As the build up to the 2024 Paris Olympics begins in earnest, it’s worth reflecting on a number of controversies from Games gone by.
2016: Ticket-gate in Rio
Ireland made headlines in Rio for all the wrong reasons as then-Olympic Council of Ireland (OCI) head Pat Hickey was arrested over alleged ticket touting. Aged 71 at the time, Hickey became president of the OCI in 1989 and moved on to the IOC six years later.
He was due to step down after the 2016 Games but became embroiled in scandal after being arrested by Brazilian police as part of an investigation into the illegal resale of tickets. Hundreds of tickets were seized by police as he was arrested in his hotel room while wearing a dressing gown, in pictures seen worldwide. He denied any wrongdoing and was initially charged before the Supreme Court in Brazil suspended the case the following year. Nevertheless, the incident was hugely embarrassing for Hickey and the OCI. He resigned from the IOC in 2022.
2016: Conlan blasts ‘robbery’ after defeat
Irish boxer Michael Conlan crashed out of the Rio Olympics after a controversial quarter-final defeat to Russia’s Vladimir Nikitin. Having won bronze at London 2012, hopes were high for the Belfast man going into 2016, but a shock decision saw the three judges give the bout to Nikitin on a 10-9 scoreline.
“I came for gold and I’ve been cheated. I’ll not do another Olympics. I would advise anybody not to compete for the AIBA [Amateur International Boxing Association],” said the bantamweight boxer in an emotional post-fight interview.
He later said on RTÉ: “They’re cheating bastards, they’re paying everybody. I don’t give a f**k about swearing on TV. I’m here to win Olympic gold and my dream has been shattered.
“But you know what, I’ve got a great career ahead of me, but they [AIBA] are known for being cheats and they’ll always be cheats. Amateur boxing stinks from the core right to the top.”
After winning three medals in London, Conlan’s exit meant the Irish boxing team left Brazil without any medal with Katie Taylor also suffering a shock last-eight defeat.
2016: US swimmers vandalise gas station
During the Rio Games, US swimming quartet Ryan Lochte, Jimmy Feigen, Gunnar Bentz and Jack Conger were involved in a scandal, as initial news stories claimed the four were robbed at gunpoint during a night out in Rio. But it was later confirmed that the alleged robbers were in fact security guards at a petrol station, and the swimmers had in fact urinated in public, while Lochte allegedly vandalised a poster.
The owner told police the quartet vandalised his bathroom and urinated around the petrol station.
The US Olympic Committee later suspended Lochte for 10 months, with the other three hit with four-month bans. Lochte was also charged in Brazil with falsely reporting a crime, but this was dropped in 2017. “I was highly intoxicated and I made immature accusations,” he later admitted.
2005: O’Connor stripped of gold
Irish showjumper Cian O’Connor was stripped of his Olympic gold in March 2005 after his horse Waterford Crystal tested positive for banned substances following his triumph in Athens the previous year. The Dubliner, now 44, was the only Irish medallist in Greece in 2004 but that didn’t last after it was reported that Waterford Crystal had tested positive for a banned substance the following October. The FEI later stripped him of his gold and banned O’Connor for three months, although they did find that he didn’t deliberately try to affect the horse’s performance.
“I’ve done nothing wrong. It is a huge disappointment not only to me, to my friends and colleagues, to my staff but also to the country,” he said at the time.
1996: Michelle Smith de Bruin banned after Atlanta
After competing at Seoul 1988 and Barcelona 1992 without making much of a splash, Rathcoole native Smith became one of the stories of Atlanta 1996 by winning gold medals in the 400m, 200m medley and the 400m freestyle. Her unprecedented success was greeted with euphoria at home but with scepticism by many of her rivals. A previous doping ban by her husband and coach Erik de Bruin had already raised some eyebrows before she got to Atlanta.
Two years later, it emerged she was facing an anti-doping challenge as FINA, the international swimming federation, banned her for four years for tampering with a urine sample with alcohol.
