“True Stories”, by Vinko Bogataj (click to enlarge)

For a couple of decades, ABC’s Wide World of Sports featured the same introduction: a montage of athletes performing amazing feats as an announcer spoke of “the thrill of victory.” But the most memorable part of the introduction was when an obscure Slovenian athlete crashed on a ski jump in an illustration of “the agony of defeat” (video).

That bit became seared on the American consciousness, to the point that comedian Rich Hall invented a new word, “agonosis“, defined as “The syndrome of tuning in on Wide World of Sports every weekend just to watch the skier rack himself.”

But now it appears as though the skier guy has gotten the last laugh. Vinko Bogataj is now a famous artist whose work is displayed in galleries throughout the world (link).

So whatever happened to all those “thrill of victory” guys?

(via Neatorama)

(cross posted at appletree and Liberal Avenger)