The winner of the 1904 Olympic marathon used rat poison and brandy to finish the race.

The 1904 Olympic marathon took place in St. Louis during a heatwave. Temperatures reached 32 degrees Celsius or 90 degrees Fahrenheit. Thomas Hicks began to collapse from exhaustion around the 20-mile mark. His trainers refused to give him water and instead gave him 1/60th of a grain of strychnine sulfate mixed with raw egg whites.Strychnine is a chemical often used to kill rats. In very small amounts, it acts as a stimulant on the nervous system. The trainers gave Hicks a second dose of the poison along with several ounces of brandy to dull his pain. By the end of the race, Hicks was hallucinating and his skin turned gray.Hicks had to be carried across the finish line by his trainers while his feet moved in a running motion. He lost 8 pounds during the race and required immediate treatment from four different doctors. He survived and received the gold medal because the first runner to finish had cheated by riding in a car. This race is now a famous example of the dangers of early performance-enhancing drugs.