These moments gave the Olympics a black eye. For this list, we’ll be looking at the worst controversies to have plagued the Olympic Games.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00How can a Jew be good enough to win the Olympics that I would have had to be afraid for my life, I'm sure.
00:06Welcome to Ms. Mojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the top 20 scandalous Olympic controversies.
00:13How is the best boxer here not wearing a gold medal?
00:15A lot of black people generally were better off 10, 15, 20 years down the line because they made that stance.
00:21Let's give these kids a break, you know, sometimes you take actions that you later regret.
00:27But for this list, we're looking at the worst controversies to have plagued the Olympic Games.
00:32Which of these do you find the most outrageous? Let us know in the comments below.
00:37Number 20, many concerns over the 2020 Olympics, Tokyo, Japan.
00:43The COVID pandemic not only pushed the original 2020 date of the Tokyo Olympics to the following summer,
00:49it also brought up issues of contagious spread.
00:52However, that's just the tip of the iceberg.
00:55There is a local transmission.
00:57And if we send an inconsistent signal that we should celebrate the Olympics, then people will be confused.
01:07Various events were set in Fukushima, despite possible safety concerns from the 2011 nuclear disaster.
01:13Our garget counter reads radiation levels 100 times higher than it should be.
01:18Tokyo Bay's water quality has also been questioned with respect to its warm temperature,
01:23repellent smell, and reported high levels of fecal coliform bacteria,
01:28which could result in typhoid and dysentery.
01:32Meanwhile, asbestos was found in one of the competition's buildings.
01:36The Games' logos and stadium designs were accused of plagiarism,
01:39Russia allegedly conducted pre-cyber reconnaissance,
01:43and there have been issues regarding politics and worker rights.
01:47Right before the Games, one of the event's composers resigned,
01:50and the opening ceremony director was fired when past comments came to light.
02:01There was a lot of hype preceding the 3,000-meter event at the 1984 Summer Olympics,
02:07as many were excited to watch South Africa's Zola Budd,
02:10who was competing for Great Britain, race American world champion Mary Decker.
02:15Unfortunately, it was a major letdown.
02:18They repeatedly bumped into each other, and Decker went down hard following a collision,
02:23forcing her to be carried off the field.
02:26The barefoot Budd was troubled by the incident and finished a disappointing seventh.
02:31The media didn't know who to blame, and each runner earned a degree of criticism.
02:36Most fell on Budd, but a later International Association of Athletics Federation's investigation
02:42found that the collision was not her fault.
02:44To this day, Decker blames it on her inexperience in pack running.
02:54In 2009, Rio de Janeiro won the bid to host the 2016 Summer Games.
03:00There was just one problem.
03:02Working-class favela Vila Autódromo was in the spot where they wanted the Olympic Village,
03:07so they attempted to kick everyone out.
03:10The favela inhabitants received eviction notices,
03:12reducing the area's population by 83%.
03:16Those remaining formed a civil society and rejected eviction,
03:20often coming face-to-face with riot police and their community's literal destruction.
03:25The billionaire owner of the real estate development firm Carvalho Hoskin
03:29further invited controversy with media comments about the indigenous population.
03:34It's estimated that 60,000 locals were displaced for the village's construction.
03:43This is a five-star accommodation environment that I've never seen in a games village before.
03:54The 1988 Summer Olympics were held in Seoul, South Korea.
03:58Representing his home country was light middleweight boxer Park Se-hyun,
04:02who faced American Roy Jones Jr. in the gold medal match.
04:06Jones landed 86 punches against Park, with Park only landing 32.
04:11Despite this, Park was awarded the win in a controversial 3-2 decision,
04:17prompting an intense outcry.
04:19A judge allegedly admitted Jones should have won,
04:22but that he voted for Park to avoid disappointing South Korea.
04:25Multiple judges involved with the finals were subsequently prohibited from boxing,
04:30and an IOC investigation found that South Korean officials
04:33had won the judges over after taking them out for dinner.
04:36A new scoring system was later integrated to prevent future issues.
04:41When you can take a kid 19 years old, he defeats his rival, clearly, and you rob him,
04:48it really eliminates the integrity of that sport.
