Olympic Games scandals

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Both the Summer Olympic Games and Winter Olympic Games have been marred by various incidents and scandals. They include:

Contents

[edit] 1912 Summer Olympics

  • U.S. athlete Jim Thorpe was stripped of his gold medals in the decathlon and pentathlon after it was learned that he played professional minor league baseball three years earlier. In solidarity, the decathlon silver medalist, Hugo Wieslander, refused to accept the medals when they were offered to him. The gold medals were restored to Thorpe in 1983, 30 years after his death.

[edit] 1932 Summer Olympics

  • After winning the silver in equestrian dressage, the Swede Bertil Sandström was demoted to last for clicking to his horse to encourage it. He asserted that it was a creaking saddle making the sounds.

[edit] 1936 Summer Olympics

  • The I.O.C. expelled American Ernest Lee Jahnke, the son of a German immigrant, for encouraging athletes to boycott Hitler's Berlin Games. He was replaced by United States Olympic Committee president Avery Brundage, who supported the Games.
  • In the cycling match sprint final, German Toni Merkens fouled Dutchman Arie van Vliet. Instead of disqualification, Merkens was fined 100 Reichsmarks and kept the gold.

[edit] 1968 Winter Olympics

  • The three East German competitors in the women's luge event were disqualified for illegally heating their runners prior to each run.

[edit] 1972 Summer Olympics

  • The Munich massacre occurred during the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, West Germany, when members of the Israeli Olympic team were taken hostage by the Palestinian terrorist group Black September, a group with ties to Yasser Arafat’s Fatah organization. Eleven of them were murdered.
  • In the controversial gold medal basketball game, the USA Olympic Basketball team battled for the gold medal for the last few seconds against USSR Basketball. It was actually one second left after referees called a foul on the USSR. After free throws, the Soviets failed to inbound the ball twice and score while trailing 50-49; the Americans, assuming they won, celebrated at the buzzer after the second missed try. Backed inexpicably by FIBA representative Renato William Jones on the last failed attempt play, it had to be replayed because of a clock malfunction. What caused the uproar was that instead of one second, the officials added two extra seconds. That gave enough time for the USSR to score a layup on the replay and win, 51-50. Infuriated by the acts the officials did, the American team to this day refused to accept the loss and the silver medals.

[edit] 1976 Summer Olympics

[edit] 1980 Summer Olympics

  • Although approximately half of the 24 countries which boycotted the 1976 Summer Olympics participated in these, the Games were disrupted by another boycott, led by the United States. 65 countries withdrew from the Games in protest of the 1979 Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan. Eighty nations participated, the lowest number since 1956.
  • Gold medalist pole vault jumper Władysław Kozakiewicz showed an obscene "bent elbow" gesture to the jeering Soviet public at the stadium during the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow causing an international scandal and almost losing his medal as a result.

[edit] 1984 Summer Olympics

[edit] 1988 Summer Olympics

  • After the mass boycotts of the Olympics in 1976, 1980 and 1984, the Seoul Games were again boycotted, led by North Korea and followed by Cuba, on the basis of South Korea's refusal to co-host the Olympics with North Korea, which rejected all compromise. However, it was an early, visible triumph of nordpolitik that no other Communist nations boycotted the Games despite being allies of North Korea.
  • Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson was stripped of his gold medal for the 100 metres when he tested positive for stanozolol after the event.
  • In a highly controversial 3-2 judge's decision, South Korean fighter Park Si-Hun defeated American Roy Jones Jr., despite Jones pummeling Park for three rounds, landing 86 punches to Park's 32. Allegedly, Park himself apologized to Jones afterwards. One judge shortly thereafter admitted the decision was a mistake, and all three judges voting against Jones were eventually suspended. Most observers still believe the judges were either bribed or otherwise coerced to vote for the local fighter by Korean officials. However, the official IOC investigation concluding in 1997 found no wrongdoing, and the IOC still officially stands by the decision. A similarly controversial decision went against American Michael Carbajal. These incidents led Olympic organizers to establish a new scoring system for Olympic boxing.

[edit] 1994 Winter Olympics

  • Jeff Gillooly, the ex-husband of figure skater Tonya Harding, arranges for an attack on her closest rival, Nancy Kerrigan, prior to the start of the Games. Both women compete, with Kerrigan winning the silver and Harding doing very poorly. Harding was later banned for life.

