Dark History - 126: Dark History: Wait... WHO'S paying for the Olympics?

Episode Date: March 20, 2024

Hi friends, happy Wednesday! Now, before the Olympics were a thing, it was really just a bunch of Greek competitions about testing physical limits. They had no fancy ass equipment or Nike sponsorships. But since then, a lot of people have been abused, and  cities have been destroyed. And apparently, people like you and I pay for the Olympics to exist!? Are they even uniting and inspiring us? And with such a hefty price tag, are they even worth it? I appreciate you for coming by, and tune in next week for more Dark History.  Want some cool Bailey Merch?  Shop Dark History Merch: https://www.baileysarian.com _______ You can find the Dark History podcast on Apple, Spotify, wherever you listen to your podcasts, and every Thursday here on my YouTube for the visual side of things.  Apple Podcast- https://www.apple.co/darkhistory Dark History Merch-  https://www.baileysarian.com _______ FOLLOW ME AROUND   Tik Tok: https://bit.ly/3e3jL9v Instagram: http://bit.ly/2nbO4PR Facebook: http://bit.ly/2mdZtK6 Twitter: http://bit.ly/2yT4BLV Pinterest: http://bit.ly/2mVpXnY Youtube: http://bit.ly/1HGw3Og Snapchat: https://bit.ly/3cC0V9d  Discord: https://discord.gg/BaileySarian RECOMMEND A STORY HERE: [e-mail]  Business Related Emails: [e-mail] Business Related Mail:  Bailey Sarian  4400 W. Riverside Dr., Ste 110-300  Burbank, CA 91505 _______ Style that makes you feel as good as you look—get started today at https://www.StitchFix.com/darkhistory. Visit https://www.Audible.com/DARKHISTORY or text DARKHISTORY to 500-500. New users can try Audible premium plus for free for 30 days.  Head to https://www.FACTORMEALS.com/darkhistory50 and use code darkhistory50 to get 50% off.  Visit https://www.TheFreezePipe.com and use code DARKHISTORY for 10% off your entire order. 

I had a thought the other day. I was on the toilet. I call it a toilet thought. It's where I do my best thinking anyway. But listen to this. What if instead of professional athletes competing in the Olympics, there was like a random drawing. Kind of like what they do with the military draft.

But for all the sports. Could you imagine if like Todd from across the street was in the Olympics? I'm not being mean, but you know, he's got the beer belly. He's kind of let himself go a bit. He chain smokes a lot. That guy.

What if he got picked, you know? Or what about like poor grandma? She's so sweet and old and she makes cookies. What if she gets picked? Of course, there's gonna end up being someone like Mrs. Trunchbull from like Matilda. You know, like, she's buff as shit, she could look like a Ford F-150 but she's going up against poor grandma and also what's-his-name-the-neighbor, you know, I would like to see that competition. Anyway, that's the Olympics I want.

That'd be so cool. That's the America I want to live in. That's beautiful. America, America, this is you. Oh, I would love that. Kind of like Hunger Games, but the Olympics, you know? That's what I want, yeah. And then I got to wondering, is that even possible? Could Todd go up against someone like Michael Phelps? No, and not too long ago,

when I was doing one of my 2 a.m. Googles, I discovered something. If Todd lived like 2,000 years ago, he for sure could have competed in the Olympics. But unfortunately, his wife could not attend or else she would be thrown off a cliff. To her death, mind you. Literally, I'm not lying.

Welcome to the dark history of the Olympics. Hi friends, I hope you're having a wonderful day today. My name is Bailey Sarian and I'd like to welcome you to my podcast, Dark History. Here we believe history does not have to be boring. A lot of the times it's tragic, sometimes it's happy, but either way it's our dark history. So all you have to do is sit back, relax, and let's talk about that hot, juicy history of guys.

Olympics, baby. So the Olympics, let's talk about it. It started in ancient Greece. The first games that we know of happened in the year 776 BC. Yeah, before Jesus they were running and jumping out there. Good for them. Before the Olympics were a thing, it was really just a bunch of Greek competitions that were all about testing physical limits. They didn't have fancy equipment, there wasn't some fancy sponsorships, and the only Wheaties they had out there were growing in the field. The cereal Wheaties, remember? You get it. It was all about using what was around them.

One of these early games was dedicated to men wrestling each other. They'd be like, he's stavros, $100 says I can pin you down. And then they would go at it, wrestle each other. Usually they'd be naked. And I wish I could time travel. Am I right Joan? If you're watching over on YouTube,

then you could see that Joan over here has a gold medal. Joan won the pole dancing competition. Girl, you worked that pole and she got first place. Like go for her. So you know those ancient Greeks always finding an excuse to be greased up on top of each other hot? I don't really know how they determined who was the best wrestler,

but I wish there were photos of this because I'd be interested. So at this time, there'd be more regular games like a foot race. We don't really know if they were wearing shoes or sandals, but what we do know is that this foot race was very important because it showed how truly physically fit they were.

Like you can't fake being in shape if you have to haul ass in a race. And the last game they did, which is my personal favorite, was chariot racing. I didn't know this was real, but this is the real thing. So this involved a man driving a horse drawn chariot at a high speed down some windy ass dirt roads. And whoever got there first won.

I mean, it seems simple enough, but nay nay. Chariot racing was very dangerous. Like if you tipped over or hit a rock, it was game over for you because if your chariot fell on its side, you could like risk getting run over by the other chariots. And then you would break a bunch of bones, maybe even die.

