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Boston Globe
18-04-2025
- Sport
- Boston Globe
How a dog was blamed for ruining the 1961 Boston Marathon
'Kelley Spilled by Dog,' The Boston Herald . In an era before fences along the side of the route were ubiquitous, the presence of a dog could have a major impact on a high-level race. And that's exactly what happened in 1961, though its human protagonist never wavered from gallantly arguing that the dog had no impact on the ultimate result. Advertisement In fact, the bizarre incident inspired an ironic outcome: The race's winner arguably emerged as the least heroic of the podium finishers, even as he stamped his authority on the final mile with a dominant finishing kick. Ahead of the April 19 marathon race date, the competition between Kelley and Oksanen deservedly Kelley, 30, and Oksanen, 29, had dueled before, with the Finn winning the earlier race in 1959. Kelley, known as 'Kelley the Younger' (to differentiate him with John A. Kelley, winner of Boston in 1935 and 1945), had triumphed in 1957. Both were considered to be at their peak and looked expectantly at the chance to be crowned with another wreath at the finish line. Advertisement It was also the continuation of a still relatively new dynamic in Boston: international winners. Prior to 1946, there had only been two non-North American champions. But starting with 'Kel vs. the Finns,' Kelley, a Connecticut high school English teacher, was the local favorite. Conditions on the day of the marathon were notable for being unusually cold and wintry. Snow flurries, a relatively rare sight for the Boston Marathon, made the already difficult journey from Hopkinton even tougher for the field of 165 runners. Yet very quickly, it became apparent that pre-race prognosticators who had foreseen a second Oksanen vs. Kelley duel were correct. Both runners looked composed and strong, with Kelley taking an early lead and setting a higher tempo to whittle down potential challengers. Joining the duo was a dwindling pack that included Englishman Fred Norris, a 39-year-old veteran of multiple Olympics. Norris's The drama continued to escalate, especially when most surprising member of the leading group joined approximately around mile six. Advertisement A ' The Daily Record ) jumped in to run with the pack, leading them as a would-be pace-setter. The dog was described as possibly being a black Labrador retriever, though accounts differed. The dog that set the pace for part of the 1961 Boston Marathon, with Johnny Kelley and Eino Oksanen following behind. AP Wire For a seemingly impossible distance of roughly 10 miles, the dog happily led the Norris-Oksanen-Kelley group. Then, as the trio approached the fatefully-named Lower Newton Falls, disaster struck. According to Collapsed in a heap on the ground, Kelley looked for a moment as if his race was over. But as if in answer to the already improbable circumstances of a dog playing a central role, another completely unexpected event occurred. Norris stopped to help his competitor. 'Norris did an instinctive act which marked him instantly as a great gentleman,' wrote Nason. 'The 39-year-old alumnus of the British coal mines stopped, turned back, and helped the floundering Kelley to his feet.' 'It happened so fast,' Norris later told Brown. 'I hardly had time to think. [Kelley] looked as if he was down to stay, and he'd been running such a good race. So I grabbed him and shouted, like a command, 'Get up!' It snapped him out of the shock, and he was running right away.' Oksanen, who had successfully hurdled the dog, continued unimpeded. 'He did not even turn his head to see what damage he been wrought by the canine twister which struck the threesome,' Nason wrote. Advertisement But thanks to Norris's help, Kelley — adrenaline pumping — surged back into the race and quickly caught up to the Finn. Unfortunately for the Englishman, the act may have cost him. Having broken his concentration, and combined with the extra exertion right before the Newton hills, Norris suffered in the ensuing miles and fell back from the two leaders, eventually finishing third. Kelley, having regained his pre-fall status as the race leader, navigated most of the remaining course with Oksanen once again tucked just off his shoulder. It wasn't until the runners were less then a mile from the finish that Oksanen made his move. 'It was directly at Charlesgate West, with 1,000 yards to journey, that Oksanen reached down into his physical resources and pulled forth a weary sprint,' Nason recounted. Oksanen, as he had done in 1959, overcame Kelley right near the end. The Finn 'simply had too much power for me at that stage,' Kelley admitted. For the fourth time, Kelley finished in second place. He would total five second-place finishes during his distinguished Boston career. The dog dominated post-race discussion. Oksanen, sympathetic to Kelley, took a harsh line. 'Kelley's a tough man to beat. They should have shot the dog that knocked him down,' he But despite Oksanen's words, Kelley — himself a dog owner — was entirely sympathetic. Johnny Kelley and the mystery dog from the 1961 Boston Marathon. Globe archives 'Falling was a little shock, made the adrenaline run a little faster, but it didn't cost me the race,' he Advertisement Later, Kelley again took the dog's side against critics. 'He was a such a happy, spirited dog, and he seemed to be having such a good time.' The other thing Kelley recognized after the race — aside from crediting Oksanen's strength — was the conduct of Norris for helping him up after the fall. 'What a tremendous act of sportsmanship,' he 'I wonder, had the situation been reversed, if I would have done the same for him? I like to think I would—but in the heat of a hard foot race you're tempted to say, 'Well, those are the racing breaks.'' As for the dog, it was 'Unfortunately,' Hayden Bird can be reached at
The Guardian
14-04-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Same River, Twice: Putin's War on Women by Sofi Oksanen