[edit] 2000 Summer Olympics

  • Romanian Andreea Răducan became the first gymnast to be stripped of a medal after testing positive for pseudoephedrine, a banned drug. Răducan, 16, took Nurofen, a common over-the-counter medicine, to help treat a fever. The Romanian team doctor who gave her the drug in two cold medicine pills was expelled from the Games and suspended for four years. The gold medal was finally awarded to Răducan's team mate Simona Amânar, who had obtained silver. Răducan was allowed to keep her other medals, a gold from the team competition and a silver from the vault.

[edit] 2002 Winter Olympics

  • A number of I.O.C. members are forced to resign after it is uncovered that they have accepted inappropriately valuable "gifts" in return for voting for Salt Lake City to hold the Games.
Further information: 2002 Winter Olympic bid scandal
Further information: 2002 Olympic Winter Games figure skating scandal
  • Three cross-country skiers are disqualified after blood tests indicate the use of darbepoetin,. The skiers are Johann Mühlegg of Spain, and Larissa Lazutina and Olga Danilova of Russia. Following a December 2003 ruling by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), the I.O.C in February 2004 withdraws all the doped athletes' medals of the Games, amending the result lists accordingly.

[edit] 2004 Summer Olympics

  • Kenyan boxer David Munyasia tested positive for cathine and was subsequently banned from competing by the IOC.
  • Greek baseball players Andrew James Brack tested positive for stanozolol and teammate Derek Nicholson tested positive for diuretics during a pre-Olympic drug test. They were withdrawn from the squad.
  • Greek sprinters and Olympic favourites Kostas Kenteris and Ekaterini Thanou withdrew from their team and from competition because they failed to take drug tests the Friday before the games began.
  • Spanish canoeist Jovino González was found to have EPO in his circulatory system after he received a surprise pre-Olympic doping test. He was withdrawn from the Men's Flatwater 500 metres.
  • Spanish cyclist Janet Puiggros Miranda became the second Spanish athlete to commit a doping offence after also testing positive for EPO during a pre-Olympic test. She was withdrawn from the Women's Cross-Country race.
  • Swiss cyclist Oscar Camenzind tested positive for EPO during another pre-Olympic test and was barred from attending the Olympic Games.
  • Irish distance runner Cathal Lombard tested positive for EPO while in training after the Irish Sports Council noticed suspicious improvements in Lombard's running times. He qualified in the Men's 5000 metres and the Men's 10000 metres, but was banned from competing for 2 years.
  • Myanmar's Nan Aye Khine tested positive for steroids after finishing fourth in the women's 48 kg weightlifting event and was disqualified.
  • Wafa Ammouri of Morocco, a medal favourite in the women's 63kg weightlifting event, withdrew at the last minute, with team officials explaining that she had suffered a shoulder injury. It was later found she had tested positive for steroids in a pre-competition test.
  • Turkish female weightlifter Sule Sahbaz tested positive for steroids a day before the Women's 75+kg weightlifting event and was barred from competing.
  • Indian female weightlifter Pratima Kumari was banned from the 63-kilogram weightlifting competition after she tested positive for excess testosterone during a pre-Olympic drug test. Her teammate, Sanamacha Chanu, was disqualified and stripped of her fourth place finish in the 53-kilogram weightlifting competition after she tested positive for furosemide.
  • Uzbekistan's Olga Shchukina was barred from competing in the women's shot put after she tested positive in an out-of-competition screening for the steroid clenbuterol.
  • Ukraine was stripped of their women's quadruple sculls bronze medal after Olena Olefirenko tested positive for Ethamivan.
  • Belarusian high jumper Aleksey Lesnichiy was barred from competing in the men's high jump after testing positive for the steroid clenbuterol.
  • Russian female weightlifter Albina Khomich, a favourite in the Women's 75+kg weightlifting event, tested positive for the banned steroid methandrostenalone during an IWF pre-competition test, and was banned from competing in the 2004 Olympic Games.
  • In the 62 kg weighlifting competition, bronze medalist Leonidas Sampanis tested positive for excess testosterone. He was stripped of his bronze medal and ejected from the Games.
  • Russian shot putter Irina Korzhanenko was stripped of gold in the women's shot put event when she tested positive for stanozolol.
  • Hungarian athlete Robert Fazekas was stripped of his gold medal and Olympic Record in the Men's discus event after failing to produce a sufficiently large urine sample, and then leaving the testing facility early.
  • Adrian Annus was stripped of his hammer gold medal after he was caught tampering with his sample.
  • Russian sprinter Anton Galkin was thrown out from the Olympic Games after he tested positive for stanozolol. He had qualified for the final after finishing in 4th place in his semifinal of the Men's 400 metres.
