While most of us are familiar with, and enjoy watching, the summer and winter Olympics, fewer people are familiar with an event held by the Aleut and Inuit people of Canada and Alaska. For generations, various organizations made up of these northern tribes have held competitions, such as the World Eskimo-Indian Olympics (WEIO), where contestants engage in various athletic activities, many of which might seem quite bizarre to outsiders.

10The Ear Pull

Think of a game of tug-of-war—except, in this version, the cord that goes between you and your opponent is attached to your ears.

Specifically, the two athletes must be seated and facing each other with legs intertwined. After a thick loop of string is lassoed around both sets of ears, they must wait for a signal. Then, they must lean backward in an effort to make the other competitor experience such excruciating pain that they give up. With each pull, however, the string becomes tighter and tighter around each of the athletes’ ears, resulting in distressed expressions, discolored ears, visits to the hospital for stitches, and, in some cases, ears being pulled clear off.

While this game is no doubt fascinating (and painful to watch), the roots of the ear pull are based on skills that men and women in such brutal climates would need, as a balance of strength, control, and endurance is required in order to win. When asked about the purpose of the game, the chairman of the WEIO noted, “To endure pain. Some of the stuff that we do when you’re trying to survive out in the wild, or out in the ice, and you’re a long way from home and you hurt yourself, you have to be able to endure that pain until help comes.”

9The Two-Footed High Kick

Combining athletic prowess and grace, an athlete in this competition must leap from a standing or running position (depending on the rules of the particular competition) and, keeping feet parallel, jump as high as he or she can muster to kick a sealskin ball held up by string, usually suspended up to 2.5 meters (8 ft) in the air. If that sounds hard, keep in mind that they must also land back on their feet with each foot touching the ground simultaneously. This game is a variation of the similar one-foot high kick event, albeit harder.

Based in Alaskan tradition, this game is rooted in the age-old practice of a hunter returning to the coastal whaling village from an excursion and jumping in the air in sight of the villagers. According to the head official for the WEIO, the type of jump would alert the village as to the success that the hunting party had enjoyed and, if fruitful, to come help with the catch.

In 1965, Nicole Johnston set the unbroken record of 198 centimeters (6 ft, 6 in) for the women’s competition. The men’s competition record, astonishingly, is a whopping 264 centimeters (8 ft, 8 in).

8The Blanket Toss

If you want to play this game, here is what you have to do: Gather up some teammates, buy a blanket made from walrus skins, have them repeatedly fling you into the air from the blanket, and show off your athletic skills by performing gymnastic maneuvers while airborne.

While it is easy to miss the blanket and crash onto the ground when engaging in this game, many Inuits and Aleuts have mastered the skill, but none so prominently as Reggie Joule. The winner of 10 gold medals at the WEIO, he perfected the art, even performing back flips while propelled into the air. It was he who brought the game to public awareness, as he went on the road and ended up demonstrating the blanket toss on The Tonight Show, The Today Show, and even at the Smithsonian Institute.

The origins of this gymnastic event are believed by some to have been a technique hunters used to spot game, as one with good eyesight would be thrown into the air—sometimes up to 10 meters (33 ft)—in an effort to spot an animal on the flat terrain.

7The Knuckle (Seal) Hop

In another game that tests the strength and endurance of contestants, the participant must get in a push-up position. With his back straight, elbows bent, and supporting himself on only his toes and knuckles, he must then lunge forward—careful to hold that position. With wrists and ankles locked, the goal of the game is to propel oneself into the air while making sure to lift the hands and feet simultaneously off the ground.

Repeatedly springing forward mere inches off the floor, the rules in this hop for glory prohibit any body part from touching the ground other than the toes and knuckles. The competitor’s back also must not fall lower than the plane of their elbows. The winner in this difficult competition is the athlete who has hopped the greatest distance.

While completing this game is hard enough on the arena floor where it is commonly held, traditionally, it was played inside a rudimentary hut or community center and even outside at times.

6The Four-Man Carry

People generally get carried away when engaging in this event—literally. In what ends up being a sort of levitating group hug, four men must wrap their bodies over the fifth, the competitor, who must then walk as far as he can. With each man generally weighing in around 70 kilograms (150 lb), that means that the athlete carries around 270 kilograms (600 lb) during the game.

In a game that tests your muscles, joints, back, and spine like no other, the previous world record of 57 meters (187 ft) set in 1997 was crushed during the WEIO held at the Carlson Center in Fairbanks in July 2014, when Matthew Sido Evans reached a whopping 73.6 meters (241 ft, 8 in) before finally buckling under the tremendous weight.

This practical event has its origins in the common Alaskan task of carrying meat, ice, or wood long distances back to the village.

5The Indian Stick Pull

In the life of an Inuit or Aleut fisherman, having the strength, balance, and grip to catch a fish was a prized skill.

With roots based in this ancient practice, the Indian stick pull was developed, although the object in this event is not a fish, but a stick 30.5 centimeters (1 ft) long and 3.8 centimeters (1.5 in) wide tapered on both ends. To make it trickier to hold, the stick is greased. To make it even trickier than that, another contestant has his grip on the other end of the stick, using all his strength to pull it out of your hand. Thus are the complexities of this entertaining game, where no jerks or twists are allowed, and the winner is the one who wins two out of three matches.

In a similar event, the Eskimo stick pull, two athletes must also attempt to win the stick, although this is done in a sitting position with their feet pressed together and knees bent.

4The Arm Pull

In this full contact wrestle of sorts, two contestants must face each other and cross their legs over their opponent’s opposite leg. With arms locked at the elbows, the two athletes must then begin pulling on each other, using their legs, arms, and core muscles to weaken their opponent and collapse them.

Pushing down on the opposing contestant’s foot is just one of the techniques used in this game of brute strength. Describing what it takes to win, former men’s title holder Chris Jerue says, “You’re trying to get it done as quick as you can; it’s very stressful. The longer it takes, the more chance you have of pulling your arm muscle. You try to keep it locked, lean back, and use a lot of back if you can.” The winner is the athlete who wins two out of three matches.

With roots in Alaskan fishing methods, the game simulates the effort, strength, and stamina needed to bring a seal or other quarry out of a hole cut in the ice.

3Drop The Bomb

When someone drops the bomb at a WEIO event, the connotations are a little different than if the same phrase is spoken elsewhere.

The bomb, in this game, is the contestant, who must lie rigidly on the floor with his arms straight out. Three spotters must hold him by his wrists and ankles and lift him 30 centimeters (1 ft) above the ground before proceeding to walk at a speed decided on by an official on the floor. The goal of this game is for the athlete to keep his body as tense and rigid as possible, for at the moment that his body sags, he is said to have dropped the bomb, and his run is over.

Participants in this strength testing event are awarded if they refrain from sagging for the longest time and distance. Many athletes can commonly be carried over 30 meters (100 ft) before dropping the bomb, such as 2013 men’s champion Mikkel Andersen from Greenland, who endured for 33.2 meters (109 ft).

2The One-Hand Reach

You have to admire the athletes who compete in this difficult, yet fascinating, event that requires total concentration, balance, coordination, and muscular strength.

Balancing yourself on only your hands, with one elbow underneath your abdomen, you must keep your entire body above the floor while reaching one hand up to touch an object that’s been suspended, and then placing it back down on the ground without falling over. The higher you can reach to touch the target, all without tumbling off your palms or fingertips, the better your chances of winning the competition.

But be careful—upon establishing the height of the target during the first round, it will be raised 2.5 centimeters (1 in) per round, until you can’t reach it anymore. Also, you only have three shots at striking the target; after three tries, you are eliminated from the competition, even if you’ve kept yourself perfectly balanced and parallel to the floor.

1The Ear Weight

If you think the ear pull is hard, just picture this: Attach a weight or sack of flour weighing from 7–11 kilograms (16–25 lb) to a piece of twine, and then tie the twine around your ear. One of the rules is that you can’t use your cheek. So, lifting your head straight up, walk as far as you can. That’s right—walk until the tension in your neck is too horrible to bear, or the pain in your face is so intense that you can barely breathe, or just until your ear rips off. Believe it or not, quite a few competitors have managed distances of over 600 meters (2,000 ft) while competing in the ear weight.

