Red cells convey oxygen to the muscles and the more you have, the better your endurance. Mäntyranta, who passed away in late 2013, had a rare gene mutation that spurred his bone marrow to wildly overproduce red blood cells. But now, as an older man, his special blood had turned him red. In the pictures I’d seen of him in Sports Illustrated in the 1960s-when he’d won three Olympic gold medals in cross-country skiing-he was still white. It was cardinal dappled with violet, his nose a bulbous purple plum. Not just the crimson sweater with knitted reindeer crossing his belly, but his actual skin. I had tracked him down above the Arctic Circle in Finland where he was-what else?-a reindeer farmer. I knew Eero Mäntyranta had magic blood, but I hadn’t expected to see it in his face.
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