04:58During the 2016 Rio Olympics, various American swimmers, including Ryan Lochte,
05:03claimed they had been robbed at gunpoint.
05:06It didn't take long for the so-called truth to come out.
05:09The athletes, some of whom were reportedly intoxicated,
05:13had allegedly vandalized a gas station and urinated in public,
05:17prompting a security guard confrontation.
05:19They then paid the guards for the damages.
05:22Deemed Lochte-gate, the incident saw the eponymous swimmer
05:26charged for falsely reporting a crime.
05:28I pulled out his gun, he cocked it, put it to my forehead,
05:33he said, get down, and I was like, I put my hands up, I was like, whatever.
05:36He was also suspended for 10 months by the US Olympic Committee
05:40and banned from its training centers.
05:42However, a later USA Today investigation brought up the possibility
05:46that the swimmers were actually innocent of vandalism
05:49and may have actually been coerced into handing over the money.
05:58After the elimination of the Soviet team
06:00as a result of Onyshenko's disqualification,
06:03hopes begin to revive.
06:04As a distinguished yet aging modern pentathlete
06:07and respected figure in the Soviet Union,
06:1038-year-old Onyshenko had a considerable reputation
06:13to uphold in his homeland.
06:14The pressure to perform, particularly in the Cold War era of sport,
06:19was too much to bear, however, and caused the former army major to cheat,
06:24eventually leading to his downfall.
06:26Desperate to match his previous silver medal performance,
06:29he altered his epee to register hits
06:32even when he wasn't making contact with his opponent.
06:40Just as quickly as this plot was discovered,
06:43Boris the Cheat was stripped of his sporting honors
06:46and personally reprimanded by Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev,
06:50therefore suffering the very fall from grace he was trying to avoid.
06:56ANGEL MATOS KICKS A REFEREE
06:58BEIJING, CHINA
07:00Cuban taekwondo fighter Angel Matos
07:02took home gold at the 2000 Sydney Olympics,
07:05and following a disappointing 2004 outcome,
07:08he was looking to reclaim some glory in Beijing.
07:11Instead, he was permanently kicked out of the sport.
07:14During the bronze medal match, Matos sustained an injury
07:18and took a brief medical timeout called kieshi.
07:21Kieshi runs out after one minute,
07:23so when this time elapsed and Matos hadn't returned to the ring,
07:26the referee called the game
07:28and awarded the win to Matos' opponent.
07:31In return, Matos kicked him in the face.
07:34Perhaps unsurprisingly,
07:36Matos was subsequently banned for life by the World Taekwondo Federation,
07:40effectively ending his professional career.
07:44THE SALT LAKE CITY BID SCANDAL
07:47SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH, USA
07:49Salt Lake City really wanted to host the Olympics
07:52and had bid four times to no avail.
07:55Finally, their luck turned around in 1995,
07:58and they were given the 2002 Winter Olympics.
08:01However, allegations of bribery soon surfaced.
08:04IOC officials had reportedly accepted money
08:06from the Salt Lake City Organizing Committee,
08:09and it wasn't the only time.
08:11After future digging,
08:12it was found that IOC officials had accepted bribes
08:14for both the 1998 and 2000 Olympics.
08:18The controversy launched numerous investigations,
08:21including one by the U.S. Department of Justice.
08:24Fifteen bribery charges were laid,
08:26and many prominent officials either resigned their posts
08:29or were officially expelled for corruption.
08:34THE 2002 FIGURE SKATING SCANDAL
08:36SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH, USA
08:39The Salt Lake City Games were mired in controversy.
08:42If it wasn't charges of bribery,
08:44it was a reportedly fixed figure skating competition.
08:47The pair's figure skating event ended in trouble
08:50when Russia won gold over Canada,
08:52despite Canada's arguably better performance.
08:56The media criticized the judges for their decision,
08:59and suspicion landed on French judge Marie-Reine Le Gougne.
09:03As soon as I had put down my pen,
09:05I started to suffer from a series of attacks,
09:08physical, verbal, and the worst, moral.