It was pretty brutal. And also like poor horses. RIP. Yeah, they really did this though. This is like some real bro shit. I feel like they need to bring it back. Okay, they need... Look, we gotta keep the men busy

and they need something to do. So if we can get them back in the chariot racing, keep them busy with that, you know? Now the main motivation for the Greeks to participate in these games was to honor their god Zeus. Now there were other games that honored other important Greek gods like Apollo, but Zeus was the king of the gods and he was in charge of the sky, lightning, and law and order. What's most interesting about the original games isn't like what sports were played, but the drama surrounding them. Because girl, those Greeks were dead serious about these games,

okay? Like get the fuck out of my way woman. You are in my way. I need to lift and prepare. Just traveling to even participate and play in these games meant that you were literally risking your life. I guess there was lots of fighting happening between the various cities within Greece and at any minute a mini war could break out. So for the Olympics or whatever, there was like a special announcement that would happen. And when it was translated, it pretty much translated to like the holding of hands, which is so beautiful, you know? Like this meant that for a short period of time,

there would be no fighting in the name of the games. It's kind of like how America might have beef with like China or Russia. But when it comes to the Olympics, everyone is allowed to play just for the games. It's kind of like how America might have beef with like China or Russia, but when it comes to the Olympics, everyone is allowed to play just for the game. We all come together and we shut the eff up, you know? Look at us. It's so cute. We can all like, it's just, it's so beautiful. It's so beautiful. So just getting to the competition in the first place was already a win. There's always going to be some, you know, shithead who's going to break the rules. Like, I guess there was this one time,

a war general ordered an entire group of soldiers to ignore that peace agreement. And these soldiers were Spartans. Remember that iconic movie quote? This is Sparta or whatever. Yeah, them abs greased up, sweaty. They were shitheads. Paul, I've told you a million times,

you can't just wear my clothes and think I won't notice. I mean, come on, I grew up with sisters. This is a lot. Hey, you know what? We need to get you your own account on Stitch Fix. If you don't know, Paul, listen up. Stitch Fix is absolutely amazing. I mean, it's their mission to change the way people find clothes they love by combining tech with the personal touch of a style expert.

Yeah. To get started, it's so simple. Just three easy steps. One, take your style quiz. Two, connect with the stylist they hook you up with. Three, get your fix delivered right to your door. It's great. You can order boxes when you want and how you want. There's no subscription required. Just keep what you love and then send the rest back.

Paul, listen, the best part for you is that a stylist will send you personalized pieces based on your size, style, and budget. In my fix, I got these cropped black denim pants with this amazing pair of vans in my last fix, and girl, I wear them everywhere. Paul, I see you eyeing my vans, don't you dare touch them. Stitch Fix is here to help you save time, look great,

and evolve your unique style over time. So stop stealing my clothes, Paul. For style that makes you feel as good as you look, get started today at stitchfix.com slash dark history. That's stitchfix.com slash dark history. One more time for the people in the back, stitchfix.com slash dark history. One more time for the people in the back, StitchFix.com slash dark history. The Spartans attacked a city they were at war with

while they were on the way to the games. They're like, we don't give a crap about peace. We want blood. And they got just that. They ended up killing over a thousand people. For what? I don't know, because they're Sparta or whatever. So as a punishment, they were actually banned

from the games that year and fined a ton of money. Now that might seem like a light sentence for murdering 1000 humans, but this meant that the Spartans weren't able to honor their God and the people were absolutely disgraced. The Spartans tried to argue against it, like, hey everyone, like we all make mistakes. We were just like playing around, whoopsie.

But it didn't work. People were like, you assholes, get out of here. Peace, holding hands, that's what we're about. So after that bloodbath, someone had to make a rule essentially saying, okay everybody, promise to be good so we can play the games. You want to play, right? You want to play? Okay, well then be good. So in order for like the games to even happen, all of the participants had to agree to a special set of rules where everyone agreed to a ceasefire.

No fighting, play nice. The original truce was written down on a bronze disc and displayed near the game site. Do we have a photo? I hope so. No? Okay. And maybe you're wondering at this point, why is it called the Olympics? Why not Hot Sweaty Men Wrestling Contest? Well, it turns out the origin of the name is not 100% known, but according to Greek mythology, there was a Greek god named Hercules who had something to do with it. I know, I loved Hercules. Zero to hero?

Come on. So the story goes that Hercules completed something called the 12 labors. These were a bunch of tasks Hercules did for his king. And this wasn't something like vacuuming or like painting a portrait of him. No, this was stuff like killing a giant serpent water monster, iconic. Once Hercules was done, he decided to celebrate

by building a stadium to honor Zeus, his daddy. Sounds like it should be the 13 labors, but... Okay, who am I? Shut up, Bailey. Okay. Anyway, Hercules built daddy a stadium, and some say the name was inspired by the neighborhood where his dad lived. Mount Olympus. Olympics? Huh? Huh? Kinda makes sense. It'd be squid, but it makes sense. So the actual games themselves were held in Olympia,

which at this point was a small town in Greece. They would expect around 40,000 people to attend. A nearby city had to run the games and organize all the details because apparently Olympia was kind of in the middle of nowhere. I mean, when there weren't Olympic games happening, the area was used as a wheat field

to feed all the city's people. I know this also got me thinking, you know, I do my best thinking on the toilet, like I said, and this got me thinking, is that why they always put the Olympic athletes on Wheaties boxes? Wheat field, Wheaties box? Coincidence? I think not. Maybe. I don't know. To compete in and attend the games, first rule you had to be Greek and rule number two, you had to be male.

You know, of course they didn't want women to compete. They needed to be home, making a baby, taking care of the kids, and cleaning and whatnot. Actually, the only way a woman could have anything to do with the games was if they owned a horse used in the chariot races. In order to make sure that no women were secretly competing, all of the sports were played naked. Yes, great. Balls flop in, dicks out, very primal. The other reason all the athletes had, dicks out, very primal.

The other reason all the athletes had their dicks out was that so, you know, it'd be a fair competition. Everyone is competing on the same level. So that, you know, maybe the real answer is they just want to see each other naked, you know, so they can compare dick sizes. Did they care about dick size? Maybe. We don't know. History is a mystery sometimes. Okay, listen to what happened to women who got caught there because women tried to sneak in. I don't know if they had like a pussy

police officer or something, but officials and players would all be on the lookout, okay? So let's say a woman did sneak in and she were spotted. It was game over for her. Literally, they would go find her, pick her up and march her toward the nearest cliff. And as soon as they got close enough, they would chuck her ass off the cliff, straight to her death. This is real. I know, it's so extreme.

Like, why are they so mad? They were just mad. It was a boy's club, I don't know. Now this only applied to married women. So if you were single and you were trying to mingle, the fellas I guess actually loved it. They'd be like, woo! You doing so good, babe.

