He was born in New York City and was a member of the Mohawk Athletic Club.
In the marathon at the 1904 Olympic Games, Lorz stopped running because of exhaustion after nine miles. His manager gave him a lift in his car for the next eleven miles, after which it broke down. Lorz then continued on foot back to the Olympic stadium, where he broke the finishing line tape and was greeted as the winner of the race.
Though he initially went along with it, he soon admitted that it was a joke after spectators claimed that he had not run the entire race. Thomas Hicks went on to become the real winner, though he too had an unusual race, walking part of the route and being assisted by substances which have since been banned; among the 32 runners that entered, he was one of several who came near death (along with William Garcia) and he retired the next day.
Lorz was banned from all future amateur competitions by the Amateur Athletic Union, but was reinstated soon afterwards after he apologized for the stunt and it was found that he had not intended to defraud. He genuinely won the Boston Marathon in 1905 with a time of 2:38:25.
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Last updated on Monday March 03, 2008 at 16:25:59 PST (GMT -0800)
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