I looked it up and the reasoning seems to have been that strychnine poisoning causes lethal, uncontrollable muscle spasms, so a very small dose might increase the strength or speed of muscle contractions in a way that improves athletic performance. They got the idea because it was sometimes used medically for the same reason, to try to treat heart conditions prior to the development of more effective treatments.
???
Based solely on the adage of “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”.
I’m guessing the blood thinner was supposed to help somehow?
I looked it up and the reasoning seems to have been that strychnine poisoning causes lethal, uncontrollable muscle spasms, so a very small dose might increase the strength or speed of muscle contractions in a way that improves athletic performance. They got the idea because it was sometimes used medically for the same reason, to try to treat heart conditions prior to the development of more effective treatments.
Obviously it didn’t really work.
You’d think they would have tested it a couple times before trying it on race day