In April 2019, a mountain expedition by the Indian Army discovered huge footprints in the snow high in the Himalayas. They tweeted out pictures, claiming the images as evidence for the legendary Yeti, a large, hairy biped believed to exist in the mountain range. Not surprisingly, most people were unimpressed.^[1]

Apparent Yeti prints have been seen many times before, and there have been many explanations put forward to explain them away. If there actually are Yetis in the Himalayas, wouldn’t someone have seen them by now? Well, about that . . .

10 Where’s A Camera When You Need One?

In 1925, a photographer, N.A. Tombazi, was touring the Himalayas taking scenic photographs. One day, his porters called him to come from his tent, and they pointed to a dark object 183 to 274 meters (600–900 ft) away.

Tombazi could see the figure was like a human being and walking upright; it was also was dark in color and appeared to be wearing no clothes. This strange being was walking around from rhododendron bush to rhododendron bush, rummaging through them and occasionally uprooting one. After the figure was visible for about a minute, Tombazi lost view of it as it walked off into some thick scrub. Tombazi was flustered; he’d had no time to get a camera or binoculars.

Tombazi and some of the men trekked over to the area a few hours later to investigate and found plenty of footprints in the crisp snow. They were definitely man-like, but oddly small—they were only about 15 to 18 centimeters (6–7 in) long and about 10 centimeters (4 in) wide at the widest part. There were five toes, and the instep could be seen, but the heel was often indistinct or merely a point. The prints were between 45 and 60 centimeters (18–24 in) apart and were obviously from a bipedal creature. The scrub was too thick and the weather too threatening for Tombazi to try to follow the trail.

The porters all believed the creature had been a Yeti, but Tombazi didn’t want to believe that. However, he could not get past the fact the creature had looked very human in form.^[2]

9 Hometown Expert

Tenzing Norgay was born and raised in the shadow of the Himalayas. He first became involved in mountaineering when he was picked by Englishman Eric Shipton to help in the 1935 reconnaissance of Mount Everest (an attempt to find usable path for climbing). Tenzing enjoyed the experience so much that he became involved with almost every other attempt to climb Everest afterward. On May 29, 1953, he reached the top of Everest with Edmund Hillary, making Tenzing and Hillary the first two people to do so.

In 1951, Tenzing was on a climb with Eric Shipton again when the whole party came across prints in the snow. Tenzing identified them as belonging to a Yeti, and then he explained to Shipton that he and some of the other Sherpas had seen a Yeti two years previously, near the village of Thyangboche. It was about 23 meters (75 ft) away when the group saw the strange creature. Tenzing said it stood about 168 centimeters tall (5’6″) and had a tall and pointed head. Its body was covered with reddish-brown hair, but the face looked hairless.

Shipton had another man cross-examine Tenzing in his native language, and Tenzing stood by his statement. He knew what a bear looked like, and he knew what a monkey looked like; this manlike creature had been neither.^[3]

8 The Lure Of The Hunt

Around 12:00 AM one night in May 1951, Richard Steinwinkler reached a remote, high plateau in the Himalayas. He was climbing alone and had been planning to rest when he reached the plateau, but he saw from the corner of his eye a large figure moving behind an overhang. He immediately thought Yeti. He wasn’t a believer per se, but he knew that no one else should have been up there, especially at that time of night, so he immediately ran to the overhang to investigate.

Initially, there was nothing in sight. Then Steinwinkler noticed the footprint in the clay in front of him. He photographed the print and then followed the trail for hours, eventually finding the creature that made the print. The animal was about 50 meters (164 ft) away from him, and he could see it was moving on two legs and was very tall . . . but it was hard to get a good look because of the terrain. Steinwinkler, who had been running on excitement at a discovery up to this point, suddenly realized he was very, very alone with an unknown animal. Shakily, Steinwinkler took several photos. Then, ever so carefully, he crept back the way he came.^[4]

7 Ouch!

In 1952, Norwegians Aage Thorberg and Jan Frostis were doing survey work on the Zemu Glacier in the area of Kangchenjunga when they came across a fresh example of some of the famous footprints in the snow. Thorberg and Frostis, with two local men, went in search of the creatures that had made the tracks . . . and they found them.

The creatures looked like monkeys, with long tails, but were man-sized and walking upright. Frostis proposed shooting one to take with them, but Thorberg argued that the specimen would be more valuable alive. So they improvised a lasso to catch one with.