09:12She supposedly broke down
09:13when confronted by the technical committee's chair
09:16and later admitted she'd been coerced
09:18into voting for the Russians.
09:19She said she was under pressure
09:21and that it was not her own opinion.
09:23However, she later retracted these statements,
09:26stating she'd genuinely believed the Russians had won.
09:30Though an investigation into the event was never launched,
09:32Le Gougne's judging career was over.
09:35NUMBER 11
09:36THE 1972 MEN'S BASKETBALL FINAL
09:40MUNICH, GERMANY
09:41The American men's basketball team
09:43was the stuff of Olympics legend,
09:46having won every gold medal event since 1936.
09:50They were also completely undefeated,
09:53with a 63-0 Olympics record.
09:56And then, the Cold War was brought to the basketball court,
09:59as Team USA faced the Soviet Union in the 1972 Munich finals.
10:04Following an intense game,
10:06the final three seconds were a complete mess
10:09in terms of technical gameplay.
10:10And without going into complex detail,
10:13the USSR edged ahead for a 51-50 victory.
10:17Team USA wasn't happy and protested the outcome.
10:21They refused to accept silver,
10:23and the surviving team members continue to refuse
10:26both the outcome of the game and the medals today.
10:29NUMBER 10
10:30DISPLACEMENT IN BEIJING
10:32BEIJING, CHINA
10:34As far back as 2000,
10:36Chinese officials were reportedly implementing
10:39environmental improvement projects,
10:41aka the systematic demolition of Beijing's impoverished areas,
10:45resulting in an estimated displacement of 1.5 million people
10:49for the 2008 Summer Games.
10:56Although local government claimed
10:58they only moved between 6,000 and 15,000,
11:01all with compensation,
11:03numerous reports exposed the mistreatment
11:05of those unwilling to shift by heavy-handed police.
11:08Beijing's floating population,
11:10consisting of rural migrants,
11:12the homeless,
11:13and other so-called second-class citizens,
11:15were most at risk from this purported social cleansing.
11:18For now, many live in neighborhoods
11:20curtained off by gray concrete walls,
11:23built, authorities say, to make Beijing prettier.
11:26It was reported that $40 billion was spent
11:28on Olympic or corporate infrastructure,
11:30while human rights were allegedly ignored,
11:33adding to an already large list of controversy
11:36surrounding the Beijing Games.
11:37Human rights groups have repeatedly expressed concern
11:41over the evictions,
11:42and say Beijing is not living up to its promises
11:45that the Olympics will improve the country's rights record.
11:53Reportedly dubbed the greatest athlete in the world
11:55by the King of Sweden,
11:57this legendary all-rounder took gold
11:59in both the pentathlon and decathlon
12:01at the 1912 Summer Games,
12:03setting records that endured well into the 20th century.
12:08And the thought legend for people
12:09to still be talking about him 50 years after he's dead.
12:12The Native American and European's athletic career
12:15is defined by tales of his nonchalant excellence.
12:18His winning the high jump in mismatched shoes
12:20is one of many anecdotes.
12:22Yet his feats will always be tainted
12:24by the IOC's elitist and potentially racist attempts
12:27to punish him for violating their Victorian rules
12:29on amateurism,
12:31rules that white athletes frequently abused
12:33without consequence.
12:34As far as I'm concerned,
12:35he's a Simon Pure athlete.
12:38You mustn't take those medals away from him, gentlemen.
12:42You mustn't.
12:43Under serious pressure from Thorpe supporters,
12:46the IOC did eventually yield on the subject
12:49by returning Thorpe's medals in the early 1980s.
12:52They were presented to his seven surviving children.
12:55Number 8.
12:56The African Boycott.
12:58Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
13:00During the 1976 Montreal Games,
13:02South Africa was in the height of apartheid,
13:05a system of racial segregation
13:07based on the concept of white supremacy
13:09that saw major oppression against black Africans.
13:12In 1976,
13:13the New Zealand all-blacks rugby team toured South Africa,
13:17and dozens of African countries requested
13:19that the IOC ban New Zealand
13:21from the then-upcoming Olympics.
