GREATEST SPORTS

CHEATS OF ALL-TIME
Bielan Nikita
 BELICHICK AND THE SPYGATE
SCANDAL

• With six Super Bowl titles on his CV, it is fair to say that New
England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick knows a thing or two
about winning in the NFL.
• However, cheating controversies have dogged his career, with one
of the most famous instances coming during a 2007 regular-season
game against the New York Jets. The Patriots were caught taping
the Jets’ defensive signals – a big no-no in American football.
• Further investigations uncovered diagrams of the Pittsburgh
Steelers’ defensive signals at New England’s headquarters. The
NFL fined Belichick $50,000, the Patriots organisation $250,000
and took away a 2008 first-round draft pick. Subsequent events
suggest they didn’t learn their lesson.
  JOHNSON SUFFERS STEROID
SHAME
• Top-class athletics has long had issues with performance-
enhancing drugs, but the situation came to a head in stunning
style at the 1988 Olympic Games.
• The 100 metres sprint is the glamour event of track and field,
and Ben Johnson’s victory over reigning champion Carl Lewis
was viewed as a landmark moment for Canada. Two days later,
Johnson was stripped of his gold medal after he tested positive
for stanozolol, and his record time of 9.79 seconds was deleted.
• Of the top five competitors in the race, only former world record
holder and eventual bronze medalist Calvin Smith never failed a
drug test during his career. The gold medal should have been his.
• The baseball scandal involving the Chicago White Sox in 1919 is
undoubtedly one of the most famous examples of match-fixing
by any sports team in history.
• The White Sox were heavy favourites to beat the Cincinnati
Reds, but rumours of the series being fixed were rampant after
huge bets were placed on the outsiders. Eight members of the
Chicago team were subsequently found guilty of conspiring to
throw the series and banned for life.
• Some of the players vehemently denied any wrongdoing, with
star outfielder ‘Shoeless’ Joe Jackson particularly vocal during
the rest of his life. He was famously portrayed as being an
innocent party in the superb 1989 movie Field of Dreams.
 THE ‘HAND OF GOD’
• Diego Maradona’s goal six minutes into the second half of
the 1986 World Cup quarter-final between England and
Argentina is one of the most infamous moments in sporting
history. Maradona punched the ball into the goal with his left
hand, but the officials failed to spot the infringement.
• Argentina won the game 2-1, leaving Maradona to claim
afterwards that the goal was scored ‘un poco con la cabeza de
Maradona y otro poco con la mano de Dios’ – a little with the
head of Maradona and a little with the hand of God.
• England goalkeeper Peter Shilton continued to harbour a
bitter grudge for years after the incident. He even blasted
Maradona for a lack of sportsmanship during an interview
about the Argentinian’s death in 2020.
 TIM DONAGHY SHAMES HIS NAME, AND THE
NBA

• The former NBA referee intentionally blew calls from 2005-07 or

made incorrect ones in order to win bets on the point spread of
games. He was investigated by the FBI for the matter and was later
convicted and sentenced to 15 months in prison. 
• His story shows the effect greed can have, not just on the players and
coaches, but most importantly on the officials placed in pressure
situations with big dollar figures thrown around. 
• In this case, it really was the refs.
 EAST GERMAN OLYMPIC FEMALE SWIMMERS
'68-'80

• It is believed over 10,000 German athletes

were on doping programs for the Olympic
Games from 1968 through the early 80s. The
East German women's swim teams of the era
became the poster children for doping and
cheating in sports, as evident by their manish
look from above the waist.
 MARION JONES TESTS POSITIVE FOR LOOKING
LIKE A MAN

• "She won five medals at the 2000 Summer

Olympics in Sydney, Australia but has since
agreed to forfeit all medals and prizes dating
back to September 2000 after admitting that she
took performance-enhancing drugs."
• For an event that is supposed to be a competition
of the world's elite athletes, there sure are a lot of
elite cheaters.
 FRED LORZ HOPS A RIDE, WINS A RACE

• In 1904, Fred Lorz was running in the 1904 Olympics

in St. Louis. He finished a marathon in three hours and
13 minutes, far and away faster than any other
competitor. He accomplished the feat by hitching a ride
with a passing car for nearly 11 miles of the race. He
had already posed for photos with then first daughter
Alice Roosevelt before race officials discovered he had
cheated.
• He received a lifetime ban which was lifted just a year
later. He would win the Boston Marathon the next year.
 CHINESE GYMNASTS BECOMING KNOWN FOR
CHEATING BY AGE

• In 2000, China used an underaged girl in the

Sydney Olympics, using a fake birth date and
certificate to determine her age. Dong Fangxiao,
this year, was stripped of her bronze medal
along with her teammates, and the U.S. team
was granted the medal.
• The 2008 Olympics are now under investigation
for the same issue on behalf of China's girls'
Olympic competitors.