Scandal is a mandatory part of any Olympics. Rare Games do without judicial errors, doping disqualifications or organizational overlays, so it is silly to complain that "the next Olympics turned out to be overshadowed by scandalous incidents." Such incidents cannot be avoided and you just have to put up with them. However, the history of the Olympic Games, alas, is full of incidents, without which it would be quite possible to do and which at one time called into question the rationality of the existence of the Olympics. We present to your attention the sad "hit parade" of Olympic scandals.
1. Tragedy at the Munich Olympics
Of course, in the first place in this mournful list is the 1972 Olympics in Munich. On September 5, terrorists from the Black September organization broke into the residence of the Israeli delegation, shot two athletes on the spot and took nine more people hostage. The terrorists demanded the release of members of the Palestine Liberation Organization in Israeli prisons, as well as two German terrorists and 16 prisoners held in prisons in Europe. The Israeli government refused to comply with these demands, and the Munich police decided on an operation to free the hostages. The operation was unsuccessful, and as a result, all the Israelis captured by the terrorists died. Despite demands from the public, the IOC decided not to cancel the remaining competitions of the Olympics. Subsequently, the Israeli special services killed all the people involved in the hostage-taking. This tragedy remains the blackest page in the history of the Olympics to this day.
2. Boycott of the Olympic Games in Moscow and Los Angeles
This story has already stuck in the teeth: the 22nd and 23rd Olympic Games turned out to be inferior due to a large-scale boycott. Representatives of several dozen countries at once refused to come to Moscow, including athletes from the USA, Germany and Japan. Thus, these states expressed their protest against the introduction Soviet troops to Afghanistan. Four years later, the USSR issued its "worthy answer" by refusing to send its athletes to Los Angeles. The official reason was fear for the safety of athletes. Along with the Soviet delegation, East Germans also refused to travel to the United States. Of course, the refusal of the world's best athletes to participate in the Games could not but affect the level of competition, and therefore the 1980 and 1984 Olympics turned out to be not quite full-fledged.
3. An Indian cannot win the Olympics!
The 1912 Olympics turned out to be one of the most scandalous in history. Suffice it to say that all the protests filed at those Games ended up being published as a 56 page book! However, the scandal associated with the American Native American athlete Jim Thorpe, who won two gold medals in the pentathlon and decathlon, stands apart. Thorpe became one of the heroes of that Olympics, but at home, apparently, someone was not satisfied with the fact that Olympic champion became an Indian. The USA themselves (!) demanded that Thorpe's medals be taken away, citing the fact that he is a professional baseball player and, accordingly, cannot participate in the Olympic Games, which are intended exclusively for amateur competitions. The protest was granted, Thorpe's medals were taken away, and as a result, the career of a brilliant athlete was broken.
4. Marathon won... by car
One of the most curious scandals occurred at the dawn of the Olympic movement, at the 1904 Games, which were held in the United States. At the first Olympics, the marathon was considered the most prestigious discipline (however, it still remains one of the most popular competitions at the Games). Of course, special attention was riveted to the marathon runners. The first to cross the finish line was the American Fred Lorz, who was far ahead of his pursuers. However, as it turned out a little later, there were reasons for such quickness - after the first third of the distance, Lorz began to cramp his legs and he literally stood on the road. And then a fan who followed the athletes in a car offered his help to him. He “tossed” Lorz almost to the finish line, and he only had to overcome the remaining eight kilometers to the stadium on his own, which he did. Unfortunately for Lortz, the hitchhiking was witnessed by an official observer, who spoke about the fraud. Lortz was stripped of the medal, which eventually went to another American, Thomas Hicks. True, he, as it turned out later, did not refuse outside help - Hicks became ill about 10 kilometers before the finish line, and his coach Charles Luc was forced to give him an injection so that the athlete could get to the stadium. It is worth adding that the St. Louis Olympics were also remembered for the fact that all representatives of the "non-white" races competed separately, which caused the stormy wrath of Pierre de Coubertin, outraged by such a gross violation of the Olympic principle.
