This is the seventh in a series of examinations of legends
related to the Olympics and whether they are true or false.
OLYMPIC LEGEND: An Olympian missed out on a chance at a world
record because the official lap counter was not paying attention
to the race. Finnish athlete Volmari Iso-Hollo was one of the
greatest steeplechase racers of all time (in case you don’t
know, steeplechase is the race where the runners have to leap
over short fences during the race). At the 1932 Olympics, Iso-
Hollo was dominating the field on the way to the Gold Medal in
the 3000 meter steeplechase. Coming in to the home stretch, Iso-
Hollo looked like he was going to have a world record. He ran
and he ran and he ran and…no finishing bell rang, so the race
was not over yet! So he ran and ran some more. Finally, the bell
rang and the race was over – but Iso-Hollo had run an extra 460
meters! You see, the officials did not know how many laps had
been run because the guy whose job it was to track the amount of
laps had been distracted