I'm voting for that one. You know who I'm talking about. The hot one with the big dick. But if you were married and trying to see, I don't know, your husband or just a dude, straight off the cliff. I mean, no risk, no reward, right Joan? Joan says she could fly.

So she doesn't care if like they throw her off the cliff. Either way she wins. Great. We know Joan, we know. We get it. The first ever winner of the Olympics was a guy named Karybos. Yeah, I know him. He won the 600 foot race, which fun fact, the basic unit of measurement in ancient Greece was the width of a finger.

Yeah. What does that mean? I don't know. And I guess there were like 16 fingers and a foot. Huh? Yeah, finger math. Finger math. Like is that how they ask for directions? Like hey, how do I get to Stavros' house? Oh, just to your left, down about 500,000 fingers. Thank you.

One, two, three. And you just count 500,000. You know? That's what I'm imagining. But I could be completely wrong. I wasn't there. Now, this Karybos wasn't a professionally trained athlete. He was actually a cook from like a little town nearby, which was pretty normal. Back then, the Olympics were not about being a celebrity. There were a handful of athletes who might be considered professional level, but many of the people who competed were just regular athletes.

And they were not professional athletes. And they were not professional athletes. And they were not professional athletes. And they were not professional athletes. And they were not professional athletes. And they were not professional athletes. And they were not professional athletes. And they were not professional athletes.

And they were not professional athletes. And they were not professional athletes. And they were not professional athletes. And they were not professional athletes. And they were not professional athletes. And they were not professional athletes. And they were not professional athletes. And they were not professional athletes. And they were not about being a celebrity. There were a handful of athletes who might be considered professional level, but many of the people who competed were just regular people who thought they were fast. I guess, I'm not sure. They're like, yeah, I run pretty fast.

Hey, have you heard about the Olympics? Yeah. You should try out. I'm gonna. And then they did. And the prizes weren't a huge deal either. Even though it was like a big deal that Karibos won, his big prize was a wreath made from an olive branch and an apple.

Yeah, an apple, a single apple. I don't know, but he raced his little Greek heart out for an apple. I love that. Good for him. I mean, maybe it was a big deal to them, you know? I'm not judging. But some winners would eventually be honored

by having like statues built in their name. Look, if you got a statue in your name, it meant you were officially declared a hometown hero. Having a statue made of yourself could be good or bad. Like if your body was kind of like shit, you know all the Greeks, they love to be naked. All the statues are, they're naked, right? So could you imagine if it was

like your body? No offense, but like for me I'd be like, well I'm a chick first of all so I wouldn't get a statue. So let me just shut up, I'm a woman. Anyways, not everyone was a fan of these Olympic Games. There's always a party pooper, right? Well in 393 AD, you know, you remember, when Rome conquered Greece, the Roman Emperor Theodosius abolished pagan festivals and gatherings, which included the Olympics. But yeah, what, huh? They're just fighting or whatever they're doing.

Leave them alone. You see, Theo was really into Christianity and thought like all that Zeus and Hercules stuff was silly little kid stories. And what the people needed to do was just cover their wee-wees and pray to Jesus. So for the next 1500 years or so, things were like silent and dark

when it comes to the Olympic story. Just crickets. So the Olympics start to pop up again around the year 1300 when the Renaissance began. As a refresher, the Renaissance was a time of intellectual and artistic revolution. So during the next several hundred years, Europeans became obsessed with knowledge. They were like, feed my brain. Give me that knowledge. And all of this thirst for knowledge led to the age of enlightenment.

They wanted to be smart and know all of the things out there. Part of the way they did this was by colonizing other parts of the world to learn about foreign cultures. And also, I guess, steal everything from them, but that's a story for a different day. Someone who was seriously influenced by all this enlightenment thinking was a man named Pierre de Coubertin. Now Pierre was born January 1st, 1863 to an aristocratic, wealthy family.

Good for him. Off to a great start. Of course he got like a great education, but most importantly he had money. Okay. And having all this family cash allowed him to travel around the world for school. And during his luxurious schooling adventures, he visited the United States and Canada, but he was mostly interested in learning about their sports culture. When Pierre was a kid, his version of like comic books was reading all about sports, especially in Greek culture.

And girl, he was fascinated, okay? It was so different from like the stuffy European society he grew up in. And the more he read about sports, the more he really believed it was essential to like all young people. He once said, quote, "'Organized sport can create moral and social strength,'

end quote. So he believed that playing them was like essential to living your best life and that everyone should live their best life. During his studies, Pierre learned about the original Greek Olympic Games. And around this time, a few countries were starting to warm up to like the idea of big sporting events.

But no one was leading the charge and the movement was just kind of stalled. You know, it wasn't going anywhere. Kind of like when people want to bring back a TV show and no one was asking for it and you're like, why am I watching this? Like, this was so lame. It's always lame.

It's like, what? Bring something new. Anyways, Pierre nominated himself as a leader and he made sports competitions his obsession, his life. Okay. He didn't just want it to be like a passing fad. So he got the idea to bring back the Olympic games. He's like, I'm gonna make a comeback.

Okay. People need this.'m gonna make a comeback, okay? People need this. To help make that happen, he created something called the Congress on Physical Education. Now this was like a big group of scientists and educators all focused on the human body. And Pierre felt that if he had this group's support,

he could bring back the Olympics. But first, they all had to vote yes on bringing it back. And that's when he finds out the neighbor had been dead the whole time. John, you okay? Okay, there is nothing like a good heart pounding thriller to get the blood just pumping, right? One minute you're safe and sound, then the next minute,

the killer is inside the house. Oh, look, if you're into stories like that as much as I am, then you gotta check out Audible. Audible lets you enjoy all of your audio entertainment in one clean app. They got podcasts, they got audio books, and I'm talking like thousands and thousands of titles. Just an incredible selection of everything from popular favorites to bestsellers

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Do do do do do do do do. I know. Visit audible.com slash dark history or text dark history to 500 500. New users can try audible premium plus for free for 30 days. That's audible.com slash dark history or text dark history to 500500. Joan, you can come back now. Where are you? Piers saw no point in bringing back the Olympics if it was all about winning and

not about the art of the sport. So beautiful. I know. And also, one of the things that delayed this vote was Pierre's very intense belief that the Olympics should be for everyone. Not just professional athletes like everyone else wanted. That's boring. No, they wanted real people, damn it.

