28. Crowning a Corpse Olympic Champion
Finding himself in a chokehold, Arrhichion feigned loss of consciousness, to trick his opponent into relaxing a little. When his opponent eased off, the wily title holder snapped back into action, and snapped his opponent’s ankle while shaking and throwing him off with a convulsive heave. The sudden excruciating pain induced his opponent into the Ancient Greek equivalent of tapping out, and he made the sign of submission to the referees.
However, in throwing off his opponent while the latter still had him in a chokehold, Arrhichion ended up with a broken neck. His opponent having already conceded, the dead Arrhichion was declared the title bout’s winner. It was perhaps the only time in Olympics history that a corpse was crowned champion. Arrhichion thus added a wrinkle to the athletic ideal of “victory or death” by gaining victory and death.