When the attempt was made, however, one of the creatures caught the lasso before it caught a creature, and another of the animals knocked Frostis to the ground and bit his shoulder. Thorberg hastily fired a shot into the air, and the creatures all fled as the men helped their wounded companion back to camp.^[5]

6 A Bad Position

In 1953, Drs. George Moore and George K. Brooks were returning home after a visit to the Tibetan border area, where they had helped to control an outbreak of typhus. They were slowly following the trails back down the mountains to Kathmandu with a group of Sherpas when a storm threatened to overtake them. They had entered a muddy, forested area, and Moore and Brooks, unencumbered by packs and in a hurry to get home, had outpaced the Sherpas. A thick fog had set in, but the men could still follow the trail.

The two men stopped for a break near a large rock so that Brooks could grab a leech that was about to climb into his boot. Something moved ever so slightly in the bushes nearby; then it moved again. Both men quickly drew their pistols and backed up to a large boulder as they watched the bush. Then came two screams, one from somewhere in front of them and one from somewhere to the right!

Fearing they might be surrounded, the men climbed onto the boulder as an angry chattering came from the bushes in front of them, and more screams came from all around them. And then a creature, covered in hair but standing, pushed through the bushes in front of them. The creature stood about 152 centimeters tall (5′) and had gray skin, black hair, a mouth “that seemed to extend from ear to ear,” and long, yellow teeth and yellow eyes. As six or seven more figures started to be visible in the fog around them, the men realized they were surrounded by these monsters.

Moore and Brooks decided that actually shooting one of the beasts would likely just make their situation worse, so they fired a warning shot over the creatures’ heads, which made the strange animals pause in their steps. Two more warning shots, and the creatures retreated. No longer in a hurry to get home, the two men stood their ground until the Sherpas caught up to them and stayed in the group for the rest of the way home.^[6]

5 A Picky Eater

In 1954, mountaineer Charles Stoner was performing interviews concerning the Yeti and other matters in several of the Himalayan villages he was visiting. Stoner was interested in the folklore and the beliefs regarding the creature but ran into a story that he wasn’t quite prepared for.

In the village of Tamyeh, Stoner found himself talking to a man named Lakhpa Tensing, who explained that, three years earlier, he had a chance encounter with a Yeti. It was in the month of March, and Lahkpa had taken his yak herd out to graze where the snow had melted. When it was time to go, one yak had wandered off, so Lahkpa climbed to a rocky area nearby to look for the stray animal. He heard a strange yelping noise that sounded like a puppy, so he went to investigate . . . and found the guts of a local rodent strewn on the ground, still fresh.

Thirty paces away, sitting on a rock with its back to him, was an upright creature about the size of a 12-year-old boy. It was covered with reddish-brown hair and had a noticeably pointed head. Once Lahkpa realized that he was looking at a Yeti, he crept back away as carefully as possible, not wanting to disturb the creature in any way.^[7]

4 Word From Russia

In January 1958, Dr. Alexander Pronin, a hydrologist from Russia’s Leningrad State University (now the Saint Petersburg State University), was with a group in the Pamir Mountains. One day, he was exploring a bit when he saw what he took to be a bear on a cliff top, but when it stood up, it was clearly not a bear.

The man-like figure was covered with reddish-gray hair and had stooping shoulders. He watched it for five minutes as the strange creature moved about the cliff top doing something, before it finally turned and left his field of view.

Three days later, he saw the same figure in the same place . . . and decided that it was time to admit that what he saw was real.^[8]

3 Another Picky Eater

In 1958, an expedition was sent to the Himalayas specifically to look for evidence of the Yeti. Naturalist Gerald Russell, who had been on an earlier 1954 expedition, was acting as the deputy leader for this outing.

Toward the end of April, Russell and his Sherpa guide and interpreter, Da Temba, were in the area of Choyang Khola and were taking turns with other party members spending the night in a camouflaged observation post, keeping an eye out for unusual activity. A local man told them that he’d seen a small Yeti which would visit a nearby creek nightly looking for frogs to eat, so they investigated. Russell didn’t see it, but Da Temba was in the right place at the right time.

Around midnight, a Yeti about 137 centimeters tall (4’6″) approached the creek where Da Temba was watching. It was assumed that the animal was a young Yeti, as it was physically shorter compared to most reports. As the creature searched for frogs, Da Temba shined a flashlight into the Yeti’s face. It responded by running at the men, who bravely fled. In the morning, Russell investigated and found not only Da Temba and the local man’s prints but those of a small biped, which resembled the appearance of Yeti prints seen in other areas of the Himalayas.^[9]

2 Patience Prevails

In 1970 Don Whillans was part of a group of mountaineers who set up camp near Machapuchare. One night, one of the Sherpas with the group, looking past Whillans, said matter-of-factly, “Yeti coming.” Whillans turned around just in time to see a shadowy figure disappear behind a ridge. Checking the next day, Whillans and another of the mountaineers discovered strange tracks by the ridge near where Whillans had seen the figure the night previously. The other mountaineer dismissed them as bear tracks. Whillans wasn’t so sure.

