Top 30 Most SCANDALOUS Olympic Controversies Ever
These scandals rocked the sports world. Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the most infamous controversies at the Paralympic, Summer, and Winter Olympic games.
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00:00Well, I've talked to a lot of parents who have some very sad kids because they wanted to watch
00:03the opening ceremony, and you deprived them of that, France, so well done.
00:06Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the most infamous controversies
00:11at the Paralympic, Summer, and Winter Olympic Games. We'll explore the shocking incident and
00:16the possible repercussions. We won't be examining incidents that involved mass tragedies, such as
00:21the 1972 Munich Massacre. Okay, let's do the backflip.
00:31Number 30, Canada's drone scandal, Paris, France. This scandal is certainly a modern one.
00:37Canada's women's soccer team was found guilty of using a drone to spy on New Zealand's team's
00:42practices. It was New Zealand that initially reported this to police and asked as well for
00:46the IOC Integrity Unit to take a look at this. This verdict came after Canada had defeated both
00:52New Zealand and France, but the six-point deduction the team suffered from the violation
00:56left a challenging road ahead for the rest of the games. Coach Bev Priestman was given a year-long
01:00ban as a result and quickly issued an apology to the players. And again, I would just like to
01:06apologize to our country, but also to New Zealand. The Canadian team had brought home the gold in
01:12women's soccer in Tokyo in 2021, but this uncovered misconduct unfortunately casts a
01:18dark shadow over the team's legacy. It does not reflect Canadians or who we are as competitors.
01:24Number 29, banned for doping before it was illegal, Nagano, Japan. The 1998 Winter Olympics
01:31was meant to be a celebration for Ross Rebliati. After all, the Canadian was the first gold
01:35medalist in the debuting sport of snowboarding, winning in the men's giant slalom event. But then,
01:41Rebliati tested positive for trace amounts of THC. After a vote by the International Olympic
01:46Committee, or IOC, he was disqualified. However, cannabis had not been banned by the IOC at that
01:52point. The Canadian Olympic Association is hereby requested to withdraw and return the medal.
01:58Canada appealed the decision, which was successful, and Rebliati could wear his
02:02medal with tarnished pride. The IOC then put through a ban on the substance two months later.
02:08Due to this drama, while Rebliati enjoyed the celebrity, he was added to the U.S.'s no-fly list,
02:13which damaged his snowboarding career.
02:15I might have to wear a gas mask from now on, but whatever.
02:20Number 28, badminton players match-fixing, London, England.
02:24Eight elite athletes who were deliberately and flagrantly losing their matches.
02:29It's rare when two teams collude with each other to fix a result in sport,
02:33but it's unprecedented for four to do so in the same event. At the 2012 Summer Olympics
02:39in London, England, multiple women's doubles badminton teams did just that. In Group A,
02:44China and South Korea were undefeated when they faced each other in the last match.
02:48The same situation happened for Group C with Indonesia and another South Korean pairing.
02:53During these bouts, the athletes seemingly threw the matches by making many errors.
02:58They did this to get a more favorable matchup in the quarterfinals.
03:01After the Badminton World Federation examined the matches, they ruled the
03:05accused players had broken the rules and were disqualified from the tournament.
03:09And as for the Chinese, South Korean, and Indonesian teams,
03:12they could face further sanctions from the IOC.
03:14Number 27, the Kosakiewicz gesture, Moscow, Soviet Union.
03:19Leading up to the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, Soviet Union, Poland's Wladyslaw
03:24Kosakiewicz was one of the favorites to take gold in the pole vault after top finishes
03:28in several competitions. When he competed at the prestigious event,
03:32he, along with any other non-Soviet athlete, was booed and whistled at by the crowd.
03:36Yet even with that against him, the Polish vaulter achieved a 5.78-meter jump,
03:42taking the gold and breaking a world record. However, during several jumps,
03:46Kosakiewicz defied the hostility by showing the bras d'honneur, also known as the Italian salute,
03:52which is seen as the equivalent of whipping out the bird.
