While baseball may have steroid and football may have illegitimate videotaping , many minor sportswoman outside the mainstream have been shake by major scandal of their own . Here are eight of our favorites that do n’t postulate performance - enhancing drugs or Tonya Harding .
1. It’s a Sprint, Not a Marathon
Cuban American smuggler Rosie Ruiz did n’t just win the 1980 Boston Marathon , she set up a new record with a clock time of 2:31:56 . However , on snug inspection , it turn out Ruiz believably had n’t lean the whole slipstream . Or even most of it . No one saw Ruiz plodding along in the early going , and she somehow shaved over 25 minutes off her impressively flying time in the 1979 New York Marathon only six calendar month earlier , further raising eyebrows .
It turned out that possibly the New York Marathon time was n’t completely legit , either ; a freelancer photographer come forward with the revealing that she had in spades been with Ruiz on the subway during the airstream . Soon , a narrative work : it seemed that Ruiz had cheated in the New York Marathon , and cheated so well she ’d posted an striking sub - three - hr metre and qualified for Boston , a major accomplishment for any marathon runner . Her boss was so activated about this triumph that he offered to pay her expense to run Boston . At this decimal point , Ruiz was probably too embarrassed to fess up to her other misbehavior , so she went to Boston and waited at Kenmore Square , around a mile from the finish origin , leap into the raceway , and sprint to the refinement . Most observer do n’t remember Ruiz was trying to bring home the bacon , just post a goodish time , but she jumped in too early and set a unexampled record .
Marathon officials stripped Ruiz of the deed after interview her and finding she knew very little about the course ’s landmarks or space - run jargon , but she still keep that she finish both races fair and straight . As such , Ruiz has never returned her first place medal .
2. The Day the Jai Alai Died
Jai Alai , the handball variant playact with long , curved basket , is one of the world ’s libertine sports . It ’s also one of the most popular for gamblers , a fact that tripped up the sportswoman in the Philippines in the mid-1980s . After a massive secret plan - fix scandal came to light in 1988 , the Filipino government decided it would deal with the job in a manner even Pete Rose would have found extreme : it banned the entire sport . There was no more jai alai in the Philippines . The forbiddance lasted until the secret plan was officially revived in 2001 .
3. Badminton: Suddenly Dangerous
Although badminton is commonly just played at picnics and in backyards in the U.S. , it ’s a very popular competitive mutation throughout Asia . On July 28 , 1988 , it even turned deadly in India . Syed Modi , a democratic figure who had win the national championship eight times as well as a atomic number 79 at the Commonwealth Games and a title at the 1984 Austrian Open , was gun down by a mathematical group of men as he allow a praxis sitting in Lucknow .
The murder became the talking of the Indian press , with guess rag that the slaying was organize by one of Modi ’s friends , who was also rumored to be the fan of Modi ’s married woman . Other members of the crush contended this arrest was a cerise herring perpetrated by choice parson Rajiv Gandhi . Although several catch were finally made , no one was ever charged with the murder , and the criminal offence remains unresolved .
4. Harness Racket
Harness racing is a scrap unlike from the horse racing you see in competitions like the Kentucky Derby . Jockeys sit in a trivial cart call a sulky , and the horse pulls them along at a trotting gait . However , in the fifties it was as corrupt as any other major gambling effort .
Harness racing was quickly gaining popularity in its move from bucolic enterprise to legitimate gambling sport until a major scandal shake it in 1953 . The previous year a Labour power named Thomas F. Lewis had been gun down outside his apartment in the Bronx , and the investigation into his untimely demise turned up some sordid tales of the racing manufacture . Lewis had been president of a chapter of the AFL ’s Building Service Employee ’s Union , and as such had been the de facto foreman of Yonkers Raceway , the most popular harness racing track in the country .
During his rein Lewis forced the course ’s management to lawlessly lease hoodlums and ex-husband - convict as caterpillar tread employees without give in to backcloth checks . The track was also forced to retain four tough as " proletariat troubleshooters" to underwrite against future labor disturbances that could staunch racing . When Governor Thomas Dewey get wind of this rottenness , he promptly closed the track until each of the 1200 employees could be fingerprint and decently identify as suitable for a racecourse .
5. Camp Barbed Wire
Rugby union is a major passion in South Africa , and the national team , known as the Springboks , wanted to win the 2003 Rugby World Cup so much that they go a bit overboard in their prep . When the roster for the result was name in September 2003 , coach Rudolph Straeuli decided to broadcast the squad to a law camp in the South African George Bush . The activity , known as Kamp Staaldraad , or " Camp Barbed Wire , " would work the players together as a team .
This excursion was no incarnate squad - edifice retreat , though . It was a second more fell : instrumentalist were allegedly forced at point into a freezing lake to pump up rugby balls , then dumped naked into a fox hole where gelid water was pelt on their heads as they sang the national hymn . Other story include the news that the histrion were hale to creep nude across gravel and kill chickens .
When the South African media bring wind of this training exercise it became a full - blown scandal that cost Straeulli his task and earned the scorn of most devotee . Even worse , the affray demoralized the Springboks , who could n’t make it past New Zealand in the quarterfinal .
6. Fishy Results
In 2005 troller Paul Tormanen of Lee ’s Summit , Missouri , was a rising lead on the competitory bass fishing circuit , often grabbing his demarcation of fish within an 60 minutes of a contest opening . His career seemed to really be taking off , at least until he was arrested in Louisiana for felony contest faker . Tormanen let in a fairly introductory scheme for come through some big - money bass part tournaments ; he ’d catch his Pisces the Fishes beforehand , take them out on the lake , and tie them to stump . He used his tethered Pisces to win the 2005 Red River Bassmaster Central Open in Louisiana , in the cognitive operation taking home a new fishing gravy holder and $ 10,000 cash . unluckily for Tormanen , another rival found one of his ringer Pisces during a practice session round and secretly marked it with the help of Pisces and wildlife official . When Tormanen consider in with his catch , authority caught onto his fraud . The incident earned Tormanen a lifetime Bachelor of Arts in Nursing from B.A.S.S. competitions , and he received a suspend conviction of six months , a fine , 120 hours of community serving , and two years of probation
7. Tug of Whine
Tug of warfare was still a medal event during the 1908 Olympics , and that meant it could become sweep in a scandal . When a squad comprised of Liverpool ’s finest police officer meet the American tugger , the Englishmen quickly bump off the Yanks . The Americans , though , cried foul . They claimed that the Brits were bear illegal bang equipped with steel cleats to give them a grip reward . The Liverpudlians countered that they were just police officers wearing police boots and that the Americans would have to divvy up with it . This reaction so enrage the American squad that they abruptly withdrew from the outcome , and the squad from Liverpool snuff it on to acquire the silver . That descend the Brits magnanimously offer to pull against the Americans with both sides wearing stocking feet and the proceeds going to the charity of their choice . However , it does n’t seem this friction match ever take on place .
8. Drug Racing
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