The Olympics are so dope.
The IOC might want to make out that the Olympics is all about peace and unity but it has a catalogued history of scandals and controversies. Here are some of my favourites from the Wikipedia page:
1896 Summer Olympics – Athens, Greece
- Greek marathon runner Spyridon Belokas won the bronze medal, but later admitted to covering part of the course by carriage, and was disqualified.
1904 Summer Olympics – St. Louis, Missouri, United States
- US marathon runner Frederick Lorz reached the finish line first and was about to be awarded the gold medal before it was revealed he had not run the entire race. Lorz, suffering cramps, had dropped out of the race after nine miles and hitched a ride back to the stadium in a car. When the car broke down at the 19th mile, he re-entered the race and jogged across the finish line. Upon being confronted by race officials, Lorz admitted his deception and was disqualified.
1998 Winter Olympics – Nagano, Japan
- At the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, a judge in the ice dancing event tape-recorded another judge trying to pre-ordain the results. Dick Pound, a prominent IOC official, said soon afterward that ice dancing should be stripped of its status as an Olympic event unless it could clean up the perception that its judging is corrupt.
- Canadian gold medalist snowboarder Ross Rebagliati was disqualified for marijuana being found in his system. The IOC reinstated the medal days later.
2014 Winter Olympics – Sochi, Russia
- Lebanese skier Jackie Chamoun, who had a photo shoot taken of her wearing nothing but ski boots and a thong, had the Lebanese government claim that she damaged the reputation of her country.
2016 Summer Olympics – Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
- During the second bronze medal match between Uzbekistan’s Ikhtiyor Navruzov and Mongolia’s Ganzorigiin Mandakhnaran in the 65 kg freestyle wrestling, Mandakhnaran held a lead of 7-6 near the end of the match and began celebrating before it had concluded. In response, Ikhtiyor was awarded a penalty point for Mandakhnaran “failing to engage” during the end of the match, which resulted in a 7–7 draw. Ikhtiyor won the game and the bronze due to being the last to score. The Mongolian coaches protested the point, which could not be challenged, by stripping in front of the judges on the mat, resulting in a shoe being sent into the judges’ table. Ikhtiyor was awarded a second penalty point as the coaches were escorted away from the mat, leading to the final score being 7–8.
2026 Winter Olympics, Milano Cortina
- Some athletes were reported injecting hyaluronic acid onto the crotch area to improve performance in ski jumping. Earlier, two Olympic gold medalists and three staffers on the Norway men’s team “were charged with ethics violations after equipment manipulation following an investigation” stemming from an incident where they were reportedly “caught on video adding stitching into the crotch area of their suits to make them bigger and thus, more aerodynamic during competition”