03:55Soviet officials demanded Kosakiewicz be stripped of the medal, which didn't happen.
04:00Number 26, Team Great Britain equestrian scandal, Paris, France.
04:05Naturally, horse safety should always be of the utmost importance in equestrian sports.
04:09But unfortunately, an abusive incident was uncovered surrounding a member of Great
04:14Britain's Olympic team. Charlotte Dujardin is provisionally suspended for a period of six months.
04:19An incriminating video was released of gold medalist Charlotte Dujardin mistreating her
04:24steed during a training session. This caused massive waves, and the situation was further
04:29investigated by PETA. Dujardin pulled out of the games as a result, but the team still managed to
04:34clinch the gold in equestrian eventing. Suddenly, an announcement from her that
04:38she's been forced to withdraw because of this investigation into her conduct.
04:43While this scandal was certainly an unfortunate one,
04:45it's crucial that animal safety issues are brought to the forefront of such athletic events.
04:50This is not the first time there has been an issue of welfare of an animal within the sport.
04:56Number 25, Convicted Dutch volleyball player, Paris, France.
05:01The Netherlands beach volleyball team received many boos from the crowd when
05:04player Steven van de Velde entered the court. Van de Velde was sentenced to four years in
05:08prison after having been found guilty of assault against a girl he had met online.
05:12When sentenced, the judge had commented that his, quote,
05:15Hopes of representing his country now lie as a shattered dream. But shockingly,
05:19after serving only 13 months of his time, van de Velde was selected by Dutch Olympic
05:24officials to join the team. Clearly, the consequences of his actions were ultimately
05:28minimal, though the media and audience backlash was considerable.
05:32Number 24, Surya Bonaly's backflip, Nagano, Japan.
05:36Running up to the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan,
05:40Frances Bonaly hit disaster as she ruptured her Achilles tendon.
05:43Amazingly, the figure skater still competed in the short program but had to adapt her routine.
05:49Rather than play it safe, Bonaly became the first person at the Olympics to land a stunning
05:53backflip on one blade. However, this maneuver has been banned by the International Skating Union
05:59since 1976. As such, she had points deducted. Regardless, Bonaly celebrated to the audience
06:05for achieving this impressive feat, turning her back to the judges. One official approached the
06:10judges and told them Bonaly's behavior was unacceptable, even though she came in 10th.
06:15When combined with free skating, Bonaly went down in Winter Olympic history with her performance.
06:20People were just crazy about it.
06:22Number 23, Greg Louganis' head injury, Seoul, South Korea.
06:27Representing the United States in diving at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea,
06:32Louganis looked to defend his two golds from the previous event. However, during the springboard,
06:37he struck his head on the board during a dive, causing a wound and a concussion.
06:42While hindsight dictates he shouldn't have continued competing with a concussion,
06:45he did, and won two golds. In 1995, Louganis came out with the news that he was diagnosed with HIV
06:53six months before the 1988 event. Straight away, people began criticizing him for not stating his
06:59diagnosis at the time as he bled in the water, leading to fears of infection. However, scientists
07:04disputed that anyone could have contracted the virus this way.
07:07Number 22, Spain's Paralympic basketball team, Sydney, Australia.
07:12At the 2000 Summer Paralympic Games in Sydney, Australia,
07:15Spain's men's basketball team in the intellectual disability class took the gold.
07:20Not long after the event closed, the truth came out.
07:23The Spanish team were, I think, laughed at and labeled the most unsporting
07:29team in history. I mean, unsporting's the wrong word. It's a euphemism for cheating.
07:33Undercover journalist and member of Spain's winning team, Carlos Ribagorda,
07:37told the press that the team hadn't had the necessary medical tests to show their disability.
07:42Only two of the 12 players were deemed to have an intellectual disability.
07:46Ribagorda claimed that Fernando Martín Vicente, an official for Spain's Paralympic organization,
07:51had purposely signed up non-disabled athletes to secure gold.
07:55It was a false medal. It was a false national anthem.
