectators in the stands
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as the original Greek athletes saw. Except this time, there
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were married women in the stands. They were actually invited.
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More events were added, like the marathon, swimming, gymnastics, and cycling,
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among others. And by the end of the first modern Olympics,
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Coubertin was probably on cloud nine. He had proved that
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the love he felt for the Games was universal, and
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he could bring them back in full swing. This was
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on its way to being a truly global event, one
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that would be hosted in all of the greatest cities
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on Earth, and the world was on board. So, in 1904,
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invitations went out inviting participating countries to join Coubertin at
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the third modern Olympics in... Drum roll, please. St. Louis, Missouri. St. Louis,
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the countries asked as they opened their invitations. Wow. That's
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not verbatim what was said, but it captures the spirit.
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The first games were in Athens, the second in Paris.
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Why were the third being held in St. Louis, a
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city that, in 1904, was the first to be held
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in St. Louis? was nearly impossible to travel to and
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hugely underdeveloped. Coubertin was also not very excited that the
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games were being held in St. Louis, but he felt
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backed into a corner. You see, that year, St. Louis
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was hosting something called the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, also known
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as the 1904 World's Fair. And the fair had five
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major objectives. One, to promote the city of St. Louis
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and demonstrate its sophistication. Two, to make money for stockholders
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and bring economic development to the Midwest. Three, to demonstrate
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the superiority of American democracy, capitalism, and culture. Four, to
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celebrate industrial, social, commercial, and technological progress. And five, to
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predict the future and see education as a cornerstone and
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future progress. The games were supposed to happen at the
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same time as the fair, but in Chicago. So St.
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Louis basically threatened to outshine the event. They wanted all
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the tourism brought to their city, not Chicago, and worried
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that people would choose the World's Fair over the Olympics,
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Coubertin conceded and allowed them to be held in St.
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Louis instead. The problem now, though, was that no one
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was going to come. Basically, all of Europe backed out
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of participating and Coubertin himself didn't even want to go.
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Would there even be an Olympics if no one went? Well, St.
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Louis came up with a compromise. How about we absorb
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the games into the larger World's Fair spectacle? That way,
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everyone who's already at the fair will be able to
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watch them and it'll be fine. And it was this
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decision that forever changed what the 1904 Olympics would be.
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Because now, the event was not going to be overseen
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by Coubertin's Olympic Committee. There was no official organization trying
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to uphold the honor and tradition of the Games. They
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were now basically a sideshow at the World's Fair, an
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already morally dubious event. It's that decision that would allow
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some bad actors to come into the fold who wanted
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to blend elements of the fair into the Olympics to
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create a sideshow much more disturbing than anything already being
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offered by the fair. And the first of these bad
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actors was a man by the name of James Sullivan.
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Sullivan was in charge of, quote, promoting American athleticism at
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the World's Fair and now the Olympic Games. At the time,
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he was the leading national authority in amateur sports and
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had founded the Amateur Athletic Union. He was also the
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editor of Spalding's official athletic almanac. His role basically meant
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he would oversee the Olympics that year. When Sullivan stepped
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foot on the fairgrounds at the St. Louis World's Fair,
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he would have seen a landscape unlike anything he had
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ever witnessed. Massive exhibit halls featured the newest and most
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exciting inventions from all around the world, outdoor electric lighting,
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private automobiles, even a new medical invention known as the X-ray.
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There was a natural history exhibit full of dinosaur bones
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and other fossils, a palace made of corn was on
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one side, and an elephant made out of almonds was
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on the other. Miniature trains transported guests around the grounds,
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and an exhibit hall known as the Pike was full
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of games and rides. Animals from around the world were
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on display, giving Americans a chance to see creatures they
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had only read about in books, like llamas and camels.
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But there was one thing at the fair that really
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caught James' eye. Actually, it was a display that had
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caught the eyes of many who would run past the
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animals and fossils to catch a glimpse of something they
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could really gawk at. Human zoos. What is a human zoo,
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you might ask? Well, it's exactly what it sounds like.
