In every sport and at every level, there are occasional opportunities for athletes to bend or ignore the rules to gain an advantage.
And in every sport, at every level, at least some do.
Cheating in various forms has long been an inevitable part of sports. For hundreds of years, it has been at the center of some of sports’ most dramatic scandals and controversial moments, raising questions of integrity and often spurring major changes to the rules themselves.
Its history is so long and vast that it is impossible to create a comprehensive list of cheating in sports. So instead, here are 10 timelines from ancient Greek deception to the 2017 Houston Astros.
388 BC: Boxing Bribe
Yes, there is evidence of cheating even in the days of Plato and Sparta.in In a 1952 magazine article titled “Crime and Punishment in Greek Athletics,” Ohio State University professor Clarence Forbes describes ancient Greek athletics scandals, including the boxing bribery scandal at the 98th Olympic Games in 388 B.C. A part of this is detailed. Eupolus of Thessaly demanded that his opponents, who allegedly bribed all three of his players, let him win, leading match organizers to impose “heavy fines” on all four. According to Forbes, the money was then used to erect six bronze statues near the entrance to Olympia’s stadium, four of which bear inscriptions criticizing the men and warning of future misconduct. It is said that
1904: Fred Lorz hitchhikes into a car.
The 1904 Summer Olympics Marathon in St. Louis was described by Olympic.com as “the strangest spectacle in Olympic history.” One of the runners was reportedly chased off the course by a pack of wild dogs. Another stopped at an orchard to eat apples, had stomach cramps, took a nap, and finished in fourth place. A third man, perhaps hallucinating, was carried across the finish line by a trainer. The clear winner was American Fred Lorz, who drove 11 miles. He was called before being awarded the medal and admitted wrongdoing.
1919: Black Sox Scandal
This was professional baseball’s first bombshell scandal, and perhaps its most flagrant. In 1919, members of the Chicago White Sox received money from professional gamblers to effectively host the World Series. The scheme involved eight players, each of whom was later indicted by a Chicago grand jury on conspiracy charges. All were acquitted in criminal trials, but Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis still permanently banned them from participating in organized baseball.
1951: CCNY point shaving system
Thirty years after the Black Sox scandal, a group of college basketball players, starting at the City University of New York, decided to accept money from bookmakers in exchange for manipulating game scores. In the end, a whopping 32 players from seven universities admitted to accepting bribes in the point-shaving scheme. Two of those players and at least 10 other fixers, agents and bookmakers served time in prison, according to ESPN.
1986: “Hand of God”
This infamous goal by Diego Maradona gave Argentina a 2-1 victory over England in the quarter-finals of the 1986 World Cup, and his team ultimately won. He initially said it was the “hand of God” that hit the ball into the net, not himself. But 14 years later, in his autobiography, Maradona was furious. “What is the hand of God?” he wrote. “That was Diego’s hand! And it was like stealing an Englishman’s wallet.”
1994: Figure skating attack
Cheating in sports rarely involves violence, but in this case, violence occurred. A man named Shane Stunt brazenly attacked top American figure skater Nancy Kerrigan with a baton after practice. The twist? Stunt was then hired to attack Kerrigan by the ex-husband of her main rival, Tonya Harding, in the hopes that Kerrigan’s injury would prevent her from competing in the U.S. Championships and the 1994 Winter Olympics. has become clear. (Kerrigan was forced to withdraw from her national championships, but she recovered and won a silver medal in that competition. Harding also competed in Lillehammer, finishing eighth.)
2000: Paralympic humiliation
Perhaps one of the most shocking and forgettable cheating scandals occurred at the 2000 Paralympic Games and involved Spain’s intellectually disabled basketball team. The team won the gold medal in Sydney, but it was later discovered that 10 of the 12 players had faked disabilities. The incident had many devastating ramifications, with Paralympic organizers deciding to suspend the entire intellectual disability classification for the next two Games, and athletes with legitimate disabilities being sidelined for eight years. It was decided that he would become a person. And two Spanish athletes who actually had intellectual disabilities had to be stripped of their medals, as were their teammates.
1995-2005: Baseball’s Steroid Era
Despite an apology for Lance Armstrong and the Russian state aid program, baseball’s steroid era remains the biggest doping scandal in history. Dozens of players were involved, including Mark McGwire, Rafael Palmeiro and other big-name stars. Congress was also involved. Major League Baseball has been forced to revise its drug testing policy. And while the period mentioned here covers the “peaks” of the era, such as the 1998 home run record battle between McGwire and Sammy Sosa, its influence extends from the Mitchell Report to the Barry Bonds perjury trial. It has expanded far beyond this framework.
2015: Deflate Gate
This was a strange one, with one of the greatest quarterbacks in NFL history in the middle of it all. The accusation was that Tom Brady, then of the New England Patriots, asked team equipment staff to intentionally lower the air pressure on footballs during the AFC Championship Game against the Indianapolis Colts, which the Patriots won. . Brady was suspended for four games and appealed the suspension to the U.S. Court of Appeals, where the NFL commissioned a 243-page investigative report into what happened. The incident that became known as Deflategate was neither as dramatic as Spygate nor as gruesome as Bountygate, but it was one of the worst in recent NFL history, given that it involved a quarterback. It is likely to be passed down as one of the most memorable cheating cases.
2019: Houston Astros scandal
Sign stealing has always been a part of baseball, but the Houston Astros took it to a whole new level when they started using a center field camera to zoom in on opposing catchers’ signs to pitchers. His second part of the plan was far less sophisticated technically. The Astros banged on trash cans to let teammates know a breaking ball was coming, and signaled a fastball without hitting it. The incident cast a cloud over the 2017 World Series championship, led to several suspensions, dismissals, and fines, and years later led to the introduction of pitchcom, a way for catchers and pitchers to communicate signals over the air. .
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