That night, the moon was bright enough to read by. Whillans’ tent was positioned so that he could poke his head out and see the slope and ridge where the figure had been the previous night. Despite the bitter cold, Whillans kept peeking out from time to time to see if any animals were in the area. His patience paid off later in the evening when, fairly suddenly, a figure sprang out from the shadows on the hillside and quickly bounded along on all fours straight for the cliff face. The creature was big and powerful-looking, and Whillans felt it was either an ape or a very similar animal. He watched for a while, but nothing more happened that night.

The next morning, Whillans and two Sherpas went to investigate and found tracks in the snow corresponding to what he’d seen the night before . . . but both Sherpas pretended there were no tracks at all! Perhaps they were afraid that Whillans would go looking for the source, unaware that he’d already seen it.^[10]

1 Surprise On The Slope

In March 1986, Anthony Wooldridge was doing a run/climb through the Alaknanda Valley in the Himalayas for charity purposes. Wooldridge was reasonably unfamiliar with Yeti lore at the time, so when he reached a remote wooded area where other humans shouldn’t have been since the previous summer, he was very surprised to see a distinct trail that traveled through the snow from bush to bush. He took two pictures and then set off on his run again, hoping to find a way through the snow to Hemkund by the next day, which was going to be tough.

About an hour later, Wooldridge’s path crossed a steep slope, and there had been an avalanche ahead of his arrival, so he stopped to survey the area, looking for the safest way to cross. As he was looking, he noticed an unnatural groove in the snow slope, as if a large rock had slid down for a short distance, and there were more footprints leading away from the bottom of the groove. He followed the tracks with his eyes to a spindly shrub . . . and whipped out his camera to quickly take several shots before moving to a spot that was as close as he could safely get to look more.

There was something just beyond the shrub, something about 183 centimeters tall (6′) and standing up. Its legs were apart, and the creature was apparently looking down the slope, unaware of Wooldridge, who was looking at the animal from its right. It was covered in dark hair, and its head was large and squarish. Wooldridge moved down the slope a little to get a different angle. When he looked again, he had the distinct impression that the creature was now watching him as well. As the weather deteriorated, Wooldridge realized that he wasn’t going to reach Hemkund that day, and suddenly unwilling to just camp out, he headed back to the last village he had stopped at before night fell.^[11]

+ Don’t Forget The Prints

On April 29, 2019, the Indian Army sent out the following tweet, along with three photos of strange prints in the snows of Makalu in the Himalayas:

For the first time, an #IndianArmy Moutaineering Expedition Team has sited Mysterious Footprints of mythical beast ‘Yeti’ measuring 32×15 inches close to Makalu Base Camp on 09 April 2019. This elusive snowman has only been sighted at Makalu-Barun National Park in the past.^[12]

As mentioned at the beginning, almost everyone immediately mocked the tweet, but stop and consider for a moment. In the pictures, the large prints are separated by a distance equal to about one and a half prints in length. So if, as the Indian Army reported, the individual prints are 81 centimeters (32 in) long each, that would imply the visible distance between the prints is around 122 centimeters (48 in) apart— that’s a lot of undisturbed snow between each print! No one in skis or snowshoes could pull that off, and that would be difficult even for the largest bears in the region.

So what did actually make the prints?

Garth Haslam has been digging into strange topics for over 30 years and posts his research on varying anomalies, curiosities, mysteries, and legends at his website Anomalies—the Strange & Unexplained. Check it out at http://anomalyinfo.com or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/anomalies.news.

The Olympics remain one of the most prestigious sporting events in the world. Countries all over the world spend enormous amounts of money, athletes dedicate their lives to training, and enthusiasts come from everywhere to watch the games. However, while this all seems good on the surface, many shocking revelations have come to light.

10 Russia Had An Untraceable Drug For The Sochi Winter Olympics

Before the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, the World Anti-Doping Agency received word that there was a human growth hormone (HGH) available in Russia that was completely untraceable by any standard Olympics drug test. If true, that would have given the Russians a huge advantage in virtually every sport in the Winter Olympics that year. So the question on everyone’s mind was: How true was this claim?