In 1944, the Red Army pushed the Germans out of the Baltic state of Estonia. Soon afterwards, Soviet officers took away Sofi Oksanen's great-aunt for interrogation. It was night. When she returned the next morning Oksanen's young relative appeared unscathed. In fact, she had been raped. She could only mutter a few words: 'Jah, ära', or 'Yes, please don't'. The consequences of her unspoken ordeal were lifelong. As Oksanen relates it, her great-aunt became mute. She never married, had children or a relationship. Nor were the men who abused her punished. After the Soviet reoccupation – which saw Estonia erased from Europe's map – she lived quietly with her ageing mother. Black-and-white family photos and the stories that went with them were hidden. Oksanen's bestselling novels and plays explore themes such as murder and betrayal during the long decades of Soviet rule. Her parents are Finnish and Estonian and as a child she visited her Estonian grandparents inside the USSR. Her new nonfiction book is a blistering account of how Russia uses sexual violence as a weapon of state power. Putin's 2022 invasion of Ukraine took many in the west by surprise. For Estonians, though, it 'felt like a rehash of the 1940s, as if someone insists on pressing the replay button', Oksanen says. Despite a gap of 80 years, Russian practices were the same. They included terror against civilians, torture and deportations. Also propaganda, Russification, sham trials and wholesale 'cultural annihilation'. Then as now, Russian troops carried out war crimes in areas they occupied, including sexual offences. This was systematic and genocidal, Oksanen argues. Victims were women, men and children. In spring 2022 one Russian soldier, Mikhail Romanov, broke into a house in a village outside Kyiv. He killed its owner and 'raped the woman he had just widowed', as the victim's child sobbed in the next room. In the city of Bucha soldiers grabbed a local resident, 23-year-old Karina Yershova, in the street. They tortured and repeatedly raped her, then shot her in the head. Those at home in Russia offered encouragement. One Russian serviceman, Roman Bykovsky, rang his wife, Olga, from the frontline. According to a phone intercept, she told him she didn't mind if he raped Ukrainian women, so long as he used a condom. Ukrainian prisoners of war captured by Russians, meanwhile, suffer hideous sexual abuse. Some are castrated. Others are repeatedly tortured, with electrodes applied to their genitals. This violence is done to degrade targets, to break their resistance, and to stop the next generation of Ukrainian children from being born, Oksanen says. Most men won't discuss what happened. The topic is so distressing it is easier to look away, she says. Oksanen describes herself as a post-colonial writer. East Europeans went through totalitarianism twice – first with the Nazis, and then for nearly half a century, under the Soviets, she says. Typically, though, the experiences of those who lived behind the iron curtain 'do not find a place' in the west's cultural consciousness. Without a reckoning of Russia's'colonial' crimes, where the present echoes the lurid past, justice is impossible, she thinks. Same River, Twice is thoughtful, instructive and deeply harrowing. Today's anti-Kyiv Kremlin rhetoric has deep historical roots, she points out. Stalin demonised the Estonians and other rebellious ethnic groups as 'fascists' – an enemy within. The state film industry in Moscow cast actors from the Baltic Soviet republics in the role of Nazis or American spies. Under communism, 'fascist' became a synonym for non-Russians. In the run-up to his Ukraine attack Putin reactivated this 'dehumanising and racist' language. Russia's president said his 'special military operation' was necessary to free Kyiv from 'neo-Nazis'. The claim is absurd. Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, is Jewish. Most of his male relatives perished during the second world war fighting against German invaders. Zelenskyy's defence minister is a Muslim Tatar from Crimea. The book makes a compelling case that misogyny and imperialism are linked. At the same time as killing Ukrainians, Putin has rolled up women's rights within Russia. In 2017 the pro-Kremlin Duma effectively legalised domestic abuse. Russia's patriarch argued that criminal sanctions for men who hit women amounted to foreign interference. There was, one female deputy argued, nothing wrong with a mere 'slap'. Putin's regime likes to portray itself as bastion of conservative Christian Orthodoxy. It has restricted the rights of sexual minorities and denigrates feminists as terrorists and extremists. 'Russia is a classic example of a patriarchal authoritarian state,' Oksanen says. In contrast to Baltic and Nordic countries, where talented female politicians become president or prime minister, women are mostly absent from the top levels of Russian political life. Over the past two months Donald Trump has abandoned US support for Ukraine, dismissed Zelenskyy as a dictator, and repeated Kremlin talking points. His admiration for Putin can be partly explained by ideology. Maga supporters regard Moscow as a useful ally in the battle against 'woke'. With communism gone, Russia uses misogyny masked as 'traditional values' to find like-minded communities in the west. Oksanen's brave public criticism of Russia has come at a price. Paid internet trolls slate her online and pro-Putin activists have disrupted her book launches. Russian disinformation campaigns have targeted other prominent women, such as Germany's foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock. Oksanen's message: see Russia for what it is and fight back. 'In that resistance I hear my great-aunt's voice,' she writes. Luke Harding's Invasion: Russia's Bloody War and Ukraine's Fight for Survival, shortlisted for the Orwell prize, is published by Guardian Faber Same River, Twice: Putin's War on Women by Sofi Oksanen is published by HarperVia (£16.99). To support the Guardian and Observer order your copy at Delivery charges may apply
