[ExI] organic olymics

[spike]

>... On Behalf Of Kelly Anderson
...

>...East German girl (a real, specific girl, named Heidi Krieger) was
treated with so many steroids that she essentially became a man...She
suffered being called "gay" for many years... because she looked like a
cross dressing man...-Kelly

I have a colleague who was on the national women's swimming team in the
1970s.  She relates the story of an international meet in which the women
were in the locker room and heard what sounded like a group of men coming
down the hall.  The American women were naked and scrambled for their
towels.  The group were the East German women.  The East Germans won
everything that year.

Regarding the distance walk, I thought of a variation which would be
shorter, which would be more attractive to the amateur athlete, being as it
would carry fewer opportunity costs.

Instead of seeing how far one can walk in the desert with only the supplies
on one's back, the game is to carry only water and see how far one can walk
without drinking at all.  The participants can drink as much as they want,
but once they cross the starting line, no more.  Their water bottle has a
seal which triggers their GPS.  As soon as they open their bottle, the game
is over, the sag wagon picks them up.  

I am estimating about 15 miles would be about as far as most people go, and
it would be finished the same day it started.  But there is another
interesting twist to this sport.  I have read of an African tribe which
migrates annually.  They carry water in gourds.  According the Michener,
they make astonishing treks across the arid African grassland with very
little water.  Analogous to the way it tends to be Kenyans and Ethiopians
who win the big marathons, I can imagine one of these tribesmen winning the
thirstathon.

spike