German broadcaster WDR (which has a reliable reputation in the media) was behind the shocking report. They sent undercover reporters to the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow. There, they interviewed a scientist who claimed that an untraceable HGH had been created called full-size MGF, which had been previously tested on animals.

In the words of the scientist, it “works two times faster than a normal muscle tonic and cannot be detected by the doping authorities.” He then went on to say that it would cost €100,000 to “prepare” an athlete for the Winter Olympics.

It is well-known that there are stringent testing standards that improve constantly, so most coaches and athletes wouldn’t even risk supposedly “untraceable” drugs. Nevertheless, it was claimed that some athletes would not pass up the opportunity to have a possible advantage.

This became even more of a worry when full-size MGF was tested by German scientists. They proved how effective the drug really was. Luckily, new testing was developed to help prevent abuse of supposedly “untraceable” drugs.

9 The 2016 Rio Olympics Have Been Brutal On The Locals

Ever since Rio de Janeiro was given the rights to host the Olympics in 2016, the Brazilian government has been displacing the locals to prepare for the games. While some say this is just about the games, others claim that there is an ulterior motive.

It has been reported that the Brazilian government is deliberately destroying poor neighborhoods to make way for infrastructure for the coming events. Specifically, several locals were forced out of their homes so that a high-speed bus lane could be built from the international airport to Barra de Tijuca, the neighborhood where most of the Olympic events will be held.

Since 2009, over 22,000 families have been moved from their homes because their homes were labeled “at risk” or, more likely, in the way of proposed Olympic developments. Many families haven’t received any compensation for the destruction of their homes due to legal issues surrounding much of the property.

Most of these families have been resettled in government developments far from the inner city where they are employed, which causes untold economic hardships. The government claims that only 344 families—all living in the favela of Vila Autodromo—have been resettled due to the Olympics.

According to housing activists, the Rio city officials have been using the Olympic developments as a way of segregating the rich and the poor in the city. The housing developments to which many people are moved have no convenient bus routes for commuters, no local schools, increased utility costs, and unofficial “militias” that extort money from the residents in return for security.

8 Chinese Abuse In The London Olympics

In many countries, winning the gold in the Olympics is the only way to prove your worth. If you fail, you’re considered a social pariah; if you win, then you become a national hero. To achieve the top prize, many coaches and athletes will go to extreme lengths to become and remain a victor.

China is one of the nations where this happens. During the 2012 London Olympics, allegations emerged that Chinese coaches were grossly abusing their teams. Apparently, their heartless behavior begins as soon as the athlete is recruited.

Once children show a talent for sports in China, they are immediately uprooted and isolated from their families so that they can train without distractions. Coaches often deliberately withhold news from their athletes, no matter how personal, to reduce stress that is unrelated to the sport.

Such was the case with Olympic diver Wu Minxia. She was not told that her mother had died from cancer until after she had completed her routine during the 2012 Olympics. However, she had been so emotionally removed from her parents that when she received the news, she showed no sadness and claimed that her team was her “family.”

Many coaches have also claimed that the Chinese routinely use physical abuse to control their athletes. One coach said, “The women are literally beat into submission.”

They claim that this abuse starts at a younger, more vulnerable age. Eventually, the coaches are able to dictate the athletes’ every waking moment. The enormous cash bonuses offered by the Chinese to Olympic winners apparently encourage this extreme behavior.

7 USA Competitive Swimming Sex Scandal

A frightening trend has been discovered among American competitive swim coaches. Although it has long been unnoticed or simply ignored, some coaches have been sexually abusing their athletes. Several coaches have received harsh punishments for their behavior, but this has done nothing to scare others into following the law.

As of 2014, at least 100 competitive swim coaches have been given lifetime bans for sexual abuse. Many of these men were and are repeat offenders. For example, swim coach Andy King was convicted of 15 sexual abuse charges. These repeated offenses occurred mainly because this sort of behavior was swept under the rug to protect the integrity of the sport.

Much like other sex offenders, the coaches use a process known as “grooming” in which they build up the trust and affection of a young athlete as a means to an end. What starts as an innocent “friendship” eventually deteriorates into sexual abuse. The coaches do this by giving a warped sense of intimacy to their victims, which these young athletes accept as normal.

This type of exploitation may have flourished in an era when athletes remained quiet. But people are more willing to reveal the truth today. With such a clear-cut pattern and witness confirmations, it would stand to reason that the authorities are devoting more effort to combating this abuse.

