Famous sporting photographs: there's more than meets the eye.

Everyone with an interest in the history of sport or of sports medicine is familiar with the story of Dorando Pietri, the man who was first across the finishing line in the Olympic marathon at the 1908 games held in London, but who was subsequently disqualified for receiving assistance. Figure 1 shows Pietri being attended to after he collapsed on the track a few hundred yards short of the finish. Such was the size of his lead that he still made it to the finish first. The factors contributing to his collapse seem clear: it was a hot day and, by today’s standards, the runners were seriously underprepared. Pietri made a big eVort to take the lead at about 20 miles, but the eVort combined with the heat proved too much. After receiving treatment, however, he recovered suYciently to make it to the finish. Even though he did not win the gold medal, he was treated as a hero and was awarded a special trophy by Queen Alexandra. There are several famous photographs of the race, and even some early cine film. The photograph shown in fig 1 is one of the more famous ones, showing Pietri collapsed on the track receiving assistance from the medical oYcer. What is not so well known to sports historians is that the medical oYcer attending to Pietri (the man crouching to his right in the photograph) is none other than Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Conan Doyle is best remembered today as the creator of Sherlock Holmes, perhaps the most famous fictional detective of all time. It is immediately obvious from some of the details contained in the Holmes tales that the author is a medical man (although the career of Holmes’ companion and amanuensis Dr Watson was very diVerent from that of Conan Doyle himself), and indeed he practised as a GP in Edinburgh for some years, having graduated MB CM in 1881. Readers will also recall that Holmes was an accomplished exponent of the noble art of boxing, and might guess that the author also had some interest in this sport, and indeed he fought many bouts. This was only one of the sporting interests of Conan Doyle: he was an accomplished cricketer and a member of the MCC, having once dismissed the great Doctor (W G Grace) himself. In addition, he played soccer for Hampshire. His sporting interests did not stop there, however, and he represented Great Britain in the Prince Henry Motor Rally, part of the celebrations to mark the Coronation of George V: the distance covered was something over 2000 km, a prodigious undertaking at that time. Although the facts are diYcult to ascertain, he has also been credited with the introduction of skiing as a recreational and competitive pursuit to Switzerland.