Biggest Olympics Scandals Ever: Nancy Kerrigan’s Attack, Lance Armstrong’s Doping Incident and More

Credit: Ray Tamarra/GC Images

Biggest Olympics Scandals Ever: Nancy Kerrigan's Attack, Lance Armstrong's Doping Incident and More

All the drama! The Olympics may be an event that is all about the sports activities, but that doesn't mean that the most shocking things happen during the tournaments. Throughout the years, many controversial incidents have made headlines outside of the event. During the 1994 games, ice skater Nancy Kerrigan was attacked with a baton to the knee and her longtime Olympic rival, Tonya Harding, was accused of knowing about the attack beforehand. Harding's ex-husband Jeff Gillooly and his friend Stephen Eckhardt were both charged, and they pleaded guilty to racketeering for their involvement in the incident. Harding, for her part, has continued to deny that she knew anything about the plans to harm Kerrigan beforehand. At the time, she did end up pleading guilty to conspiring to hinder prosecution. The former ice skater was banned for life from the U.S. Figure Skating Association and was sentenced to three years’ probation. Following the release of the acclaimed biographical film I, Tonya in 2017, Harding hinted that she may have known about the attack. [jwplayer EgmxKOUr-l3ahXupL] “I knew that something was up,” Harding said during the ABC special Truth and Lies: The Tonya Harding Story in January 2018. “I did, however, overhear [him and his friend Eckhardt] talking about stuff … ‘Well, maybe we should take somebody out so we can make sure she gets on the team,’” Harding recalled. “I remember telling them, I go, ‘What the hell are you talking about? I can skate.’” Harding also spoke about the video footage that was shared of Kerrigan following her attack. “It makes you cringe, hearing it,” Harding said of clip where Kerrigan can be heard screaming in pain after she was injured. “You know how much that it had to have hurt.” Kerrigan, for her part, admitted that she was "busy" and didn't end up watching the film that reexamined Harding's point of view in the situation. "I was at the national [figure skating] championships this week, so I didn't watch the Golden Globes. I haven't seen the movie. I'm just busy living my life," she told The Boston Globe in January 2018. The Dancing With the Stars contestant admitted that she wasn't interested in revisiting that part of her life and that she considered the film's resurfaced focus of what happened to her at the Olympics "weird." "A bizarre thing. The whole thing was crazy, being that it's a story. I mean, come on," she noted. Scroll down to see all of the biggest scandals at the Olympics: [podcast_block]

Credit: Branger/Roger Viollet/Getty Images

Jim Thorpe

When American athlete Jim Thorpe competed in the 1912 summer Olympics in Stolkholm, Sweden, there were strict rules that competitors had to be amateurs to play in the games. He was stripped of his gold medals for the pentathlon and decathlon after it was revealed that he played professional minor league baseball three years earlier. The medals were later reinstated in 1983 and presented to Thorpe's children Gale and Bill, almost thirty years after his death.

Credit: Fox Photos/Getty Images

Jesse Owens 

As Nazi Germany reached the zenith of its racist, anti-semitic reign and inched towards World War, black sprinter Jesse Owens, to the ire of Adolf Hilter, won four gold medals in the 1936 games in Berlin. He also set the record for the long jump, which held for 25 years. 

Credit: Keystone/Getty Images

Munich Massacre

Attempting to impress the world in the first Olympic games held in Germany since the 1936 Nazi-run Berlin games, the German government made an extra effort to show off their new democratic nation to the world.

But it was overshadowed in 1972 when Palestinians belonging to the terrorist group Black September held nine Israeli athletes, coaches, and officials hostage in their apartments in the Olympic Village. Two hostages were killed immediately for resisting and the standoff lasted for almost 18 hours.

Eventually all hostages were killed in a botched rescue attempt, and terrorist Jamal Al-Gashey, who is believed to be the sole survivor, is thought to still be living in hiding.

Credit: Merline Summers/AP Photo

Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan

By far one of the biggest scandals in Olympics history, the attack of U.S. figure skater Kerrigan in 1994 became known as "The Whack Heard Round the World."

The night before the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Kerrigan was clubbed in the right knee with a police baton. The attack was believed to be orchestrated by competitor Harding's ex Gillooly and his friend Eckardt.

Harding was also blamed for assisting her ex, though that has never been proven. Kerrigan went on to win the silver medal at the 1994 Lillehammer Winter Olympics.

Credit: DP/AFP/Getty Images

Centennial Olympic Park Bombing

At the 1996 Summer Olympics, held in Atlanta, Georgia, Eric Robert Rudolph set off a powerful pipe bomb in the Centennial Olympic Park that claimed the lives of two from the blast, one from a heart attack, and injured 111 people.

A security guard named Richard Jewell, who was initially falsely accused as a suspect, discovered the bomb and was able to clear most of the spectators before it detonated. Rudolph is currently serving a life sentence. 

Credit: Andy Lyons/Getty Images

Marion Jones 

After winning five medals at the Sydney Summer Olympic games in 2000, track and field star Marion Jones admitted in 2007 that she took performance enhancing drugs for the games and was stripped of all medals.

Credit: Gerzy Bukajlo/AFP/Getty Images

French Figure Skating Judge

In a tight and highly-technical contest between Russian figure skaters Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze and Canadians Jamie Sale and David Pelletier at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah, the Russian competitors came out victorious by a small margin.

Later, French judge Marie-Reine Le Gougne had an alleged emotional breakdown, claiming the head of the French skating organization pressured her to vote for the Russians regardless of how they performed. However, she later signed a statement claiming she never participated in such a deal. 

