There have been more famous sports cheats in history than you might think.
From those who used parts of their body they shouldn´t have done to those who carried out their greatest triumphs with a urine plumbing system under their vests, some people will go to great lengths to win at any cost. Here are some of the biggest moments of cheating in sports.
Diego Maradona – The Hand of God
An Argentine friend once told me that they were all proud of Maradona´s blatant piece of cheating in the 1986 World Cup. He called it viveza criolla, which I think translates as the act of being a horrible cheating fiend and not giving a flaming stuff about it. . This is called the Hand of God goal because little Diego said that it was scored with a bit of Maradona´s head and a bit of the hand of God. Of course, a few minutes later the loveable little rogue then went on to seal victory with one of the finest solo goals the world has ever seen.
Fred Lorz – The Marathon Shortcut
This guy was a sort of early 20th century Dick Dastardly, who came up with a fiendishly ridiculous yet ultimately unsuccessful plan to cheat in a race. Well, Dick Dastardly without the moustache. Or the car. Or the dog. Actually, he was nothing like Dick Dastardly but he did something fairly dastardly. This was the 1904 Olympic Games marathon and his unsubtle plan was to simply miss out a big chunk of the race. It seems almost unbelievable but he did this by jumping in a car and riding in it for 11 miles or so. He even waved at the other runners as he passed them. It isn´t clear whether he also smoked on a big cigar at the same time but I like to think so.
Ali Dia
This guy is sort of famous for being probably being the world´s worst professional soccer player, at least for a very short period. The sting operation he carried out in order to get his 50 minutes of fame was frankly incredible. He got a friend to phone up top level English club Southampton and claim to be famous African player George Weah. During the phone call, the man claiming to be Weah said that his cousin, Ali Dia was a great player whom the club should sign. They signed him on a short term contract without doing any background checks and even played him in a competitive match. His contract was torn up after a woefully inept performance in which it was clear that this guy simply couldn´t play and had cheated his way to a contract.
Ben Johnson
The 1988 Seoul Olympics will forever be remembered by many as the event in which Ben Johnson cheated his way to the gold medal. After running an incredible time of 9.79 seconds in the 100 meters final it was found that the Canadian runner had been cheating by taking an anabolic steroid. Incredibly, 6 of the 8 100 meters finalists that day in Seoul either tested positive or had a drugs scandal at some point in their careers.
Michel Pollentier
This cyclist didn´t fail a drug test like Johnson did. Instead he cheated by coming up with an elaborate way of making sure that he didn´t need to give a proper urine test. After winning the yellow jersey in the 1978 Tour de France, Pollentier had to give a urine sample but officials became suspicious when he started acting like a deranged cartoon character. According to eye witnesses he started pumping his elbow as though playing the bagpipes. The tough mountain climb hadn´t taken its toll of his sanity, though. A quick look under his cycling vest showed that he had a urine sample under his arm and a bizarre plumbing system allowing him to send it straight into the sample test tube.
