|
|
||||||||||
|
 |
Occasionally, a well known (and sometimes some not so well known) athlete manages to die in a way that can only be described as bizarre. Usually, for obvious reasons, they are male. Sportsfreak takes a look at 10 such folk, to try and show you some of the more inventive ways that some of our past heroes have clocked off. Some are weird, some are hard to believe, and some are just downright unlucky. And no – we did not make any of these up. We kick off today with the first part of our two-part series. 10. Vladimir Smirnov - Fencing At the 1980 Moscow Olympics, home town hero Smirnov collected three medals in the Fencing – including the Gold in the Individual Foil. The following year, Smirnov also took out the Gold at the World Championships , and in 1982 he headed to Rome to defend his title. It was there that he came up against German Matthias Behr, whose carbon steel blade snapped during the contest. It sheared through Smirnov’s mask, entering his eye socket and piercing his brain – he died nine days later in hospital, after being kept on life support for the duration of the tournament. Smirnov’s death was the catalyst for safety improvements in the discipline, including a change in the type of steel used in blades, and the creation of masks up to three times stronger than the one used in his last fight. 9. David Furr – Basketball The chartered DC3 carrying the University of Evansville basketball team had just taken off en route to Tennessee on December 13, 1977. Sadly, less than two minutes later, the plane had crashed into a field killing all 29 on board. Evansville lost all but one of their playing roster, their rookie coach, and other members of the extended team. However, David Furr was the odd man out - he was the only Evansville player not on the flight, as he was sidelined with an ankle injury at the time. Lucky? Well, at that point, yes. Unfortunately, two weeks later Furr and his younger brother were killed in a car accident on their way home from a basketball tournament. 8. Andres Escobar - Football It’s fair to say that South American football fans have a widespread reputation for becoming slightly unhinged. The most obvious example of such fanaticism may well have resulted in the murder of Escobar – the Colombian defender who paid the ultimate price for an own goal. At the 1994 World Cup in the USA, the Colombian side was up against the home nation in pool play. In the 34th minute of the game, Escobar attempted to deflect a cross by sticking out his boot – to his horror the ball ended up in the back of his own net. Colombia lost the game 2-1 and missed out on the next round by a solitary point. Ten days later, after visiting a bar in his home town of Medellin, Escobar was shot 12 times by a gun wielding mentalist, believed to be payback for his colossal cock up. To make matters worse, the killer allegedly screamed out “Goooooaal!” (probably in his worst Andrew Dewhurst impression) whilst committing the act. 120,000 turned out for the funeral.
7. Sergei Chalibashvili - Diving Remember when Greg Louganis cracked his noggin on the springboard at the Seoul Olympics in 1988? Blood was spilt, concussion was suffered, and hilarity prevailed. But it could have been a lot worse – ask Russian Sergei Chalibashvili. Well as it happens, you can’t, as he is no longer with us. At the 1983 World University Games in Canada, Chalibashvili was struggling in practice to perfect the “Dive of Death” – a 3 ½ reverse somersault in the tuck position. Most observers felt that he should never have been allowed to attempt the dive during competition, as he was not even close to being proficient at it during training. However attempt it he did, smashing his head onto the 10 metre platform in the process, rendering him unconscious. After being in a coma for a week, Chalibashvili then succumbed to his injuries, becoming the first diver to die during competition. Incidentally, he was given a score of 0.0 for his dive, but only after a judge’s (who, not surprisingly, was French) score of -3.5 was discarded. 6. Blenda Gay – American Football According to his wife Roxanne, Philadelphia Eagles defensive end Blenda Gay was a total prick. Not averse to giving her the bash, particularly after the Eagles lost (she contacted authorities 20 times in the space of 3 ½ years with no result, claiming that police officers would ignore her and talk to her husband about football), he also sent her to hospital on a number of occasions. On one such occasion, Roxanne Gay signed a complaint, which she later withdrew. In December of 1976, she’d finally had enough. Whilst Blenda Gay (what the hell were his parents thinking?) was sleeping, Roxanne crept up on her husband and slit his throat. The case became a famous precedent for feminism, due to the allegations of long term domestic violence, and Roxanne Gay became a poster girl for the movement. However, Roxanne was later diagnosed as schizophrenic, with no evidence of the alleged abuse confirmed. As a result of her subsequent admission to a psychiatric hospital, all charges were dropped.
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
©2006 Epoch Media. Sportsfreak is an Epoch Media site. |