While events like the ear weight certainly rank near the top of our list of games with the highest pain index, many events combine a need for agility, coordination, strength, and athletic prowess, and thus also deserve to be on our list as honorable mentions. Games like the back push (wrestling using only your back), the caribou fight (wrestling caribou-style), the seal-skinning competition (self-explanatory), the finger pull (tug-of-war using only fingers), and many others are also featured in the fascinating and difficult athletic games of the North.

I am an up-and-coming author that has written poems, screenplays, magazine articles, scripts for videos, and a comedy-adventure novel for kids.

With the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics coming up and the hype surrounding the many issues in sports right now, including doping and bribery, it’s almost a relief to look back at Olympic history and see the mind-blowing, hilarious, and downright insane moments sprinkled throughout the history of the games.

10 The Last Olympic Rugby Games

In 1924, during the last Olympic rugby games ever played, the US handily defeated the French 17–3 to claim the Olympic gold. While the French team members were good sports about the loss, the French crowd was less than pleased. Members of the US reserve team were attacked, and the referee needed police protection. During the medal presentations, the crowd shouted and booed while “The Star-Spangled Banner” was being played.

The shenanigans didn’t stop there. A year later, the International Olympic Committee elected a new president, who, unlike his predecessor, wasn’t fond of rugby or any team sport. Even though there were many protests and demonstrations and despite the fact that rugby was the most popular Olympic sport at the time, it was cut from future Olympic Games. It is, however, making a return for the 2016 Olympics in Rio De Janeiro.

9 Abebe Bikila’s Record-Breaking Barefoot Marathon Run

A reserve marathon runner thrust into the 1960 Olympic spotlight because of a teammate’s last-minute injury, Abebe Bikila wasn’t taken seriously by anyone. The relatively unknown marathon runner claimed a personal best that was faster than the world record, but he was ridiculed. It probably didn’t help that after his only pair of running shoes wore out during training, he decided to run the marathon barefoot, to more ridicule.

Bikila came from a humble background. He was the son of a shepherd and had only begun running at the age of 24, training barefoot in the Ethiopian highlands. But he shined during the marathon. After being among the leaders early in the race, he overtook his final competitor just after passing the Axum obelisk, smashing the world record and even doing a little dance at the finish line while many of his competitors were too tired to do more than lie down.

Four years later, Bikila would win another gold medal and set another world record at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, but sadly, an accident would leave him paralyzed five years later.

8 Shun Fujimoto’s Broken Knee

It was the 1976 Montreal Olympics, and the Soviets, runners-up in gymnastics for the past four Olympic Games, were restless to knock the reigning champions, the Japanese, off their perch. They were to be disappointed, however, by a mind-blowing display of courage in the face of a broken kneecap.

The gymnast in question, Shun Fujimoto, had suffered the injury during early exercises, but instead of seeking medical attention, he hid the pain and walked off the stage pretending nothing had happened. After continuing to compete and setting world records in several gymnastic exercises, he finally let the pain show as he bowed out and limped off the stage.

Japan ended up just barely getting the gold medal by a mere 0.4 points, sealing a five-game gold run. Fujimoto, when asked later whether he would ever repeat the experience, replied with a very succinct “no.”

7 Bob Beamon’s Gigantic Long Jump

During the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, Bob Beamon was a competitor in the long jump. He was probably expecting to do reasonably well; he probably wasn’t expecting was to break the world long jump record by a huge margin. Beamon himself almost didn’t qualify for the 1968 Olympics due to fouling his jumps, and he didn’t have a coach leading up to the games, either.

During his record-shattering jump, Beamon flew so far that he fell out of the long jump pit. Olympic officials had to use an old-fashioned tape measure because the jump had been so long that the electronic recorders failed to capture its distance. Eventually, Beamon was told that he’d jumped 9 meters (29 ft), breaking the previous record by nearly 0.6 meters (2 ft).

There were a few reasons why this might have been the case, aside from Beamon’s skill. Mexico City is at a high altitude, and the air there is thin. In addition, Beamon had a tailwind of 7 kilometers per hour (4 mph) to help lift him up. However, one must remember that those conditions applied to all his competitors, not just Beamon.

6 Henry Pearce Waited For Ducklings To Pass Him

An extremely competitive rower, Henry “Bobby” Pearce came from a family of rowers. It is therefore no surprise that he dominated the 1928 Olympics. In his first competition, he decisively beat the reigning champion. He then handily beat another competitor in his second competition. It was during his third competition, however, that things became interesting.

In the middle of the race, Pearce was made aware by spectators of a duck and her ducklings crossing the canal ahead of him. Instead of cutting straight through the string of ducklings, he stopped to let them pass, to the adoration of the children watching the competition. He then caught up to his competitor and still won the match. Later on in the finals, he would set a world record that would stand for 44 years.

The fact that Pearce left his competitors so far in the dust may have saved the ducklings. Years later, his son would claim that if the race had been close, Pearce would have run those ducklings down.

5 Kip Keino’s Gallstones

Kip Keino, who was orphaned as a child, often had to run back and forth from school four times each day. It’s no surprise that in the face of great adversity, he would step up to the challenge. While competing in the 1968 Olympics in his first event, the 10,000-meter run, he collapsed in pain from gallstones, but he got up and completed the race.

Even though doctors ordered him not to compete, he told his teammates not to withdraw him from the 1,500-meter race. To compete, he snuck out and took a bus to the race. After the bus got stuck in traffic, he ran all the way to the track, reaching it just in time to start. What is amazing is that he set an Olympic record that day, beating his opponent by a handy 20 meters (66 ft), the biggest margin ever at that time.

4 The First Olympic Flag Went Missing For 77 Years

The world’s first Olympic flag went missing after the 1920 Olympics in Antwerp, and for 77 years, no one knew what had happened to it. Then, someone told Hal Haig “Harry” Prieste, the oldest living Olympic medalist at the time, that the flag was missing. Prieste responded with a shocking claim: The flag was in his bag, since he stole it in 1920. He then backed up his claim by producing the flag.

It turned out that Prieste had stolen the flag on a dare from one of his teammates. Climbing the flagpole at night, he made off with the flag and escaped the Belgian police. Then he stashed the flag in one of his suitcases and kept it around for 77 years. Regarding the flag as unimportant, he finally gave it back, saying, “People will think more of me by giving it away than by keeping it.”

3 The 1904 Olympic Marathon

The 1904 Olympic marathon, held in St. Louis, was probably the most slapstick Olympic event ever held.

There were 32 competitors at the start, but one soon dropped out because he’d breathed in too much dust. He almost became the first person ever to die at the Olympics. Another competitor stole a spectator’s peaches, ate them, and then ate some rotten apples, which made him sick. The winner took strychnine—rat poison—in small doses as a stimulant, which was perfectly legal because there were no rules against performance-enhancing drugs at that time. A South African runner was chased off the path by wild dogs but still came ninth, which may have been made easier by the fact that only 18 of the 32 runners actually finished the marathon!

The most shocking thing about the marathon was that one of the competitors John (aka Frederick) Lorz, cheated by riding an automobile for 14 kilometers (9 mi) as a joke after suffering dehydration. Finishing first, he nearly received a floral wreath from President Roosevelt’s daughter before someone finally figured out that he had cheated. He was banned for life, but Lorz had a history as a practical joker and was subsequently forgiven.

2 Australia’s Lucky Skating Win

You don’t expect Olympic events to turn into demolition derbies with multi-person pileups and lucky guys sailing past to claim victory, but that was exactly what happened to Australian skater Steven Bradbury at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. On top of that, it happened three times during the 1,000-meter skating competition.

Steven Bradbury was a relatively unknown skater of no previous note. He had only notched a bronze in the 1994 Winter Olympics and had suffered a string of bad luck, first losing 10 liters of blood and then breaking his neck. He would be far luckier at the 2002 Winter Olympics, however.

Bradbury advanced through the quarterfinal when two competitors got tangled up ahead of him. Then, the same thing happened to him in the semifinal. In the finale, he was the last person in the five-man pack. He was last, that is, until the Chinese skater tripped up another skater, and everyone except Bradbury fell down. Bradbury himself, far behind them, caught up and passed them to snag the gold.

1 Marathon Runner Breaks Record Despite Not Knowing Rules

Emil Zatopek was, in the words of a fellow Olympic athlete, a man who wouldn’t shut up, even during races, where it was said that he made more friends than by socializing off the track. After winning both the 5,000-meter and 10,000-meter races in the 1952 Olympics, he turned his attention to the marathon, even though he didn’t know the rules. Olympic officials refused to tell him because they saw him as extremely annoying.