The Olympics and the US government have begun to crack down on hurtful behaviors toward young athletes, but many instances of abuse are not recognized. Therefore, many people believe that there is far more abuse than officially reported.

6 The Olympics Are A White Elephant

A white elephant is a possession that can’t be sold for any real profit and that is expensive to maintain. Such is the case with the Olympics. Many cities don’t earn a profit from hosting this prestigious event. Today, the Olympics have become less of a cash cow and more of an expensive trophy to show off the superiority of the host country and city.

In 2004, Athens budgeted $1.5 billion to host the games but ultimately spent an astounding $16 billion, an astronomical sum for a cash-strapped country like Greece. Montreal spent so much for the 1976 Olympics that it took 30 years for the city to pay off its debts. Rio de Janeiro has already spent $25 billion on infrastructure for those watching and participating in the 2016 Olympics.

It has become a multibillion-dollar game of keeping up with the Joneses for each successive host city. To show off their economic superiority, the latest host tries to one-up the previous hosts.

Many of the extravagant construction projects undertaken by host cities are short-term. When the Olympics are over, lavish facilities are often left to deteriorate for the simple reason that no one wants to use them.

This is why many American cities—Boston, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Washington—have been reluctant to lobby for the title of host city. Make no mistake, a few of the games have been profitable: Los Angeles 1984, Barcelona 1992, and Seoul 1998 were all financial boons for the host cities.

However, for many countries, profits don’t matter. The extravagant expenses are an investment in propaganda pieces to show off the supposed financial strength of their country. In 2008, the Beijing Olympics were considered a success because of the prestige the event brought to China.

However, the 2004 Athens Olympics were a failure because Greece overestimated the event’s profit potential—a mistake that helped to plunge the country into bankruptcy. Most experts agree that the Olympics are less of a financial opportunity and more of an expensive party.

5 Olympic Athletes Have A Hard Time Becoming Normal

What it means to be “normal” depends on one’s perspective. But we can probably agree that the life of an Olympic athlete is far different from that of most people.

They begin training at an extremely young age, dedicating their lives and sacrificing youthful experiences so that they can have a shot at achieving athletic greatness. But once that time has passed, their lives radically change. No longer do they spend all of their time training; they now have to become like the rest of us.

This is understandably hard because they have never experienced many of the daily situations that comprise a “normal” life. Diann Roffe, who won the silver in giant slalom in 1992 and the gold for Super G in 1994, announced her retirement from sports when she was 26. Afterward, she spent a long time in a “big bucket of melancholy” because she couldn’t recapture the excitement of being an Olympic athlete.

Still, she was one of the luckier athletes. Some athletes have taken darker and more lethal roads. Scott Miller, a silver medalist in the 1996 Olympics, was arrested for drug possession in 2014. Jeret “Speedy” Peterson, a silver medalist in 2010, struggled with alcoholism and tragically killed himself a year after he won.

When spectacular athletes emerge, they are thrust into the spotlight and showered with media attention. Obviously, being the center of attention can be intoxicating. But once the press moves on, it can be a devastating blow.

Many struggle with their identities and feelings of self-worth because they are now average Joes and have to deal with the realities of life as a regular person. Although some have led well-adjusted lives after the Olympics, many others have struggled to make the transition to normality.

4 Russia May Have Sabotaged The 2012 London Olympics

According to a report by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the Russians sabotaged and intimidated drug testers during the 2012 London Olympics to allow their athletes to get past the drug regulations. The WADA report claimed that the FSB, a successor to the Soviet KGB, was behind this conspiracy. The alleged unethical behavior of the Russians was far-reaching.

First, the FSB offered bribes to officials. Then independent drug-testing officials were intimidated and spied on. FSB agents also infiltrated the laboratories, tampered with samples, and threatened others in the lab.

Before samples were sent to the WADA-accredited Russian laboratory in Moscow, they were sent to a “shadowy” secondary facility on the outskirts of the city. There, the samples were screened and subsequently altered if they came out positive for performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs).

If positive samples managed to get to the accredited lab, the lab director was bribed with cash payments. In one case, the director supposedly destroyed 1,500 tests when he heard that WADA was going to investigate. Phone calls by Russian officials were found to make frequent references to slang terms for steroids, other stimulants, and PEDs.

As a result of these findings, WADA has called for Russia to be banned from the 2016 games in Rio de Janeiro. Russia claims that WADA doesn’t have the authority to order such an action. As of February 2016, we don’t know if the International Olympic Committee will do anything about these shocking allegations.