5. "Hitler" Olympics
The 1936 Olympics went down in history as one of the most unpleasant in history. German newspapers launched a campaign long before it began, demanding that black athletes and those who did not meet the principles of "racial purity" be banned from the Games. True, this campaign still did not receive an official move, and black athletes were given the green light (here it is appropriate to recall that Berlin received the right to host the Olympics in 1932, when the Nazis had not yet come to power in Germany). However, ethnic cleansing still could not be avoided. For example, one of the contenders for gold in the 800 meters race, Swiss Paul Martin, who was going to marry a Jew, was disqualified.
6. Three seconds that shook the world
Until now, disputes have not subsided in the world over the fairness of the victory of the USSR national basketball team at the 1972 Olympics, where the Soviet team met the Americans in the final. Due to the violation of the rules by Soviet basketball players, 3 seconds before the end of the match, the Americans took the lead 50:49. Modestas Paulauskas put the ball into play from behind the endline, and the final siren sounded immediately. The Americans began to celebrate the victory, but the Soviet representatives pointed out a violation of the rules: the time counter should not turn on at the moment of transmission, but at the moment of reception. The referees admitted the mistake and allowed the Soviet team to repeat the throw, but at that moment the electronic scoreboard broke down - a rare occurrence for matches of this level. After an unexpected time-out, Ivan Edeshko took the ball and threw it across the entire court past two defenders right into the hands of Alexander Belov. The center of the Soviet team did not miss, the match ended with a score of 51:50, the US team lost for the first time at the Olympic Games. The Americans demanded that Belov's hits not be counted, claiming that he threw after the time of the match, but the result was upheld. The offended Americans, who lost the Olympics for the first time, did not appear at the awards ceremony and are still convinced that the victory was stolen from them.
7. Attack at the Olympics in Atlanta
The Olympic Games, held in Atlanta, USA in 1996, became one of the most unsuccessful in history in terms of organization. Disruptions in the operation of transport, the complete incompetence of volunteers, constant disruptions in the operation of information systems - all this left a rather painful impression. However, the events of that Olympics were overshadowed by the terrorist attack that occurred on July 27. As a result of an explosion in Olympic park one person died and more than a hundred were injured. For the first time, IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch did not utter the phrase "These Games were the best in history" at the closing ceremony of the Games.
8 The Stolen Olympic Flag
The 1920 Games, which took place in Antwerp, were the first in history to be held under Olympic flag(the same white canvas with rings). At the opening ceremony, in a solemn atmosphere, the flag was raised, but after only two days the banner ... disappeared. In a hurry, they had to look for a new cloth, and the flag again rose over the stadium. As it turned out 80 (!) years later, the original flag was stolen ... by the bronze medalist of those Games in diving, American Hal Haig Priest. He confessed to what he had done only in 1997, and three years later, at the age of 103, he handed over the flag to Juan Antonio Samaranch, then President of the IOC, with the words "I don't need it anymore."
9. "Olympiad of refereeing mistakes"
For the first time, the Los Angeles Olympics were held in 1932, and even then, fifty years before the legendary boycott, the Games could not do without scandals - apparently, some kind of evil fate hangs over this city. Those Games went down in history as the "Olympics of refereeing mistakes." Almost every competition was marked by miscalculations of arbitrators and organizers. Suffice it to say that in the 200-meter race, the winner ran two meters less than the athlete who took second place - apparently, the builders laying treadmill, miscalculated a bit. Considering that Metcalf lost to Toulan by just an instant, this negligence can by no means be called ineffective. In the 3000 meters race, the athletes had to run a circle more, as the judge left his place in the middle of the race. And such examples can be cited in batches.
10. The first famous doping scandal
Now you won't surprise anyone doping scandals- at each Olympics, athletes are disqualified by the dozens for using illegal drugs. However, relatively recently, each such case was drawn to a loud sensation, and the disqualification of runner Ben Jonson remains the loudest in history to this day. A Canadian runner shocked the world when he won the 100m sprint at the 1988 Seoul Olympics. fantastic result 9.79 seconds. However, two days later he was deprived and Olympic medal, and a world record - it turned out that he was doping. Johnson himself insisted that there was a mistake, but he was soon caught using illegal drugs again and was banned for life.
The Olympics is one of the most massive and large-scale sporting events on the planet. It is not surprising that scandals, terrorist attacks and various precedents are inseparable companions of this event. And it’s not always a matter of mass character, because in reality crowded places are carefully guarded by specialized bodies and detachments, as high-ranking personalities and politicians often arrive. We just do not forget that scandals are, albeit black, but still very powerful PR, designed to advertise and perpetuate this or that event in history.
