British race walker Donald Thompson devised a most unusual regimen leading up to the 1960 Rome Games, training in a tightly closed bathroom heated to 100 degrees Fahrenheit by paraffin heaters and boiling-hot kettles. Four years earlier, in Melbourne, he had collapsed and failed to finish the grueling 50,000-meter event, so he wanted to be well prepared for potentially hot and humid weather in Rome. He kept his workouts to half an hour, which was a good thing, because later he realized that carbon monoxide emitted by the heater posed a danger. The race itself began in 87 degree heat and Thompson pulled away to win the 31 miles race by 17 seconds in an Olympic record time of 4:25:30.0.
