Olympic Glory......Not Really #5

We start our countdown of worst Olympic performances with someone you may be familiar with if you read the last blog posted. In all fairness, this Olympian claimed to have "hurt" his hamstring resulting his terrible performance at the 1996 Summer Games. This man holds a personal best in the marathon event with a time of 2 hours and 33 minutes, and had the honorable distinction of being the only Olympian from Afghanistan to participate in the 1996 Summer Games. Without further delay, I present Abdul Baser Wasiqi's marathon performance at the 1996 Summer Games in Atlanta as the #5 worst Olympic performances of all-time.

While Mr. Wasiqi finishes 5th in our contest, he wasn't so lucky in Atlanta during the 26th Olympiad......not by a long shot. Abdi Isak of Somalia was a heads-on favorite to finish last in the marathon, but Wasiqi wasn't about to let his last-place glory be stolen. When most athletes would have pulled out of the race after hurting their hamstring, Wasiqi knew he could become a legend if he stayed in the race. The table was now set: Isak of Somalia vs. Wasiqi of Afghanistan to see who could take home the title of worst marathoner in history.

I wasn't there, but I'm sure you could just feel the tension in the air. Two Olympic athletes going toe-to-toe, both striving for the same goal. It turned out Wasiqi ran, well limped, far behind his competition for a portion of the race. Just to be sure he finished last though, he took the veteran strategy of walking a good majority of the race to finish with a time of 4 hours and 24 minutes. For the record that is only 10 minutes faster than my marathon time, and I walked for 2 miles. Wasiqi blew away all other last-place challengers, finishing over an hour behind Isak who sadly took home 110th place. In order to really make Wasiqi feel like a last place finisher, he entered the Olympic Stadium to find workers making preparations for the Olympic's Closing Ceremonies. They had to postpone covering the track so the insistent Wasiqi could finish his "Olympic stroll".

The winning marathon time of the 1996 Summer Games was registered by Josia Thugwane of South Africa with a time of 2 hours and 12 minutes. The way I see it, our friend Mr. Wasiqi got to be an Olympic marathon runner twice as long as the winner did. What a sucker that Thugwane was. Congratulations Mr. Wasiqi, we salute your efforts!