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:
[edit] 1912 Summer Olympics
U.S. athlete Jim Thorpe is stripped of his gold medals in the decathlon and pentathlon after it is learned that he played professional minor league baseball one summer three years earlier. In solidarity, the decathlon silver medalist refuses to accept the medal when offered to him. The gold medals are 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 is demoted to last for clicking to his horse to encourage it, though he asserts it was a creaking saddle making the sounds.
[edit] 1936 Summer Olympics
The I.O.C. expels American Ernest Lee Jahnke, the son of a German immigrant, for encouraging athletes to boycott Hitler's Berlin Games. He is replaced by U.S.O.C. president Avery Brundage, who supported the Games.
In the cycling match sprint finals, the German Toni Merkens fouls Dutchman Arie van Vliet. Instead of disqualification Merkens is fined 100 Reichsmark and keeps the gold.
[edit] 1968 Winter Olympics
Three East German competitors in the women's luge event are disqualified for illegally heating their runners prior to each run.
[edit] 1976 Summer Olympics
In protest at a tour of South Africa by the New Zealand rugby team, Tanzania led a boycott of 22 African nations as the IOC refused to bar the New Zealand team. Some of the nations had already participated however, as the teams only withdrew after the first day.
[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, even larger, boycott led by the United States followed by 64 other countries in protest at the 1979 Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan. Eighty nations did participate - the highest number since 1956.
[edit] 1984 Summer Olympics
In the wake of the American-led boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, 14 Eastern Bloc countries including the Soviet Union, East Germany and Cuba, boycotted these Olympics (the USSR announced its intention not to participate on May 8, 1984). The boycott influenced a large number of events that were normally dominated by the absent countries.
[edit] 1988 Summer Olympics
After boycotts of the Olympics in 1976, 1980 and 1984, the Seoul Games were again boycotted, led by North Korea and followed by Cuba; the basis of the boycott was 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.
Track and Field: Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson is stripped of his gold medal for the 100 Metre Dash when he tests positive for anabolic steroids after the event.
Boxing: 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.
[edit] 2000 Summer Olympics
Romanian Andreea Răducan became the first gymnast to be stripped of a medal because of a drug violation. She was removed of the gold obtained at the Women's Individual All-Around 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 through the 2002 Winter Olympics at Salt Lake City and the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. 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
Figure skating: Dual gold medals are awarded in pairs figure skating, to Canadian pair David Pelletier and Jamie Salé and to Russian pair Yelena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze, after allegations of collusion among judges.
Cross-country skiing: Three cross-country skiers are disqualified after blood tests indicates the use of darbepoetin, a drug intended to boost red blood cell production. 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.
Short-track speedskating: Korean skater Kim Dong-Sung was disqualified for cross-tracking as he crossed the finish line of the men's 1500 meter final. This disqualification handed the gold to American Apolo Anton Ohno even though Ohno was decisively beaten by Kim. Some Korean fans alleged the decision was made in retaliation by the USOC for the controversial 1988 judge's decision giving Korean boxer Park Si Hun a gold medal at the expense of American Roy Jones Jr.
- Further information: 2002 Olympic Winter Games figure skating scandal
[edit] 2004 Summer Olympics
- Further information: Scandals of the 2004 Summer Olympics
[edit] 2006 Winter Olympics
Members of the Austrian biathlon team had their Olympic Village residences raided by Italian authorities, who were investigating charges of doping.