But some people disagreed. They were like, why would we want Joe from the docs to do gymnastics? Are you out of your mind? You know? But Pierre was determined because he knew he was on to something, okay? He just needed to get these people to get in line and vote yes. Just vote yes, god damn it! Pierre fought for years to make sure that everyone would agree to let amateur athletes participate. After years of hard work and probably just bothering these people,

Pierre organized a vote. Should the world bring back the Olympic Games? Yes or no? Check the box. June 23, 1894, the vote was held. After the votes were counted, it turns out that 2,000 people voted yes to an Olympic revival. And that was enough to greenlight the next phase of Pierre's plan.

Bring it back, bring it back, do it naked, do it naked, put baby oil all over the body. Anywho, that same year, Pierre formed the International Olympic Committee, or as they're called, the IOC, in Paris. They actually still run the Olympics today, more than a hundred years later. The IOC had to make up all the new rules and things for the modern Olympics. Most of the things they decided are actually still in place today. Like the Olympics are held every four years in a different city and it's all about honor and playing a fair game.

And he believed that quote, the important thing in life is not the triumph, but the fight. The essential thing is not to have won, but to have fought well. This totally ties into why he would want regular ass people participating in the Olympics. It's all about what the game means, not performing for prizes.

But think about it, if it's like everyday people performing, it's kind of inspiring, right? Like Bertha down the street, she could fucking do the the bars like no one else. If she could do it, I could do it too. Right? It could be me one day. But no. In 1896, the first new Olympic Games took place in Athens, Greece. I mean, hello, where else was it going to start? Kentucky? No. This first Olympics revival had over 200 athletes from 14 different countries. The most represented countries were Greece, England, Germany, and France. Over most represented countries were Greece, England, Germany, and France.

Over the next couple of decades, the committee decides to like spice things up and add a few other sports to the roster, and the whole event lasts about 17 days. And it ended up being a very unifying experience. It really brought these countries together, which wasn't easy back then. Riding off that high of the feeling a few years later, the Olympic symbol that we all

know today was created. You're watching the Olympics! The colors were chosen because every country that participated around the time would have one of their flag's colors represented. Blue, yellow, green, black, and red on a white background. And the symbol became something that the world could bond over. Again, so beautiful. After everything he had done, Pierre was treated like a hero. I mean, get this. When he died, his heart was removed from his body and then his heart was placed in a monument in Greece.

People would visit and be like, oh wow, I love that guy, that's his heart. It made sense to them. To us, we're like, okay, that's kind of weird, right? I hope you think that's, I don't know, whatever. Is it still there? Let me know down below. Have you seen the heart?

Tell me a pic, I want to know. Anywho, while Pierre was being worshipped as the Lord and Savior of the Olympic Games, behind the scenes, some shady business has gone down. And it had to do with a man named Jim Thorpe. Jim was born in Oklahoma in 1888. He and his twin brother Charles and his parents were part of the Sac and Fox Indigenous tribes in the area. They went to Indigenous schools and they learned the language. He was described as a shy, humble guy who was unbelievably talented when it came to

sports. But so much of Jim's childhood was marked by tragedy. Sadly, Jim's twin brother died of pneumonia when they were only 9 years old. And Jim's parents both died not long after. It happened while Jim was in school. Poor guy. Come home, find out your parents are dead and your brother's dead. Poor guy. But Jim made the best of the situation and channeled all of this tragedy into something

he loved. Sports. In school, he was was track and field star. He was also great at baseball and football, and he was just like one of those guys who was in every sport, you know? He was that type. And you just knew watching him

that he was going to go pro at something. In 1909, he played semi-professional baseball in North Carolina, and I guess he did so well that he was able to get the courage to compete in the 1912 Olympic Games in Sweden. And guess what? He made it in! I know, very exciting. And just like when he was in school, girl, he kicked ass.

He participated in the pentathlon and decathlon games. I know you're probably like what is that? I don't know cuz I didn't know but I looked it up for us don't worry. It's essentially multiple sports rolled into one single competition usually a combination of running, throwing shit, jumping, far distances, stuff like that. I mean today Olympic athletes are usually only focused on being good at like one of those things. But Jim, he did it effortlessly. He scored 8,412 points, which was almost 700 more points than the closest competitor. That wasn't even a close call.

Like, nobody came close. Yeah. Whoa, dude. Killed it. I mean, Jim was clearly the guy to beat. If you were betting, you were betting on Jim. Go, Jim. So you know there's always going to be one jealous person out there. He's going to, like, try and ruin it for him. And apparently, the night before one of the bigger events

he was playing in, someone stole Jim's shoes. But Jim didn't let that stop him, uh-uh. He found one random used shoe on the street and another in a garbage can. I know in my mind I was like, okay, so he finds two different shoes. It'd be funny if it was like one was a croc and one was like a Spice Girl platform.

But it wasn't that. But look, he found these two random new shoes. He's like, here's one and here's one. And he just shoved his feet into these mismatched shoes and went on to compete. He didn't let anything stop him. And girl, he took home a gold medal. No man could stop him, no shoes,

he didn't need shoes that fit, uh-uh. He killed it. And later, he even won a second gold medal. Now this made him the first indigenous American to win an Olympic gold medal. This was the early 1900s, so it was huge that he took home those wins for his community. And in 1912, he accepted his medals from the King of Sweden himself.

