Olympic Trivia

Over at the Let's Run message board, a recent post asked for help with a trivia question. "My roommate says that the first runner to win both the 200 and 400 in the same olympics was a runner from Syracuse. I bet him a beer he is wrong. Help me collect."

I'm thinking, this is easy. The first to win this was Valerie Brisco-Hooks, who ran for a Los Angeles high school and then Cal State Northridge. Maybe the guy was thinking of Allen Woodring or Charles Reidpath. Anyway, it's an easy bet.

Then someone posted the following:

"The first runner to double in the 200 and 400 [stadion and dialos] was Astylos of Kroton (a city-state in southern Italy) in the 73nd Olympiad in 488 BC. He repeated in 484 BC. Then he switched his allegience to Syracuse and doubled for the 3rd time in 480 BC.

So the answer is no, the first 200/400 double win was not performed by a runner from Syracuse. The beer is on your friend."

Wow.