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People from all over the world were collected and transported
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to the World's Fair for others to gawk at. They
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were put into exhibitions that embellished their home environment to
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make them look as uncivilized as possible, all so Westerners
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could watch them. Most Westerners had not traveled the world
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and had never seen people from developing countries. And they
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viewed these zoos the way we would view going to
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see a tiger at a zoo. Though in reality, it
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was basically making a freak show of the rest of
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the world and reinforcing dangerous stereotypes about foreign people. But
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seeing these human zoos sparked something inside of Sullivan. He
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got an idea. He was afraid the Olympic Games were
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going to be overshadowed by the fair, so he was
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looking for interesting ways to combine the two. So what
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if he took all of the people in the human
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zoos and made them compete against each other in their
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own Olympic Games? That way, the world could laugh at
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how inept these foreigners were. Perhaps Sullivan's idea wouldn't be
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such a dark spot on the history of the Olympics
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if everyone that was in these zoos had come to
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the fair on their own accord and wanted to participate
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in the games. But let's take a little bit of
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a closer look at what was actually happening. So the
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zoos at the World Fair consisted of 3,000 people from
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75 societies, including the Ainu people from Japan, Mbudi people
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who at the time were referred to as African Pygmies,
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people who lived near the Andes Mountains in Chile referred
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to as Patagonians, members from the 51 First Nations in
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the Americas, Filipino people, as well as many others. Sullivan
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would have walked past the Philippine reservation where the people
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from the Philippines were kept, and he would have seen
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over 1,000 scantily clad villagers crowded near tents and campfires.
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He would have watched as Western women from America and
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Europe approached the tribesmen to touch them or get a photo. Mostly, though,
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they just stared and whispered in each other's ears. Have
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you ever seen anything like that before? The way people
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were brought to these human zoos varied. People from the
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Philippines were put on a month-long boat ride across the
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Pacific in packed quarters. Some of them didn't even realize
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they were going to America. Upon arrival, they were immediately
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stuck on near-freezing trains for the rest of the journey.
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Conditions were so bad that the fare had graves everywhere.
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on the grounds for those who didn't survive the trip.
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Native Americans, however, were usually lured by the promise of
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tips from spectators. With few exceptions, they weren't actually paid
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for any of their work, though. To acquire Mabuti people
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from Congo, one of the fair workers contacted a man
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who traveled often to Africa, Samuel Werner, and paid him $ 8, 500
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to acquire 12 people that met the fair's specifications. They
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also wanted, quote, four red Africans and two other ethnic
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types of his choosing. One of the men he purchased
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was a 20-year-old named Ota Banga, Ota stood at just
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4 feet 11 inches, or 150 centimeters, when he was
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brought to the fair. Werner paid just a pound of
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salt and a bolt of cloth for him. He had
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this boyish look, having just left his teen years and
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not having shed the baby weight in his face. When
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he was brought to the fair, the head of the
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anthropology department and man in charge of the zoos, W.J. McGee, rejoiced. See,
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Ota had a sweet disposition and would do this thing
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where he smiled when he didn't really understand something, which
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happened a lot because he didn't speak any English. And
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it was this smile that made McGee see dollar signs.
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As a child, Ota's teeth had been filed into sharp
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points in a ritual that was common amongst Mabuti people.
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And McGee knew spectators would line up to see the boy.
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Where did you find this boy? McGee asked Werner. I
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rescued him from a clan of cannibals, Werner proudly proclaimed.
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That was not true. Ota had previously been captured by
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an enemy tribe and Werner purchased him from them. And yet,
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Ota was labeled as a cannibal and put on display
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for everyone to see. So one of the many, many
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problems with these human zoos was that people from around
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the world weren't really encouraged to live how they actually lived.