Zatopek’s strategy was therefore to follow closely the man who people said would probably win the marathon. He then struck up a conversation with the favorite, who, irritated, sarcastically told Zatopek that he was running too slow. Zatopek started to run faster, leaving the man behind. He also didn’t take food or drink from the refreshment tables provided to the competitors because he didn’t know refreshments were provided to marathon runners. Zatopek went on to win the marathon.

Sam writes, writes, and writes some more!

Every four years, the Olympic Games attract millions of viewers across the globe who watch the best men and women go head-to-head in the one of the greatest battles of mental and physical toughness on the planet.

There is something magical about the fact that any competitor who enters the stadium, ring, pitch, or velodrome could be crowned the champion athlete in their chosen discipline. But over its 120-year history, the games have seen many people try to unbalance the level playing field or prevent equal participation before the competition even began.

10 Pierre de Coubertin

Pierre de Coubertin, known by many as the founder of the modern Olympiad, has an international reputation for embodying fair play and the Olympic spirit. However, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) doesn’t like to talk about Coubertin’s rather offensive view of female competitors.

Along with a few other IOC members, Coubertin tried his best to make sure that women were not invited to compete at the Olympic Games. In a 1912 letter, he wrote, “In our view, this feminine semi-Olympiad is impractical, uninteresting, ungainly, and, I do not hesitate to add, improper.”

Coubertin’s sexist ideas stemmed from the view that the ancient Olympic Games tested male strength, endurance, and mentality and women had no place interfering in that. However, Coubertin didn’t get his way for long.

In the second Olympic Games in 1900, women were allowed entry into tennis and golf. His feeling that “the Olympic Games must be reserved for men” was finally put to rest when women took part in boxing, the final male-only sport, in the 2012 Olympics.

9 British Cheating In London

The British team expected to win everything at the 1908 London Olympic Games and got a bit miffed when they didn’t. Biased officials, heavily weighted shoes in the tug-of-war, and a suspicious rerunning of the 400m after the Americans looked set to win all contributed to the cries of cheating from other nations.

Despite this, the Americans dominated in most events. One American newspaper reported, “The American victory at the Olympic Games in London, won in spite of unfairness and in some cases downright cheating, will be celebrated by a national welcome to the athletes on their return to New York.”

8 The Banning Of The Women’s 800m

In 1928, women were allowed in the Olympic Games for the first time. Although the men had been competing on the track since the first modern games in 1896, women had fought for inclusion and celebrated joyfully when the Olympic stadium was opened up to them after 32 years.

However, the women didn’t expect that one of the events, the 800m race, would be banned for 32 years after the final in Amsterdam. The cause of the drama: women falling over with exhaustion after crossing the finish line.

Newspaper reports claimed that the women lay in desperate states after the race, having pushed their bodies to the absolute limit. Coaches and officials called for the event to be pulled, claiming that they were looking out for the safety of female competitors who could seriously damage their weak, feminine bodies if they ran too hard.

It wasn’t until the 1960 Olympics that everyone realized that they were being rather stupid and allowed the middle-distance competitors back on the track.

7 Cycling In The Marathon

It’s every athlete’s dream to win an Olympic gold medal in front of a home crowd. In 1904, American Fred Lorz appeared to do just that when he crossed the finish line of the marathon in first place in front of a St Louis crowd. But everything was not quite as it seemed.

The sweltering temperatures and dusty conditions on the road caused vomiting, cramps, bleeding, and dehydration among many of the 32 competitors. Lorz also was not doing well at the 9-mile mark and was forced to slow to a walk when he was lucky enough for a car to pass by—which offered to give him a lift.

At mile 11, he felt recovered enough to go it alone. A few hours later, he crossed the line first to rapturous applause. The jubilant home crowd celebrated as Lorz was presented with the winner’s wreath by President Roosevelt’s daughter Alice.

Then an official interrupted the proceedings to reveal the truth. Lorz claimed that it was all a joke and that he had never really intended to accept the victory. But the officials didn’t see the funny side and banned him from athletics.

6 Losing To Win In Badminton

You usually expect competitors in the Olympics to do everything in their power to win, but four pairs in the 2012 women’s doubles in badminton didn’t quite agree. Due to the round-robin format of the first stage of Olympic doubles, teams were well aware that they had a better chance of advancing to the final if they lost an early round and faced an easier competitor in the following round.

Two South Korean, one Chinese, and one Indonesian team had already qualified for the knockout stage of the tournament. They attempted to purposefully lose their final round-robin matches to best position themselves in the match play rounds.

Despite the protests of these teams, the Badminton World Federation deemed their behavior unsporting and dishonest and threw them out of the tournament.

5 Marathon Legend Banned For Accepting Expenses

It is not often that athletes will campaign to reinstate a fellow competitor, but that is just what the marathon runners of the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles did. Long-distance legend Paavo Nurmi was disqualified from the Olympic Games after officials claimed that he had accepted too much money for travel expenses and was now a professional athlete.

During Nurmi’s incredible long-distance running career, he had become the first athlete to win five Olympic gold medals at one Olympic Games. But his success made him a global superstar, which caused suspicions over the payments that he was receiving to appear at competitions.

After he was branded a professional in a competition reserved for amateur athletes, Nurmi was suspended and never competed in the Olympics again.

4 Unwanted Violence In Tae Kwon Do

Kicking is usually encouraged in martial arts. But Cuban competitor Angel Matos was disqualified from the 2008 Olympic Games and banned for life for kicking a referee in the face.

During his bronze medal match, Matos took too long during a medical time-out and was disqualified by referee Chakir Chelbat as a result. However, Matos wasn’t impressed by the ruling and unleashed a powerful kick right in the face of the referee.

3 A Controversial Fine In Cycling

The 1936 Berlin Olympics was filled with controversy. However, among the political and racial problems on the track, a bizarre incident occurred on the velodrome.

Toni Merkens, a German cyclist, was competing in the sprint match final against Arie van Vliet of the Netherlands when Merkens blatantly interfered with van Vliet’s line. No foul was called, and Merkens went on to win the gold medal.

The Dutch teamed protested. But after much debate, it was decided that Merkens should still receive his medal and simply pay a fine of 100 marks.

2 Dodgy Refereeing In Boxing

If a fighter in the boxing ring fell to the ground five times in one round, you would think that he probably wouldn’t win his match. That’s what the whole stadium in ExCel London thought during the match between Azerbaijan’s Magomed Abdulhamidov and Japan’s Satoshi Shimizu in 2012.

However, Ishanguly Meretnyyazov, the referee from Turkmenistan, thought differently and declared Abdulhamidov the winner after ignoring three knockdowns and helping him to fix his headgear. Shimizu was reinstated after appeal, and the referee was sent home the next day by the International Boxing Association.

1 Cheating Track Twins

Identical twins can get up to some clever tricks when people can’t tell the difference between them. In that vein, Madeline and Margaret de Jesus pulled off a spectacular illusion at the 1984 Olympics when Margaret posed as Madeline in front of the eyes of the world.

It all started after the long jump when Madeline injured herself and couldn’t run in the heats of the 4x400m relay in which she was scheduled to participate. With the sisters looking so alike that their own coach couldn’t tell them apart, it was easy for Margaret to step in for the heats and help the Puerto Rican team qualify for the final.

They twins nearly got away with their plan. But after finding out about the scheme, their own coach pulled the team from the final.

Natalie is a history student at St. Andrews University with a keen interest in all things sport.

That last of the ancient Olympic Games was held more than 1,600 years ago. For one final time, the strongest and quickest men locked into a ferocious competition to find the greatest athlete in the world. Sure, we brought the Olympics back by name in 1896, but it wasn’t the same. Much has changed, and a lot of traditions the ancient Greeks enjoyed didn’t get carried over to the Olympics we watch today.

10The Ritual Sacrifice Of Animals

The Olympics began with the athletes entering a temple. There, they stood before an imposing statue of Zeus brandishing his thunderbolts. A sliced piece of a boar flesh would be put before them, and they would have to swear an oath to the gods over it, promising to obey the rules of the games.

