Greatest cheats of all time

[Yngwie]

Sport has suffered a few high profile cases recently.

It seems that Renault are no longer denying that they asked Nelson Piquet Jnr to crash and help his teammate to win the Singapore GP.

And Harlequins got caught using fake blood to allow substitutions to be made.

I was also reading recently, in light of the Caster Semenya gender uncertainty, about various men (100% men) who competed as women and won Olympic medals. (And in the 1960s, various East European women champions mysteriously stopped competing as soon as the first gender tests were introduced)

So what are the best, or worst, incidents of cheating in sport?

[absent friend]

It has to be...

Lennon's pretend headbutt from Juanjo.

.

[DALNEIGHCALEY]

Kyle Lafferty getting Mulgrew sent off by pretending to be headbutted last season .

[Yngwie]

In my eyes, premeditated cheating involving lots of people tends to be the worst kind.

I'm struggling to remember the details, but didn't Spain enter a basketball team into the Paralympics that included able bodied players?

[Libero]

hand of god

[Georgeios]

hand of God doesnt count, thats stuff of legend!! and It was Gods will.... who are we to shun it?

[DornochCaley]

hand of God doesnt count, thats stuff of legend!! and It was Gods will.... who are we to shun it?

I agree. Think how many Scots were rejoicing after that!

[caley100]

Remember a good few years ago Scotland under 15's got to the Euro? final vs Egypt, the teams ran out and we were stunned to see the Egyptians looking like 25 year olds beards moustaches the lot, also bigger and heavier than our guys.

Cant remember the score but we got beat and complained but to no avail, doctored passports were produced and nothing was done.

[Oz647]

Ali's phantom punch against Sonny Liston back in the 60s

[Yngwie]

Remember a good few years ago Scotland under 15's got to the Euro? final vs Egypt, the teams ran out and we were stunned to see the Egyptians looking like 25 year olds beards moustaches the lot, also bigger and heavier than our guys.

Cant remember the score but we got beat and complained but to no avail, doctored passports were produced and nothing was done.

It was the 1989 World U16 Championship which we lost to Saudi Arabia on penalties after a 2-2 draw. I wouldn't be surprised if Bahrain were at it too, getting to the semis and beating Brazil on the way.

[caley100]

Good on ya Ian, knew somebody older than me would remember...

[Yngwie]

Scuse me, I would have (just) been eligible to play! Whereas you'd have had to play for Saudi Arabia.

[dead_ball_specialist]

Bernard Hopkin feigning a low blow against Joe Calzaghe.

[Scotty]

Scuse me, I would have (just) been eligible to play! Whereas you'd have had to play for Saudi Arabia.

10/10 for that retort

What about

Roy Jones Jr in the Seoul Olympics (86): Jones dominated his opponents, never losing a single round en route to the final. He lost in the final to South Korean fighter Park Si-Hun in a highly disputed 3-2 decision despite pummeling Park for three rounds, landing 86 punches to Park's 32. One judge admitted the decision was a mistake, and all three judges voting against Jones were eventually suspended. An official IOC investigation concluding in 1997 found that the judges were wined and dined by Korean officials, but the IOC still officially stands by the decision.

Rosie Ruiz: This is a belter .... On April. 21, 1980, the 23-year-old Ruiz was the first woman to cross the finish line at the Boston Marathon. She did it in the third-fastest time ever recorded for a female runner (two hours, 31 minutes, 56 seconds). Quite the victory considering she was barely sweating when crowned with the winner's wreath. Marathon organizers were immediately suspicious, and after some investigation course officials had no evidence of Ruiz passing checkpoints and fellow competitors had no recollection of her. Eventually a few spectators came forward and said they saw Ruiz join the race during its final half-mile. It seems that she had sprinted to the finish line. What makes Ruiz an even bigger cheat is that she also deceived race officials in the New York Marathon, the race she used to qualify for the Boston event. Apparently she got her above-average time by riding the Manhattan subway. Boston organizers stripped Ruiz of her title and awarded it to the real winner, Jacqueline Gareau.

[The Mantis]

I remember that game. 53000 sell-out at Hampden and the BBC, sorry EBC never even mentioned it on the evening news.

Still Lennon though......

[Joe DiMaggio]

Remember a good few years ago Scotland under 15's got to the Euro? final vs Egypt, the teams ran out and we were stunned to see the Egyptians looking like 25 year olds beards moustaches the lot, also bigger and heavier than our guys.

