Bizarre Olympic Moment - Day 12

Each day of the 2008 Olympics we're going to find a bizarre clip or story from a past Summer Olympics. Today we'll look at West German pentathlete Hans-Jurgen Todt.

The one good thing about the Olympics is that at any time of the day or night there is least something reasonable to watch ... that is unless the Equestrian is on. You really have to like horses to appreciate this event.

How is this in the Olympics anyway? The fact that they let women and men compete in the same competition pretty much says that we're not talking about a sport ... but we disgress.

We noticed one competitor was riding her horse through the little obstacles. The horse decided it didn't want to jump anymore, the rider fell off, we laughed ... everything was good. This isn't the exact fall we witnessed but it's all pretty much the same stuff.

Then the annoucer said how hard the competitor trained and how many resources she had poured into reaching her Olympic goal. First we felt sad, then a little sleepy and finally upset at that damn horse.

After what we watched it seemed very appropiate that todays Bizarre Olympic Moment comes froms Hans-Jurgen Todt. In the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, Todt was West Germany's entry in the modern pentathalon. In the riding portion his horse Ranchero stopped before three different obstacles ... killing Todt's chance at his Olympic goal. Todt lost it and started attacking his horse. It took several of his teammates to come to Ranchero's defense ... too bad, it would have been great to see Ranchero fight back.

No video footage of this ultra-obscure moment. But we figure it would have gone something like this clip but with a bigger horse and more punching:

Take a look at the 16 most bizarre Olympic moments in history:

Day 1 - Eric "The Eel" Moussambani
Day 2 - Betty Robinson
Day 3 - Sally Robbins
Day 4 - Abebe Bilkila
Day 5 - 1972 USA Basketball team
Day 6 - Bobby Pearce
Day 7 - Byun Jong-il
Day 8 - Stella Walsh
Day 9 - Spanish Paralympic Basketball Team
Day 10 - Ingeborg Marx
Day 11 - Vanderlei de Lima
Day 12 - Hans-Jurgen Todt
Day 13 - Liu Changchun
Day 14 - Dorando Pietri
Day 15 - 1956 Hungarian Water Polo Team
Day 16 - 1960 Tunisian Modern Pentathlon Team

YouTube's Best Sport Videos of the Week - Aug 10th to Aug 17th

Each week at Waikiki Hockey we do our best to round up all the videos that fall through the cracks during the week. A pretty light menu on the spread today ... we blame the Olympics.

• Raptor Chris Bosh made our list last week with his Olympic preparations. Bosh makes it back-to-back weeks with his visit to the Great Wall of China.
  
• If the Olympics are too boring for you, then you may appreciate the Naked Olympics ... brought you by Trojan.
  
• We talked about this clip in our Bizarre Olympic Moment segment, but if you missed the most graphic injury from the 2008 Olympics you may want to check it out again ... if you can stomach it that is.
  
• A pig playing sports. Like we said it's been a slow week.
  
• Carmelo Anthony get's punk'd. Great clip if you're a fan of Anthony ... or punkings.
  
• A comedy short (well it's not really funny, but it is short) from the 1997 NHL awards ... NHL Soups.
  
• Finally, this week's Clip O' the Week:
  Peyton Manning wants American Football in the Olympics. At first we thought this was a joke but if so, it's a pretty elaborate one as they have set up a website with a petition. Either Manning is a comedic genius or he's been sacked a few too many times... we're not sure which:
  

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Two Sport Stars...Revisted

After our post the other day on two sport star Clark the Canadian goalie we received emails from the "Waikiki Hockey" faithful (too soon to start calling you Waikikimaniacs?) letting us know of two other potential hockey' 'slash' baseball players.

The good men over at Fantasy Hockey Scouts must have taken a break from their excellent fantasy coverage when they came across this gem. Hurricane forward Chad LaRose threw out the first pitch at the Durham Bulls game the other night and threw so high and wide he hit a musician behind the backstop:

"I just threw it a little high and the catcher never tried to catch it," LaRose said. "Everyone's fine except for me. I'm traumatized by the whole situation."

We've never liked Chad. Our unfounded dislike of him has a lot to do with him 'trading' under the name LaRose. To us there will only be one LaRose ... Jean 'Rosy' LaRose. Maybe we're a bit harsh on Chad as he was pretty entertaining to listen to when he was mic'd up.

The other item that a few readers pointed out was Theoren Fleury's three game stint with the Calgary Vipers. The 40 year old Fleury's debut is definitely a Waikiki moment -- we were simply waiting for some video of Fleury's game to surface before we commented. Speaking of comments check out what Theo had to say about his new challenge:

"[it's] one of my all-time dreams come true" Fleury admitted it'd be a thrill "to be mentioned in the same breath as Bo Jackson as a two-sport professional athlete."

What he lacks in size he makes up for in ego ... same breath as Bo Jackson? ... seriously Theo?

Anyway, Fleury ended up going 1 for 3. Here he is collecting his one hit:

He didn't look too bad in that at bat. We're sure everybody is thinking what we are and wishing that after his hit he did this:

Let's just hope he's not using the money he made from his baseball days to fuel his other interests. We're only teasing ... by all accounts Fleury has cleaned up his act. He runs his own concrete coating company, where they have the following special deal:

"Are you a fan of Theo Fleury’s? Theo will sign your floor, driveway or walkway – just ask before we seal it!"

Bizarre Olympic Moment - Day 11

Each day of the 2008 Olympics we're going to find a bizarre clip or story from a past Summer Olympics. Today we'll look at Brazilian marathon runner Vanderlei de Lima.

At the 2004 Games in Athens Vanderlei de Lima was representing Brazil in the 26 mile marathon. He was having an excellent race and was in the lead with only four miles remaining. Later de Lima said he felt 'unstoppable' and believed he was a lock for the gold.

We'll never know if Vanderlei would have came away as an Olympic champion because this happened:

De Lima's attacker was Neil Horan. Horan, a former priest, is notiorious for disrupting sporting events (including the 2003 British Grand Prix and the 2004 Epsom Derby) in an attempt to spread his religious beliefs that the end of the world is near. During the Olympics, Horan was wearing a kilt and had white placard with the words "The Grand Prix priest. Israel fulfillment of prophecy says the bible, the second coming is near"

The attack cost de Lima 10-15 seconds of his 48 second lead but it rattled the Brazilian:

"The attack really surprised me, because I did not think I was his target. He did not injure me, but he broke my rhythm and I lost concentration."

He eventually finished third and was awarded the 'Pierre de Coubertin Medal' at the closing ceremony. The IOC wanted to recognize de Lima's exceptional demonstration of fair play and Olympic values ... which we're sure they tried to convice de Lima was even better than a gold medal.

Take a look at the 16 most bizarre Olympic moments in history:

Day 1 - Eric "The Eel" Moussambani
Day 2 - Betty Robinson
Day 3 - Sally Robbins
Day 4 - Abebe Bilkila
Day 5 - 1972 USA Basketball team
Day 6 - Bobby Pearce
Day 7 - Byun Jong-il
Day 8 - Stella Walsh
Day 9 - Spanish Paralympic Basketball Team
Day 10 - Ingeborg Marx
Day 11 - Vanderlei de Lima
Day 12 - Hans-Jurgen Todt
Day 13 - Liu Changchun
Day 14 - Dorando Pietri
Day 15 - 1956 Hungarian Water Polo Team
Day 16 - 1960 Tunisian Modern Pentathlon Team