Top 7 Olympic Athletes Who Cheated
We've talked about the Olympics before - how the undeniable prowess of the competitors
have inspired and awed generations upon generations of viewers around the world.
However, where there are legitimate participants - you can bet your ass there's folks right
around the corner looking for shortcuts.
While the International Olympic Committee seems like a hard customer to fool, believe
it or not - they have been, albeit temporarily.
Today, let's take a look at 7 Olympians caught cheating.
Number seven - Lance Armstrong.
Okay - so technically, this didn't happen AT the Olympics - however, you'll see how
it all ties in.
After admitting to taking performance enhancing drugs such as EPO, testosterone, cortisone
and more in 2013 - this one time king of road cycling was stripped of nearly everything
he had accrued in his professional career and life from 1999 to 2005 - including all
seven of his Tour de France wins.
Armstrong lost virtually every endorsement, award and accolade due to the doping scandal
- but none of them probably hurt quite as bad as when the IOC came knocking.
After expunging his 2000 Sydney Summer Olympics third-place finish in the time trial - the
Committee forced him to return his bronze medal just months after he came clean.
Number six - Marion Jones.
It's no secret (or surprise) that doping is a huge problem in professional sports - so
let's take a look at another notable story from the world of steroids.
This former WNBA star was also the world champion track and field athlete - winning three gold
and two bronze medals at the 2000 Sydney games.
To make things even more exceptional, her particular award sweep also made her the first
woman in history to win five medals at a single Olympiad.
However, after her co-Olympian husband was busted for steroids - she came under scrutiny
as well.
Sure enough - she eventually admitted to taking the sauce, leading to not just an Olympic
record expungement - but a six month prison sentence to boot.
Number five - the Tunisian modern pentathlon team.
We're not sure if the plan this team concocted was brilliant or hilarious - so it's probably
a little bit of both.
For those unaware - a pentathlon consists of five categories: shooting, swimming, fencing,
horse riding and running.
The team was good at precisely none of those things.
Three of them fell off of their horses - earning a historic 0.0 score.
One of them nearly drowned after it was revealed he couldn't actually swim.
Another was removed from the team after nearly shooting an official in the face by accident.
They finished in bitter last during the cross-country run.
Desperate to win anything - they sent in their best member up 3 times in a row to fence,
hoping no one would notice anything if he didn't remove his helmet.
...They did.
Number four - Boris Onischenko.
Speaking of pentathletes, Boris Onischenko was once upon a time a well-respected, three-time
world champion Olympian from Kiev, Ukraine.
After successfully competing in the 1968 and 1972 Olympics, he entered the 1976 Summer
Olympics (held in Montreal) with the Soviet team.
However, after only the first event in the pentathlon, they found themselves in fourth
place.
With the fencing event up next, the Soviets sent in Onischenko - who was known to be a
notoriously good fencer and was already favored to win the match.
However, not taking any risks - he illegally fashioned an épée to falsely register a
touch-win via a handheld switch.
He was unsurprisingly caught, ejected, stripped of all of his wins & banned for life from
sports.
Number three - Fred Lorz.
While this NY-born long distance runner DOES have some impressive stats, it's hard to trust
the guy.
The former bricklayer made it to the 1904 St. Louis Summer Olympics, participating in
the 24.85 mile men's marathon - however, after just nine miles, Lorz cramped up and hitched
a ride in his manager's car.
He continued to ride shotgun for eleven miles until the jalopy puttered out - so, he continued
to walk the rest of the course by foot and eventually broke the finish line tape back
at the Olympic Stadium.
He was quickly called out and the second placer, Thomas Hicks, became the ACTUAL winner.
By the way, that guy?
He was on a potentially lethal drug cocktail at the time and then retired the next day.
The 1900s were weird, man.
Number two - Madeline de Jesus.
Madeline de Jesus - a now-retired track and field athlete from Puerto Rico, once competed
in the women's long jump and triple jump throughout the course of her career with a personal best
of 6.96 meters in the long jump.
Not bad!
However, during the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Olympics Games, she badly injured her hamstring
while competing in the long jump event, all but ensuring she would not be able to run
in the qualifying round of the 4x400 meter relay.
In true cheesy-comedy fashion, her identical twin sister Margaret (who just happened to
also be an athlete that was in the crowd) stepped in as her imposter.
The crazy part?
It worked - AND they advanced!
It wasn't until the coach got wind that they sheepishly withdrew.
Number one - Heinrich "Dora" Ratjen.
We saved the best for last - and by best, we mean riproaringly insane.
Although this story has been portrayed on the silver screen - history is almost always
crazier than the movies could ever be.
Ratjen was born in Germany with a slight genital abnormality that led to severe confusion from
his parents and a childhood of being raised as a girl.
Around age 10 or 11, Dora began to question the validity of that idea, but continued to
live life feminine nonetheless.
Two years after she competed in the women's high jump at the 1936 Summer Olympics at Berlin,
"her" identity was truly revealed and her accomplishments were stripped.
The story continues to be a subject of debate and speculation long after her (or his) passing
in 2008.
You made it to the end!
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