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They were encouraged to behave in ways that made them
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look barbaric to Westerners. For instance, during the Chicago World's
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Fair a few years prior, an indigenous group from Canada,
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the Kwaki Udall, were encouraged to partake in a cannibalism
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ritual that they did not practice in Canada. The promise
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of being able to watch these people eat other people
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boosted ticket sales immensely, and it encouraged all other exhibitions
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around the country to do the same. So at the
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fair in St. Louis, McGee had heard that the people
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of the Philippines ate dog during certain religious ceremonies. So
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he forced the people at the Philippine reservation to eat
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as many as 20 dogs in front of spectators. Fair
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planners made the group butcher the animals every day, which
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they would later go on to say was degrading to
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them and their culture. Oda, who quickly became a fan
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favorite at the fair due to his playful demeanor and
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sharp teeth, was not spared from this cultural degradation. He
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was kept in huts on the grounds with ample viewing
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areas for people to watch him. He had been brought
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to the fair in the late spring and wasn't prepared
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for the cold. But on days that he huddled with
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the other men from his tribe in the huts for warmth,
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spectators threw rocks at him, beckoning him to come out
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so they could get a good look at his teeth.
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But for how bad these displays were, it was nothing
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compared to what was about to happen. Because in the
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shadows of the fair, Sullivan was working on putting together
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the Olympic Games involving these indigenous people. And not just
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to give the audience something else to gawk at. No,
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he was going to use these games to prove definitively
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a theory that he held deep down for a very
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long time. That white people were superior to anyone else
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when it came to athletics. More after the break. On
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August 11th, 1904, the World's Fair had already been going
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on for three and a half months, but the Olympics
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portion was just getting started. Athletes from mostly America traveled
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into the fairgrounds to prepare for their events. Remember, Europe
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didn't want to come to St. Louis and most other
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countries weren't invited, so the majority were American contestants. August
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11th was the day when Sullivan started his strange and
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unethical experiment. He was going to call the two-day event
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the Anthropology Days. This offshoot of the Olympics was given
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that name because Sullivan was going to prove a now
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very outdated anthropological belief that white athletes were superior to
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athletes of other races. To do this, he put together
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a list of Olympic sports that the native people in
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the human zoos would definitely fail at. Swimming, tennis, water polo, javelin,
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essentially any sport that just wasn't available in other countries.
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There was weightlifting because Sullivan wanted to test the strength
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of white people versus natives. He wanted there to be
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running because Native Americans were known to be runners and
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he thought it would be even more impactful when they
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lost against the white contestants. The plan was to run
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these games within the Olympics for two days so spectators
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could see how indigenous people performed compared to the white athletes.
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And records were not kept very well for these anthropology days,
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I wonder why, but we do have a partial list
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of the participants. And there, the last name on the
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list of the Mabuti athletes is Otabanga. He would have
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been ordered to leave his hut one day and head
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down to the fields where the events were taking place. There,
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he would have been told in English, which he did
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not speak, the rules of the race he was participating in.
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Mind you, Ota came from a culture where waiting for
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your friends was common and polite. But he watched as
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the spectators in the stands laughed at him as he
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slowed his running to make sure his friends didn't fall
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far behind him during the sprints. He also was forced
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to participate in multiple games per day, something that Olympic
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athletes are typically not made to do. By the end
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of the first day, he was made to do an
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event called loaded running, where he had to carry 25%
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of his body weight on his back while he ran.
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He and the other contestants were desperately tired. Ota also
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had to run a relay race, which was a disaster
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because no one understood what to do with the baton.
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And don't even get me started on the hurdles. I mean,
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I ran track and field in high school and I
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can't even get over a hurdle. So I can't imagine
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what it was like for people who had never seen
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one before. And on top of that, Ota was short.
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How could he have been expected to compete against, say,
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the Kokopa men from the Mexican tribe who were often
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over six feet tall? But I will say, the whole
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competition wasn't just the natives losing. It's interesting to note
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here that every single person from the human zoo that
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participated in the event called the Pole Climb, where participants
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00:22:18.140 --> 00:22:21.619
literally just climbed a pole for speed, beat the white
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world champions time, and not by a little, by at
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least 10 seconds. This win never made it into the
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final score, however. And along with winning competitions, records showed
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that some of the games were enjoyable for the contestants.
