Etc...

I think I'll skip lunch today

Ever seen the bumper sticker "DARE to keep cops off doughnuts"? If Terry O'Brien has, he ignores it. O'Brien is a police officer from Lake Geneva, Wis., and he wolfed down all but a few crumbs of 10 of the multi-caloric treats in three minutes flat last week to win the World Cop Donut-Eating Championship in suburban Chicago. He out-feasted 39 other competitors. Said the awed master of ceremonies after O'Brien claimed his title: "I thought they'd do seven - maybe eight. I couldn't believe 10!"

From Grantham, Pa., comes word that Ray Crist retired last week as a science professor at Messiah College. He plans to continue researching at least one more academic paper he's writing. That's nice, you say, but so what? Only that Crist turned 104 on his last birthday and two years ago was honored as the nation's oldest working person.

When Athens stages the Olympics Aug. 13-29, the competition will bear little resemblance to the first modern Games, also held there in 1896. Then, Greeks outnumbered athletes from 13 other countries 2 to 1. Most of the foreigners paid their own way; some were even tourists who decided on the spur of the moment to compete. (There were no eligibility standards.) Not surprisingly, the winning efforts in the track and field events at the the core of the Olympics were modest by today's standards. The current men's records, with the gold-medal-winning times or distances recorded at the 1896 Games (in parentheses):

100 meters 9.84 (12.0)
400 meters 43.49 (54.2)
800 meters 1:42.58 (2:11.0)
1500 meters 3:32.07 (4:33.2)
Marathon 2:09:21 (2:48:50)
High jump 7-10 (5-11 1/4)
Long jump 29-2 1/2 (20-10)
Pole vault 19-5 1/4 (10-10)
Shot put 73-8 3/4 (36-9 3/4)
Discus 227-8 (95-7 1/2)
- HickokSports.com