Athletes who make it to the Olympics are expected to be the best of humanity, and that includes
acting as role models for the rest of us.
That doesn't always work out, however, and sometimes once-respected Olympians turn out
to be truly terrible people.
Here are a few of them.
Félix Verdejo Sánchez is a lightweight boxer who represented Puerto Rico at the 2012 London
Olympics.
Even though he didn't medal at the games, his professional record saw only two losses
out of 29 fights, so he was successful by pretty much any definition of the word.
But in 2021, Verdejo was charged with a truly horrific crime: he stands accused of kidnapping
a woman, punching her, injecting her with a number of 'substances,' tying her body to
a block and throwing her from a bridge into the water.
He also allegedly shot her once she was in the water.
As of August 2021, Verdejo has not yet been convicted, and it's entirely possible that
he could be found not guilty.
However, the charges are based on information from a witness who saw the whole incident
take place, plus cellular data and CCTV recordings.
The woman he is alleged to have killed is Keishla Rodríguez, who was Verdejo's pregnant
mistress.
Rodríguez's mother later told El Nuevo Dia:
"I told her 'Be careful' because he had threatened her not to have the baby, that he had his
family, that he is a boxer, that he is a public figure."
The crimes with which Sánchez has been charged are so barbaric that Verdejo is eligible for
the death penalty, although prosecutors have not yet said if they will seek it during the
trial.
Scott Miller is an Australian athlete who took home the silver for the 100-meter butterfly
at the 1996 Summer Games in Atlanta, as well as a bronze as a member of the 4x100 meter
medley relay team that same year.
Outside the Olympics, he was the 1995 world champion in the 100-meter butterfly at Rio
de Janeiro.
But being really good at swimming doesn't always pay the bills — something Miller
himself apparently realized.
In 2021, he was arrested for allegedly breaking bad, when police found 2 million Australian
dollars' worth of methamphetamine concealed in candles at his house.
At a news conference, Detective Superintendent John Watson discussed the scale of the drug
selling operation:
"They were well set-up, and they were intent on delivering death and misery right throughout
the state."
This was far from the first drug arrest for Miller.
In 2009, he pleaded guilty to five charges.
He received 100 hours of community service; a slap on the wrist that obviously didn't
teach him much of anything, since he was later apprehended with large quantities of meth
on two separate occasions in June and July of 2013.
Klete Keller was once a standout swimmer for Team USA, competing at the Summer Olympics
in 2000, 2004, and 2008.
He was a teammate of Michael Phelps, and together they won gold as members of the 4x200-meterFreestyle
Relay team in both Athens and Beijing.
Keller also won a silver in the 4x200-meter Freestyle Relay in 2000 and two bronze medals
in Athens and Sydney.
But once he stopped competing professionally, Keller's life went downhill.
At one point he was homeless, living out of his car in rest stops and Walmart parking
lots.
By early 2021, however, those who knew him thought things were getting better for the
former Olympian.
He'd started a career in real estate and had even gotten engaged.
Keller's friends and acquaintances also knew he was a pretty big supporter of President
Donald Trump.
But they were still shocked when they saw him appear in video footage taken from inside
the US Capitol during the insurrection on January 6.
He was even wearing his Team USA jacket.
Members of the swimming community exchanged messages and contacted the authorities.
In January, just days after the riot, Keller was charged with "violent entry, obstructing
law enforcement, and disorderly conduct," and the next month, a grand jury added "civil
disorder, obstructing an official proceeding, entering a restricted building, and disorderly
conduct in a restricted building."
The charges could mean 30 years or more behind bars.
Perhaps the most notorious fall from grace of any Olympian was that of Oscar Pistorius.
Born missing parts of his feet and lower legs, Pistorius' legs were amputated below the knee
before he was a year old.
Nonetheless, he took home eight medals — six of them gold — across three Paralympic games
in 2004, 2008, and 2012.
He made history in 2012, becoming the only the third Paralympian to compete against able-bodied
athletes at the London Olympics.
Other accomplishments include setting world records in the 200 meter and 400 meter events,
and twice being named one of Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People in the World.
Then, in what a South African judge called a "human tragedy of Shakespearean proportions,"
Pistorius killed his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp.
"Oscar Pistorius is appearing in a South African court right now, being charged with the murder
of his girlfriend."
Steenkamp had only been dating the Olympian for three months when Pistorius killed her
after firing four gunshots through the bathroom door of his home.
Pistorius defended his actions by saying that he didn't mean to kill her — that he woke
up, heard noises, and fired his gun because he thought she was an intruder.
This explanation fell apart, however, when neighbors testified they had heard the couple
screaming at each other right before Pistorius opened fire.
His first trial in 2014 resulted in only a five-year sentence, and a second one in 2016
replaced that with a six-year sentence.
Finally, the South African Supreme court got involved in the case in 2017, sentencing Pistorius
to 13 years and five months behind bars.
Luka Klasinc represented Slovakia in the Men's Singles Figure Skating event at the 1992 Albertville
Winter Olympics, where he came in 26th.
After his career ended, he started a company that put on "ice-themed amusement park style
events."