It was a strange way to start, but it was nothing compared what was to come. The real highlight came on day three, when a procession of 100 bulls were marched to the Great Altar of Zeus and ritually slaughtered by priests before a crowd. Some of the meat would get eaten, but the animals’ thighs would be burned to a crisp as a sacrifice to the gods.

9Eating Sheep Testicles As A Performance-Enhancer

The Greeks viewed testicles as a performance-enhancing drug. From watching eunuchs and castrated animals, they’d figured out that there was some kind of connection between testicles and manliness. They didn’t quite understand the biology, but they knew there was a link, and they were pretty sure the best way to become manly was to eat as many testicles as possible.

Of course, there were alternatives. Some would get ready by eating a ground-up mix of donkey hooves and rose petals. Others would eat live bees.

A few took a dirtier route. They would try to place curses on their opponents, which the Greeks were pretty sure really worked. There are stories from the Olympics that tell of athletes veering off course or not making it to the starting block, mistakes the Greeks chalked up to magical hexes.

8Athletes Competing In The Nude

We’re not entirely sure why the Greeks insisted on letting it all hang loose. According to one legend, it all started when a runner tripped on his loincloth and decided to say to hell with clothes. Others think that the Greeks took competing naked as a matter of pride, believing that only a barbarian would try to hide his nakedness. Either way, they didn’t just go naked, they made a show out of it. They would lather themselves up with olive oil and parade around the stadium showing off.

The people loved it. Some even wrote poems about it. We have one from a poet named Bacchylides, who was trying to describe an athlete throwing a discus. He got so caught up in the moment, though, that he threw in, “In such a way, amid the vast, circling crowd of the Greeks, did he display his wondrous body.”

7The Thong That Just Covers The Tip

They were almost entirely naked, anyway. Some athletes indulged in one little allowance: the kynodesme. This was something sort of like a jockstrap or a thong, except that it covered nothing but the tip of the penis. It would be tied around the athlete’s waist, with a tiny little bow around the penis as a decorative flourish.

This wasn’t out of modesty—in fact, it didn’t even cover up your genitals. All it covered was the foreskin, which, to the Greeks, was an incredibly valuable body part. They viewed long, draping foreskins as the epitome of handsomeness. Greek art is full of men with absurdly long foreskins. They show up so often that historians aren’t even sure if these are paintings of an ideal man or if that’s just really what ancient Greek genitals looked like.

Sometimes, the kynodesme had an aesthetic value. Some were elongated to make the foreskin look bigger than it really was. It was such a popular look that some people wore them at home instead of just at the games.

6Mass Prostitution

Prostitutes and parties were huge parts of the Olympic games. Women from all over the Mediterranean would travel out to the Olympics to sell their bodies. In the five days of the games, a prostitute could make as much money as she made throughout the whole year.

Some of these women made ends meet by working as weavers during the day. So, when you walked down the streets during the day, the prostitutes would be out on the streets weaving. They would be half-naked, weaving clothing as saucily as it’s possible to weave clothes, hoping to lure in another client.

People threw drunken parties that devolved into orgies and went on until dawn. Some wouldn’t sleep throughout the whole games, and hardly anyone would take a bath. By the end, the city probably stunk like a cross between a gym and a brothel because that’s pretty much exactly what it was.

5Pankration, The Mixed-Martial Arts Sport With No Rules

The Greeks had a sport called Pankration that was sort of like our modern mixed martial arts. Two men would lock into combat, free to use whatever fighting style they wanted until one submitted. Other than bites, eye-gouges and beating the genitals, everything was allowed.

Pankration competitors could do almost anything, and they did everything. Some of the moves they used were incredibly brutal. One fighter, Sostratos of Sikyon, earned the nickname “Mr. Fingertips” because he liked to start matches by breaking his opponents’ fingers. Another fighter, Arrhachion, literally killed himself trying to win. While he was being strangled between a pair of thighs, Arrhachion dislocated his opponent’s toe. His opponent gave in, and Arrhachion died from suffocation, becoming the first Olympian to win while dead.

4Chariot Races That Killed People

The chariot races were incredibly deadly. There would usually be about 40 chariots on the tracks, and as they turned, their wheels would lock together. Some would go flying off-course and crash, while others would go flying right into the audience. In one case, a race started with 21 chariots, but by the time it ended, only one was left standing.

The sport claimed countless lives, usually in front of a cheering crowd. That may well be why the wealthy people who owned the chariots typically didn’t ride them. Instead, they would hire other people to ride in the chariot race for them and could still win an Olympic wreath for paying someone else to risk his life.

3The Race In 70 Pounds Of Armor

The last foot race of the Olympics would be the Hoplitodromos, and it was crazy. The competitors would come to the starting line with a helmet on their heads, metal greaves on their shins, and a shield in their hands. They carried 50–70 pounds of armor with them, and they’d be expected to run in it.

They wore nothing else. This was the Olympics. They couldn’t wear clothes. They were just naked people in helmets and shin guards.

The Olympians would have to run 400 meters as quickly as they could with all this armor weighing them down. We’ve tried to recreate it with modern athletes, and it was disastrous. No one could keep their shield up after 70 meters, and they were staggering and struggling to move after 275 meters.

2Not Letting Women Enter, Even If They’re Competing

Virgin girls could watch the Olympics. They were encouraged, in fact, because they’d try to hook up with the athletes. Adult women, though, couldn’t. With the sole exception of the Priestess of Demeter Chamyne, who would watch over the Olympics atop an ivory altar, women couldn’t get in no matter what.

That including women who were competing. A Spartan woman named Cynisca entered a chariot team into the Olympics. She funded and trained them, but she wasn’t allowed riding them. She was forced to hire men to ride her horses for her and wasn’t even allowed to watch them go around.

She won—twice. She even had a monument made in her honor inside the Olympic stadium. Being a woman, though, she wasn’t allowed to watch them unveil it, and she was never permitted to walk in and see it.

1 Demolishing The Winner’s City Walls

The winners were treated like gods. On the final day of the Olympics, they received wreaths from a wild olive tree. Statues were built in their honor. Songs and poems were written for them. They were paraded home in a chariot, given heaps of money and assured that they would never have to pay taxes again.

Some cities, though, thought all that wasn’t going far enough. Their winners deserved a little more. A city with strong men, the Greeks believed, needed no walls to defend itself. And so, when their athletes came home, they tore down a whole section of their walls and let the winning Olympians march over the rubble.

The international sporting events of the Olympic Games are a testament to the unwavering dedication of leading athletes around the world. Participants spend their entire lives training and competing, honing their skills and rising to the tops of their games in order to be able to call themselves Olympians. And yet, only some will get to proudly stand before the eyes of the world, medals hanging from their necks.

In spite of the glory of the Olympics, human nature takes a prominent toll anywhere. On occasion, this has engendered life-altering mishaps never to be forgotten. As opposed to delving into notorious calamities that have befallen competitors, the following ten entries examine lesser-known nightmares surrounding the Olympics.

10 The Silence Of The Doves

At the 1896 Olympics in Athens, birds were released as a sign of peace and freedom. The act officially became a part of the opening ceremonies beginning in 1920 at the Antwerp Games. While it’s theorized that the tradition dates back centuries, historians claim that homing birds were first released during the ancient Olympics in order to notify families and villages of a returning hometown athlete’s victory.

Unfortunately, the symbolic custom would be anything but festive during Seoul’s opening ceremony in 1988, when a few feathers became ruffled. As three athletes rode a rising platform skyward to light the enormous torch, numerous doves made the unfortunate error in judgment of resting atop the cauldron prior to its ignition. As the three torches lit the flame, a Korean barbecue ensued, turning white feathers into ash for the world to see. It immediately became apparent that it was vital for the Olympic committee to alter future ceremonial procedures in order to avoid another embarrassing public spectacle.

In 1992, no birds were burned. The doves were released well before the lighting of Barcelona’s cauldron, bringing tranquility to animal enthusiasts everywhere.^[1]

9 Unjust Reputation

Prior to the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, testing for drug use among Olympic athletes wasn’t carried out. The deficiency of such regulations should have been evident following the 1952 Oslo Winter Games, when several speed skaters overdosed on amphetamines and required medical intervention.