13:23In their opinion,
13:24the controversial tour indirectly condoned the regime,
13:28and they wanted New Zealand punished.
13:30The IOC refused.
13:32So, 29 countries protested the Olympics
13:34and failed to show.
13:36This prevented the former 1,500-meter world record holder
13:39from competing,
13:40as Philbert Bailly hailed from Tanzania,
13:43one of the countries protesting the Games.
13:45Number 7.
13:46Blood in the water match.
13:48Melbourne, Australia.
13:58Just a few weeks before this water polo match,
14:01Soviet tanks had rumbled into Budapest
14:04to end a revolution that claimed about 3,000 Hungarians.
14:18Hoping to restore their country's pride,
14:20the Hungarian team planned to rile up the Russians,
14:24get physical,
14:24and force them into rash decisions.
14:31And I think the water polo is simply in our blood.
14:34With Hungary leading 4-0 late in the game,
14:37the Russians took matters into their own hands.
14:40Hungarian player Ervin Zador was struck in the eye,
14:43sending the hundreds of Hungarians in the crowd
14:45into a frenzy that required police intervention.
14:57In a bittersweet finish,
14:59the Hungarian team took home the gold,
15:01but they could never escape the match's political subtext,
15:04forcing many members to find refuge in less oppressive lands.
15:16Number 6.
15:17Ben Johnson doping.
15:18Seoul, South Korea.
15:25The men's 100 meters at the 1988 Summer Olympics
15:29may have been labeled the dirtiest race in history,
15:32but it was also one of the most enthralling to watch.
15:41Six members of that all-star lineup
15:43were implicated in other doping controversies post-race,
15:46but it was Johnson,
15:48the world record holder after his 9.79-second race,
15:51who will forever be defined by the steroid use he began in 1981.
16:00The Canadian was open about his long-term cheating
16:02and rightly stripped of his gold medal,
16:05yet is still irked to be the only one punished
16:07when others also fail drug tests.
16:13He's even claimed the IOC only selectively cracks down
16:16on the pervasive doping culture in athletics.
16:19But even if Johnson's allegations are true,
16:22we may never fully know.
16:29The sort of emotions that it evoked are still there.
16:34Number 5.
16:35Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan.
16:37Lillehammer, Norway.
16:46Containing jealousy, a hitman,
16:48and an unrelenting desire for sporting success,
16:51it's no surprise a feature-length film adaptation
16:54of this event was released.
16:59During a practice that was crucial
17:08for determining the U.S. Olympic figure skating team,
17:11a henchman hired by Tonya Harding's ex-husband and bodyguard
17:15struck Nancy Kerrigan in the leg.
17:17Since she was then the sports poster girl,
17:19the attack was orchestrated
17:21to intentionally put her out of the 94 games.
17:24Branded as the do-anything-for-gold skater,
17:27Harding's alleged knowledge of the attack was soon exposed.
17:30However, she was still allowed to compete at the Olympics.
17:34Fortunately, Kerrigan recovered
17:35and landed silver at Lillehammer,
17:38while Harding, placed eighth, was fined,
17:40received three years of probation,
17:42and never skated competitively again.
17:52Number 4.
17:53The Russian doping scandal.
17:55Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
17:57Details of Russia's alleged state-sponsored systematic doping
18:02came to light in 2014,
18:04but they were expanded upon
18:05when ex-Russian anti-doping official Grigory Rodchenkov
18:09provided an insider's look into a conspiracy
18:12that forced him to flee to the U.S.
18:22Exploiting the increased access granted by their hosting of the games,
18:26Sochi 2014 competitors were reportedly allowed to dope without consequence,
18:31while their urine samples were exchanged in covert operations
18:34carried out by Rodchenkov and others.
18:44He claimed that at least 15 medalists
18:46from the 2014 Winter Olympics might be implicated.
18:50Due to these supposedly Kremlin-sanctioned schemes,
18:53Russia was suspended from world sports events.
18:55They were also investigated before the 2016 Summer Olympics,
18:59resulting in the IOC ejecting 110 team members.
19:08Number 3.
