Did any famous athlete ever smoke a cigarette WHILE playing their sport?

I'm sure cricket players used to smoke pipes all the time. but maybe that's just an idealised picture of WG Grace I've made up in my head.

Either way, neither cricket nor snooker count as athletic sports I don't think.

Loads of snooker players used to smoke in the early 80s before they banned it. Probably encouraged by the promoters of all the major tournaments (Embassy, Regal, B&H).

By the time he moved to the states he might have been smoking ont he pitch as well. Isn't he playing on some 2nd division team in Engerland now?

Duncan McKenzie often looked like he'd sneaked off to have a fag (or throw a golf ball the length of the pitch, or jump over a Mini), so anonymous could he be, but I think he kept his filthy habit outside the stadium.

The Official Cigarette of the 2008 Olympics

I vaguely remember seeing her lighting a ciggie at the end of a race.

SMOKING may damage your health, but it does not seem to hinder the progress of Hestrie Cloete, South Africa’s world high jump champion. Proof that a pack a day is good for you was there for all to see in the women’s high jump qualifying round last night.

When Cloete arrived in Athens a fortnight ago, she declared herself “smoking fit” and this she demonstrated last night when she breezed into tomorrow night’s final.

Cloete started smoking ten years ago. Struggling sometimes for breath, she realised that it was perhaps affecting her performance in the 400 metres and 800 metres and so she plumped instead for the high jump, which she thought would probably require less training.

It was indeed a stroke of genius, for she has two World Championship gold medals and an Olympic silver to her name and was last year voted world female athlete of the year. Her husband is, nevertheless, by no means alone in wishing that she would quit, but she is determined not to kick her world-beating habit.

When asked about the smoking, her stock reply is that she jumps with her legs and not her lungs. Expanding further with the press this week, she said: “I’m on around 20 a day. My coach does not like it at all, but hey — that’s me. I started when I was at school, so it’s been a long time. I never felt like stopping. I think I’ll stop as soon as I’m pregnant, so there may be some time to go.”

Cloete would like the rules to loosen up and allow her to smoke mid-competition. Like all jumpers, it is the waiting around that bothers her.

“I would really love to have a smoke between jumps,” she said. “But it’s not allowed.”

Cloete is unusual as a heavy smoker competing at the highest level. There has been the occasional smoker in recent years, notably Shirley Strong, Britain’s silver medal-winning hurdler of 1984. However, the message that tobacco is bad for you does not appear to have registered so well with high jumpers. Patrik Sjoberg, Sweden’s triple Olympic medal-winner, had a soft spot for tobacco, as did Geoff Parsons, the former British record-holder.

Having won all her four Golden League meetings this year, Cloete is clear favourite for the gold. She is South Africa’s highest-profile athlete and known for her unorthodox “flying bird” jumping technique, but her smoking has recently attracted more attention. A gold medal tomorrow night could change that. There is no guessing how she would celebrate.

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