  • Colombian cyclist María Luisa Calle lost her bronze medal after testing positive for heptaminol, however the Colombian Olympic Committee successfully appealed the decision. In November 2005 she was reinstated as bronze medalist due to a testing error.
  • Irish showjumper Cian O'Connor's horse, Waterford Crystal, tested positive for fluphenazine and zuclophenthixol months after receiving a gold medal. The subsequent investigation was hampered by several suspicious events. When O'Connor requested a second test, the horse's B urine sample was stolen enroute to a laboratory. Documents about another horse belonging to O'Conner were stolen in a break-in at the Equestian Federation of Ireland's headquarters. Finally, in the spring of 2005, O'Connor was stripped of his gold medal.
  • Ron Bensimhon, a Canadian spectator of the three meter synchronized diving competition, mounted the springboard and belly flopped into the pool. Bensinhom was immediately arrested by security and later convicted of trespassing and disturbing the public order. He was sentenced to five months imprisonment and a 300 Euro fine.
  • During the Men's Marathon, Brazilian runner Vanderlei de Lima was grabbed by Cornelius Horan, a defrocked Irish priest and prior disrupter, and was pushed into the crowd, losing several seconds and the first place in the marathon; Vanderlei eventually ended in third place, receiving the bronze medal. He did not express anger that he lost and said publicly that even without the interference, he would still not win. The IOC honoured de Lima with the Pierre de Coubertin medal, the highest recognition awarded by the IOC, for his "exceptional demonstration of fair play and Olympic values".
  • Guidelines were published which stated that spectators could be refused admission to events if they were wearing any clothing bearing prominent trademarks of non-sponsor companies. However, no incidents of refused admissions stemming from these guidelines were reported.
  • The officiating in swimming and gymnastics was called into question several times.
  • Hungarian fencing official Josef Hidasi was suspended for two years by the FIE after committing several errors during an Italy-China match.
  • Canadian men's rowing pair Chris Jarvis and David Calder were disqualified in the semifinal round after they crossed into the lane belonging to the South African team of Donovan Cech and Ramon di Clemente and in doing so, according to the Australians, interfered with their progress. The Canadians appealed unsuccessfully to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
  • Dae Sung Lee, who was dismissed as the head coach of the US Taekwondo Team, sued the US Taekwondo Union and the US Olympic Committee alleging his dismissal related to his Korean heritage. His case was dismissed by US district Judge Susan Mollway.
  • In the women's 100m hurdles, world champion and favorite Perdita Felicien of Canada stepped on the first hurdle, tumbling to the ground and taking Irina Shevchenko of Russia with her. The Russian Federation filed an unsuccessful protest, pushing the medal ceremony back a day. Track officials debated for about two hours before rejecting the Russians' arguments. The race was won by American Joanna Hayes in Olympic-record time.
  • In a tournament match in men's volleyball, The USA and Greece were in the final game of the match (Game 5). When the Americans were handling the ball, an inadvertent whistle was blown, stopping play. The referee never did blow it, but the whistle came from the audience. Greece stopped their defense in result because to every whistle, the ball is dead. To the officials however, it was a still a live ball. That let the Americans make the last spike to win by two to move to the next round. The Greek team protested, but the officials let the play count. No appeal has been made.
  • Clayton Stanley, a member of the American volleyball team at the Olympic tournament, was arrested in Athens one day after the games had ended. After having an argument with a couple, Stanley went as far as attacking the woman, who was pregnant. Stanley was arrested and charged with assault, criminal damage and resisting arrest.
  • Iran's Arash Miresmaili was disqualified after he was found to be overweight before a bout against Israeli Ehud Vaks. He had gone on an eating binge the night before in a protest against the IOC's recognition of the state of Israel. It was reported that Iranian Olympic team chairman Nassrollah Sajadi has suggested that the Iranian government should give him $115,000 (the amount he would have received if he had won the gold medal) as a reward for his actions, which were praised by the President of Iran, Mohammad Khatami, who was reported to have said that Arash's refusal to fight the Israeli would be "recorded in the history of Iranian glories", and stated that the nation considered him to be "the champion of the 2004 Olympic Games."

[edit] 2006 Winter Olympics

  • Members of the Austrian biathlon team had their Olympic Village residences raided by Italian authorities, who were investigating doping charges.