| Medal record | ||
|---|---|---|
Hicks at the 1904 Summer Olympics. |
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| Men's athletics | ||
| Competitor for the United States | ||
| Olympic Games | ||
| Gold | 1904 St. Louis | Marathon |
Thomas Hicks (Thomas John Hicks; January 7, 1875 – December 2, 1963) was an American track and field athlete, winner of the Olympic marathon in 1904.
Hicks, a brass worker from Cambridge, Massachusetts, was born in England and won a second place at the 1904 Boston Marathon. He also was the winner of a remarkable marathon race at the 1904 Summer Olympics, held as part of the World Fair in St. Louis, Missouri.
Conditions were bad, the course being a dirt track, with large clouds of dust produced by the accompanying vehicles. Hicks was not the first to cross the finish line, trailing Fred Lorz. However, Lorz had abandoned the race after 9 miles. After covering most of the course by car, he re-entered the race 5 miles before the finish. This was found out by the officials, who disqualified Lorz, who claimed it had been a joke.
Had the race been run under current rules, Hicks too would have been disqualified: he had been given a dose of 1/60 of a grain (roughly 1 mg) of strychnine and some brandy by his assistants, because he was flagging badly during the race; the first dose of strychnine did not revive him for long, so he was given another. As a result, he collapsed after crossing the finishing line. Another dose might have been fatal. Strychnine is now forbidden for athletes.
Hicks finished second in the 1904 Boston Marathon, but dropped out during the following year's race.[1]
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