Although she was not stripped of her three golds, the ban effectively brought her competitive swimming career to an end as she was 28 at the time. She appealed it to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) but it upheld the decision.
1994: Kerrigan attacked before winter games
In January 1994, two days before the Olympic trials, US skater Nancy Kerrigan was attacked by a man hoping to rule her out of the Winter Games in Lillehammer of that year. One of her rivals for a spot on the US team was Tonya Harding, and it later emerged that her ex-husband had approached a man about eliminating Kerrigan from the competition, something which was later agreed for a fee.
Two men involved in the plot later confessed this to FBI agents. The ex-husband was also charged with conspiracy to assault Kerrigan, but then agreed to a deal in which he implicated Harding.
Harding then changed her story and pleaded guilty to conspiracy to hinder the prosecution of Kerrigan’s attackers. She was fined $100,000, sentenced to 500 hours’ community service and banned for life from US figure skating. The story was later told in the 2017 film I, Tonya. Kerrigan recovered in time to compete in Norway and took home a silver medal.
1972: tragic killings in Munich hostage chaos
The 1972 Games were remembered for all the wrong reasons after Palestinian terrorists attacked the Israeli team. Eight terrorists sneaked into the Olympic village in Munich to kill two Israeli athletes before taking nine others hostage. They were seeking the release of 200 Palestinian prisoners at the time. While attempting to relocate to a nearby airport, an ambush by the German police failed and all Israeli hostages were then killed. Police killed five of the eight terrorists during a shoot-out, with one German officer suffering fatal injuries.
1968: Shooting and protests in Mexico
The 1968 Games in Mexico City were marred by a number of incidents in the lead-up. African countries and African-American athletes promised to boycott Mexico City if South Africa took part, given the ongoing apartheid. Under pressure, the IOC decided that due to the international climate, “it would be most unwise for South Africa to participate”.
Meanwhile, just 10 days before the start of the Games, the Mexican government ordered a large protest to be broken up amid growing social unrest in the city, before hundreds of peaceful protesters and civilians were killed.
The Games are also remembered for Tommie Smith and John Carlos famously raising their fists on the podium in a civil-rights salute after their medal wins in the 200m.
1936: Berlin protests
The IOC decided to name Berlin as host of the 1936 summer Games, but after Adolf Hitler’s rise to power in 1933, calls for a boycott grew out of fear Hitler would use it for Nazi propaganda. He saw the Games as a chance to promote his ideals of racial supremacy and anti-Semitism, as a new 100,000-seater track-and-field stadium was built. It was the first Games to be televised around the world.
There were protests over it being held under Hitler’s government. The official Nazi party newspaper wrote beforehand that Jewish and black people should not be allowed to participate in any competitions. Many German athletes of Jewish or Roma descent were also barred, while some from other countries chose to boycott Berlin.
Protests were held in the UK, France and the US in the lead-up but they were ultimately unsuccessful as 49 nations ended up competing that summer, the largest number of any Olympics to that point. It is largely remembered for the heroics of US sprinter Jesse Owens, who won four gold medals – much to the annoyance of Der Fuhrer. 1912: Thorpe LOSES gold medals FOR PLAYING baseball
At the 1912 summer Games in Stockholm, US athlete Jim Thorpe was stripped of his gold medals in the decathlon and pentathlon after organisers learned he had played semi-professional baseball three years earlier.
After winning double gold he was treated to a ticker-tape parade back home on Broadway, but the following year a newspaper discovered he had played semi-pro baseball in North Carolina just before the Sweden Games. Other college players did too at the time, but used aliases. Thorpe used his own name.
With the Olympics enforcing strict rules on amateurism for athletes at the time, the IOC decided to strip him of his two golds. After a long campaign by supporters of Thorpe, his two golds were later reinstated years after his death and the records were fully restored in 2022.