Athletes who got caught cheating on camera
Summary
Top 20 athletes who got caught cheating on camera. You might have heard the saying that if you’re not cheating, you’re not trying. Well, that probably is the case in sports, since everybody looks for an extra edge to beat […]
Top 20 athletes who got caught cheating on camera. You might have heard the saying that if you’re not cheating, you’re not trying. Well, that probably is the case in sports, since everybody looks for an extra edge to beat the competition. Many athletes and coaches are ready to go the extra mile to get their hands on any kind of advantage they can get. However, once they get caught, it’s game over. Now for this list, we will take a look at the top 20 athletes who got caught cheating on camera.
Video: Athletes who got caught cheating on camera
Diego Maradona
The first on our list of athletes caught cheating is one of the best soccer players in history—Diego Maradona. The Argentine superstar was so good that one time when he cheated in a football game, it became a legendary moment in the history of the sport known as ‘The Hand of God.’
Maradona scored Argentina’s two winning goals in the quarterfinals of the 1986 World Cup, the first of which will forever live on in infamy. Instead of heading a swooping cross into the goal, he reached his hand up and tapped it in. Even though the accident was caught on camera, this happened long before the days of video replay review, so the goal stood as called on the field.
Video: Athletes who got caught cheating on camera
Sammy Sosa
The second one on the list of sports athletes who got caught cheating is Sammy Sosa, who has been suspected of using performance-enhancing drugs for most of his record-breaking career. He managed to maintain his innocence for a long time and never failed during the MLB-administered drug test. An event in 2003 did not involve drugs but still cost him an eight-game suspension, having fans side-eyeing all of his moonshot home runs.
During a match against the Rockies, Sammy hit a grounder to second base, breaking his bat. When the catcher picked up a piece of it, he noticed that the middle was hollowed and stuffed with cork. Sosa was expelled from the game. Later MLB confiscated nearly 100 of his bats, including some that were at the Hall of Fame.
Antonio Margarito
In 2008, Antonio Margarito was considered the hottest star in boxing after he knocked out world champion Miguel Cotto. In the brutal fight, Margarito was slowly smashing the more elusive Cotto over 11 rounds until Cotto finally succumbed to the punishment.
However, just seven months later, all of that brilliance became tainted when Margarito was busted trying to stuff his handwraps before a fight against Shane Mosley. Margarito eventually lost to Mosley and was suspended for a year for trying to add a foreign object to his wraps.
Marty McSorley
When Marty McSorley got exposed cheating in sports in the 1993 Stanley Cup finals, he was startled when the opposing team reported him to the ref. The Los Angeles Kings were winning against the Montreal Canadiens, tied 1-0, in game two. The Kings led 2-1 with just a few minutes left in the game, but something unexpected happened.
Canadiens captain Guy Carbonneau asked his head coach to check the curve on the stick of Kings defenseman Marty McSorley. Consequently, the referee discovered that the stick was illegally curved, and Marty was given a two-minute penalty. The Canadiens then scored just 50 seconds into overtime and won the next three games, claiming the Stanley Cup.
Joe Niekro
Pitchers have been trying different ways to mark up baseballs to gain small advantages since the beginning. The ‘spitball’ was outlawed in 1919 after pitchers were spitting on the ball to give the ball a weird texture and increase pitches’ movement.
Joe Niekro of the Minnesota Twins was caught cheating in games when he also messed with the ball, but not with spit. In 1986, an umpire found Niekro’s nail file in his pocket that was used to scuff the balls and give his iconic knuckleball unpredictable movement. He was tossed from the game, suspended for ten more, and that nail file shrouded his legacy.
Greg Hardy
After getting kicked out of the NFL for domestic violence, Greg Hardy decided to change his career direction and move on to mixed martial arts. He worked his way to the UFC, which wasn’t extremely hard since he was 6’5″ and a natural fit for the sport. However, he still had his ups and downs when he lost his first UFC fight due to an illegal knee.