The most frequent precedents of the Olympic Games are related to doping bans, age, gender or national restrictions, issues of money and corruption. And sometimes, for the duration of large-scale projects, attacks by militants and assassination attempts on important persons are planned.
In today's selection, we have prepared 10 of the most interesting and high-profile cases that have taken place at the Olympiads over the long history of existence.
basketball championship
The story goes back to 1972, when summer games held a basketball championship. The United States at that time opposed the USSR team in the fight for "gold". Literally a couple of seconds before the end of the game, the Americans led by 3 points. The cunning coaches of the Soviet team took a timeout in the last seconds, but after a strange break, the basketball players still did not have time to score. Of course, the Americans decided that victory was on their side. But it turned out that the clock was set incorrectly, so the match time was continued, and there Soviet basketball players pushed hard and won by just a point. The annoyance of the Americans was so great that they even refused silver and called the results of the game falsified.
Black September
During the same Summer Olympics, athletes from Israel were captured by terrorists from a Palestinian group with the mysterious code “Black September”. On the unfortunate 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 those responsible. According to rumors, some of the terrorists are still roaming free.
Underage gymnasts
On Summer Olympics significant year 2000, a young gymnast from China won a well-deserved bronze. After the fact, the girl was deprived of the medal after 10 years, since it turned out that at the time of the competition she was only 14 years old, with 16 allowed for admission. Interestingly, there were often precedents with age in China. Therefore, at the 2008 Olympiad, young Chinese gymnasts, because of their childish appearance, already raised doubts with the Committee and were allowed to participate only after presenting documents confirming that they were 16 years old.
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 gold medalist Kroeger was considered. Subsequently, the girl admitted that against the background of doping, she developed depression, mood swings and other negative effects were noted. This led to the fact that in the nineties a young girl looked like a strong man, as a result of which she even had to change her gender. After the procedures, the newly-made man took the name Andreas. He continues to blame the leadership of the GDR for conducting their dangerous experiments on him.
Fake tickets
The British magazine published the news that the Olympic Committee allowed to put a surcharge on tickets up to 20%. This is enough for the organizers to raise funds for the current expenses of the Olympiad. The restriction does not prevent the fraudulent speculation business from flourishing - there is a black market for tickets. According to the news, the Serbian government has put more than 1,500 counterfeit tickets on sale with the promise that the necessary passports will also be included with the purchase. The Committee undertook to investigate this event.
Scoreboard cheat
"Unsportsmanlike behavior" received a new color in 1976 thanks to the fencer from the USSR Bora Onishchenko. The guy fixed the sword in a special device that forced the lamp on the referee's device (fixes hits) to flash every time the "inventor" was impatient. It was enough just to press the secret button of the connected device. The ingenious device failed its creator when it reacted at the moment of a frank miss on the target. That year, not only Boris was disqualified, but also other members of the USSR team. By decision of the Soviet committee, Onishchenko was deprived of the titles and medals he had previously received, and was disqualified for life. Former athlete after the precedent, he retired and did not communicate with journalists.
Explosion in 1996 (version - political order)
In mid-summer, an explosion occurred at the Atlanta Olympics, injuring 111 people and killing two. As the investigation progressed, two versions were identified, but in the end they blamed the American Rudolph, who had previously been seen in similar attacks (he blew up a medical facility and a bar for homosexuals). The man went on the run, but was found and detained after 5 years. Now Eric Rudolph is 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 the idea of organizing an explosion, but he received an order from politicians.
Corruption scandal
Corruption at the Olympics is a favorite moment for the public to savor. One of the famous cases was recorded in 2002 at the Winter Olympics. Then the members of the Committee were accused of bribery - they say they received a kickback from the owners of the Salt Lake City team right before the draw for the venues of the Olympiad. During the scandal, 10 people were punished and another 10 fired. Corruption and fraud charges were filed against Johnson and Welch, representatives of the committee from Salt Lake City. The latter were later acquitted, and the games were held in this town.