And even the King was fangirling over him. He told Jim he was the greatest athlete in the world. Which I think is safe to say. David Moranis, a journalist who wrote a biography about Jim, described him as quote, a seemingly indestructible force who ran like a wild horse, thundering downhill, yet was also a graceful ballroom dancer

and gifted swimmer and ice skater, end quote. And after struggling for so long, it seemed like Jim's life was about to change for the better, right? Well, we're here, aren't we? Geez. But things were not going to be that easy. A group of people decided to target Jim and rip those gold medals right out of his hands. A newspaper in Massachusetts published a story exposing that Jim had been paid a little money

for playing a semi-professional sport back in 1909. Which is BS because he was just trying to make ends meet and it's not like he made a ton of money, you know? His pay wasn't that great. He's a guy in law. But people don't like this. They still consider this against the rules. So someone told the IOC

and they quickly stripped him of his medals. Even though Jim alone elevated the Olympics as a whole, they just kind of like cast him aside, stripped him of his medals, took everything. They were just mad. Many believe it's because Jim wasn't an indigenous American. Like the rule makers on the sidelines were just waiting for him to mess up

so they could take his medals away. They were looking for any excuse. His entire career, anytime he succeeded, flopped or anything, he was referred to as the quote, Indian athlete, end quote. He wasn't allowed to just be an Olympian like everyone else. The media definitely didn't let him forget this.

It was like, okay, Anne, didn't you see me just kill it right now? I beat all your people, like why you mad? Leader in life, sadly, Jim would struggle with alcoholism and papers would go out of their way to drag him in the press. At one point, when he was going through like a divorce, the press found out and they used this as an opportunity to put out like a picture of Jim.

Now this picture showed him like in a headdress with the caption, Although he was once the sports idol of America, Jim Thorpe, Indian athlete, proved a neglectful husband. Overly fond of the cup that cheers." End quote. What? Like what? Just petty, you know? Still, Jim did go on to become one of the most famous athletes of all time.

He played professional sports until he was in his 40s, and he even became the very first president of the NFL and he held a record of total Olympic points until 1948. And even though all of his medals were stripped from him he still proved to be a true like all-american star. Paul over here has like five posters of him in his bedroom. He's obsessed, he's a big fan. I'm not sure. After he died, Jim was buried in a town in Pennsylvania, which literally renamed itself Jim Thorpe

because of the burial. Yeah, so there's literally a place called Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania. Do you live there? Let me know down below. Do they have a McDonald's there? Because if they do, I'll come. And get this, for years, his kids fought

to get the IOC to recognize his medals and reinstate them as they should, right? And that finally happened in 2022. Yeah, 89 years after he won the medals. I'm not judging, but we're judging. Okay? The IOC president issued a statement, as if it's gonna do something, saying quote, This is a most exceptional and unique situation, which has been addressed by an extraordinary gesture of fair play from the National Olympic Committees concerned. End quote. It's a bunch of

words. I don't really know like what they're trying to say. Like just come out and say like, here's your medals back, sorry. They always gotta come out with this fluff. They're so annoying. I mean, yeah, it's great that they did the right thing, but it's like, you guys, it took a long time. Why didn't you do it when he was alive?

I'm sure he would have like appreciated it. We're not judging, but we are. But look, I'm sure you're aware, well maybe you're not, but Jim wasn't the only Olympic athlete to face discrimination just because of his race. In 1936, Berlin hosted the Olympics. Now this was complicated for a bunch of reasons. Tensions had been brewing and there was a potential war on the horizon. This is because Hitler was winning the popularity contest with the German people and all his little Nazi friends were starting to take over society. And when the Olympics showed up on Germany's doorstep, Hitler of course made it all about himself. He saw the Olympics as an opportunity to show the world

that his German, Aryan friends were the superior ones. But there was a slight problem with that plan. And the problem was Jesse Owens. Paul! Hey, Paul, wake up. Joan, can you go wake Paul up again? Paul, you can't keep doing this to yourself, buddy. I told you, step one, you need to hydrate, okay? You're clearly not doing that.

You're dry as a bone. Two, eight hours of sleep, right? I know, it's a little hard, but go for eight hours. And three, you need to eat a healthy and delicious diet. And the best way to do that is with Factor. Factor meals are the best. Mm, yummy. They are perfect for those who just don't want to think

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there is no prep and no mess with Factor. You can fuel up fast with restaurant quality food that is ready to heat and eat whenever you are. Now look, I can't bash Paul too hard because honestly I feel his pain, okay? Mornings are not my favorite. I'm not a morning person. Sometimes my mornings are rushed

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and use code darkhistory50 to get 50% off. Hello, 50% off? Yeah. That's darkhistory50 at factormeals.com slash darkhistory50 to get 50% off. Jesse Owens was a black American competing in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. Now he had a reputation as an incredible athlete in the States.

Like there was major hype surrounding him. But Hitler wasn't exactly concerned. He's like, nah, nah, nah. My Nazi boys, they got this, you know? But Jesse basically came to the Olympics and he cleaned the place out. He won, not one, not two, not three, but four medals. Go Jesse, Jesse, Jesse, Jesse.

Now guess who was pissed? Hitler. When wasn't he pissed? He was on a lot of drugs. He normally would like meet and greet with all of the Olympic winners. Hitler, yeah, I don't know. But he absolutely refused to meet Jesse. Jesse's like, oh man bummer,

don't get to meet Hitler, that sucks. No one wants to meet you Hitler. I would stomp his face in. The sad thing is, Jesse was treated better in Germany by the Germans than he was in the United States. The Germans actually congratulated him and treated him like the Olympic freaking hero that he was. So the Olympics would look past everything. I mean, even freaking wards that were happening in order to keep the countries together to compete. But the United States wouldn't even acknowledge Jesse just because the color of his skin. Fucking assholes. He worked his ass off to get to the Olympics. He gets the Olympics, he fucking crushes it. And nobody back home in the United States

would help like acknowledge him, put him on the cover of magazines. He shouldn't like, it just, it blows my mind. And then there's this picture where he's on the platform and there's fucking psychopaths who are doing like a hail hitler situation and jesse's just standing in the top like first of all being professional keeping it together but like it's such a eerie photo and he just stood there and he just stood there with no support behind him and did it for for himself really and it's just sad he should have been acknowledged a lot more and we owe that to him another thing about jesse's

win it made everyone ask themselves are the olympics really for just ordinary people because jesse could run 100 meters in 10 seconds there's like the length of a football field in 10 seconds. And you know, I'm just making a guess here, but I'm assuming a regular ass person could not do that. Can you run a football field in 10 seconds? I know I can't. So athletes turned to the IOC, wondering if they'd bend the rules

and allow some people who had been paid for playing sports to participate too. The thing is, when the Olympics were originally founded, sports competitions weren't that popular. And they definitely weren't as competitive. It was more about having fun and unity and coming together and all that stuff, you know? But the IOC had to admit, things were different now. It was like next level. Athletes used to only train a few hours a week, but now in order to be good enough to compete at the Olympics,

athletes needed to train for multiple hours a day. Training would take up all of their time in order for it to even be effective. And that leaves no time for a life, a job, anything, especially if you start training when you're a child. I mean, Michelle Kwan, who I freaking love, started training when she was five years old. So things had changed.