07:58The European nation was disqualified, and Vicente resigned.
08:02He was later found guilty of fraud in 2013 and fined 5,400 euros.
08:07This scandal caused intellectual disability events to be banned for two Paralympics.
08:12They'd lost a spectacular gamble, and in doing so had given the
08:15International Paralympic Committee its greatest PR disaster of all time.
08:20Number 21, China's underage gymnasts, Sydney, Australia.
08:24After helping China secure a bronze at the 1999 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships
08:30Women's Team event, Dong Fengxiao helped them repeat the achievement at the 2000
08:34Summer Olympics for the women's artistic team all around.
08:37Still wanting to be involved after a severe injury forced her to retire,
08:40Dong signed up to be a technical official at the 2008 Summer Olympics.
08:44However, her date of birth was different from the one she was registered under in 2000.
08:49According to the newer birth year, Dong would have been 14 years old in Sydney, Australia,
08:54two years younger than the minimum age set in 1997.
08:57After an investigation, China was disqualified from the 1999 Worlds
09:01and the 2000 Olympics and had to return their medals.
09:05Number 20, many concerns over the 2020 Olympics, Tokyo, Japan.
09:11The COVID pandemic not only pushed the original 2020 date of the Tokyo Olympics to the following
09:16summer, it also brought up issues of contagious spread.
09:20However, that's just the tip of the iceberg.
09:23There is a local transmission. And if we, you know, send an inconsistent signal
09:29that we should celebrate the Olympics, then, you know, people will be confused.
09:35Various events are set to occur in Fukushima,
09:38despite possible safety concerns from the 2011 nuclear disaster.
09:42Our gargant counter reads radiation levels 100 times higher than it should be.
09:47Tokyo Bay's water quality has also been questioned with respect to its warm temperature,
09:52repellent smell, and reported high levels of fecal coliform bacteria,
09:58which could result in typhoid and dysentery.
10:01Meanwhile, asbestos was found in one of the competition's buildings.
10:05The game's logos and stadium designs were accused of plagiarism,
10:09Russia allegedly conducted pre-cyber reconnaissance,
10:12and there have been issues regarding politics and worker rights.
10:16Right before the games, one of the event's composers resigned
10:19and the opening ceremony director was fired when past comments came to light.
10:31There was a lot of hype preceding the 3,000-meter event at the 1984 Summer Olympics,
10:36as many were excited to watch South Africa's Zola Budd, who was competing for Great Britain,
10:42race American world champion Mary Decker.
10:45Unfortunately, it was a major letdown.
10:47They repeatedly bumped into each other, and Decker went down hard following a collision,
10:53forcing her to be carried off the field.
10:55The barefoot Budd was troubled by the incident and finished a disappointing seventh.
11:00The media didn't know who to blame, and each runner earned a degree of criticism.
11:05Most fell on Budd, but a later International Association of Athletics Federation's
11:10investigation found that the collision was not her fault.
11:14To this day, Decker blames it on her inexperience in pack running.
11:24In 2009, Rio de Janeiro won the bid to host the 2016 Summer Games.
11:29There was just one problem.
11:31Working-class favela Vila Autódromo was in the spot where they wanted the Olympic Village,
11:36so they attempted to kick everyone out.
11:39The favela inhabitants received eviction notices,
11:42reducing the area's population by 83 percent.
11:45Those remaining formed a civil society and rejected eviction,
11:49often coming face-to-face with riot police and their community's literal destruction.
11:55The billionaire owner of the real estate development firm Carvalho Hoskin
11:58further invited controversy with media comments about the indigenous population.
12:03It's estimated that 60,000 locals were displaced for the village's construction.
12:08Trimming pools, tennis courts, everything you can imagine.
12:12This is a five-star accommodation environment that you've never,
12:16I've never seen in a games village before.
12:23The 1988 Summer Olympics were held in Seoul, South Korea.
12:27Representing his home country was light middleweight boxer Park See Hun,
12:31who faced American Roy Jones Jr. in the gold medal match.