However, it took the untimely death of Danish cyclist Knud Jensen at the Summer Olympics in Rome in 1960 for anti-doping campaigns to gain prominence. Jensen, whose notoriety is rooted in becoming the first Olympic athlete to die of a drug overdose during competition, became the exemplar of an admirable objective fueled by immoral measures. His demise was a picturesque epitome for crusaders destined to increase the regulation of doping at the expense of Jensen’s reputation.

In reality, the cyclist’s autopsy stated that although the he had amphetamines in his system, they were unlikely to have contributed to his death. Nonetheless, Jensen’s passing—medically attributed to heatstroke—was exploited as propaganda. To date, the myth surrounding the first athlete to overdose persists amid tons of evidence proving otherwise.^[2]

8 Honor

At the 1964 Summer Olympics, Kokichi Tsuburaya, a first lieutenant in the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force, had the distinct honor of representing his nation on his home turf in Tokyo. Such a privilege, however, would prove to be nothing more than an immense disappointment for the lead marathoner, who was overtaken in the final 100 meters, finishing third. In spite of taking home a bronze medal, Tsuburaya was mortified, believing he had brought shame upon himself, his family, and his fellow countrymen.

The arduous burden rooted in pride was a driving factor for Tsuburaya to succeed in future marathons. He stated, “I committed an inexcusable blunder in front of the Japanese people. I have to make amends by running and hoisting the Hinomaru in the next Olympics, in Mexico.” Sadly, Tsuburaya’s aspirations would never come to fruition after an ongoing lower back pain problem began to take effect shortly after the Tokyo games.^[3]

As the pain became increasingly debilitating, Tsuburaya’s sight on the gold medal began to diminish. The mere thought of another humiliating defeat was more than the first lieutenant could bear, and on January 9, 1968, he committed suicide in his dormitory room by slashing his right wrist with a razor blade. Tsuburaya’s suicide note cited his inability to run as the reason for his actions.

7 Blazing Torch

During the opening ceremony at the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne, junior mile champion Ron Clarke was making the lap of honor around the main stadium’s arena, never realizing that the flesh of his right arm was being burned. As he circled, the tumultuous applause of the stadium made Clarke oblivious to the fiery particles spilling from the torch he carried. Only after being presented with a medallion by an official did Clarke realize he had not only left a trail of fire on the track behind him but that the embers had burned through his shirt and scorched parts of his arm.

Clarke’s amusing predicament is child’s play compared to the sizzling mishap that occurred at the 1968 Summer Olympics. During exchanges of the torches’ flame, several runners were burned by minor explosions when the torches would touch. Fortunately for the seared runners, the solid fuel, a mixture of nitrates, sulfur, alkaline metal carbonates, resins, and silicons, was nontoxic. It was, however, volatile during rapid contact between a lit torch and an unlit one.^[4]

6 Hot Dogs

Due to its special ingredient, the popular dish bosingtang has caused quite the ruckus among foreigners visiting Pyeongchang for the 2018 Winter Olympics. Throughout the South Korean city, countless restaurants continue to serve the traditional stew made of dog meat despite government pressure and financial incentives aimed at curbing sales in the hopes of appeasing offended tourists.^[5] Such measures were taken before the 1988 Seoul Olympics, during which the sale of the meat became restricted in parts of the city. What came about was a surprising backlash fueled by patriotism among some Koreans, who began eating more dogs solely to spite imposing foreign views.

Interestingly enough, Korean traditionalists have long believed that meat from a dog contains mythical properties that increase virility and boost restorative powers. Although the demand is decreasing these days due to a lack of popularity among younger members of Korean society, the off-putting custom remains prevalent in rural regions of the country. In fact, bosingtang is one of many dog meat delicacies available to those craving a domesticated dish, including dog salad, dog ribs, and a dog “hot pot,” just to name a few.

5 1904 Spectacle

The 1904 Summer Olympics in St. Louis have been epitomized as one of the more bizarre exhibitions in athletic history. Having been overshadowed by the World’s Fair, the games were entwined with the fair’s own roster of sporting events, which included mudslinging and “ethnic” dancing solely for the amusement of Caucasian spectators. Meanwhile, the outcome of the Olympics’ foremost event, the marathon, was a cluster of moronic spectacles beyond epic proportion. Only a handful of runners were recognized marathoners, and the majority of the race was composed of “oddities,” including ten Greek nationals who had never competed in a marathon and two barefoot Tsuana tribesmen from South Africa, who were only in town as part of the Fair.

To make matters worse, the heat and humidity along the course was detrimental for the health of athletes subjected to their coach’s farcical demands, which included the irrational minimization of fluid intake. Several athletes suffered bouts of vomiting and debilitating stomach cramps, one was chased miles off course by wild dogs, and others stole food from humorless spectators. American gold medalist Thomas Hicks was fed strychnine and egg whites by his compassionate coach, who watered down the concoction with brandy in what has become the first recorded instance of drug use in the modern Olympics.^[6]

4 Deadly Practice

The Olympic Games are not for the faint of heart, with accidents and injuries occurring quite often during competition. Though it’s rare for an athlete to die, the names of those killed while training are often forgotten, never having stepped foot on the world’s stage. Such was the case for 22-year-old Nigerian runner Hyginus Anugo, who was struck and killed by a car while training in Southwestern Sydney in 2000.

During the 1964 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria, British luger Kazimierz Kay-Skrzypecki was killed in a wreck during practice, as was Australian skier Ross Milne, who collided with a tree after flying off the course of the slope.^[7] From crashing into steel poles at the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver to sunstroke deaths at the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm, perhaps the most reckless death of all occurred at the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, France. Swiss speed skier Nicholas Bochatay leaped over a small hill during warm-ups and crashed into an oncoming tractor-like vehicle used to groom the trails. To add insult to injury, Bochatay’s death came within minutes of competition.

3 Neighbors To The North

Rising tensions between South Korea and their neighbors to the north is nothing new, especially during the Olympic season. From the moment Seoul first won its bid to host the 1988 Summer Games, North Korea was determined to disrupt the esteemed festivities at all cost. The regime’s determination took a diabolical turn on November 29, 1987, when Korean Air Flight 858 from Baghdad to Seoul disappeared above the Andaman Sea with 115 passengers aboard. South Korean president Chun Doo Hwan immediately blamed the North, formally charging the country for the tragedy two months later. To no one’s surprise, the communist government denied the allegations and followed up with copious ineffective attempts to persuade allies—China and the Soviet Union, specifically—to boycott the games.

The world would eventually learn what truly occurred on that fateful flight when Kim Hyon Hui admitted her involvement. The North Korean agent described in immaculate detail how she and her accomplice, Kim Sung Il, planted a timed explosive on the jetliner disguised as a radio. The jubilation of the dynamic duo’s mission of creating “chaos and confusion in South Korea” came to an abrupt end upon their arrest. Both swallowed cyanide capsules after being arrested. While Sung Il succumbed, Hyon Hui survived.^[8] She was sentenced to death but was eventually pardoned and lives her life a free woman today.

2 Estadio Nacional Disaster

One of the world’s worst stadium disasters occurred in Lima, Peru, on May 24, 1964, when a rambunctious crowd of committed football fans became slightly perturbed at a referee’s erroneous call. While Peru and Argentina were competing in a qualifying round for the Tokyo Olympics, an equalizing goal for Peru was disallowed, infuriating home fans at the Estadio Nacional. Within seconds, a vicious skirmish between police and the crowd ensued.

As tear gas rained down on 53,000 spectators, those who attempted to flee into the streets found themselves barricaded behind closed gates, and they asphyxiated in the tightly packed tunnels. While the official death toll remains at 328, it is not reflective of the number of victims killed outside the stadium by police gunfire. In fact, that number may never be known, given that countless corpses with bullet wounds mysteriously vanished from the mortuaries, and the names of the dead were never recorded.^[9]

1 156 Voices

“I’ve just signed your death warrant,” Judge Rosemarie Aquilina said in a Michigan courtroom in January 2018 after sentencing Dr. Larry Nassar to 40 to 175 years in prison.^[10] While the disgraced former USA Gymnastics doctor lowered his head in shame, the country questioned how the sexual assault of more than 150 girls and young women continued, or perhaps was overlooked, for two decades. Of the 156 women who took the stand recounting the abuse they endured under the guise of medical treatment, it became nauseatingly apparent that countless victimized voices were ignored over the years by organizations in power, primarily USA Gymnastics, Michigan State University, and the US Olympic Committee.

