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Athletes don’t face suspensions without reason. Cheating is the common thread among all these bans. For different motives, some athletes resort to cheating, tipping the scales in their favor. This dishonors the hard work of honest athletes who’ve dedicated years to their sport only to discover that the competition is unfair.
Some athletes cheat for fame, others for financial gain, but it’s hard to understand how they could feel proud knowing they achieved victory through unfair means.
There are few sports that remain untouched by cheats, who often rely on advanced methods to bypass the rules. Authorities, therefore, must be equally advanced in their approach. Let’s take a look at ten athletes who faced bans from competition.
10. Fred Lorz
Fred Lorz was initially thought to have won the marathon at the 1904 Olympic Games in St Louis, Missouri. He began the race with determination but stopped after nine miles due to exhaustion. His manager then picked him up in a car and drove him for the next 11 miles. While cars in 1904 weren't particularly fast, Lorz's car managed to outpace the other competitors. He crossed the finish line under his own power and, unsurprisingly, was ahead of everyone else when he broke the finishing tape.
The race drew a large crowd, many of whom witnessed Lorz and his manager driving by. These spectators were quick to inform officials, who confronted Lorz with the truth. Lorz admitted to the deception, claiming it was all just a prank.
Unimpressed, the officials declared Thomas Hicks, the runner-up, the official winner. Hicks had been given strychnine twice by his trainers to control muscle cramps during the race, and had even been carried part of the way. However, Hicks wasn’t exactly a deserving victor. He was too weak to claim his medal and never raced again.
9. Ben Johnson
The rivalry between American sprinter Carl Lewis and Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson was one of the most intense in track and field. Before 1985, Lewis was widely considered the world’s top 100-meter sprinter, but in that year, Johnson defeated him after having lost their previous eight encounters.
In 1987, at the World Championships in Rome, Ben Johnson once again triumphed over Carl Lewis, securing the world record with the fastest time ever. In response, Lewis suggested that some gold medalists were using performance-enhancing drugs.
At a pre-Olympic gathering in Switzerland, Lewis emerged victorious with Johnson finishing in third place. Lewis boldly stated that nothing could prevent him from winning the gold at the upcoming Seoul Olympics. However, he did not win; Johnson did, surpassing his own world record.
After a urine test, it was revealed that Johnson had used the anabolic steroid stanozolol. Johnson and his coach defended their actions, claiming they resorted to drugs because everyone else was doing the same. Eventually, it was disclosed that Johnson had been using steroids since 1981, leading to a ban.
8. Marion Jones
Marion Jones’s career in athletics was forever shadowed by allegations that she had been using performance enhancers from the very start. Perhaps the blame wasn’t entirely hers. Her coaches had been encouraging her to take drugs from a young age.
In the early 1990s, a teenage Marion Jones was handed a four-year ban after missing a drug test. She insisted that she had never received any notification about the test, and the authorities eventually lifted the suspension.
In 2006, a urine sample from Jones tested positive for the performance-enhancing drug Erythropoietin. However, a second test showed a negative result, and no further actions were taken.
In 2007, Jones confessed to using steroids, and since she had lied to federal authorities, she was sentenced to six months in prison. Her athletic records were wiped, and she faced a suspension from the sport.
7. Sinning Soccer Player
Sports betting is a massive industry, where people place bets to test their knowledge or try their luck. Today, advanced monitoring systems track betting activity to detect suspicious trends or results. In the 1960s, however, the technology was not as sophisticated.
Jimmy Gauld had largely spent his football career playing for smaller clubs in the English leagues. While he never achieved stardom, he knew many people in the game and realized he could earn a lot by manipulating match outcomes. However, to succeed, he would need inside assistance.
During his time at a previous club, Gauld had become acquainted with David Layne, who was playing for Sheffield Wednesday at the time. Gauld approached Layne to pick a match to bet on and fix its result. Layne recruited two more players—Peter Swan and Tony Kay—to join in. The group targeted a game that Sheffield Wednesday would lose 2-0, with the three players ensuring the scoreline. It was a plausible outcome, so it wouldn't raise suspicion, but the winnings from the fix were modest.
Interestingly, the match ended 2-0, but the other team rightfully won the game without any involvement from the Sheffield Wednesday players.
Gauld expanded his scheme to include other teams and players, but his actions were soon exposed. He sold his story to a Sunday newspaper, revealing the names of the three Sheffield Wednesday players who had been involved in the match-fixing. As a result, all the players received prison sentences and were banned from professional football.