12:35Jones landed 86 punches against Park, with Park only landing 32.
12:41Despite this, Park was awarded the win in a controversial three-to-two decision,
12:46prompting an intense outcry.
12:48A judge allegedly admitted Jones should have won,
12:51but that he voted for Park to avoid disappointing South Korea.
12:55Multiple judges involved with the finals were subsequently prohibited from boxing,
12:59and an IOC investigation found that South Korean officials
13:03had won the judges over after taking them out for dinner.
13:06A new scoring system was later integrated to prevent future issues.
13:10When you can take a kid 19 years old, he defeats his rival clearly,
13:16and you rob him, it really eliminates the integrity of that sport.
13:27During the 2016 Rio Olympics,
13:30various American swimmers, including Ryan Lochte, claimed they had been robbed at gunpoint.
13:35It didn't take long for the so-called truth to come out.
13:39The athletes, some of whom were reportedly intoxicated,
13:42had allegedly vandalized a gas station and urinated in public,
13:46prompting a security guard confrontation.
13:49They then paid the guards for the damages.
13:51Deemed Lochte-gate, the incident saw the eponymous swimmer charged for falsely reporting a crime.
13:58He was also suspended for 10 months by the U.S. Olympic Committee
14:09and banned from its training centers.
14:12However, a later USA Today investigation brought up the possibility that the swimmers
14:16were actually innocent of vandalism and may have actually been coerced into handing over the money.
14:28After the elimination of the Soviet team as a result of Onyshenko's disqualification,
14:32hopes begin to revive.
14:34As a distinguished yet aging modern pentathlete and respected figure in the Soviet Union,
14:3938-year-old Onyshenko had a considerable reputation to uphold in his homeland.
14:43The pressure to perform, particularly in the Cold War era of sport,
14:48was too much to bear, however, and caused the former army major to cheat,
14:53eventually leading to his downfall.
14:55Desperate to match his previous silver medal performance,
14:58he altered his epee to register hits even when he wasn't making contact with his opponent.
15:10Just as quickly as this plot was discovered, Boris the Cheat was stripped of his sporting honors
15:16and personally reprimanded by Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev,
15:20therefore suffering the very fall from grace he was trying to avoid.
15:25Angel Matos kicks a referee.
15:28Beijing, China
15:29Cuban taekwondo fighter Angel Matos took home gold at the 2000 Sydney Olympics,
15:35and following a disappointing 2004 outcome, he was looking to reclaim some glory in Beijing.
15:41Instead, he was permanently kicked out of the sport.
15:44During the bronze medal match, Matos sustained an injury
15:47and took a brief medical timeout called kieshi.
15:50Kieshi runs out after one minute, so when this time elapsed and Matos
15:54hadn't returned to the ring, the referee called the game
15:57and awarded the win to Matos' opponent.
16:00In return, Matos kicked him in the face.
16:03Perhaps unsurprisingly, Matos was subsequently banned for life
16:07by the World Taekwondo Federation, effectively ending his professional career.
16:19Salt Lake City really wanted to host the Olympics,
16:22and had bid four times to no avail.
16:24Finally, their luck turned around in 1995, and they were given the 2002 Winter Olympics.
16:30However, allegations of bribery soon surfaced.
16:33IOC officials had reportedly accepted money from the Salt Lake City organizing committee,
16:38and it wasn't the only time.
16:40After future digging, it was found that IOC officials had accepted
16:43bribes for both the 1998 and 2000 Olympics.
16:47The controversy launched numerous investigations,
16:50including one by the U.S. Department of Justice.
16:53Fifteen bribery charges were laid, and many prominent officials
16:57either resigned their posts or were officially expelled for corruption.
17:08The Salt Lake City Games were mired in controversy.
17:11If it wasn't charges of bribery, it was a reportedly fixed figure skating competition.
17:17The pair's figure skating event ended in trouble when Russia won gold over Canada,
17:22despite Canada's arguably better performance.