An article by the New York Times said, quote, if the IOC enforced the letter of its own law, about three people would show up at the games, end quote. Which basically means if everyone stuck to every single rule the IOC had, only like three people would be able to compete. The rules were outdated and just not working anymore. So in 1971, the IOC decided to take a more relaxed approach

to the rules. They finally decided to allow professional athletes to compete. This changed the game big time. Not because things were about to like get more intense on the playing field, but because of money. Now, I'm sure you're aware, but just in case you need a reminder,

when money enters the equation, everything seems to go sideways very, very quickly. Companies were now allowed to sponsor players and teams, which was one of the few ways that, you know, these people could actually make money, which is like, they need, if you're gonna dedicate your life to something, it would be nice to, you know,

get some money for it. So there is now even more pressure on the athletes than before, you know? But they kind of had no choice. If trading for the Olympics is your whole life, there's actually only a few ways for you to earn money while doing that with sponsorships or endorsements. Because the Olympics isn't gonna pay your ass.

Get the fuck out of here. A sponsorship is when a big company sponsors a team or a group of players. They also might provide like the whole team with some shoes or like pay to have the company's logo on their jersey, you know, be like Nike or whatever the fuck. I mean, everything at the Olympics for the most part is sponsored. From like the Olympics, for the most part, is sponsored.

From like the water bottles, to the food, to the uniforms, and even the socks. I guess Durex sent 150,000 condoms to Athletes Village, where the athletes rest in between competitions. I just wondered, did it, on the condoms, did they have like the Olympic like logo? Did it say like Olympics? When you put it on, was there a design?

I wanna know more. Now, an endorsement is different. That's when a company is giving money to an individual to represent their brand. That's when you'll see someone's face in like a Nike campaign, on posters and in commercials and stuff. Because they can make these athletes a ton of money,

these endorsements were really hard to get. And get this, the Olympics themselves do not pay athletes any money to compete. Which kind of blows my mind because think about it, so much of your freaking time and work and training goes into this, right? The average person can't just pause their life for 16 days to compete and that's not even counting how long the training process is. If you started at five years old

and you're not competing until you're in your 20s, that's cute because you need money, right? You have to be like rich or have some kind of deal to dedicate your life to it. That's cute because you need money, right? You have to be rich or have some kind of deal to dedicate your life to it. One time I used to work at Sephora and this lady came in and she was training to go to the Olympics. And I remember having a conversation with her. She told me she wasn't making any money

that she was scraping by, but she was training and trying her best to get to the Olympics. I wonder if she ever made it. But I remember being shocked, like, they don't pay you? What? They don't cover your food costs? What?

Like you think at least they would comp their food if you're at the Olympics. I guess I'm asking too much. Jeez. So I guess athletes can apply to get like a small amount of money from the government to help them get by. For example, in Canada, athletes can apply to get money from Canada's athlete fund, but it's only about $21,000 a year. Laughable, huh? And around 62% of the athletes who applied for the program

already had debt. So still in Canada, there's a separate fund if you win a medal in the Olympics, but if you win gold, you get an extra $20,000. If you're working a full-time job, this might be like a sweet deal, like hell yeah, extra 41K. But chances are if you're going to the Olympics or you're in the Olympics, training is your full-time job. So these

sponsorships and endorsements are crucial to their survival. Still, people work their asses off to become Olympic level athletes because if you make it big-time, you get to say that you know you're the best in the world and sometimes you can even become an instant celebrity. But unfortunately, you're forced to choose between financial security and how bad you wanna win. There's no exact data that shows how much Olympic training costs, but trying out for the Olympics is expensive as hell.

In 2012, kinda old, but Forbes said that the average cost of training per year for an archer, an archer to hopefully make the USA team was $25,000. And most archers had to train for at least four years. Good for the, first of all, I didn't know, I know, I'm sorry. I didn't know, I didn't know that like archery was part of the Olympics. I don't see that part on TV. Do they show that part? Well, they should. Do you know a famous

archer? Exactly. So shut up. To be on the table tennis team, you know, like Forrest Gump, that's around $20,000 per year for 8 to 12 years of training. A gymnast might spend close to $15,000 per year on training. And we all know they start basically as soon as they can walk. Now all of this is just to be considered not to get in, you know? So you've still got to try out for the team and a lot of people don't make it. And the games only happen every four years, which means most people only get so many chances to try.

Man, that would suck. Like you dedicate your whole life to training at this one sport. And like you feel like you finally are ready to try out and you try out and you don't make it. That must be soul crushing. I bet there's a lot of people out there like that, huh? There's gotta be.

I mean, some people have to not make it. I hope they're doing okay. So you could have trained your entire life and like spent tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars to get onto the Olympic team. That's almost the easy part because now you've got to perform an extremely dangerous activity

in front of quite literally half the world. At the 2021 Summer Games in Tokyo, 3 billion people watched. And that's because it was like the first Olympics they held post-COVID. So everyone was watching like how are they gonna do this? I'm interested. Or some people were just at home. I'm gonna watch the Olympics. Why not?

This was also the Olympics where Alison Felix became the most awarded woman slash US athlete for track and field. And that there was a 14 year old diver who got two perfect 10s on her dives. Oh, and karate finally became an Olympic sport. There was so much going on that year. I mean, did you watch?

