Dorando Pietri
The Man Who Became Famous For Not Winning
Introduction. Dorando Pietri was an Italian athlete. He was only 5ft 2in (1.57 m) tall. He was also a pastry chef Here is a story about what happened
to him!
1908 London Olympics On the 24 July 1908, the final day of
the athletics at the Olympics, 100,000 people crammed into the stadium.
It was a very hot day for marathon runners
Pietri was leading in the marathon with two kilometres to go
He was exhausted and dehydrated
In the White City stadium
http://vimeo.com/32400050
o Pietri took the wrong patho He fell down five timeso Each time he was helped up by the officialso He won the race
Complaint But the American team
complained Pietri was disqualified
because he received help from the officials
Johnny Hayes from U.S.A. won the gold medal
But Queen Alexandra gave Pietri a silver cup
His courageous display wrote his name into Olympic history.
By Finbar Myers
Thank you for listening