The Olympic Games are hailed around the world as a time when nations can set aside their differences and engage in healthy competition to celebrate the potential of humankind.
But everyone knows that isn't always how things are. The Games have always been riddled with less-inspiring moments, and, no, they don't always have to do with athletes taking performance-enhancing drugs. In fact, few Olympic Games have been held without controversy, bad behavior, and poor judgment calls of any kind, though some cases are of course worse than others (it’s safe to say a fencing clock getting stuck long enough for someone to score extra points doesn’t even begin to compare to a terrorist attack).
From skater Tonya Harding being connected to an attack on a competitor to Adolf Hitler giving the world a first glimpse of his dark side at the 1936 Games, here's a look at the top 10 scandals in Olympic history.
Image Source: Wikimedia Commons
[new page=#10. Nancy Kerrigan is Attacked]
The 1994 U.S. Olympic Skating team arrived at the Games in Lillehammer, Norway, already caught up in a media frenzy— directly resulting from a widely-publicized incident at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships one month prior. An assailant had attacked skater Nancy Kerrigan during a practice session with an ASP baton, in an obvious attempt to break her leg. Kerrigan’s leg was not broken, but she was injured enough to withdraw from the championships. It was soon revealed that fellow skater Tonya Harding’s ex-husband, Jeff Gillooly, and her bodyguard, Shawn Eckhardt, were behind the attack, hiring a man named Shane Stant to attack Kerrigan. Both Kerrigan and Harding nevertheless went on to compete in the Olympics as the investigation continued, with Harding finishing eighth and Kerrigan taking home the silver medal. Harding later received three years probation, 500 community service hours, and a $160,000 fine after the investigation concluded. She was also stripped of her 1994 U.S. Championship title and banned for life from the USFSA for her involvement.
[new page=#9. Fred Lorz “Wins"]
The Men’s marathon at the 1904 Olympics in St. Louis was already a poorly organized and poorly officiated affair, but the event was made much worse by the fact that American runner Fred Lorz cheated to win the event. Lorz had dropped out of the race after only nine miles, hitching a ride back to the stadium. After the car he was in broke down at the 19th mile of the race, Lorz got out and ran the rest of the way, becoming the first to cross the finish line. As the “winner” of the race, he had his photo taken with Alice Roosevelt (the president’s daughter) and was even about to be awarded the gold medal when his deception was revealed. Lorz then insisted he had only been joking about accepting the medal and pretending to be the winner, and American Thomas Hicks was then recognized as the rightful champion. Lorz was meanwhile banned for life from competing, although this ban was later lifted.
[new page=#8. Judge Bribed During Couple’s Skating Competition]
Voices around the world cried out in protest when Canadian skating pair Jamie Salé and David Pelletier received mysteriously low scores after skating what appeared to be a flawless routine in the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah. They finished second, while the gold medal was given to Russian pair Elema Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze, who made a minor, but obvious technical error during their routine. Upon investigation it was revealed that French judge, Marie-Reine Le Gougne, had been pressured by head of the French federation, Didier Gailhaguet, to put the Russians in first in exchange for France taking home the gold medal in ice dancing. The medal ceremony was then re-done, with both pairs being awarded gold.
[new page=#7. Stella Walsh’s Career]
Runner Caster Semenya was by far not the first athlete to have to undergo gender testing after others questioned it. At the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, U.S. runner Helen Stephens beat reigning Olympic champion, Stella Walsh (also known as Stanisława Walasiewicz) from Poland, by .2 seconds. Walsh and her supporters then demanded that Stephens undergo gender testing, saying that no woman could have run that fast. Stephens passed the test with flying colors, but that was not the real scandal—in 1980, Walsh— who was retired and living in Cleveland, Ohio after a long running career— was shot and killed during an armed robbery. An autopsy revealed that Walsh was anatomically male, and further investigation showed that she had both male and female chromosomes.
And that, is the definition of irony.
[new page=#6. Borys Onyshchenko Cheats in Fencing]
Most cases of Olympic cheating have involved steroids and illegal performance enhancing drugs, but some have been a little more creative. During the 1976 Olympics in Montréal, Canada, Russian pentathlete Borys Onyshchenko raised eyebrows when he kept registering points against his opponents during the fencing portion of the competition, even when his sword did not actually appear to make contact with their bodies. Onyshchenko’s sword was inspected, and it was discovered that it had a hidden push button in the handle that allowed him to cut the wire circuit whenever he wanted in order to register points. He was disqualified, but because he had already won Olympic medals in the 1968 and 1972 Games, Onyshchenko’s entire career came into question. He was soon stripped of all his titles and fined 5,000 rubles by the Soviet Union.
