november-2011

Departures
STATS
187
The number of days the
1908 London Olympics
ran for. They started
in April and didn’t end
until October.
12 Thomas Cook Travel
Rings of truth: the Olympics in numbers
Random, unexpected and bizarre Olympic facts
to celebrate the upcoming 2012 Games in London
490
The year (BC) a Greek soldier
called Pheidippides ran
roughly 40km from Marathon
to Athens to report the
Greeks’ success in a battle
with invading Persians... and
then dropped dead. The fi rst
marathon was run in his honour
at the fi rst modern Olympic
Games, in Athens in 1896.
12 SECONDS
The time barrier cracked by Poland's Stella Walsh
357
The number of football
pitches it would take to fill
the 2012 Olympic Park.
(Stanislawa Walasiewicz) in the women’s 100m final
at the 1932 LA Games. The only problem? When “she”
became the innocent victim in a 1980 robbery attempt,
the autopsy found “Stella the Fella” to be a man!
SEVENTEEN
The number of dogs trimmed
in what must surely rate as the
weirdest Olympic event ever:
poodle-clipping. Held in 1900
(and only in 1900, needless to
say), the gold medal was won by
a farmer’s wife, who managed to
clip 17 poodles in two hours.
1908 & 1948
The years in which the
UK U capital was host city
for f previous Olympics. In
2012, 2 London will become
the t first city in history to
host h the Olympic Games
three t times.
FOUR BILLION
The estimated global audience set to watch the opening
ceremony of the London Games on 27 July 2012.
The crazylong
time a
11 Greco-Roman
HOURS wrestling
match
lasted at the
Stockholm Games in 1912.
Russian Martin Klein was
eventually victorious over
Finn Alfred Asikainen, but
Klein was so exhausted
he had to forfeit the
championship match and
settle for the silver medal.
776
The year (BC)
the very fi rst
recorded
Ancient Olympic Games took
place. The event was a 190m
sprint, won by a man called
Coroebus from the Greek city
state of Elis. His occupation?
A humble baker!
3 Gold medals
won by Jamaica
in the 28 years
leading up to the
2008 Games. In
just six days in
Beijing, Usain
Bolt won three.
For more information, contact the London 2012 team on +44 (0)844 800 2012 or visit thomascooklondon2012.com