We were all watching. I mean, did you watch? We were all watching. I mean, how many billion? You were watching, you saw that shit. All those people had to perform knowing half of the world's population was watching them. Woo! And like, look, that can mess with your head, okay? And when you're an athlete,

that could put your life at risk. At the Tokyo Olympics, Simone Biles, who mind you has won seven different Olympic medals, she sadly pulled out of the games at like the last minute and this shocked the world. She's one of those Olympic athletes that turned into a pop culture celebrity. Everyone was watching to watch Simone Biles. She was incredible. I mean, everyone was tuning in. So when she pulled out last minute, everyone was shooketh. How could she not perform? Like people were confused.

People were also being assholes and it was inappropriate. Simone explained that during her warmup, she felt that she was not mentally ready to perform. She was suffering from severe anxiety. And before she was set to perform, the anxiety was reportedly so bad, she was worried she was gonna pass out while she was doing one of her crazy gymnastic moves.

And if like that, you don't wanna do that. There's just a lot of pressure. There's a lot of pressure and it can really mess with you, okay? Gymnastics, like a lot of the sports at the Olympics, is very dangerous. I mean, one wrong move and you can literally break your neck.

So she's looking out for herself. And what do we always say? You gotta put yourself first, right? Take care of yourself, take care of your mental health. But as soon as we see someone do it, people are like, oh no, how dare she? It's just nasty. Look, Simone had already won four gold, two bronze,

and one silver medal in the past Olympics, so it's not like this was her first rodeo. But when she announced that she couldn't perform, she got ripped apart in the press. They were essentially like, how could you pass up your one shot? Just get over it. But nobody was talking about how much courage

it must have taken to look that one chance in the eye and say, nope, that's not worth losing my life over. When Simone was feeling better, she eventually performed in another competition and still managed to get a bronze medal. So whatever, shut up you bitches, you get a bronze medal. But the media was obsessed with only talking about Simone Simone, which was like pretty messed up because her teammate, her name's Jordan Chiles, stepped in to perform for the team and she came through and kicked butt. And the media let the

Simone story overshadow that and I mean I get it but it was also a bummer, you know? Obviously getting into the Olympics and getting any sort of recognition is really a struggle. Do you know an archer? Exactly. So it got me wondering, like what lengths are people willing to go in order to win and keep that win? I remember this other Olympic scandal

that I personally was obsessed with, had to do with Russia. I know. There's this documentary from 2017 called Icarus. It was all about the secret history of doping by Russian athletes. I guess this goes all the way back to the 80s and performance enhancing drugs known as dope, they're not allowed in the Olympics because the whole game is supposed to be celebrating what the human body can do, not what the human body on drugs can do.

But low key, look, if we did an Olympics that was all about humans, like on dope, like if everyone was allowed to do dope, it'd be kind of cool because you'd be like, okay, our doped up guy, be your doped up guy. You know, I'd watch. Anywho, according to the documentary, Russia's leader, Mr. Putin, pooh, pooty,

was pissed at the Russian teams not winning as many gold medals as he wanted. God damn it, put those skates on. So he helped create a secret program designed to help the athletes get around drug detection. It was a very complex operation. Essentially, athletes would freeze their urine samples before beginning to use drugs. Then they'd show up to the Olympics, pumped full of whatever chemicals they took,

and then they would pee into cups for the drug testers. But surprise, surprise, some of these drug testers were secretly switching out this fresh pee for some frozen drug-free slushies. But for years, it worked. The scientific mastermind behind this, whose name was Dr. Grigori Ryabchenkov, sure I nailed that.

Anyways, he eventually blew the whistle against his own country. So I know you're wondering, where is this genius now? Well, his ass is in witness protection because after this was exposed, 43 Olympic medals ended up being stripped from Russian athletes. Oh, so sad.

You know? Yeah, not like one or two. It was 43. So he got put in witness protection because you know Mr. Pootie was gonna come after his ass. And I think many of us thought the shadiest thing about the Olympics was the doping scandals. But girl, I just learned

something that blew my mind. You know how the Olympics are hosted in a different city every four years? You read about it in the news and you're like, yeah I guess that city makes sense. I wonder how they came up with that, you know? Is it a lottery? How does that work? Literally you don't hear about the Olympics taking place in Missouri. You know? Or Kentucky. Well, maybe they have. Have they? It doesn't matter. But you know? Well, there's a reason. Okay, look, turns out the IOC starts the city selection process 10 years ahead of time. And the selection process involves a lot of whining and dining, if you know what I mean. According to brookings.edu, around 10 years before the Games take place, cities that are

interested in hosting the Olympics pay about $150,000 to the IOC just to be on a maybe list. Then the maybe list gets narrowed down to about five or less cities. I know, so you pay $150,000 to get on a maybe list and they're like, nah, jokes on them. And if you make it like that far, let's say you're on the top five or something, you pay another $500,000 for members of the IOC

to come visit your city. Could you imagine like having to drive someone around and be like, just ignore all those homeless people over there, close your eyes really quick. It's not funny, but you know they do that shit. You present all the reasons why the Olympics should be held in your city. Then the IOC, you know, picks a lucky winner.

I imagine they're like, hmm, where should we vacation in 10 years? The south of France? It sounds lovely. Let's pick them. I know I would do that. But things obviously don't end at spending more than half a million dollars just to be considered.

If you get picked, then you actually have to prepare to host. And I hosted a dinner party once and let me tell you, planning for 10 people is hard. Can you imagine planning to host millions of people for more than two weeks? No thanks, I'm good. So prepping just really depends on the city. For a place like London, which is a massive city, an entire Olympics park had to be constructed. So new stadiums were built,

and it cost like over $480 million. It's so funny how this money just all of a sudden appears but like they can't throw it anywhere else. Huh? That's hilarious. After the 2012 games, London had to spend nearly $300 million over budget just to like renovate the buildings. But to them it was worth it just to be considered. The 2021 Tokyo Summer Games cost about $15.4 billion, which is really a hard number to wrap your brain around, right? Apparently you could charge every person in the world $1

and still wouldn't be able to pay for these games. And the Olympics are almost completely funded by everyday people. The majority of the Tokyo games were paid for by the everyday Japanese citizens, you know, through their taxes. Which means when it's hosted in your city, you too will be paying for it. Congratulations! I know it like, why the hell are we watching this on TV? Honey, we pay for them. We all should get free tickets. Ambush the stadium, goddammit. Considering all the crazy financial debt

a country could easily get into, why do these cities want to host these games, right? Like, what is the incentive here? I guess there is some hope that like all the Olympic tourism could give your country a much needed boost to the economy. So much new construction and jobs are created for each game and if you can do it right, your city could get a beautiful glamorous little makeover. You also might get neighborhoods with better infrastructure and maybe even public

transportation. You may even turn your city into a tourist destination. Tens of millions of people are coming to your city, spending their money at your grocery stores, coffee shops, restaurants, hotels. You know, it boosts the economy for the city. For example, the 2028 Summer Games are going to be held in Los Angeles. I know when I heard this, I was like, oh no.