17:25The media criticized the judges for their decision,
17:28and suspicion landed on French judge Marie-Reine Le Gougne.
17:32As soon as I had put down my pen, I started to suffer from a series of attacks,
17:37physical, verbal, and the worst, moral.
17:41She supposedly broke down when confronted by the technical committee's chair,
17:45and later admitted she'd been coerced into voting for the Russians.
17:49She said she was under pressure and that it was not her own opinion.
17:53However, she later retracted these statements,
17:56stating she'd genuinely believed the Russians had won.
17:59Though an investigation into the event was never launched, Le Gougne's judging career was over.
18:11The American men's basketball team was the stuff of Olympics legend,
18:15having won every gold medal event since 1936.
18:19They were also completely undefeated, with a 63-0 Olympics record.
18:25And then, the Cold War was brought to the basketball court,
18:28as Team USA faced the Soviet Union in the 1972 Munich Finals.
18:33Following an intense game, the final three seconds were a complete mess in terms of technical
18:39gameplay, and without going into complex detail, the USSR edged ahead for a 51-50 victory.
18:46Team USA wasn't happy and protested the outcome.
18:50They refused to accept silver,
18:52and the surviving team members continue to refuse both the outcome of the game and the medals today.
19:03As far back as 2000, Chinese officials were reportedly implementing
19:08environmental improvement projects, aka the systematic demolition of Beijing's impoverished areas,
19:15resulting in an estimated displacement of 1.5 million people for the 2008 Summer Games.
19:20These people have been forced out of their homes to make way for profitable real estate projects.
19:26Although local government claimed they only moved between 6,000 and 15,000, all with compensation,
19:32numerous reports exposed the mistreatment of those unwilling to shift by heavy-handed police.
19:37Beijing's floating population, consisting of rural migrants, the homeless, and other
19:43so-called second-class citizens, were most at risk from this purported social cleansing.
19:48For now, many live in neighborhoods curtained off by gray concrete walls,
19:52built, authorities say, to make Beijing prettier.
19:55It was reported that $40 billion was spent on Olympic or corporate infrastructure,
20:00while human rights were allegedly ignored,
20:02adding to an already large list of controversies surrounding the Beijing Games.
20:07Human rights groups have repeatedly expressed concern over the evictions and say Beijing is
20:12not living up to its promises that the Olympics will improve the country's rights record.
20:179. Jim Thorpe's Disqualification – Stockholm, Sweden
20:22Reportedly dubbed the greatest athlete in the world by the King of Sweden,
20:26this legendary all-rounder took gold in both the pentathlon and decathlon at the 1912 Summer Games,
20:32setting records that endured well into the 20th century.
20:36There must be something in the Thorpe legend for people to still be talking about him
20:4050 years after he's dead.
20:41The Native American and European's athletic career is defined by tales of his nonchalant
20:46excellence. His winning the high jump in mismatched shoes is one of many anecdotes.
20:52Yet his feats will always be tainted by the IOC's elitist and potentially
20:56racist attempts to punish him for violating their Victorian rules on amateurism,
21:00rules that white athletes frequently abused without consequence.
21:03As far as I'm concerned, he's a Simon Pure athlete.
21:08You mustn't take those medals away from him, gentlemen. You mustn't.
21:13Under serious pressure from Thorpe supporters,
21:15the IOC did eventually yield on the subject by returning Thorpe's medals in the early 1980s.
21:21They were presented to his seven surviving children.
21:258. The African Boycott – Montreal, Quebec, Canada
21:29During the 1976 Montreal Games, South Africa was in the height of apartheid,
21:34a system of racial segregation based on the concept of white supremacy
21:38that saw major oppression against black Africans.
21:41In 1976, the New Zealand all-blacks rugby team toured South Africa,
21:46and dozens of African countries requested that the IOC ban New Zealand from the then-upcoming
21:52Olympics. In their opinion, the controversial tour indirectly condoned the regime,
21:57and they wanted New Zealand punished. The IOC refused,
22:01so 29 countries protested the Olympics and failed to show.