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Many of these people had been kept in the zoo
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enclosures for months at that point, and being out in
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the sun playing with the friends they had made was
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better in comparison. I mean, the bar was so low.
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One of the events in particular, the long-distance baseball throw,
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was a fan favorite. Contestants lined up to participate and
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laughed at each other as they tried to figure out
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the correct way to throw a baseball. There was also
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some downtime where the Native Americans taught Ota and his
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tribe how to play shinny, which is kind of like
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field hockey. Now, if they knew that the results of
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their failures were being written down as proof they were
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inferior to their white counterparts, it would have been an
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entirely different story. but in the moment when they had
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no idea what they were competing for, they enjoyed themselves
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when they could. All of that fun would be over, however,
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once it came time for the marathon. On one of
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the hottest days that August, Sullivan announced that the marathon
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would begin shortly. Now, this was going to count towards
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the actual Olympic Games, and the winner of the marathon
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would win a gold medal, Therefore, most of the contestants
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this day were American men, though a few Native American
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men were allowed to participate, as well as two South
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African men who were wrongly classified as being from the
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Zulu tribe and were given made-up African-sounding names to participate.
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Their real names were Len Tau and Jan Mashiani, and
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they were the first Black Africans to ever participate in
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a modern Olympic event. Other contestants included Felix Carvajal, a
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runner from Cuba who hitchhiked to the Games, as well
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as experienced marathon runners like Americans Michael Spring and Thomas Hicks.
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Sullivan didn't really think through the course when he chose
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where they would run. The 25-mile-long track went directly through
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traffic and included 300-foot hills with brutal inclines. But he
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wasn't really concerned with how fast athletes could run this track. Instead,
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Sullivan wanted to use this event for another one of
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his twisted experiments. He wanted to see how well athletes
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would fare in extreme conditions. So to start, Sullivan began
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the race at 3 p.m., the hottest part of the day,
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when temperatures were in the low 90s, or 33 degrees Celsius.
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He also intentionally did not put water stops along the track. No,
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one of the leading thoughts in sports science at the
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time was that hydration actually hindered performance. And Sullivan wanted
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to test and see if extreme dehydration actually helped the runners.
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So there was one water stop about halfway through the race.
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To start this race, a dozen men on horseback ran
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ahead to clear the course. releasing a big cloud of dirt.
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The gun fired and the athletes ran straight into it,
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coughing as they swatted at the cloud to get some
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fresh air. And it only got worse from there. Pretty
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early into the run, a dog chased Len Tao off
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of the course, Other runners turned back to see him
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00:26:01.069 --> 00:26:03.970
screaming and flailing his arms as he ran in the
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wrong direction and out of sight. Perhaps they silently celebrated
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one runner down, naively thinking that the rest of the
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path would be fine. But soon, they found themselves in
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the middle of traffic. The horse-riding men didn't clear out
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the center of town for the runners, and now they
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00:26:23.089 --> 00:26:27.910
had to dodge cable cars, trolleys, and thick plumes of exhaust.
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The unpaved roads meant even more dirt kicked into the air,
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and it was nearly impossible for any of the runners
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to breathe. William Garcia seemed to be the most affected
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by this, and he collapsed about eight miles from the
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finish line, clutching his stomach and screaming. The dust and
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smog had coated his esophagus and ripped his stomach lining,
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causing a hemorrhage. Carvajal, desperate for hydration, stopped by an
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apple orchard during the run to eat a few apples,
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which probably would have helped him had they not been rotten.
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He also fell to the ground clutching his stomach and
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00:27:09.480 --> 00:27:12.880
proceeded to take a nap in the middle of an
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Olympic event. One man was cramping so much from the
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00:27:16.640 --> 00:27:20.420
dehydration that he just gave up. Another hitched a ride
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on a wagon for a portion of the track, and
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Len Tao miraculously emerged after being chased off by that
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dog and actually started passing people. The man in the
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front of the pack, though, Thomas Hicks, was in really
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00:27:37.150 --> 00:27:41.130
bad shape. By the 10-mile mark, he was begging for water,
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00:27:41.369 --> 00:27:45.890
but was refused. His coach started getting really worried about him, though.