Then, in 2021, Klasinc was charged with "bank fraud and aggravated identity theft" for trying
to scam almost $1.5 million out of the relief fund the U.S. set up for struggling small
businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the wake of Klasinc's arrest, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New
York laid out his crimes in a statement, which read:
"As alleged, Klasinc used false documents to try and obtain over a million dollars in
funds intended to help hard working Americans but, thanks to the diligence of the FBI, his
plans have been put on ice.
He will now be held accountable for his alleged brazen lies."
Klasinc has yet to be convicted of the crime, so this is another case in which anything
could happen.
But if he really did try to steal $1.6 million worth of taxpayer money that should have gone
to small businesses in need, he might not be able to skate on the charges.
When it was reported that wrestler Sushil Kumar would miss the delayed 2020 Tokyo Olympics,
ESPN referred to him as "arguably India's greatest Olympian."
And that's probably a fair estimation.
He's the only person from his country to win individual medals in two different Olympic
Games: a bronze at Beijing in 2008 and a silver four years later in London.
So why won't Kumar make Tokyo?
Because he's in prison.
Kumar was the instigator in a fight that saw three men, fellow wrestlers at an academy
in Delhi, beaten so badly that one of them died.
Afterward, Kumar went on the run across India for three weeks before being apprehended.
Kumar hasn't yet been convicted of the charges as of August 2021, but if the case against
him is as strong as it seems, it could spell trouble for the famous Olympian.
On top of fleeing after the incident, one police officer said:
"We have recorded statements of all the victims and they all made allegations against Sushil
Kumar."
The former Olympian's lawyers have accused the police of bias, but if anything, their
bias might be towards the wrestler — as a viral photo showed a group of cops posing
with Kumar after his arrest, with wide smiles on all their faces.
Australian Olympic kayaker Nathan Baggaley took home two silver medals at the 2004 Athens
Games.
But shortly after that, it seems, he decided his real calling was drugs.
First, he tested positive for steroids in 2005 and was hit with a 15-month suspension.
While he said he would aim to be back for the 2008 games in Beijing, his own drug business
got in the way.
In 2007, Baggaley was found with 800 ecstasy tabs in his car, plus some weed and cash.
In 2009, he was jailed for his involvement in an ecstasy manufacturing ring.
After his release from prison, he said:
"I just ask for an opportunity just to gimme a chance, see what I can do.
I know I won't be making the same mistakes again."
A year later, he was arrested for possessing 84 ecstasy tablets and pill press components.
Not slowing down, 2015 saw him face charges of operating a full-blown drug ring.
But 2018 was Baggaley's true masterstroke.
Alongside his brother, he tried to get 650 kilos of cocaine, worth over 200 million Australian
dollars, into the country.
Baggaley bought a speedboat and instructed his brother and another man to go 200 miles
off the coast and pick up the drugs.
Unfortunately for them, the pair was caught by the naval authorities.
The men tried to get away, speeding off in the boat and throwing kilos of cocaine into
the ocean as they went, but to no avail.
Baggaley was convicted in 2021 and is currently awaiting sentencing.
Known as "The Flying Scot," David Jenkins competed in three Olympics for Great Britain,
winning the silver in the 4x400 meter relay with his team at Munich 1972, as well as making
the individual 400-meter finals at Montreal 1976 and Moscow 1980 — although he finished
7th in both of those appearances.
Between his two final Olympics, he was often injured, to the point that it was surprising
when he managed to qualify for the games in Moscow.
Seven years later, after Jenkins had retired and moved to California, he was busted for
his new job: making and smuggling illegal steroids.
He was one of the main producers behind a facility in Mexico that made the drugs and
then trafficked them into the U.S.
At one point, Jenkins and his crew were reportedly responsible for more than two-thirds of all
the illegal steroids circulating in the U.S.
Jenkins also admitted he'd used steroids later in his running career, which puts his amazing
recovery for the Moscow Games in a wholly different light.
It's worth noting that no athletes were actually drug tested at the Moscow games.
Jenkins was sentenced to seven years for his crimes but only ended up serving nine months.
When he got out, he set up a supplement company with another convicted drug felon and is now
thought to be worth millions.
These days, Lance Armstrong's reputation as a doper seems to have eclipsed his reputation
as an athlete — in fact, many people might not even be aware that he was an Olympian,
and a medalist at that.
Despite being most famous for his domination of the Tour de France, the cyclist also competed
in the 1996 Atlanta Games, where his highest placement was 6th, and the 2000 Sydney Olympics,
where he got a bronze in the time trials.
In between the two Games, he'd gotten cancer, which made it all the more impressive.
Seemingly, anyway.
Plenty of Olympic athletes have been caught doping over the years, but Lance Armstrong
didn't just dope a little, and he didn't dope on his own, either.
He took the art of passing drug tests to another level, somehow producing clean urine while
using essentially all the banned performance enhancers available to him.
When his activities were finally discovered, the United States Anti-Doping Agency declared
in their report that Armstrong was a prolific doper and that he "ruthlessly" made those
around him, his teammates, dope just as much.
Essentially, he bullied people into risking their jobs and their health just so he could
get the glory.
In 2013, after Armstrong admitted his crimes to Oprah, the International Olympic Committee
asked for the bronze medal back.
It took him eight months to return it.
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