During his seventh fight that landed him here, Hardy decided to use his inhaler. He was permitted to use the inhaler from a commission official between rounds and eventually win the fight. But the result was deemed unfair when it was determined the inhaler usage was illegal.
Tom Brady
‘Deflate-Gate’ made its way to headlines after it was suspected that Tom Brady was telling team staff that he liked the balls the Patriots offense plays with to be deflated to a level illegal by NFL standards. When the NFL tried to investigate the case, Brady destroyed his phone and erased all evidence.
It’s unclear what deflated balls do exactly. However, the fact that it was illegal remains clear. Tom was eventually suspended for four games after a profound investigation. Tom responded by winning the Super Bowl and Super Bowl MVP that season.
Luis Resto
Luis Resto wasn’t expected to win against the undefeated prospect, Billy Collins, in 1983, but he managed to do so in dominant fashion. After the fight, Collins’ father and trainer, Billy Sr., shook Resto’s hand and realized his gloves felt strangely thin, so he asked the New York State Athletic Commission to confiscate the gloves and investigate.
Over an ounce of the gloves’ padding had been replaced with chalk. Resto pleaded ignorance, but he and his trainer, Panama Lewis, were suspended indefinitely. Resto eventually admitted he removed the padding and said Lewis soaked his handwraps in plaster to make them harder, which got him two and a half years in prison.
Simon Dyson
With all sports being broadcast on live television, you’d think it’d be even harder to cheat, and pro golfer Simon Dyson learned this the hard way. At a Shanghai tournament, little-known golfer Simon Dyson was disqualified after footage showed him pushing down a spike mark on the green.
Altering the course to improve a shot is a violation of the rules, but officials on the course didn’t notice until TV viewers brought the incident to their attention. Simon was fined £30,000 and given a suspended two-month ban from the European Tour for the violation, but it was determined his actions weren’t intentional.
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Rosie Ruiz
When Rosie Ruiz crossed the finish line at the 1980 Boston Marathon, she didn’t exactly look like someone who just ran 26 miles. That led to some suspicions. Later, the discovery that she’d cheated when officials noticed she didn’t include significant locations in her recollection of the event, and runners didn’t recall her passing them.
Then witnesses spoke out about her bursting onto the track late in the course, and a freelance photographer from New York outed her for riding the subway during the New York Marathon just six months earlier. It was clear she had cheated then, using the New York race to qualify for the Boston Marathon.
Michael Pineda
Another pitcher, another substance that’s not meant to be on the mound: This time, the element in question was pine tar, which has long been used in baseball to improve bats’ grip. It is allowed in that sense, but pitchers like to use some to get a better grip on the ball as well, usually in cold weather conditions.
Yankees pitcher Michael Pineda didn’t do the best job of hiding his stash of pine tar in a game against the Red Sox in 2014. When Pineda stepped on the mound in the second inning with a large splotch of pine tar on his neck, it didn’t take long for the umpire to notice what was going on and toss him from the game immediately.
Danny Almonte
There’s nothing quite like watching 12-year-olds perform at a nearly professional level for nothing more than pure joy until the adults ruin it—like in the 2001 Little League World Series, with the Baby Bombers from the Bronx, New York. Star pitcher Danny Almonte towered over his opponents and threw a 76 mph fastball.
Almonte threw the first LLWS perfect game in nearly 30 years and struck out 62 of the 72 batters that series, so many started to question if he was 12 years old. After an investigation, it was discovered that he was 14, and his parents had forged documents so he could play in the Little League. The team was forfeited.
Neymar
On 26 June 2013, Brazil played against Uruguay, when fullback Walter Gargano hit Neymar with his hand, and the Brazilian “flew” as if he had received a very strong blow.
This moment immediately spread all over the internet. People even started creating memes and gifs, which added the strength that could actually make Neymar make such a flight.
Neymar can rightfully be considered king of the simulations. This behavior looks especially strange, given that the 21-year-old Brazilian is considered one of the best players in the world. He is frequently called an actor who doesn’t have an Oscar yet.
