Images of elite athletes smoking cigarettes

There is no denying that the world's impression of cigarettes has changed dramatically in the past 50-100 years. I believe it has changed most in the past 20 years because even when I was in school in the 90's smoking wasn't just allowed almost everywhere, but it was still kind of encouraged. You could light up almost anywhere and I recall even a grocery store where we could smoke.

Also, despite the fact that I was a rather elite athlete back in those times - as were most of the people I hung out with, a lot of us were smokers. If we go back a bit further in time there are some world-class athletes, some considered the best in the world at their jobs, that were full-time smokers. Some of them would even smoke DURING the sport they were playing at the highest levels of competition. Here are some of those photos.

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I don't know this person's name or what year it was taken. I'm guessing that since it is a B&W photo that it was a long time ago. I do know that he is currently taking part in the Tour de France while he is doing it though. Here's another one from a little more recently.

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It wasn't just "forever ago" that people did this. The above picture is Mario Cipollini smoking a cigarette just before the hill stages in the Tour de France in 1994. According to Mario and his team they believe that the cigarette would "open up his lungs" and prepare him better for the grueling climbing stages. This all seems like madness to us now but could they be right? I don't actually have any idea.

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I've always found it to be an absurd notion but the Olympics, which is meant to be the absolute highest level of athletic achievement, that we have sponsors such as McDonalds and Coca-Cola, which are two things that the athletes themselves probably almost never indulge in. Back as early as the 80's, the Olympics had an "official cigarette" that would be promoted during commercial breaks and in print advertising. Above we have a 4 time medal winner Don Schollander, promoting smoking Lucky Strikes for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.

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For Americans this is probably the most famous smoking-athlete picture of all time. This is Len Dawson, the starting quarterback for the Kansas City Chiefs. In this picture he is smoking a cigarette DURING the Super Bowl. This was a very early Super Bowl and people's opinions on ciggies was very different back then. It wasn't considered a bad image to smoke in front of fans or even kids because basically everyone smoked. It would be ludicrous to think of this happening today when we know what we do about the dangers of smoking.

There are other athletes who were at the top of their game that were also regular cigarette smokers but there just weren't any iconic pictures of them doing so. They including MMA fighter Quinton "Rampage" Jackson - who at one time was the world champion, American Football QB Tom Brady, who is largely considered the best QB of all time, and American Football wide-receiver Randy Moss - who unapologetically smoked throughout his entire career while he was making the Pro Bowl 6 times; to this day he still holds the record for most touchdown catches in a single season. Then there was of course Michael Jordon, who would smoke a cigar before every game to "relax."

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I think that there is no doubt in most people's minds that smoking and athletics do not belong together and in my mind I wonder how great these individuals might have been if they didn't do so. Perhaps it was arrogance: They were already the best at their individual games so I don't think we can really argue with their tactics.