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He was keeping good pace, but he looked like death.
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So seven miles from the finish line, he intervened and
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fed Hicks some egg whites and strychnine. You may recognize
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strychnine by its use today, rat poison. When ingested by humans,
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00:28:05.029 --> 00:28:10.670
it can cause severe muscle spasms and eventually asphyxiation. But
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back in 1904, really low doses of strychnine were given
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as stimulants See, the poison makes your neurotransmitters fire even
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00:28:19.940 --> 00:28:23.559
when there's no stimulus, and it's this firing that causes
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00:28:23.579 --> 00:28:28.849
a jolt of nervous energy. And that initially worked, but
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a few miles later, Hicks looked pale and deathly once again.
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So his trainers gave him more egg whites, another dose
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of strychnine, and some brandy to wash it down. Just
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00:28:41.150 --> 00:28:43.480
a quick reminder that he wouldn't have needed any of
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this if Sullivan had just allowed him to drink water
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during the race. Doped up on two hits of rat
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poison and some alcohol, Hicks was revived, though barely. He
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was described by a witness as, quote, running mechanically like
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a well-oiled piece of machinery. His eyes were dull, lusterless.
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The ashen color of his face and skin had deepened.
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00:29:06.769 --> 00:29:10.880
His arms appeared as weights, well tied down, and he
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00:29:10.910 --> 00:29:17.299
could scarcely lift his legs while his knees were almost stiff. Apparently...
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00:29:17.369 --> 00:29:20.190
He had begun hallucinating, and he thought that the finish
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00:29:20.210 --> 00:29:23.390
line was still 20 miles away. He was begging for
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00:29:23.470 --> 00:29:27.250
water or something to eat, but instead, he was just
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given more brandy. By the last mile, he was still
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in the lead, and the St. Louis dispatch described his
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state as, quote, his lower jaw was hanging as in imbecility.
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His eyes stared blankly, but his pitiful expression didn't change. Eventually,
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Hicks' two coaches came to his side and carried him
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00:29:51.579 --> 00:29:55.099
over the finish line. And even so, he was still
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00:29:55.160 --> 00:29:59.059
considered the winner. It took four doctors and one hour
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00:29:59.200 --> 00:30:01.559
to get him up off the ground, and he had
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00:30:01.619 --> 00:30:09.880
lost eight pounds during the race. Everything Sullivan had attempted
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00:30:09.960 --> 00:30:13.940
during the Olympics had been a disaster, and everyone knew it.
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Anthropologists declared his anthropology days useless. None of the data
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00:30:19.250 --> 00:30:23.190
could extrapolate anything about fitness or race, though Sullivan tried
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00:30:23.230 --> 00:30:25.750
to convince them that it did. but it was ordered
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that the results be trashed. And as for the marathon,
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Sullivan refused to accept that dehydration had anything to do
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with the performance of the athletes. He insisted that strychnine
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was the reason Hicks was in horrible shape at the
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finish line, which, sure, he wasn't wrong about that, but
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00:30:43.089 --> 00:30:50.029
his conclusion that water hinders athletic performance was dangerous and untrue. Coubertin,
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00:30:50.150 --> 00:30:53.900
the head of the Olympic Committee, was embarrassed by how
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00:30:53.940 --> 00:30:58.119
the Games had went and publicly called Sullivan's anthropology days
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inhumane and a mistake. But though the Games were over
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and later that year the fair would pack up its
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horses and leave town, its effects on the people and
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00:31:12.650 --> 00:31:19.460
anthropology as a whole would linger for a while until Take,
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for instance, the Philippine Reservation. Many Filipino people died of
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pneumonia in the early days of the fair due to
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00:31:27.359 --> 00:31:30.769
the horrible conditions of the travel it took to get there.