Nelson Piquet, Jr.
Cheating hurts, not just theoretically and philosophically—only this time, it hurt physically as well. Crashing a car can cause permanent damage, but that’s exactly what was asked of Nelson Piquet Jr. back in 2013. He did as he was told, spinning out and crashing into a wall to help his teammate Fernando Alonso win the race.
Piquet eventually confessed to the cheating after officials confirmed that the track didn’t have any cranes that would allow a damaged car to be lifted off the course. The team’s managing director, Flavio Briatore, was banned from all Formula 1 events.
Mike Tyson
The funny part about Mike Tyson’s cheating scandal is it didn’t even help him win a fight. If anything, it was an escape for him from an evident loss. Tyson was being battered in the first three rounds of his rematch with Evander Holyfield in 1997, so he resorted to the only tactic he had left: biting.
Tyson famously bit Holyfield’s ear not once, but twice, in that third round and was disqualified after the round ended, giving the win to Holyfield. Tyson was fined over $3 million for the bite, and his boxing license was revoked for a year. However, he didn’t seem too shocked by this.
Boris Onishchenko
Former Soviet modern pentathlete Boris Onishchenko joined the list of people who got caught cheating in the 1976 Olympics when he concocted an intricate épée that included a wiring system that could score him a point even if he hadn’t landed a blow on his opponent. When facing off with British team captain Jim Fox, the British team noticed Boris was scoring points without making contact.
When officials discovered the modified épée, it was confiscated, and Boris had to continue with a regulation weapon. The strange part is Boris was considered the best fencer in the games at the time and won the match by a wide margin anyway. Eventually, Boris was disqualified from the event, and the British took home the gold.
Julie Miller
It’s unclear exactly how Julie Miller cut the course at Ironman Canada in 2015, but officials caught her trying to get away with it. Miller tried to trick the timing chip that racers wear to keep track of their splits. She logged her splits manually instead, claiming the chip malfunctioned and fell off during the competition.
She finished with a career-best time in the marathon portion of the competition, which raised suspicions. A New York Times investigation led to video proof that Miller had skipped parts of the course, and she was then banned from sanctioned events for two years due to her transgression.
Dora Ratjen
One of the top athletes, German high jumper Dora Ratjen, competed in the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, placing 4th in the competition. She also competed in the European Athletics Championships in 1938, setting the world record in the high jump. This controversy surrounds Dora’s gender, as it was later discovered she was born a man but competed as a woman.
Whatever the case, Dora, or Heinrich Ratjen, was stripped of her EUC gold and labeled by many as a cheater, whether there was malicious intent or not. Time Magazine proposed that this was the result of a Nazi plot, where Heinrich was forced to pose as a woman for the athletic glory of the Reich.
2012 Olympics – China
If you lose on purpose, is that cheating? The answer is yes, according to the Badminton World Federation. This cost several women’s badminton teams the gold medal in the 2012 Olympics. Multiple teams from China, South Korea, and Indonesia purposely threw games to secure a more favorable seeding in the medal rounds.
For China, their goal was to land two teams in the gold medal game, securing both gold and silver for their country. This tactic was unsuccessful, though, as the federation disqualified all of the teams from the games for not using best efforts and conducting themselves in a manner that is clearly abusive or detrimental to the sport.
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Spanish Paralympic Team
Believe it or not, the Paralympics are subject to athletes cheating just like any other sporting or entertainment event. In 2000, the Spanish Paralympic basketball team claimed a gold medal, but it was later discovered that not all of its players were handicapped. At one point, the coach told his team, Move down a gear, or they’ll figure out you’re not disabled.
One disgraced player, Carlos Ribagorda, revealed to Spanish media that most of the team did not even undergo the necessary testing to prove they met the standard to play in the games. In the wake of the news, the team was disqualified and ordered to return their gold medals.
Which is the most hilarious example of cheating? Do you think cheating in war and sports is fair? Let us know in the comment section below.