When Mikaela Shriffin threw up Friday before her first race in the women’s slalom at the Winter Olympics, the American ski racer hardly made history.
She said it felt more like a virus than nerves, but it probably felt familiar to those who chronicle the history of vomit in sports. Yes, there’s a history.
The list of of athletes who have vomited before or during competition is long enough to make your stomach turn, but here are some notables:
— Lionel Messi, the Argentinian soccer star lost his while Argentina was losing the World Cup finals to Germany. Photographers captured the moment, with Messi doubled over and throwing up on the soccer pitch — just a month earlier Messi threw up during a game against Romania.
"Sometimes I accelerate very fast and the change in air intake causes me to heave,’’ he later told reporters. “I felt completely fine at the end of the match"
— Bill Russell, the Hall-of-Fame center for the Boston Celtics was known for throwing up before many of the team’s biggest games. In fact, legendary Celtics coach Red Auerbach apparently considered it a form of good luck.
Bill Russell: A Biography’by Murry Nelson recounts the queasy scene before one of the Celtics playoff games. Auerbach hadn’t heard Russell throw up, so the coach supposedly ordered the team off the court during warm-ups and wouldn’t let them back until Russell threw up.
Russell delivered, so to speak, and the Celtics then returned to the floor and won the game.
According to the Russell book, Celtics Hall-of-Famer John Havlicek once said of Russell's throwing up, "It's a welcome sound, too, because it means he's keyed up for the game and around the locker room we grin and say, 'Man, we're going to be all right tonight.' "
— Mark Schlereth, former offensive lineman for the Denver Broncos, who described himself and his fellow linemen such as Tommy Nalen as habitual pregame pukers.
“Somebody, usually myself or Tommy Nalen, would start heaving and it would be a chain reaction,’’ Schlereth reportedly said for the book “NFL Unplugged: The Brutal, Brilliant World of Professional Football. “Next thing you know, four or five guys are puking over the trash can.”
— London Fletcher, former linebacker for the Washington Redskins, told The Washington Post he saved his traditional pre-game vomit for the team’s sidelines.
“I’m a vomit guy,’’ Fletcher said. “I’m SUCH a vomit guy.’’