19:08The U.S. boycotts Moscow Olympics.
19:11Moscow, Soviet Union.
19:18In response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan beginning in 1979,
19:22U.S. President Jimmy Carter led an international boycott
19:25that doomed his period in office
19:27and triggered the Soviet Union's own boycott of the L.A. Games in 1984.
19:43While the reasons behind this action were righteous and well-supported,
19:47the U.S. enlisted Muhammad Ali's help and ultimately 65 nations joined up,
19:52the boycott threatened the Olympic movement
19:54by embroiling the Games in the political maneuvering of two world powers.
20:0525 angry U.S. athletes even sued the government
20:08for denying them a dream they worked so hard towards.
20:11And yet, Carter stuck to his morals,
20:14strengthening a stance that would later be described by the Soviet Union
20:17as quote,
20:18anti-Soviet hysteria.
20:22Number 2.
20:23Olympics black power salute.
20:25Mexico City, Mexico.
20:30It's one of the 20th century's most powerful images.
20:33During the medal ceremony for the 200-meter race at the 1968 Summer Olympics,
20:37Americans Tommy Smith and John Carlos,
20:40shoeless and with their heads bowed,
20:42each thrust up a gloved hand.
20:44The Olympic medalist,
20:45who was a member of the Olympic Committee,
20:48Smith said it was meant to symbolize human rights for all,
20:51but others believed it was in support of black power.
20:54Expelled and met with hostility when they returned home,
20:57they stood by the political statement,
20:59claiming it was their moral obligation to sacrifice their interests
21:02for the greater good of the American people.
21:05The U.S. National Guard,
21:06the U.S. Army,
21:07the U.S. Navy,
21:08the U.S. Marine Corps,
21:09the U.S. Marine Corps,
21:10the U.S. Marine Corps,
21:12the U.S. Marine Corps,
21:13the U.S. Marine Corps,
21:14the U.S. Marine Corps,
21:14the U.S. Marine Corps,
21:15the U.S. Marine Corps,
21:17their individual reputations,
21:18to send a message to those watching.
21:28Meanwhile,
21:29the third man in the photograph,
21:31Peter Norman,
21:32was an Olympics pariah for decades thereafter
21:35because he showed his support
21:37by donning an Olympic Project for Human Rights badge.
21:40Before we unveil our number one pick,
21:42here are some honorable mentions.
21:47First out for Winter Olympics,
21:49Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
21:51The displacement of low-income residents resulted in protests.
22:00Surya Bonaly's backflip,
22:02Nagano, Japan.
22:03Bonaly performed a backflip at the 1998 Olympics,
22:07despite the move being prohibited.
22:09She knew that it was illegal.
22:11She knew that she was going to get nailed for it.
22:14She did it anyways because I'm an athlete
22:17who's pushing the boundaries of the sport.
22:20BLM Apparel, Tokyo, Japan.
22:23Black Lives Matter gear was banned from the 2021 Olympics.
22:31Before we continue,
22:32be sure to subscribe to our channel
22:34and ring the bell to get notified about our latest videos.
22:37You have the option to be notified for occasional videos or all of them.
22:41If you're on your phone,
22:42make sure you go into your settings and switch on notifications.
22:55For two weeks in 1936 Berlin,
22:58Nazi prosperity and hospitality blinded the world,
23:01while Germany's precisely directed propaganda campaign
23:04obscured their anti-Semitic,
23:06discriminatory and expansionist policies from view.
23:12I would have had to be afraid for my life, I'm sure.
23:15Numerous nations that would form the allied powers
23:18were present for carefully manufactured demonstrations
23:21of fervent German pride,
23:23while arguments stating participation in the games
23:25were tantamount to an endorsement of fascism went unheard.
23:28And so, despite mentions of a potential boycott,
23:31the games began.
23:33Medals were even won by some Jewish and black athletes,
23:36but it was Hitler who truly prospered.
23:39The Reich Chancellor turned the games into an advertising campaign
23:43for his administration,
23:44with some asserting that he successfully manipulated European powers
23:48into a complacency that allowed the Nazi regime
23:51to spread across Europe in subsequent years.