The Olympics is one of the most massive and large-scale sporting events on the planet. We just do not forget that scandals are even black, but still very powerful PR, designed to advertise and perpetuate a particular event in history.
The most frequent precedents of the Olympic Games are related to doping disqualifications, age, gender or national restrictions, issues of money and corruption. And sometimes, at the time of large-scale projects, attacks of militants and attempts on important persons are planned.
In today's selection we have prepared 10 of the most interesting and high-profile cases that took place at the Olympiads over a long history of existence.
10. Basketball Championship
The story dates back to 1972, when the basketball championship was held at the summer games. The United States at that time opposed the USSR team in the struggle for "gold". Just a couple of seconds before the end of the game, the Americans led by 3 points. The cunning trainers of the Soviet team took a timeout in the last seconds, but after a strange break the basketball players still did not manage to score. Of course, the Americans decided that victory was on their side. But it turned out that the clock was not set correctly, so the match was continued, and here the Soviet basketball players pulled themselves up and won by a margin of one point. The American chagrin was so great that they even abandoned silver and called the results of the game falsified.
9. Black September
During the same summer Olympics, Israeli athletes were captured by terrorists from a Palestinian group with the mysterious code “black September”. On an ill-fated day, eleven people died, including coaches, athletes, and even a local police officer. The Israeli Prime Minister ordered the Defense Committee to carefully study the case, find and punish the perpetrators. According to rumors, some of the terrorists are still walking around at large.
8. Minor gymnasts
At the 2000 Summer Olympics, the young gymnast from China won the well-deserved bronze. After 10 years, the girl was deprived of the medal, as it turned out that at the time of the competition she was only 14 years old with 16 allowed for admission. Interestingly, precedents with age were often listed in China. Therefore, at the 2008 Olympics, young Chinese gymnasts, due to their children's appearance, already aroused doubts of the Committee and were allowed to participate only after the presentation of documents confirming the presence of 16 years.
7. Athletes with superhuman strength
There was a rumor among fans and management that during the Cold War the Germans were going to create a race of super athletes, for which they nurtured athletes on doping and steroids. The theory was confirmed when the case of the gold medalist Kraeger was considered. Subsequently, the girl admitted that against the background of doping, she developed depression, mood jumps and other negative effects were noted. This led to the fact that in the nineties, the young girl outwardly resembled a strong man, as a result of which she even had to change sex. After the procedures, the newly made man took the name Andreas. He continues to blame the leadership of the GDR for conducting his dangerous experiments on it.
6. Fake tickets
The British magazine published the news that the Olympic Committee allowed to put a mark-up on tickets up to 20%. This is enough for the organizers to raise funds for the running costs of the Olympiad. The restriction does not prevent the fraudulent speculation business from flourishing - there is a black ticket market. According to the news, the Serbian government has put up for sale more than one and a half thousand fake tickets with the promise that the necessary passports will also be attached to the purchase. The committee undertook to investigate this event.
5. Cheating scoreboard
“Unsportsmanlike behavior” got a new color in 1976 thanks to the fencer from the USSR Bora Onishchenka. The guy fixed the sword in a special device, which forced the light on the referee's device (fixes hits) to blink every time the “inventor” wants it. It was enough just to press the secret button of the connected device. The ingenious device failed its creator when it reacted at the time of an outright miss on the target. In that year, not only Boris was disqualified, but also other members of the USSR team. By the decision of the Soviet committee, Onishchenko was deprived of previously received titles and medals, and was disqualified for life. After the precedent, the former athlete retired and did not communicate with reporters.
4. The explosion in 1996 (version - political order)
In mid-summer, an explosion occurred at the Atlanta Olympics, which injured 111 people and killed two. As the investigation progressed, two versions were identified, but in the end they accused the American Rudolph, who had previously been seen in such attacks (blew up a medical facility and a bar for homosexuals). The man started on the run, but was found and detained after 5 years. Eric Rudolph is now in prison, where he is serving a life sentence with no chance of amnesty or pardon. According to rumors, the man himself did not come up with an explosion, but he received an order from politicians.
3. Corruption scandal
Corruption at the Olympics is a favorite moment to savor the public. One of the famous cases was recorded in 2002 at the Winter Olympics. Then the Committee members were accused of bribery - they say, they got a kickback from the owners of the Salt Lake City team right before the draw for the venues for the Olympics. During the scandal, 10 people were punished, and 10 more were fired. Allegations of corruption and fraud were brought against Johnson and Welch, a Salt Lake City committee spokesman. The latter were later acquitted, and the games were held in this town.
2. Epilepsy from an animated logo
Six years ago, a new, memorable event happened at the summer games. An animated version of the event logo was posted on the network, after which twelve epileptic seizures were recorded in a few hours. The committee was forced to remove the animated logo from the official site. The charges were ultimately brought not to the logo developers, but to the unfortunate animators.
1. Fraud of judges
Judicial vicissitudes are also not uncommon for olympiads. For example, in 2002 a pair of Russian skaters fell during a performance, but still beat the Canadians and received gold for a short program. The victory of the athletes was disputed, since the judges by the estimates had to punish for the fall. But the panel denied any violations, after which she was accused of conspiracy, and the gold was handed over to Canadians. After the scandal, the system of assessing the discipline "figure skating" at Olympic performances was revised.
Such sad, curious or egregious cases were registered during world sporting events, but this list is far from complete. It turns out that not many athletes sincerely consider victory at the Olympics a matter of their life, for which they are ready to plow and sacrifice leisure.