In spite of pleading guilty to seven counts of criminal sexual conduct, in a letter he had recently written to the court, Nassar accused his victims of lying, blamed the media for his ruined reputation, and claimed that he was manipulated into pleading guilty. The 54-year-old degenerate also wrote, “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.”

Adam is just a hubcap trying to hold on in the fast lane.

Since their modern relaunch in the late 1800s, the Olympics have become the single largest and most prestigious sporting event globally. The majority of the world’s nations, over 200 of them, gather over 10,000 of the world’s best athletes to compete in over 300 events. Anything that massive in scope, with that many different cultures, and with so much on the line, is virtually guaranteed to create controversy. 

Every Olympic Games has met with some form of contention or drama, from small spats to outright violence to clandestine long-term schemes. And with no truly neutral third party (no unaligned nation just volunteers to sit this one out and referee), disputes can last a long time or even go unresolved entirely. 

As a result, the Olympic Games go perpetually hand in hand with scandal. Here are ten of the best/worst Olympics scandals of all time.

10 The Worst Referee Ever

During the 2012 London Olympics, one referee gave perhaps the worst, most blatantly corrupt performance in history. A bantamweight fight between Japan’s Satoshi Shimizu and Azerbaijan’s Magomed Abdulhamidov took place and was completely one-sided, ending in an easy decision. Except that the person who got completely rocked was given the win.

Satoshi brought Magomed to the floor six times, an unusually high number. Yet at every fall, the referee failed to count the boxer down. At one point, the ref even helped the downed Magomed straighten his headgear so he could continue. Although Satoshi was the obvious winner at the end of the fight, the match was given to Magomed. It’s worth a watch, as the crowd and the announcers alike are vocally outraged. Thankfully, the decision was later overturned after Japan appealed.

9 Twin Cheats

The story of how Madeline and Margaret de Jesus cheated at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics sounds made up. It sounds like a children’s movie plot, because truly—the pair pulled a Parent Trap.

While competing for Puerto Rico in the long jump, Madeline de Jesus injured her hamstring. She was scheduled to compete again six days later in the 4×400 relay and did not want to miss out. So she concocted a plan to use her sister—her identical twin and also a skilled sprinter—to secretly take her place in the relay. The plan worked, and Margaret ran for Madeline—meeting the qualifying time—until a reporter found them out. To the credit of Madeline’s coach, he pulled the entire team from the competition rather than tarnish anyone’s reputation.

8 The French Judge

Marie-Reine Le Gougne was a French judge for pairs’ figure skating at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics. She watched as the Canadian and Russian teams led the field and vied for the gold. In the end, it seemed clear to viewers and the live crowd that the Canadians had out-skated the Russians. And then the judges voted and the Russians were given the gold.

It turns out that Russia and France had agreed to cheat together by trading judges’ votes and that’s why the Russians had so surprisingly come out ahead. Le Gougne was distraught by her role in the scheme and confessed to officials and the press. Because she confessed, she was vilified the most of any judge, gaining the derisive title The French Judge, even though she was seemingly the only one with any sense of integrity or remorse.

7 Salt Lake City Bribes

Speaking of the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics, they probably shouldn’t have been in Salt Lake City. The city had tried to successfully bid for the Olympics four times and failed, and so to clinch the fifth attempt, they decided to bribe International Olympics Committee members with money, gifts, and possibly even prostitutes.

The scandal cost the jobs of several IOC members and many within SLC who initiated the bribes. It also revealed that bribery of Olympic officials was not unique to SLC. Investigations into the previous two Olympics found that similar bribery had occurred then, as well.

6 Kerrigan and Harding

The Tonya Harding/Nancy Kerrigan incident is notorious, even enough so to spawn a Margot Robbie-led movie, “I, Tonya.” In 1993, Harding and Kerrigan were two of the best female figure skaters in America and were set to compete against one another in qualifying trials for spots on the American team at the 1994 Lillehammer Olympics. Then tragedy struck when Kerrigan was assaulted by a man with a lead pipe, thus granting Harding her spot.

Of course, the entire incident turned into one big soap opera. Harding’s ex-husband hired the attacker—Harding may or may not have helped plan the attack, and she certainly knew about it before authorities did. Both skaters ended up making it to Lillehammer, where Kerrigan took silver and Harding had a mini-meltdown.

5 Greg Louganis’s Secret

Greg Louganis may be the greatest diver in history, and he was looking to add to his impressive record at the 1988 Seoul Olympics. In a preliminary round, Louganis struck the back of his head on the diving board, giving him a concussion and causing him to bleed into the pool. He was stitched up and went on to perform as well as he ever had.

However, it wasn’t until seven years later that Louganis revealed that he had been diagnosed with HIV a full six months before the 1988 games had started. Because HIV can be transmissible via fluid and Louganis had bled in the pool, he was terrified that he might infect another swimmer. That, combined with the intense bigotry around homosexuality at the time, caused Louganis to conceal his diagnosis and the apparent risk. Luckily, no one was infected, and health experts since have made it clear that the odds of infection were essentially zero.

4 Boris the Cheat

Boris Onishchenko is a former pentathlete whose crafty, preplanned cheat at the 1976 Montreal Olympics has earned him the nicknames ‘Boris the Cheat,’ ‘Dishonest Boris’, and ‘the biggest cheat’ in Olympic history.

During one point of the fencing portion of the pentathlon, Onishchenko’s epee lit up, signifying a hit. The problem was, his epee was still in midair, nowhere near to touching his opponent. Though it was written off as a one-time accident, suspicions aroused after the second false point. His epee was examined and found to contain a switch that Onishchenko could flick to automatically record a touch, whether an actual touch had occurred or not. The whole rig was deviously clever but stupidly applied.

3 Everything About 1936

The 1936 Berlin Olympics are probably the most famous Olympic Games ever held. The games were held in the capital of Nazi Germany, three years after Hitler had brutally seized power and during his reign of terror against European Jewish populations. This caused many Jewish athletes to protest the games.

Hitler saw the games as a way to prove Aryan superiority, and many believe that even American officials joined in, placating the dictator by removing remaining Jewish athletes from certain events. Poetically, this caused black American Jesse Owens to make the 4×100 relay team, which gave him one of his gold medals, thereby making Aryan superiority a little more dubious a concept.

2 Russian Doping

Russia has had a long history of doping offenses at the Olympic Games. The twenty aughts and teens have seen positive test after positive test coupled with allegation after allegation. But it wasn’t until a couple of bombshell confessions from within the state-sponsored doping program itself that the whole scam was brought to light.

Between 2010 and 2014, Russian Anti-Doping Agency employee Vitaly Stepanov and his wife, Olympic runner Yuliya Stepanova, worked to expose the extensive Russian doping program. Vitaly sent hundreds of communications to the World Anti-Doping Agency and Yuliya secretly recording conversations with athletes about the system. Then in 2016, Grigory Rodchenkov, the former head of the Moscow Anti-Doping Laboratory confirmed the whole story. Forty-three medals have since been stripped from Russian athletes, and the country is banned from competing at the 2020(/2021) games in Tokyo.

1 East German Doping

East Germany only existed between the close of WWII and the fall of the Berlin Wall, a period of about 50 years. Despite its short time as a nation, its relatively small size, and an array of economic, social, and political difficulties, East Germany managed to routinely dominate in many sporting events, most famously in the Olympics games from 1964-1988. This turned out to be due to a state-run, widespread doping program- one that puts even the Russian doping scandal to shame.

All told, East German Olympics teams collected a staggering 203 gold, 192 silver, and 177 bronze medals in their short reign and in 1976 alone, they took 40 gold medals. This seemingly impossible feat, combined with anecdotes from former East German athletes who had escaped the state, made the international community suspicious. But since the country performed its own drug-testing, nothing was ever truly confirmed. Until, that is, after Germany reunified and East German records were made public; the doping ring was controlled at every level of government and its health effects are still being felt by former athletes today.

Today, we think of Olympic events as being held in state-of-the-art venues built specifically by the host city for that year’s illustrious games. When cities are awarded the opportunity to host, the planning committee gets right to work. The result has given us spectacular Olympic venues where the athletes compete, hoping to win gold.

However, this has not always been the case. Since the Summer Games restarted in 1896, Olympians have sometimes had to take part in conditions that have ranged from inconvenient to downright dangerous. Here are ten instances when Olympic venues were wildly unsuitable!