It's gonna be rough. And apparently the IOC is expecting way more tourists than they typically get. Oh no, oh dear. So this is putting pressure on LA to create a public transportation system that can actually take all those tourists. Okay, look, our transportation system, it's pretty like, it's awful.

It's not good. It's not dependable. And also, this isn't a walkable city. I know. So why do we live here? I don't know. Because it's where all the work is. I don't know.

So if we don't have a car, it's just a very stressful experience, okay? Good luck. It's going to cost around like $10 billion to create public transportation here. But thanks to the Olympics, they are expecting the whole process to be fast-tracked. Sure. Okay.

It's kind of crazy to think about what we could do with $10 billion. Yeah, it's kind of crazy to think about what we could do with $10 billion because there's a's kind of crazy to think about what we could do with $10 billion because there's a bunch of homeless people on the streets. We could take that 10 billion and help get those people off the street, but I guess I'm the crazy one here. The argument is that the Olympics will leave Los Angeles a better place and the tourism money will make it all worth it. I'm sure.

I'm sure all of that money is gonna go right back into the city and not into anyone's pocket. Don't even think that. Of course that's not gonna happen. Look, I mean, clearly the Olympics have changed with time. Sure, we aren't throwing women off cliffs anymore, so that's cool. But a lot of people have been abused,

cities have been destroyed, no one's getting paid. Okay. And at the end of the day with that price tag, are the Olympics worth it? That's a good question, Meili. I know. Are they uniting and inspiring us or have they kind of, I don't know, fallen off?

And if the Olympics are no longer accessible kind of, I don't know, fallen off. And if the Olympics are no longer accessible to everyday people, is it just a flashy show of wealth and like not even about human ability? Like what is it now? Because look how far we've come. Originally like the Greeks shits and giggles over there, okay, and it was like all about, hey, I'm better than you.

Now it's like, it's a lot. But also I could just be an asshole. Maybe I'm just jealous because I'm not in the Olympics. I really wanna ice skate and do like a triple axel. That's my triple axel. Won't that be fun? Okay, have any of you guys ever lived in a city where they held the Olympics?

Did it make your city better or worse? Also, have any of you won a gold medal? Let me know down below. I'd love to know. I would love to say like, oh yeah, I'm in a gold medalist. So I just wanna be your friend and wear your gold medal just for a picture.

And then I'll leave. Well, thank you for hanging out with me today. Look, while I was researching this episode, I came across like a really interesting piece of information. Back in ancient Greece, they would announce the results of the Olympic Games by using carrier pigeons. Sorry, John. Cover your ears. I know. And I freaking love that. I love a pigeon. And for centuries, pigeons have been worshiped and were symbols of hope and love. I mean, they've saved our butts more times than we can even count.

But today, today we look at a pigeon and we're like, ew, rats with wings. And it isn't fair. And I am here to stand up for the pigeons. We've done them dirty. And it's time we fixed the narrative. So come back next week for the dark history of pigeons. I know, what, huh?

I'm so excited, you have no idea. I love pigeons. I'm threatening you, you come back next week. You need to hear about pigeons. Okay, well, hey, you can join me over on my YouTube where you can actually watch these episodes on Thursday after the podcast airs. While you're there, I would suggest you catch my murder,

mystery, and makeup. I'd love to hear your reactions to today's story, so make sure to use the hashtag dark history over on social media so I can see what you're saying. Now, let's read a couple of comments you guys left me. My favorite part. Hey, Maria had a suggestion for me saying, quote, buy a pretty dress for Joan and tux for Paul

and take them out to a nice dinner, end quote. Why don't they take me out for a nice dinner? Huh? Why do I need to take them out for a nice dinner? I think they owe, you owe me. You wouldn't be here without me, God damn it. I want some operation. Ah, ah.

Thank you, Maria. I'll definitely take that into consideration. Theo had a question saying, quote, Am I the only one that when Bailey makes a comment or asks a question, I actually reply to Bailey by talking to the screen? Question mark, question mark, question mark. And quote. Aww. It's nice to know I'm not alone out there.

I kind of love that because I am talking to you so it makes me happy knowing that you are responding you know because a lot of times like these bozos over here don't talk to me. John just crows and Paul's dead so I love that. Rudy left us an episode suggestion saying quote, dark history of peanut butter. That's a good one. I actually, I, yep, I wanted to do, I wanna do an episode. That's a good one, Rudy.

I am writing it down. You see, right here. Peanut butter. Rudy, yes. Thank you for your recommendation. I love a recommendation, so please feel free to leave them down below. Rudy, yes, thank you for your recommendation. I love a recommendation, so please feel free to leave them down below.

I love you and appreciate you for watching and thank you for engaging, I love it. So keep commenting because maybe you'll be featured in the future, or maybe you won't, I don't know. But like still, you know, maybe you will. Be positive. If you don't know, Dark History is an audio boom original. This podcast is executive produced by Bailey Sarian, Junya McNeely from Three Arts, Kevin

Grush and Matt Enlow from Maiden Network. Writers Joey Scavuzzo, Katie Burris, Allison Palobos and Xander Elmore. Production lead Brian Jaggers, research provided by Colleen Smith, and a special thank you to our expert David Goldblatt. And if you forgot, I'm your host, Bailey Sarian. I hope you have a good rest of your day. You make good choices and I'll be talking to you next week. Come back, pigeons. Goodbye.

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