[new page=#5. Roy Jones Jr. Robbed of Gold]
American boxer Roy Jones Jr. didn’t lose a single bout during the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, South Korea. But his streak would change when he fought South Korean opponent Park Si Hun for the gold. Despite Jones landing a total of 86 punches to Hun while Hun only got in 32, the judges unexpectedly voted Hun the winner and gave him the medal. Even the referee gaped in surprise at the decision, and the Americans were left angry and stunned. Rumors of bribery and a “fixed match” began to swirl, but it wasn’t until four months later that the judges were banned from competition for the next two years (two of them were later banned for life). The actual decision was never overturned, although Jones was eventually awarded the Olympic Order years later.
[new page=#4. Kim Dong Sung is Disqualified]
Speed skating may appear to be a simple sport to some, but it has complex rules. At the 2002 Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, South Korean speed skater Kim Dong Sung seemed to emerge the clear gold medal winner in the men’s competition and even took a victory lap with his country’s flag to celebrate. Then it was announced that he was being disqualified for “cross-tracking” (illegally skating right in front of another competitor), and American Apolo Anton Ohno would be awarded the gold. Kim Dong Sung threw the South Korean flag to the ice in anger and stormed out, while Italian skater Fabio Carter not-so-playfully suggested using a rifle on Ohno. After being awarded his medal, Ohno and the U.S. officials even received enough angry and threatening emails to crash the U.S. Olympic Committee website for nine hours.
[new page=#3. Shin A Lam Misses Out on Gold Medal Match]
It’s not possible for a fencer to hit their opponent and have the point register all within one second, not unless something miraculous happens… like the clock getting briefly stuck or delayed. That’s exactly what is suspected to have happened in London, during the 2012 Olympic match between South Korea’s Shin A Lam and Germany’s Britta Heidemann, the winner of whom would go on to compete in the gold medal bout. Shin A Lam had the lead, but an extra second was put on the clock due to an alleged violation she made (a violation that has never been clearly stated). After a first attempt to score failed within the last second, Heidemann then scored and won— all while the clock did not change. The South Korean team decided to appeal, but due to a rule that states once competitors leave the piste, the match is over and accepted by both parties, Shin had to remain where she was while the decision was made. It wouldn’t have been such a bad scenario had the decision been made quickly, but instead it took 75 minutes. Shin had to stay on the piste the entire time, getting noticeably upset and embarrassed by the situation. In the end, the judges ruled in Heidemann’s favor, and the distraught Shin had just minutes to leave and then come back to compete for the bronze medal. She lost.
[new page=#2. Centennial Olympic Park is Bombed]
Not all Olympic scandals have to do with athletes or the sporting events. A terrorist bomb attack during the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta’s Centennial Olympic Park left two dead (and claimed a third, from a heart attack) and 111 injured. There would have been a lot more casualties, had security guard Richard Jewell not discovered the bomb just before detonation and begun clearing people out of the area. Though he was initially hailed for his heroic efforts, Jewell was named as a main suspect just days later by various news organizations (though in reality he was just a “person of interest”). This resulted in Jewell facing heavy criticism and scrutiny from the public and being followed everywhere by the media. Authorities also searched his home, and he had to undergo multiple background investigations. Jewell was eventually cleared, but not until after both his reputation, and that of the Games, had been officially tarnished. After spending several years on the run, the real bomber, Eric Robert Rudolph, was arrested in 2003.
[new page=# 1. Hitler Leaves After Jesse Owens Wins]
Though Sochi is a reminder that the Olympic Games often thrust national issues into the spotlight, it still pales in comparison to the 1936 Olympics, hosted in Berlin, Germany under the Third Reich. The Nazi regime had come into power relatively recently (well after Berlin had been selected years earlier as the host city for that year’s Games), and Adolf Hitler was eager to prove his people as superior, even going so far as to chastise the United States for sending athletes of different races and ethnicities. The event was rife with scandal, but then Hitler refused to acknowledge the four gold medal wins of American track and field athlete, Jesse Owens. Hitler quickly proved himself to not be too happy about congratulating any non-German victors when he, and his entourage, left the stadium instead of awarding Owens his medals. The Gestapo also intercepted fan mail sent to Owens during his stay in Germany. This was three whole years before the official start of World War II.
Nevertheless, Owens later insisted that his treatment in Nazi Germany was still better than that in the segregated U.S. South.