Related: 10 Amusingly Bizarre Tales From The First Modern Olympics

10 London, 1908

When the British and Australian teams walked out onto the White City Stadium pitch to play the Olympic rugby final, they were confronted with a playing area that posed a potentially bigger problem than the damp grass. Running immediately alongside the pitch was the open-air Olympic swimming pool. Players could cope with the basic conditions, but a possible drop of several feet was more hazardous.

Netting was stretched precariously over the gap to try and catch any erstwhile kicks made toward the pool, and large mattresses were spread along the closest edges of the pool to try and prevent any injuries.

The ball would regularly be kicked out of play into the pool, and it was reported that the Australians were better at handling the slippery ball—ending up 32-to-3 winners. The ball might have taken a battering, but the players at least avoided any pool-related injuries.^[1]

9 Tokyo, 1964

Water polo competitors arriving at Tokyo’s Olympic pool found that the water was too shallow. This prompted immediate complaints from some teams about taller players being able to stand on the bottom of the pool, giving them an unfair advantage. The Hungarian coach claimed somewhat exaggeratedly that even his shortest player could stand on the bottom.

Keeping quiet was the Yugoslavian team—the tallest group in the tournament. Their players could easily shoot from a standing position.

The event took place with attempts by the hosts to raise the water levels. Perhaps justice was done in the end—the Yugoslavians only earning silver behind the victorious Hungarians.^[2]

8 Athens, 1896 and Antwerp, 1920

Swimmers have often been the hardiest of all Olympic competitors, with conditions ranging from wild at worst to basic at best.

With no Olympic pool, entrants in the first modern Olympic Games had to endure the freezing waters of the Bay of Zea—racing in temperatures that reached up to only 13°C (55°F)—in chilly weather. With all the races taking place over one day, few shelters had been provided, meaning that the swimmers had little chance of warmth. After winning two events, the Hungarian swimmer Alfred Hajos said that the cold was such that “his will to live completely overcame his desire to win.”

The newly built Antwerp pool for the 1920 Summer Games was commended by the IOC president—others disagreed. American swimmer Aileen Riggin remembered that it was disliked intensely by her teammates. She likened it to “a ditch that had just been dug, with an embankment on the side for protection in case of war.” Swimmers reported that the water was black and freezing, with competitors having to wear several layers of clothing just to keep warm after racing.^[3]

7 Paris, 1900

Regarded as one of the worst modern Olympics, the Paris Games were added to the city’s Universal Exposition World Fair almost as an afterthought. The organization, taken out of the IOC’s hands, was shambolic and some venues totally inadequate.

Track and field events took place in areas described as being more suitable for walking and picnics—the general public often wandering through the various competitions being held. The athletics track was an uneven and frequently wet field, with long grass in parts and not always marked properly. Runners in the hurdle races found that they were jumping over broken telegraph poles, while the 400m hurdlers also had to contend with a water jump in the final straight—fortunately, not a lasting novelty.

The discus and hammer throwing events took place in a narrow tree-lined lane. The many attempts which hit the trees were designated as “no throws.” With minimal safety regulations, spectators had to keep a careful watch out for misdirected flying implements.^[4]

6 St. Louis, 1904

Like Paris four years earlier, these Summer Games were poorly organized and mismanaged. Similarly, they were added to the city’s World Fair event.

For the swimmers and water polo competitors, facilities were particularly dreadful—with tragic longer-term consequences. An artificial lake, created in the middle of the World Fair to hold life-saving demonstrations, was also used for some of the agricultural exhibits. Cattle grazing nearby would wander into the water, contaminating it. This evidently did not appear to concern the organizers.

It was in this dirty pool that the swimming and water polo events took place. Only three teams, all American, entered the latter event—eventually won by the New York Athletic Club. Although held at the far end of the lake, the foolishness of playing in such filthy water would later prove devastating. Within a year, four of the water polo players died of typhus.^[5]

5 Berlin, 1936

Until the 1948 Games, basketball tournaments were held outside. No problem if the weather was fine—but then came Berlin.

Matches in the 1936 Olympics were played on sandy tennis courts. On the day of the final, it rained…and rained, turning the court into a quagmire and making scoring ridiculously hard. When the ball hit the water-soaked ground, it wouldn’t move. Plus, the lumpy ball made passing difficult.

The finalists, USA and Canada, both wanted the match postponed, but the German organizers insisted that the match go ahead as scheduled. In an interview many years later, one of the Canadian players said that “Michael Jordan could have slipped from foul line to foul line and scored a basket without taking any steps.” At the end of the inevitably low-scoring final, the USA had triumphed by 19 points to 8. Canadian player, Jim Stewart, had the ball in his possession at the final whistle and managed to smuggle it off of the court—to keep as a souvenir, with the help of his watching wife. His teammates didn’t object. It was like a soggy, muddy football (soccer ball for you Americans). Nobody else wanted it.^[6]

4 London, 1948

Known as the “Austerity Games,” war-torn London hosted the first Olympics in twelve years.

The running track was only laid at Wembley’s Empire Stadium two weeks before the start of the Games. What the organizers hadn’t planned for was the athletics program running late into the day. A real problem since the stadium had no infield lighting.

On a soggy Friday evening, the second and final day of the decathlon was due to finish at 6 pm—delays meant that darkness had descended with three events still to go. The eventual winner, 17-year-old Bob Mathias from the USA, had already spent time with discus officials searching on hands and knees for a dislodged flag marker hole. Just after 9 pm, he started the pole vault on his own as his rivals had already finished. Assisted by a teammate who pointed a flashlight up into the night sky at the bar, Mathias recorded the winning height.

A solo win in the javelin followed, although the no-throw foul line was not visible in the gloom. At 10.30 pm, the 1500 meters was run in driving rain, with some car lights helping to illuminate the track. Although coming in third in the race, Mathias had eventually beaten the dark and all other obstacles to become an Olympic champion—the youngest to ever win decathlon gold.^[7]

3 St. Louis, 1904

Back to St. Louis, it wasn’t only the competitors in the water who faced problems. Similarly, poor organization turned the Games’ toughest event into a near farce—only luck prevented a more serious situation from occurring.

The marathon course was an unreasonable endurance test, particularly for the many inexperienced competitors. Starting in heat approaching 35°C (95°F), the unpaved roads were thick with dust. The runners had to climb seven steep hills and negotiate rough, stony ground while also dodging pedestrians and other obstacles.

Several athletes collapsed after inhaling too much dust, including one who nearly died from the effects. To make matters worse, only two water stops were available.

The shambles continued to the end. American Fred Lorz was declared the winner but was found to have had a lift in a car mid-way through the race for ten miles. His totally exhausted teammate, Tom Hicks, was then awarded the win—only finishing with some help and being given a “medicinal” concoction of brandy, eggs, and strychnine along the route. A potentially fatal tonic had it not been for help from doctors immediately after the race. ^[8]

2 Beijing, 2008

Even more recent games are not exempt from poor planning. Beijing’s Games posed a potentially serious problem for all competitors—the most polluted Olympics in history. The IOC was sufficiently worried in the year leading up to the start to think about postponing some endurance events.

As the Olympics began, evening showers and changes in wind direction helped to ease the pollution, although the sun could barely be seen through the smog at times. Competitors often struggled in the heat and humidity, with added rest breaks being taken. The football finals saw stoppages after 30 minutes in each half. Athletes suffering from asthma were particularly affected. Some medal contenders decided not to risk their health, including marathon world-record-holder Haile Gebrselassie, who pulled out earlier in the year. and 2004 cycling silver medallist Sergio Paulinho due to respiratory difficulties.^[9]

1 POW “Olympics,” 1944

Taking a slight liberty here, but if anything demonstrates how the “Olympic spirit” could overcome appalling conditions, then the POW “Olympic Games” must be the best example.

War had caused the cancellation of the 1940 Tokyo and 1944 London Games, but Polish prisoners of war in German-controlled camps were determined to have their own Olympics. A similar event earlier in 1940 had to be held in secret—the discovery of the activities would have resulted in severe punishments for the POWs from Stalag XIII A in Nuremberg.

In 1944, however, the guards gave permission for an “Olympics” to be held in the harsh environment of Woldenberg Camp—with certain limitations. Nevertheless, the Polish POWs enthusiastically made up an Olympic flag from old bedsheets along with paper medals and special stamps.