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00:31:31.430 --> 00:31:35.289
One of them was an 18-year-old girl named Maura. Her
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00:31:35.369 --> 00:31:37.789
dying wish was that her body be brought back to
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the Philippines for a proper burial. But instead, she was
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buried on the fairgrounds. Her community tried to do a
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burial in honor of her culture, but only a Christian
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burial was permitted for fear of paganism. After Mora was buried,
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a predatory scientist named Eilish Herlichka came to the fairgrounds
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with a mission. He wanted to prove that the brains
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of white people and non-white people were fundamentally different. It
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wasn't just the athleticism that Sullivan spoke about. It went
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deeper than that. And under the cover of night, he
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dug up bodies from the Philippine reservation and stole their
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brains for research. And some of those brains are still
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00:32:26.559 --> 00:32:34.799
in the archives of the Smithsonian Museum today. Then there's Otabenga.
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Ota was brought back to Africa, but he felt like
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00:32:39.089 --> 00:32:41.829
he didn't fit in anymore. He had spent so much
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time away from his culture that he didn't feel Mabuti.
477
00:32:46.569 --> 00:32:49.829
So he opted to go back to America, where he
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00:32:49.869 --> 00:32:52.650
was kept in the Bronx Zoo in a cage with
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an orangutan. Spectators would come and ogle at Ota as
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he interacted with the monkey, his only protection along Spear.
481
00:33:02.109 --> 00:33:06.009
until one day when Ota decided he was done being watched,
482
00:33:06.329 --> 00:33:09.470
and he turned the spear on the crowd, throwing it
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00:33:09.690 --> 00:33:13.789
in their direction to hit one of them. Ota spent
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00:33:13.809 --> 00:33:16.599
the rest of his life in America, living in the
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00:33:16.630 --> 00:33:21.859
margins between sideshow and free man. A reverend paid for
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00:33:21.920 --> 00:33:26.160
his sharp teeth to be capped and gave him American-style clothes.
487
00:33:26.960 --> 00:33:29.619
He was also put in tutoring where he learned English
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00:33:29.880 --> 00:33:34.799
and American customs, It seemed like he was acclimating. But
489
00:33:34.839 --> 00:33:38.380
of course, we don't have any writings from Ota himself.
490
00:33:38.500 --> 00:33:41.240
We just have what others said about him. We don't
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00:33:41.289 --> 00:33:44.569
even really know that he chose to come back to America.
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00:33:44.589 --> 00:33:52.130
And one day in 1916, Ota lit a large ceremonial fire,
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00:33:52.759 --> 00:33:56.660
symbolically chipped off all of the caps on his teeth,
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00:33:57.140 --> 00:34:01.799
exposing the sharp ones underneath, and shot himself in the chest.
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00:34:03.339 --> 00:34:07.619
He would rather die an Mbuti man than live as
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00:34:07.660 --> 00:34:14.860
an American. It is really intense to think of how
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far the modern games have come since their early days.
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00:34:18.949 --> 00:34:22.690
And as you're watching this year, remember Ota and the
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00:34:22.789 --> 00:34:26.010
other indigenous people who were made to compete for false
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00:34:26.090 --> 00:34:30.590
science and spectators. This history has been largely lost, but
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00:34:30.619 --> 00:34:33.190
there are a few historians who are working to keep
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00:34:33.269 --> 00:34:39.070
the Native people's legacy alive. So, no matter which country
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00:34:39.150 --> 00:34:42.989
you're rooting for, enjoy the games, and may the best
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00:34:43.190 --> 00:34:49.659
athlete win. This has been Heart Starts Pounding, written and
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00:34:49.699 --> 00:34:52.780
produced by me, Kaylin Moore. Heart Starts Pounding is also
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00:34:52.840 --> 00:34:57.019
produced by Matt Brown. Additional research by Marissa Dow. Sound
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00:34:57.039 --> 00:35:00.550
design and mix by Peachtree Sound. Special thanks to Travis Dunlap,
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00:35:00.690 --> 00:35:04.349
Grayson Jernigan, the team at WME, and Ben Jaffe. Have
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00:35:04.369 --> 00:35:09.130
a heart-pounding story or a case request? Head to heartstartspounding.com.
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And until next time, stay curious.