# Women's marathon, what was the winner sniffing? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 17, 2008, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/womens-marathon-what-was-the-winner-sniffing/460314 "2008-08-17T20:20:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![KlondikeGeoff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3e96dc/32.png) [@KlondikeGeoff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KlondikeGeoff)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2008, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/womens-marathon-what-was-the-winner-sniffing/460314/1 "2008-08-17T20:20:06Z")
The winner of the women’s marathon did a great job, breaking way out in front about half way through. I was predicting she probably would crash, but not only did she not, but when she got to the stadium she kept running victory laps. Anyway, at least twice that I saw, and the first time the commentator mentioned it, she reached into her jersey and pulled out what looked like a capsule, sniffed it and tossed it away. What the heck would that have been? Certainly she got tested for all drugs at the end, so obviously not that. The commentator hazarded a guess that it might be smelling salts. Never heard of anybody using that. In the many races I ran, including ten marathons, I never came across this. ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2008, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/womens-marathon-what-was-the-winner-sniffing/460314/2 "2008-08-17T20:54:20Z")
Commentators here, both former runners, said they were glucose tablets or something. ---
**Author:** ![Lamar\_Mundane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2008, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/womens-marathon-what-was-the-winner-sniffing/460314/3 "2008-08-17T21:03:15Z")
Constantina is my neighbor. I’ll ask her when she gets home. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2008, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/womens-marathon-what-was-the-winner-sniffing/460314/4 "2008-08-17T21:04:47Z")
Pretty sure the announcers said it was carbs, but I could have misheard. ---
**Author:** ![Caveat\_lector\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ea5d25/32.png) [@Caveat\_lector\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caveat_lector_1)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2008, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/womens-marathon-what-was-the-winner-sniffing/460314/5 "2008-08-17T21:58:30Z")
She ate the carbs and the announcers seemed pretty sure about what she was doing then but she was also smelling something and all the announcers seemed to do then was make guesses. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2008, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/womens-marathon-what-was-the-winner-sniffing/460314/6 "2008-08-17T22:15:17Z")
The glucose tablets are not what the OP was asking about. She chewed those. There was something else though that she popped and sniffed like amyl nitrate. I don’t think it was smelling salts because what’s the point, and it looked like a capsule. All the smelling salts I’ve ever seen are in tiny little bags, more like salt packet from a restaurant. ---
**Author:** ![Staggerlee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/staggerlee/32/3134_2.png) [@Staggerlee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Staggerlee)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2008, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/womens-marathon-what-was-the-winner-sniffing/460314/7 "2008-08-17T23:06:17Z")
I think I saw some sniffing going on; I guessed it might be a decongestant thing, like ‘Tiger Balm’ or ‘Vics’.