The many events included track and field events, basketball, football, handball, and volleyball. The boxing tournament was popular but was cut short due to injuries caused by the weakened physical state of the prisoners. Unsurprisingly, the camp authorities would not allow pole vaulting, fencing, javelin, or archery events to take place. In all, 369 prisoners participated in 464 competitions, including some deemed social and cultural as was common in the Games at that time.^[10]

Since ancient Greece, the Olympic Games have pitted athletes from across the planet in various team-based and individual sports to bring glory back to their home countries in the form of bronze, silver, and gold medals. In effect, the Olympics have come to be considered the premiere sports competition and the foremost opportunity for nations to exhibit their athletic prowess on the world stage. With such a spotlight, the Olympics are a chance for countries to make as much of a statement with their presence as without it.

From the start of the modern Olympics in 1896 in Athens, the Games have had no shortage of bans. Whether it’s the International Olympic Committee (IOC) handing them out or the countries themselves in self-imposed boycotts, nearly every continent on Earth has seen at least one of its nations barred from the contest in its hundred-plus-year history. So, grab hold of those rings because we’re counting down ten times countries were banned from the Olympic Games.

10 Central Powers

Following the devastation of World War I, the countries competing in the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp, Belgium, weren’t too keen on inviting those responsible for sparking the bloody global conflict. With the 1920 Games being the first Olympics to be held since they were postponed in 1916 on account of WWI, the countries that comprised the Central Empire—Germany, Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria, and the Ottoman Empire—were banned from sending their athletes to Antwerp.

However, the Germans wouldn’t be deterred from hosting their own athletic competition, as the country created its own sporting contest in 1922. Dubbed the German Combat Games, the national multi-sport event occurred in both summer and winter. It lasted until 1937—nearly an entire decade after Germany was eventually invited back to the 1928 Olympics in Amsterdam.

9 Germany and Japan

The 1948 Olympics were the first to see both winter and summer events in Switzerland and London, respectively, and the first Olympics to be held in twelve years due to World War II. Similar to how the Olympics addressed the involvement of the instigating countries from WWI in 1920, Germany and Japan were banned from the competition in 1948.

Even without Germany and Japan in London—where Bulgaria was also banned from competing—rationing due to the war still caused the two countries’ presence to be felt. The budget for the London Games was so tight, in fact, that most of the events were held at a single stadium because they couldn’t afford to build new venues, with most athletes housed around the stadium instead of the usual Olympic Village.

However, the ban would eventually be lifted as Germany, Japan, and Bulgaria returned to join the 69 nations competing at the 1952 Winter Olympics in Oslo, Norway.

8 South Africa

One of the most prolific instances of a country being banned from the Olympics is undoubtedly that of South Africa. In their denouncing of Apartheid—a system of institutionalized racism that enabled the country’s minority white population to have complete social, economic, and political control for over forty years—the International Olympic Committee barred South Africa from competing in more than a dozen summer and winter Olympics.

From 1964 to 1988, South Africa was banned from the Games, marking a nearly twenty-year-long absence that kept South African athletes from competing at the 1964 Games in Tokyo as well as 1968 Mexico, 1972 Munich, 1976 Montreal, 1980 Moscow, 1984 Los Angles, and 1988 Seoul.

When South Africa did return following the dissolution of Apartheid in 1992, 93 South African Olympians competed at the Games in Barcelona that same year, with Elana Meyer joining Wayne Ferreira and Piet Norval as the country’s sole medalists.

7 Zimbabwe (Formerly Rhodesia)

When most people remember the 1972 Olympics in Munich, it’s difficult to look past the deaths of Israeli athletes and a West German police officer at the hands of Palestinian militants in what has since become known as the Munich massacre.

That being said, the Munich Games were also where the IOC enacted its last-minute ban on Rhodesia, known today as Zimbabwe. Just four days before the 1972 summer Olympics were scheduled to commence, the IOC withdrew its invitation to Rhodesia following political pressure from Kenya, Ethiopia, and other African nations that considered Rhodesia an illegal regime.

As a result, the 44 athletes Rhodesia had sent to Munich were only allowed to experience the Games from the stands. Rhodesia would not return to the Olympics until 1980, when its racially discriminant government had collapsed, and the country adopted its new identity as Zimbabwe.

6 United States & Canada

Although not banned from the Games by the organizing committee themselves, the United States and Canada boycotted the 1980 summer Olympics in Moscow by refusing to attend. The North American nations refused to compete to shine a light on the violations of human rights by the Soviets’ invasion of Afghanistan.

While the idea wasn’t taken up by other member governments in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the support for the proposed boycott by Andrei Sakharov—a Soviet nuclear scientist and dissenter—helped it gain popularity. Sakharov’s appeal was soon backed by the United States in January 1980, with the Carter Administration including a boycott of the Moscow Games as part of the consequences if the Soviet Union failed to leave Afghanistan by February of that same year.

Joe Clark, the Prime Minister of Canada at the time, echoed the sentiments of his continental neighbor. With the Soviets remaining firm, however, neither North American nation attended the Games that year. And so it’s easy to see why soon after, the Carter administration tried to prevent future politicization of the Games’ hosting by proposing that Greece be the permanent home of the Olympics. Yet, in the spirit of keeping the international competition as far-reaching as possible, the IOC declined.

5 Soviet Union & East Germany

Another high-profile self-imposed ban would take place four years later at the 1984 summer Olympics in Los Angeles. In direct response to the boycott of the 1980 Moscow Games by the United States and Canada, fourteen Eastern Bloc countries led by the Soviet Union and East Germany withdrew from the Los Angeles Games in protest.

As a result, Romania and Yugoslavia were the only socialist European states to compete in the Olympics that year. Despite the boycott, 140 countries attended the Games that year, a record turnout at the time, with the United States, Romania, and West Germany sharing the podium for most medals won.

What’s more, the 1984 Games raked in a profit of more than $250 million, as the use of existing sports facilities and private investment helped make the Los Angeles Games into what is widely considered to be one of the most profitable and well-run Olympics to date.

4 Afghanistan

Two hundred countries would have participated in the 2000 summer Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia, if not for the exclusion of Afghanistan. As the only IOC member nation not to participate in the Games of the New Millennium, Afghanistan was banned from competing due to the totalitarian rule of the Taliban.

From 1996 to 2001, Afghanistan oppressed women and prohibited the playing of sports. And so, with more than 4,000 women competing in over 300 athletic events, it’s no wonder the country wasn’t asked to participate.

3 India

The alleged involvement of the Indian Olympic Association Secretary General Lalit Bhanot in the controversies at the 2010 Commonwealth Games had serious repercussions for India at the 2014 winter Olympics in Sochi.

With Bhanot’s name being attached to the allegations of corruption, unsafe construction, and a lack of security at the 2010 Commonwealth Games, the IOC banned India from competing at Sochi 2014. That said, three Indian athletes were still permitted to compete as Independent Olympic Participants, with the Olympic flag taking the place of India’s flag at the opening ceremonies. India’s flag would fly by the closing ceremonies, however, as the ban was lifted partway through the Games when the Indian Olympic Association elected a new president.

2 Kuwait

Following Kuwait’s return to the Olympics at the London Games in 2012, the country again received a ban by the IOC at the 2016 summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Kuwaiti athletes could only compete as independents that year due to political interference in the country’s Olympic committee.

Even so, Kuwait still managed to add to the number of firsts that took place at Rio 2016. In addition to the Games being the first Olympics held in South America and the first appearances of Kosovo and South Sudan, Kuwaiti target shooter Fehaid Al-Deehani became the first independent to win a gold medal for his performance in men’s double trap.

1 Russia

Perhaps the most infamous instance of a country being banned from the Olympics is when Russian state officials were caught providing its athletes with illicit performance-enhancing drugs. Almost every sizable sporting competition since has banned the Russian Federation from participating due to their violation of anti-doping legislation, with the most significant punishment coming from the Olympics.

The IOC has stripped Russia of a record 43 Olympic medals and prohibited the country from competing since the scandal was brought to light in 2016. Russian athletes now compete under the Olympic flag, which identified them as the Olympic Athletes from Russia in 2018 and the Russian Olympic Committee athletes in 2021 and 2022.