6. Rob Sloan
Regarded as one of the most scenic marathons in Britain, the Kielder race draws athletes from around the globe. Finishing in a top position or achieving a good time is considered a prestigious accomplishment.
In 2011, it was no surprise that Steve Cairns was content with his third-place position as he neared the second half of the race. Cairns understood that catching up with the two runners ahead of him was unlikely, but he had managed to create a significant gap between himself and those trailing behind. He was pacing himself well and confident in his ability to secure a respectable third place.
The race unfolded much as Cairns had anticipated. The front runners secured first and second place, and Cairns finished in third. However, he was shocked when the marshals announced that he had come in fourth. Cairns inquired about the runner who took third, and the marshals, who only had a view of the final section of the course, pointed to Rob Sloan. Cairns recognized him from a 10k race the previous day and asked when Sloan had passed him.
Strangely, no one seemed to recall seeing Sloan during the race, and there were no photos of him participating. Sloan never collected his medal and never reappeared at any subsequent events—nor would he be allowed to.
5. Boris Onishchenko
Boris Onishchenko, a member of the Soviet team, had competed in both the 1968 and 1972 Summer Olympics. By 1976, he was again representing his country on the team.
After the first event, Britain held the gold medal position in the pentathlon. The second event was fencing, and a showdown between Britain and the Soviet Union was anticipated to be a hard-fought contest.
In fencing, the épée is equipped with sensors that trigger when the weapon touches its target. The target then registers a point. The British team raised concerns that Onishchenko was scoring points without actually landing any hits. A detailed inspection of his épée revealed that it had been modified with a trigger mechanism that Onishchenko could activate to falsely register a point.
As a result, he was banned for life, expelled from the Soviet Communist Party, and received a formal reprimand from the Soviet leader.
4. Ekaterini Thanou
The 2004 Summer Olympics were held in Athens, where Greece had a strong medal hopeful in the 100 meters: Ekaterini Thanou. With fierce competition ahead, the support of the home crowd gave Thanou a great chance to claim victory.
The day before the opening ceremony, Thanou and her training partner were called in for a routine drug test. However, they failed to appear, instead checking into a hospital and claiming to have suffered a motorcycle accident. This raised suspicion as it was their third infraction that summer. Thanou ultimately withdrew from the Games. A Greek commission quickly determined that no accident had occurred and that the pair had fabricated the story as an excuse.
Thanou was banned from athletics. When she returned to competition in 2006, her performance never returned to its former standard, and crowds greeted her with boos whenever she competed.
3. Dennis Mitchell
Dennis Mitchell, a track and field athlete, had a successful career in relays and sprints. However, in 1998, he found himself in trouble. The International Association of Athletics Federations issued him a two-year ban after a test revealed an elevated testosterone level in his sample. His explanation failed to convince the board.
Mitchell claimed that his wife’s birthday had fallen just before the test. To celebrate, he had drunk five beers and made love to her five times; it was not, he said, surprising that the test showed too much testosterone. It’s perhaps surprising that he could walk, let alone run.
2. Luis Suarez
Luis Suarez is one of the world’s top soccer stars. A truly gifted player, he started his career in his native Uruguay with local side Nacional. He soon moved to Europe, where he played for some of the best clubs in Holland, England, and Spain. He moved from the Dutch side Ajax to Liverpool, then on to Barcelona, before moving to Atlético Madrid. He is now finishing his professional life back at Nacional. Certainly a star, but a controversial one.
A Dutch newspaper called Suarez the “Cannibal of Ajax” after his club suspended him for biting an opponent. Once at Liverpool, Suarez earned a ban for racially abusing a Manchester United player. Then, in 2013, he returned to putting teeth into his game. He bit a Chelsea player and received a 10-game ban for his trouble.
When he moved to Barcelona, he couldn’t start the 2014 season with them because he was serving another ban—this time for biting an Italian player at that year’s World Cup.
Suarez displayed a certain level of skill, but he should never have been permitted to continue playing.
1. Petr Korda
Petr Korda was an exceptional tennis player, achieving a world ranking of number 2 in February 1998. He was a top contender for that year’s Wimbledon title. Although still only 30 years old, Korda had announced his plans to retire. Having won the Australian Open in 1998, he might have hoped to add a Wimbledon trophy to his collection before stepping away from the sport.
For reasons unknown, Korda tested positive for the steroid nandrolone after his quarter-final match. Following a lengthy appeal process, the International Tennis Federation imposed a 12-month ban on him in September 1999. After the suspension, Korda participated in tournaments in his home country of Czechoslovakia, but his days competing at the highest levels were over.