Cant remember the score but we got beat and complained but to no avail, doctored passports were produced and nothing was done.

Lol sorry but couldn't help but laugh there! The Euro final...verus Egypt! :D

[TheKnowledge]

Vinokorov in Le Tour De France two years ago. Had crashed heavily a few rounds into the tour and had to have his knee all bandaged and stitched which, as you can imagine, would be very painful for a cyclist. Despite this set back, not only did he pledge to finish the tour (which still had more than two weeks worth of 180 k per day races left), but he actually managed to start clawing time back. Everyone was thinking the same thing, wow. He was even clean from drugs. what a guy, in pain, and still racing. It all came crumbling down when track (needle) marks were found on his body. Although he wasn't taking drugs, he was having his blood taken out of his body, replacing it with someone else blood, whilst his was being 'treated' to allow him to take more oxygen on board. Who goes to that length to cheat? He was a top cyclist in the first place so had no need to do it.

Amazingly, he is allowed to ride again this year.

Also, Rio's "I forgot about the test" incident was a pretty basic way to cheat getting caught.

[+Gringo]

Mike McCurry...nobody else comes close...

[ictchris]

[crownjaggie]

Vinokorov in Le Tour De France two years ago. Had crashed heavily a few rounds into the tour and had to have his knee all bandaged and stitched which, as you can imagine, would be very painful for a cyclist. Despite this set back, not only did he pledge to finish the tour (which still had more than two weeks worth of 180 k per day races left), but he actually managed to start clawing time back. Everyone was thinking the same thing, wow. He was even clean from drugs. what a guy, in pain, and still racing. It all came crumbling down when track (needle) marks were found on his body. Although he wasn't taking drugs, he was having his blood taken out of his body, replacing it with someone else blood, whilst his was being 'treated' to allow him to take more oxygen on board. Who goes to that length to cheat? He was a top cyclist in the first place so had no need to do it.

Amazingly, he is allowed to ride again this year.

Also, Rio's "I forgot about the test" incident was a pretty basic way to cheat getting caught.

Was going to mention Rio, who most likely had taken something illicit.

My opinion on drugs cheats in all sports is they should be banned sine die from all athletic competition. The only way to root them out. I am a cyclist and can confirm a different mentality to other sports. The race doesn't stop because of a crash, so if it's only skin loss then they get up and go as quick as possible. Vino should not be allowed his come back but the rules of most sports mean a 2 year ban for a first offence.

[davieB]

Donald Crowhurst

The 36-year-old sailor set out from England in a plywood trimaran as a competitor in the 1968 Golden Globe round-the-world yacht race. Though he had little prior experience and his boat, the Teignmouth Electron, was frighteningly under-built, Crowhurst managed to convince a wealthy backer, race judges and the media that he was a serious contender.

He wasn't. After several weeks fighting leaks and making slow progress, Crowhurst began sending bogus radio reports indicating amazing success. At one point, he claimed to have covered 391 kilometers in a single day -- a world record, at the time. In reality, however, Crowhurst had sailed off the route to the coast of South America, where he decided to lie low and wait for the other competitors to come back around. He spent 111 days in radio silence, then called in and reported another bogus position behind the race leader. But when a competitor sank trying to "beat" the Teignmouth Electron for second place, Crowhurst was overcome with guilt. He confessed all in his logbook, then stepped over the side and vanished into the Atlantic.

[Alex MacLeod]

Blood boosting is a fairly common way of cheating without actually taking anything illicit but is it cheating?

I'm competing it two weeks time so I get someone to remove a couple of pints of blood from my body and store it in a freezer. Leaves me with six pints which my body replaces over a week or so. Back up to the standard eight pints I thaw out the frozen two pints and pump them into me. I've now increased my oxygen transfer to muscle by 25% but have I really cheated?

[absent friend]

How does 10 pints of blood into 8 pints of veins work?

Does this mean all your veins stand out, so is this not then a dead give away to the judges. " Have a look at that guy over there with the red eyes and nose and having a problem with his man parts"

"No, no. That's Alex, he's always got that problem"

[beachcomber]

I'm surprised John Teasdale's Elgin City team haven't been included yet.

[The Mantis]

John Teasdale's Elgin City team.