Epilepsy from animated logo
Six years ago, a new memorable event happened at the Summer Games. An animated version of the event logo was posted online, after which twelve epileptic seizures were recorded in a few hours. The committee was forced to remove the animated emblem from the official website. As a result, the accusations were brought not against the developers of the logo, but against the unfortunate animators.
Judge rigging
Referee ups and downs are also not uncommon for Olympiads. For example, in 2002, a pair of skaters from Russia fell during a performance, but still beat the Canadians and received gold for short program. The victory of the athletes was contested, as the judges were supposed to punish the fall with estimates. But the board denied the existence of violations, after which it was accused of conspiracy, and the gold was handed over to the Canadians. After the scandal, the discipline assessment system " figure skating" on Olympic performances revised.
Such sad, curious or egregious cases were recorded during the world sports events, but this list is far from complete. It turns out that not many athletes sincerely consider winning the Olympics their life's work, for which they are ready to plow and sacrifice their leisure time.
June 23 is celebrated around the world as International Olympic Day, established in honor of the creation of the Olympic Committee in Paris by Baron Pierre de Coubertin in 1894. Then, against the backdrop of excavations by German archaeologists of Olympia and the increased interest in Ancient Greece, the French aristocrat caught fire with the ambitious idea to revive the Olympic Games. Although the Frenchman wanted to promote sports through these games and considered professionalism the main enemy of the movement, over time they turned into a business and part of politics, and on Olympic Games ah, only professionals have been competing for a long time. And where big money and politics appear, high-profile scandals immediately appear.
recent scandals with Russian athletes, whose participation in the Olympic Games is a big question, as well as the possible suspension of weightlifters in in full force, were far from the first in the 120-year history of the Olympic movement. Life remembered the most scandalous situations that have ever arisen around the Olympic Games.
pigeon slaughter
The organizers of the second Olympics, held in Paris, for some reason decided to add pigeon shooting to the program. This type sports was included in the official competition program and remained in it until 1908, when the Olympic Committee finally considered this competition to be excessively cruel both in relation to pigeons and to spectators: by the end of the competition, the field was usually littered with feathers, bird corpses and covered in blood. Shooting at live targets was permanently excluded from the Olympic program.
The most scandalous marathon in history
The 1904 Olympics was supposed to be held in Chicago, but at the insistence of the American president, it was moved to St. Louis, and the IOC was forced to meet the wishes of the American leadership. The most scandalous discipline was the marathon. The track ran along a dusty dirt road in extreme heat, which is why more than half of the participants in the race could not finish. The route ran through private property, so some athletes became victims of dogs. So, one of the marathon participants was forced to leave the track, hiding in a cornfield from a pack of dogs that attacked him.
dishonest" winner, because he resorted to doping twice: a few kilometers before the finish line, he fell from impotence and the coach gave him an injection of strychnine sulfate, after which the athlete ran a few more kilometers and fell again, and the coach again injected him with strychnine.
Anthropological days
For the World Expo, which was held in St. Louis at the same time as the Olympic Games, something like an ethnic village was organized in the city. For this, representatives of semi-primitive African tribes, Eskimos, Filipinos, Indians from South and South Africa were brought from "human zoos". Central America and so on. peoples from today's Third World countries. All of them were dressed in national costumes and were supposed to portray savages in their natural habitat.
However, against the backdrop of the Olympics, the organizers came up with the idea to hold additional games of "savages", which would be called Anthropological. According to the plan of the organizers, the competitions had a pronounced racist connotation, since their results were planned to be compared with the results of white participants in the Olympics and thereby confirm their racial superiority (the ideas of racism were incredibly popular then).
athletes" showed extremely low results, which was noted with satisfaction by the organizers, who received additional arguments in favor of their theories. Instead of an award, the "winners" were presented with an American flag.
After the IOC found out about this, there was loud scandal. Pierre de Coubertin was furious because of such an ugly trick of the American organizers, because, in his opinion, the Games were designed to unite peoples and countries, and not create additional obstacles between them, and over time, a clause was introduced into the Olympic Charter on a strict ban on the demonstration of ethno-cultural differences during the Olympic Games.
Women don't belong here
bad behavior". As punishment, the victorious countries achieved a ban on the participation of Germany and the allies in these games, although this was contrary to the ideals of the Olympic movement. The Germans were not allowed to the next games in 1924.