Credit: Chris Ivin/Getty Images

Justin Gatlin

After winning the 2004 gold medal for sprinting the 100 meter in Athens, Justin Gatlin tested positive in 2006 for excessive testosterone. The sprinter addressed the issue, claiming, "I cannot account for these results, because I have never knowingly used any banned substance or authorized anyone to administer such a substance to me."

Gatlin's coach Trevor Graham claimed the athlete was sabotaged by his massage therapist, who he said rubbed the cream on his butt without his knowledge. Gatlin accepted an eight-year ban from track and field in 2006, but the term was reduced to four years. 

He returned to the sport in 2010 and went on to win five Olympic medals over the years.

Credit: Martin Bernetti/AFP/Getty Images

Hope Solo

The outspoken goalie for the U.S. women's soccer team admitted she was drunk during a August 22 appearance on The Today Show while drunk following the team's August 2008 win against Brazil at the Beijing Olympics.

In an interview with ESPN Magazine she recalled, "When we were done partying, we got out of our dresses, got back into our stadium coats, and, at 7 a.m. with no sleep, went on The Today Show drunk."

Credit: Franck Fife/AFP/Getty Images

Chinese Gymnasts

When the female Chinese gymnastics team took to the mat at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, many questioned whether the athletes were actually younger than the required age of 16.

After looking into four of the gymnasts' official documentation, the International Olympic Committee concluded that everything was legal.

Credit: Ezra Shaw/Getty Images

Michael Phelps 

The most decorated U.S. swimmer in Olympics history was photographed smoking pot at the University of South Carolina in 2009. The picture was published on the cover of News of the World following his eight gold medal wins in Beijing, and Phelps' endorsement deals suffered.

Phelps bounced back at the 2012 Olympics in London when he took home four gold medals and two silver medals.

Credit: Michael Steele/Getty Images

LaShawn Merritt 

The 11-time gold medalist admitted to failed drug tests after using the over-the-counter penis enlargement product ExtenZe in 2009. The sprinter claimed he hadn't read the fine print for the medication, which contains a banned steroid. The athlete accepted a two-year ban. 

He returned to track after his ban was reduced to 21 months.

Credit: Michael Steele/Getty Images

Oscar Pistorius

The South African double amputee and sprinter was the Cinderella story of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London due to his ability to overcome his disability. And the world was subsequently shocked when the inspiring athlete was charged with the murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in February 2013, after she was found fatally shot in Pistorius' home. 

During his March 2014 trial, Pistorius was found not guilty of murder, but he was found guilty of culpable homicide. After being released on house arrest temporarily in 2015, his sentence was overturned and he was convicted of murder. He will be eligible for parole in 2023.

Credit: Doug Pensinger/Allsport/Getty Images

Lance Armstrong 

In addition to his many other honors, including seven Tour De France wins, cyclist Lance Armstrong was stripped of his Olympic bronze medal from the 2000 Sydney games after he admitted to years of doping in 2013.

At the time, he received a lifetime ban from all sports that follow the World Anti-Doping Code.

Credit: Alexander Nemenov/AFP/Getty Images

Sochi Winter Olympics

The location of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia had been controversial due to the city's legislation banning "gay propaganda," including rainbow flags and public displays of affection from same-sex couples. Russian president Vladimir Putin has also made several anti-gay remarks, including his request that gays who visit Sochi for the games should "stay away from children." 

Credit: Ray Tamarra/GC Images

Ryan Lochte and U.S. Swimmers’ Gas Station Altercation

After the swimming events wrapped up at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, U.S. swimmers Ryan Lochte, Gunnar Bentz, Jack Conger and Jimmy Feigen went out for a night on the town to celebrate.

They claimed that they were stopped at a gas station by individuals posing as police officers and robbed at gunpoint. Rio police later said they were unable to find any evidence to corroborate the players’ story and believe the athletes lied about the alleged robbery to cover up a fight with a gas station security guard after the foursome vandalized a bathroom.

Officials later claimed that Conger and Bentz admitted the robbery story was untrue, while Lochte and Feigen adamantly denied that they fabricated any part of the story. Following huge backlash, Lochte admitted that he “over-exaggerated” his experience that night, and he was hit with a 10-month suspension from USA Swimming.

During his time on Celebrity Big Brother, Lochte opened up about the experience.

“I went from everyone loved me, and I was on top of the world, and then I was one of the most hated people,” he said in February 2019.

The athlete also elaborated about what happened when he told the story to the police at the time.

“They blamed us because I fabricated the story,” he noted. “I said the gun was pointed at my head but, it was, like, from me to you. But when I told the story, I was still, like, really, like, drunk.”

Credit: Sergei Guneyev/AP/Shutterstock

Russia's Ban

Following a doping scandal in 2019, Russian was banned from all international sporting competitions for four years by the World Anti-Doping Agency. After an appeal in 2020, the ban was reduced to two years and will end in December 2022.

Credit: Shutterstock

Kamila Valieva's Positive Drug Test

During the 2022 Winter Olympics, Valieva made headlines after testing positive for a prohibited substance before arriving in Beijing, China.

At the time, the Russia native was granted the chance to continue to compete in the women's single skating competition. Valieva wouldn't be able to leave with a medal, however, as various organizations contest her positive test for the banned medication trimetazidine.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled that the figure skater could still participate because she tested positive two months before the Olympics. The organization also reasoned that Valieva is considered a "protected person" since she is still a minor.