22:05This prevented the former 1,500-meter world record holder from competing,
22:09as Philbert Bailly hailed from Tanzania, one of the countries protesting the Games.
22:157. Blood in the Water Match – Melbourne, Australia
22:28Just a few weeks before this water polo match, Soviet tanks had rumbled into Budapest
22:33to end a revolution that claimed about 3,000 Hungarians.
22:48Hoping to restore their country's pride, the Hungarian team planned to rile up the Russians,
22:53get physical, and force them into rash decisions.
22:57People ask why it is that way, and I think that water polo is simply in our blood.
23:04With Hungary leading 4-0 late in the game, the Russians took matters into their own hands.
23:09Hungarian player Ervin Zador was struck in the eye,
23:13sending the hundreds of Hungarians in the crowd into a frenzy that required police intervention.
23:18In a bittersweet finish, the Hungarian team took home the gold,
23:22but they could never escape the match's political subtext,
23:25forcing many members to find refuge in less oppressive lands.
23:29The Hungarians are declared 4-0 winners.
23:32The semi-final showdown instantly makes headlines across the globe.
23:376. Ben Johnson-Dobro – Slovakia
23:40Ben Johnson-Dobro was the first Hungarian team to win the World Cup,
23:44and it was a momentous moment for the team.
23:456. Ben Johnson-Doping – Seoul, South Korea
23:55The men's 100 meters at the 1988 Summer Olympics may have been labeled the
23:59dirtiest race in history, but it was also one of the most enthralling to watch.
24:046. Ben Johnson-Doping – Slovakia
24:11Six members of that all-star lineup were implicated in other doping controversies post-race,
24:16but it was Johnson, the world record holder after his 9.79-second race,
24:20who will forever be defined by the steroid use he began in 1981.
24:29The Canadian was open about his long-term cheating,
24:32and rightly stripped of his gold medal,
24:34yet is still irked to be the only one punished when others also fail drug tests.
24:42He's even claimed the IOC only selectively cracks down on the
24:46pervasive doping culture in athletics.
24:48But even if Johnson's allegations are true, we may never fully know.
25:025. Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan – Lillehammer, Norway
25:15Containing jealousy, a hitman, and an unrelenting desire for sporting success,
25:21it's no surprise a feature-length film adaptation of this event was released.
25:32During a practice that was crucial for determining the U.S. Olympic figure skating team,
25:40a henchman hired by Tonya Harding's ex-husband and bodyguard struck Nancy Kerrigan in the leg.
25:46Since she was then the sports poster girl,
25:49the attack was orchestrated to intentionally put her out of the 94 games.
25:53Branded as the do-anything-for-gold skater,
25:56Harding's alleged knowledge of the attack was soon exposed.
26:00However, she was still allowed to compete at the Olympics.
26:03Fortunately, Kerrigan recovered and landed silver at Lillehammer, while Harding, placed eighth,
26:09was fined, received three years of probation, and never skated competitively again.
26:224. The Russian Doping Scandal – Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
26:26It's almost spooky.
26:28Details of Russia's alleged state-sponsored systematic doping came to light in 2014,
26:33but they were expanded upon when ex-Russian anti-doping official
26:37Grigory Rodchenkov provided an insider's look into a conspiracy that forced him to flee to the U.S.
26:44According to Rodchenkov, he would feed the athletes these banned substances via
26:49alcohol. He even mixed special cocktails for them.
26:52Exploiting the increased access granted by their hosting of the games,
26:56Sochi 2014 competitors were reportedly allowed to dope without consequence,
27:00while their urine samples were exchanged in covert operations carried out by Rodchenkov and others.
27:06It's a fact that we cannot prove doping among athletes through our evaluation,
27:10but we do have an indication of how widespread doping is.
27:13He claimed that at least 15 medalists from the 2014 Winter Olympics might be implicated.
27:19Due to these supposedly Kremlin-sanctioned schemes,
27:22Russia was suspended from world sports events.
