Olympic Games 101

At the 1964 Tokyo Games, Kokichi Tsuburaya won the marathon bronze medal, Japan's first Olympic track medal in 28 years, and he became a national hero. In 1967, while training for the 1968 Mexico City Games, he suffered two injuries and was forced to spend three months in the hospital. When he realized he could not possibly win the next Olympic marathon because of his weakened condition, Tsuburaya ended his own life by cutting his right carotid artery with a razor blade. Beside him was a piece of paper on which he had written a single phrase: "Cannot run anymore." Other source states: "I cannot run by having already gotten exhausted."