7 brazen Summer Olympics cheating scandals beyond the Canada Soccer drone controversy
Oh, Canada. What have you done?
The Paris Olympics hadn’t even held its opening ceremony by the time the 2024 Summer Games found itself embroiled in a massive cheating scandal.
On July 23, the Canadian women’s soccer team was caught allegedly using drones to spy on their opponents‘ closed-door training sessions. What was first explained as an isolated incident with a “non-accredited” staffer gone rogue has since unraveled, exposing an alleged years-long surveillance program run by both the Canadian men’s and women’s that calls into question the women’s gold medal at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics among other accolades.
Canada has A LOT of explaining to do and quickly at that. The only solace the country’s soccer program can take at the moment is that its far from the only country to try cheating at the Olympics.
In fact, there’s quite a long history of Summer Games scandals. Let’s remember some of the more absurd cheaters in the modern Olympics.
1932 Los Angeles: Bertil Sandström’s clicking costs him silver in dressage
Did you know you can’t click at your horse during dressage?
Bertil Sandström should’ve known. He won silver in individual dressage in 1920 and 1924 and was about to claim another in 1932 when he was dropped down to last place for “giving clicking noise signals to his horse.”
Tsk. Tsk.
1976 Montreal Olympics: Boris Onischenko’s épée
Soviet athlete Boris Onischenko puts on his socks after he was disqualified because he had manipulated his sword in the fencing event, on July 19, 1976 during the Summer Olympic Games, in Montreal. (AFP via Getty Images)
The Soviet Union’s Boris Onischenko was modern pentathlon superstar, having won gold medals at the1972 Munich Olympics as well as gold at the World Championships in 1969, 1971 and 1974.
By 1976 he was banned by the IOC for life after installing an electric device in his fencing sword that registered a point in his favor without actually making contact with his opponent.
1988 Seoul Olympics: Ben Johnson DQ’d after world record 100m sprint
24 Sep 1988: Ben Johnson of Canada takes the lead in the 100 Metres semi final at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, South Korea (Steve Powell/Allsport)
Canada Soccer’s scandal isn’t the first time the country has been embroiled in Olympic controversy as anyone who watched the 1988 Games in Seoul remembers Ben Johnson setting a world record 9.79 time in the 100 meter sprint, only to test positive for a banned steroid after winning the gold medal.
That part of the story has always overshadowed the fact that six (!!!) of the eight finalists in the 100m later tested positive or were implicated in their own doping scandals.
#OnThisDay in 1988, Ben Johnson was thought to be the first Canadian sprinter since 1928 to win the 100m final at the Summer Olympics in Seoul.
However, Johnson tested positive for doping and was disqualified three days later. pic.twitter.com/8XDH8EzInq— CBC Olympics (@CBCOlympics) September 24, 2019
1988 Seoul Olympics: 3 Boxing judges suspended after Roy Jones Jr. bizarre loss
Don’t let Ben Johnson make you forget about the other cheating scandal in the 1988 Games.
American boxer Roy Jones Jr. — a teenager at the time! — was robbed of a gold medal victory against South Korean boxer Park Si-Hun despite landing 86 punches to Park’s 32.
Per the Associated Press:
The International Olympic Committee in 1997 concluded it had found no evidence to support bribery allegations against the judges who voted in favor of Park in the Seoul Games. The U.S. Olympic Committee had called for an investigation in 1996 after documents belonging to East Germany’s Stasi secret police revealed reports of judges being paid to vote for South Korean boxers.
Watch the fight and decide for yourself who won:
2000 Sydney Olympics: Marion Jones heads to jail
Syndication: USA TODAY
If Ben Johnson’s 9.79* is the most famous case of track and field doping at the Olympics, Marion Jones’ scandal is an extremely close second.
The American superstar was stripped of five medals seven years after the 2000 Sydney Games and served a six month prison sentence after getting caught up in the BALCO scandal that ripped through Major League Baseball.
2000 Sydney Olympics: What’s Dong Fangxiao’s age again?
24 Sep 2000: Fangxiao Dong of China competes in the Final of the Womens Vault at the Sydney Superdome on Day Nine of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia. (Jed Jacobsohn /Allsport)
The world of artistic gymnastics was in awe of Dong Fangxiao in 2000, as the Chinese star captured the bronze medal. Unfortunately, at 14 years old, she was actually competing two years under age and forced to return her medal after being discovered.
Honestly, they probably should’ve at least bumped her up to a silver for defeating so many of the world’s best above her class.
2012 London: Top Badminton teams throw games
When is strategy considered cheating? Badminton doubles teams from South Korea. China and Indonesia found out during the London Games when they were disqualified from the tournament for losing matches to give themselves a more favorable path through the knockout rounds.
Not really in the spirit of competition. Say what you want about the other cheaters on this list, they were still trying to win every time they went out.