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The idea of drinking a shot of cognac or champagne to boost athlete performance might seem not just ridiculous but dangerous ,but there was a time a shot of cognac or champagne or a cocktail of both was used as a performance enhancer in marathons.
During 1908 London marathon athletes hit the bottle at the half way mark for a badly needed boost, a number of competitors turned to unlikely, but common-at-the-time, brandy. This practice of giving endurance athletes alcohol did not just start in 20th century it goes way back to Ancient Greece & Imperial China, that’s according to research done by Dr. Matthew Barnes, Senior Lecturer and Deputy Head of the School of Sport, Exercise, and Nutrition at New Zealand’s Massey University.
The reason why Alcohol was taught to be a performance enhancer was because many people thought of it as a stimulant and the high sugar content in alcohol was seen as an energy booster.