JerseyTrailblazers posted this on the Letterbox Chatter board the other day and I thought the story was neat so I felt like sharing it.
"For those of your that are not already aware of this, Letterboxing was once a part of the Olympic Games. Yes, it is true. So, for those newbies out there and as a walk down memory lane for the old fogies, I will tell the tale that has been passed down to me by members of the Letterboxing Illuminati during their annual "Beer and Brat" gathering at the White House. So pull up a chair and crack open a bottle of Mad Dog 20-20 and lend me an ear.
Previous Olympic Games included sports which are no longer present on the current program, like
polo, tug of war and jaywalking. These sports, known as "discontinued sports", were later removed either because of lack of interest or absence of an appropriate governing body. Archery and tennis are examples of sports that were competed at the early Games and were later dropped by the IOC, but managed to return to the Olympic program (in 1972 and 1988, respectively). Demonstration sports have often been included in the Olympic Games, usually to promote a local sport from the host country or to gauge interest and support for the sport. Some such sports, like baseball and curling, were successfully added to the official Olympic program (in 1992 and 1998, respectively, baseball however has been discontinued after the 2008 Summer Olympics). One sport, Letterboxing, was introduced at the games in Salt Lake City, Utah in 2002 and subsequently discontinued after the games in Athens, Greece in 2004. In 2002, Teams from various countries competed in the first competitions with the heavy favorites being Team England and Team USA. The English Contigent led by elderly Team Captain Tom Gant was steeped in tradition but the upstart USA Team led by Co-Captains Tom Cooch and Erik "The Vermont Viking" Davis were ready for the challenge. It was a grueling set of challenges involving standard plants as well as mystery boxes, WOM's and some tense signature stamp exchanges. At the end of the Quarterfinal rounds the suprise team from Easter Island found themselves in contention for a medal after competing in the 'visionary' category and producing what would later become known as an "LTC", this one being in the form of a Moab statue. At the end of the Games it was Team USA with the Gold, Team England with the Silver and Team Australia with the Bronze. Team Aussie staged a late point garnering rally with their Cootie Design, "Shrimp on the Barbie". A different story emerged prior to the start of the 2004 games when the organizers from the main letterboxing governing body of the USA, LBNA, were challenged by the new group from Atlas Quest led by Team Captain, Ryan "Turtle Boy" Carpenter. AQ was a flashy upstart that was challenging the 'old ways' and they demanded a 'seat at the table' and a voice in selecting members of the team. For some reason they wanted to change the team logo to that of a moose head. When LBNA members Randy and Choi balked, one AQ'er yelled out, "Hey, Wassamatta U"? As tensions stirred the IOC became involved and IOC chairman Art Vandelay of Vandelay Industries was brought in to mediate the dispute. It looked like there was to be a compromise and a possible combination of teams but with only days to go before the start of the 2004 games, the negotiations broke down. Rumours circulated that a mysterious woman named Amanda had somehow thrown a monkey in the wrench. But it turns out that it all came back to a somewhat likeable malcontent named Cyclonic who replied, "Some people claim that there's a woman to blame...but I know,...it's my own damn fault". "Oh, and your boxes suck". Since it was obvious that Team USA was not going to participate in the games, the other nations dropped out, following Team England which released a statement saying, "We regret that Team USA has robbed us of the opportunity to take the Olympic Gold from them and to prove our obvious superiority to them and they are all still a bunch of tea bag spilling a-holes." The fallout from the discontinuation of Letterboxing as an Olympic sport was far reaching with people all over the world exclaiming, "We're mad as hell and were not gonna take it anymore!." But the furor was short lived and people soon became sullen and grew lazy and looked for an activity that would not tax their mind or creativity and required nothing more then pressing a few buttons on a little gizmo. As such, this led to an explosion in the amount of people that took up Geocaching and it also led to an expansion of their wastlines, the down fall of the family unit, and dogs and cats sleeping together. There have not been any further attempts to bring about a return of Letterboxing to the Olympic Games."
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