27:25They were also investigated before the 2016 Summer Olympics,
27:29resulting in the IOC ejecting 110 team members.
27:33But pressure is building to make Russia's sanctions stick much longer.
27:42The United States Olympic Committee voted to boycott the Summer Olympic Games in Moscow.
27:47In response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan beginning in 1979,
27:51U.S. President Jimmy Carter led an international boycott that doomed his period in office,
27:56and triggered the Soviet Union's own boycott of the L.A. Games in 1984.
28:01We fought and we did our best to preserve the games in Moscow in 1980,
28:07and we have to do the same to preserve the games in 1984 in Los Angeles.
28:13While the reasons behind this action were righteous and well-supported,
28:17the U.S. enlisted Muhammad Ali's help and ultimately 65 nations joined up,
28:21the boycott threatened the Olympic movement
28:24by embroiling the games in the political maneuvering of two world powers.
28:28Well, I'm very disappointed,
28:29but I feel that it's probably the only thing that our country can do as a unit.
28:3425 angry U.S. athletes even sued the government for denying them a dream they worked so hard towards.
28:40And yet, Carter stuck to his morals,
28:43strengthening a stance that would later be described by the Soviet Union as,
28:47quote,
28:47anti-Soviet hysteria.
28:49You can look anywhere around the globe,
28:51and you'll find a problem where help is needed,
28:54where we could jump on a bandwagon if you like.
28:56And I think it's just a little unfortunate that we've chosen now the Olympic Games to have a go at.
29:00Number two,
29:01Olympics Black Power Salute,
29:03Mexico City, Mexico.
29:05My head bowed and my fist went up in the air.
29:07It's one of the 20th century's most powerful images.
29:11During the medal ceremony for the 200-meter race at the 1968 Summer Olympics,
29:15Americans Tommy Smith and John Carlos,
29:18shoeless and with their heads bowed,
29:20each thrust up a gloved hand.
29:25On the 16th of October 1968,
29:27Tommy Smith and John Carlos' controversial demonstration stunned the world.
29:32Smith said it was meant to symbolize human rights for all,
29:35but others believed it was in support of Black Power.
29:38Expelled and met with hostility when they returned home,
29:41they stood by the political statement,
29:43claiming it was their moral obligation to sacrifice their individual reputations
29:48to send a message to those watching.
29:50We always had the happy face and the USA all across our chest
29:53to give indication that everything is smooth in America.
29:56But in fact, it wasn't smooth.
29:58Meanwhile, the third man in the photograph,
30:00Peter Norman,
30:01was an Olympics pariah for decades thereafter because he showed his support
30:06by donning an Olympic Project for Human Rights badge.
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30:24On virtually every other banner we saw,
30:27there was a swastika.
30:28For two weeks in 1936 Berlin,
30:31Nazi prosperity and hospitality blinded the world,
30:35while Germany's precisely directed propaganda campaign
30:38obscured their anti-Semitic,
30:40discriminatory and expansionist policies from view.
30:42How can a Jew be good enough to win the Olympics
30:46that I would have had to be afraid for my life, I'm sure?
30:49No one was afraid.
30:50that I would have had to be afraid for my life, I'm sure?
30:53Numerous nations that would form the Allied powers
30:56were present for carefully manufactured demonstrations
30:59of fervent German pride,
31:01while arguments stating participation in the games
31:03were tantamount to an endorsement of fascism went unheard.
31:07And so, despite mentions of a potential boycott,
31:10the games began.
31:12Medals were even won by some Jewish and black athletes,
31:15but it was Hitler who truly prospered.
31:18The Reich Chancellor turned the games
31:20into an advertising campaign for his administration,
31:22with some asserting that he successfully manipulated
31:25European powers into a complacency
31:28that allowed the Nazi regime
31:29to spread across Europe in subsequent years.
31:36Which scandal do you think takes the gold?
31:38Let us know in the comments below.
31:40How is the best boxer here not wearing a gold medal?
31:43Did you enjoy this video?
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