Brazil to honor marathon man
RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) – The spectator who helped rescue race leader Vanderlei de Lima from a deranged attacker during the Olympic marathon last month is to be invited to Brazil to meet the athlete and receive a special tribute. The Brazilian Olympic Committee (COB) said yesterday that the previously anonymous man, named as 53-year-old salesman Polyvios Kossivas, would receive the invitation in Athens today from COB President Carlos Artur Nuzman. Rank outsider De Lima was leading the race with about 6 kilometers to go when he was attacked and pushed into the crowd by defrocked Irish priest Cornelius Horan. Kossivas helped untangle De Lima, who won the bronze medal despite losing around 20 seconds in the incident. Brazilian media paid tribute at the time to the middle-aged, bearded spectator, but nobody knew who he was until the Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper published an interview with him this week. The COB said Kossivas would be invited to Brazilian sport’s top awards ceremony at the end of the year for a special tribute and to meet De Lima.
