By Conner Phillips, Challenge Wednesday Writer
Everyone focuses on the limelight given to those who win big at the Olympics but what happens to the scandals that are quickly hidden to avoid public disdain?
The Olympics is an international event which is held every 4 years. It consists of many events such as: swimming, athletics, tennis, gymnastics and many more. With all these events and gold medals to be given out, it is inevitable that people would cheat to get the glory of having a medal. These are a few of the many scandals to involve the Olympic games.
Boris Onishchenko is famous for being a gold medalist in fencing from The USSR. He competed in the 1975 world championships and won gold. He was nominated by Ukraine to compete in the 1976 Olympics in Montreal. He had fought hard and qualified in the final against Jim Fox of Great Britain. The judges started the match and midway they noticed something about how he was getting points when he was not touching Fox. The Judges quickly stopped the match and examined the swords. They suddenly realised that Boris had a sword that had a switch attached to his sword which scored him points even when he hadn't touched his opponent. The Olympic officials instantly sent him home to the Soviet Union with his head in shame.
A more recent scandal took place in 2016 in Rio de Janeiro when a team of 4 American swimmers went into a gas station and vandalised it. Security stopped them from leaving and forced them to pay for the damage. Ryan Lochte, Jimmy Feigen, Gunnar Bentz and Jack Conger are the names of the four swimmers who commited the the crime. Lochte, who did most damage, fled the country quickly after they were proven guilty of lying to the government about being robbed at gunpoint. They all were punished when they returned to America.
Hopefully, there aren't any scandals this year because every single Olympic games has contained at least one scandal. Unsurprisingly, there will most likley be one because it is a worldwide event where people compete for the glory of a gold medal.
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