#5 Fred Lorz (1904 St Louis Games)
American marathon runner Fred Lorz finished first, or so they thought in the 1904 St Louis Olympic games, only to be later revealed that he had stopped running during the course and had taken a ride in his manager’s car. Although he did run the initial 14 km and the last stretch, he had travelled more than half of the course (17km) in the comfort of a car.
Talk about strong manager-player relationship! After he admitted to the deception he was banned for life, his ban was lifted when he apologised for his not so sporting behaviour. The gold was given to fellow deserving American, Tom Hick.
#4 Blood in the water match (1956 Melbourne Games)
The infamous match was a water polo match between reigning champions Hungary and Soviet Union. The match was played in the aftermath of the 1956 Hungarian revolution which was in response to the brutality of the Soviet Army. The match saw a lot of incidents with both teams exchanging blow after blows; the match was even halted with a minute to go.
The image of blood streaking down from Hungarian Ervin Zador’s right eye has become famous over the years. Hungary won the match 4-0 and they successfully defended their Olympic title by defeating Yugoslavia in the final.
#3 Ann Packer (1964 Tokyo Games)
Ann Packer, the British runner’s, preferred event was the 400m. When she came second in the 400m final, she was rightly disappointed. Such was her disappointment that she decided to go on a shopping spree rather than compete in her less favoured 800m.
But, as they say, love conquers all. Robert Brightwell, her fiancée, who was also the captain of the British Olympic team, persuaded her to compete. She won gold in the 800m and a silver in the 400m.
#2 Byun Jong-II (1988 Seoul Games)
If you thought Zidane’s head-butt was the only head-butt in the history of major sporting events you are wrong. Meet Byun Jong-II, a South Korean boxer who head-butted his Bulgarian opponent in one of the bantamweight division matches.
If the head-butt wasn’t an over reaction then his reaction afterwards was certainly so. Byun Jong-II remained in the ring after the match, as a sign of protest, and the officials waited for an hour and decided to turn off the light leaving him alone in the darkness.
#1 Shizo Kanakuri (1912 Stockholm Games)
Perhaps the best one on this list, the Japanese marathon runner disappeared during this race in the 1912 games. It was later known that runner lost consciousness due to the severe heat conditions (many participants also collapsed) and was cared by a local family. Embarrassed by his failure Kanakuri returned to Japan without telling the officials who of course listed him as officially missing.
Although he did later compete in the 1920 and 1924 games, it wasn’t until the mid-1960 that the Swedish officials knew that he was alive and offered him to complete the marathon; an offer he accepted. He completed the marathon in 1967 clocking a final time of 54 years, 8 months, 6days, 5 hours, 32 minutes and 20.379 seconds.
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