Top 10 Sports Cheating Rumors That Were TRUE

#10: The 1988 Olympics Fallout

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Shortly after Ben Johnson won the 100-meter race at the Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea, grabbing the moniker of “the world's fastest man” as he smashed records, it was discovered he was doping. With the Canadian stripped of his accomplishments, murmurs began to erupt about other athletes. Before Johnson’s deception was discovered, Bulgarian weightlifters Angel Genchev and Mitko Grablev were already stripped of their gold medals. But after the Canadian, Judo athlete Kerrith Brown from the UK had his bronze medal taken away for failing, Afghan wrestler Ali Dad was disqualified, and Hungarian weightlifter Andor Szanyi had his silver medal removed, among several other athletes who were also doping. It was a pretty dark time in Olympic history.

Shortly after Bill Belichick became the head coach at the New England Patriots, the NFL side began a dominant run in the early 2000s. While most credit it to great tactics, some other franchises thought something else, more deceptive, was going on. And in September 2007, after the Patriots beat the New York Jets, the truth was discovered. A video assistant was spotted in an unauthorized place filming hand signals by the Jets’s defensive coaches, breaking the league’s rules. The NFL was livid. They fined the Patriots $250,000 and were stripped of their first-round draft pick in 2008 if they made the playoffs, while Belichick was fined the maximum of $500,000.

As Spain entered their men’s intellectually disabled basketball team in the Summer Paralympics in Sydney, Australia, in 2000, they started really strong…too strong. Soon, there were rumors that the Spanish team wasn’t what they said they were. Regardless, the team went on to win the gold. Then, Carlos Ribagorda, a member of the winning squad, as well as a journalist, leaked the truth. Fernando Martín Vicente, the then-president of the Spanish Sports Federation for People with Intellectual Disability, had smuggled non-disabled athletes into the team. Only 2 of the 12 players had a disability. The Spanish side was stripped of the gold. This scandal also caused intellectual disabilities to be banned from the Paralympics until 2012.

Having finished in a respectable place in the 1979 New York marathon and securing her position at the 1980 Boston event, newcomer Rosie Ruiz did the impossible by winning the race. To top it off, her time meant she was the fastest woman in its history! But as soon as she finished, there were doubters. Ruiz didn’t look too tired after running the grueling 26 miles. Then, her resting heart rate was 76, much higher than the average top marathon runner, which would be closer to 50. With this in mind, investigators discovered that Ruiz only appeared in images in the last stretch of the race. So, they stripped her of her Boston win and later her New York result from her.

In 2009, rugby union side Harlequins were losing to Leinster in the European Rugby Champions Cup. After Nick Evans was subbed off due to injury, his replacement also had to go off. This left the team without a good kicker. But the problem was resolved when Tom Williams got a blood injury, allowing Evans to return. This caused the Leinster staff to go livid. They knew something was up. And boy, was it. Williams was handed a blood capsule to feign injury and was purposely cut later to mask the deception. Yet Harlequins still lost the match! Williams was banned for four months after an appeal, the physio was struck off for two years, and then-director of rugby Dean Richards was banned for three years.

In September 2022, world champion chess player Magnus Carlsen suddenly resigned from the Sinquefield Cup tournament. Immediately, the chess world lit up with murmurs that the Norwegian was hinting at the American’s cheating. When the two faced each other again, Carlsen withdrew after one move. He then hinted at something untoward going on. This was confirmed when Carlsen came out and accused Niemann of cheating. Then, Chess.com released a report that claimed Niemann cheated in over 100 matches, sometimes with prize money involved. The American grandmaster denied the allegations and issued a lawsuit against Carlsen, Chess.com, and others for $100 million in damages.

#4: Alex Rodriguez

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In 2009, after years of denial, baseball legend Alex Rodriguez publicly admitted he used steroids during his tenure with the Texas Rangers from 2001 to 2003. From there, his reputation was in tatters. So much so that when the Biogenesis of America scandal happened in 2013, where several baseball players were found to be using performance-enhancing substances, A-Rod was immediately linked to it. With enough evidence, the MLB banned Rodriguez for the 2014 season. He publicly and strongly denied the allegations by unsuccessfully appealing the ban. He even went so far as to sue the MLB before dropping the case. But then, in 2014, A-Rod admitted to using PEDs.

For years, the world of sumo wrestling has been connected to rumors of match-fixing stemming from organized crime. Even the suspicious passing of Kōtetsuyama Toyoya in 1996 was speculated to involve the Yakuza. In 2000, the legendary wrestler Itai Keisuke publicly claimed that match-fixing was rampant in the sport. By 2011, the proof came out. After several wrestlers were found to have been involved in a yakuza-run betting ring, the police found evidence of sumo match-fixing on their cell phones. Those involved conspired to script the ending of bouts, even choosing the final moves, in exchange for cash. Many wrestlers and trainers were found guilty of the deception and were forced to retire from the sport.

#2: Russian Athletics

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While there had been secret speculation for a few years in the sporting world that Russia was running a mass doping scheme, the spotlight really shone on the nation after the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. At that point, the host nation topped the table by winning a whopping 33 medals. In 2016, Grigory Rodchenkov, who was the director of Russia's anti-doping agency, came forward with proof that the country had been using performance-enhancing substances for years. In 2017, the International Olympic Committee banned Russia from the 2018 Winter Olympics. This was followed by a four-year ban in 2019, which was reduced to two years, for Russian athletes at major worldwide events.

In 2006, cyclist Lance Armstrong was cementing his legacy as the best to ever ride a saddle after winning his 7th consecutive Tour de France. But then, after years of rumors, news came out that two witnesses in sworn testimony claimed he was heard talking about doping in 1996. Armstrong denied the allegations, but they continued to follow him over the years. By 2012, with further evidence coming to light, Armstrong was banned from competition and was stripped of his wins since 1998 by the United States Anti-Doping Agency. While he didn’t appeal the decision, he denied the allegations. Yet in 2013, in an interview with Oprah Winfrey Armstrong admitted to using performance-enhancing substances, ruining his reputation in the process.