3 The Japanese Olympics Are In The Pocket Of The Yakuza

The yakuza is an organized crime syndicate in Japan, which is often thought of as the Japanese Mafia. Although the organization is not illegal, it is regulated. There are over 60,000 members, and many of them are quite public about their association with the yakuza. Despite this, the US Department of the Treasury has imposed sanctions on the Sumiyoshi-kai, the second largest yakuza organization, which is led by Hareaki Fukuda.

So how does this affect the Olympics in Japan? There is a litany of evidence that Hidetoshi Tanaka, the vice-chairman of the Japanese Olympic Committee, is closely tied to Fukuda. Photographs, police reports, other documents, and verified testimony from individuals associated with the yakuza have all shown that the Japanese Olympic Committee is in bed with the yakuza.

Tanaka is friends with Fukuda and at least one person in the Yamaguchi-gumi, another large criminal organization. In addition, former Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, who became head of the Tokyo Organizing Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games, has been accused of having yakuza ties.

All of this creates quite a problem for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. It is illegal for an individual or an organization to associate with or provide funds to the yakuza. If it can be proven that so many top Olympic officials are in the pocket of the yakuza, it could rock the proposed Tokyo Olympics to the core.

Tanaka, who was an amateur sumo champion, has lobbied to have sumo wrestling become an official Olympic sport. In 1996, Tanaka allegedly consulted with Kyo Eichu, the consigliere of the Yamaguchi-gumi, to make this happen.

However, Eichu was prosecuted for financial crimes in 1999 and couldn’t assist Tanaka. This wasn’t the end of Tanaka’s association with the Yamaguchi-gumi, though. There are photographs that show him with the head of the gang in 2005. Despite all of the testimony and evidence against the Japanese Olympic Committee, the 2020 Tokyo Olympics are still going on as planned.

2 The Bidding Process Is Notoriously Corrupt

For the most part, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) chooses a host city for the games according to which city will pay the most money. Unethical? Of course. Effective? Definitely.

Most recently, it was revealed that Turkey was almost going to host the 2020 Olympics, but they didn’t pay bribes. In the end, Japan secured the 2020 Olympics after paying $5 million in sponsorship money to members of the IOC.

This isn’t a new practice. Many still remember the revelation that extensive bribery had led to Salt Lake City hosting the 2002 Winter Olympics. The corruption was so extensive in Salt Lake City that 15 officials faced criminal charges of racketeering, fraud, and conspiracy.

Approximately $1 million was spent on sponsorships to secure the city. But the charges were thrown out by the judge in 2003. Although the federal government’s case failed, it did shine a light on the process of host city selection.

Nevertheless, corruption still exists, as in the case of Tokyo 2020. The main character in this drama is Lamine Diack, the 82-year-old former president of the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF), who wanted a $5 million sponsorship for his league.

Turkey refused to pay; Japan didn’t. It’s as simple as that. WADA, which first discovered this information, has said that bribery harms the integrity of the Olympics as much as doping and cheating.

1 Many Of The Events Are Fixed

Recently, several events in the Olympics have been proven to be fixed. However, it’s almost certain that cheating has been going on much longer.

In the 2012 Olympics in London, Azerbaijani boxer Magomed Abdulhamidov was knocked down an incredible five times by Japanese boxer Satoshi Shimuzu. It was one of the most amazing matches in Olympic history, but something unusual happened. Knockdowns are extremely rare in Olympic boxing, but this happened multiple times throughout the match.

The judges gave Azerbaijan the win. Fans booed, but the judges insisted that their ruling was final. Then BBC Newsnight presented evidence that Azerbaijan had paid millions so that two athletes would win gold medals. The match had been fixed.

Evidence showed that Azerbaijan made a $9 million bank transfer to AIBA, which manages Olympic boxing. Of course, AIBA said that the allegations were groundless. But in a twist, AIBA officials upheld Shimuzu’s appeal and gave him the win.

This isn’t the only time that a blatant fix was uncovered. In the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics, a French judge gave Russian skaters a higher score as part of a deal that would give the French skaters a good score later. Eventually, the Russians and the Canadians were given dual gold medals, and the rules for skating competitions were changed.

After the 2014 Sochi Olympics, there were allegations that the US and Russia had worked together during the skating events. This resulted in a Russian gold medal for team dance while American skaters won for duet. However, as of February 2016, many people don’t believe these allegations, and they have yet to be proven.

Gordon Gora is a struggling author who is desperately trying to make it. He is working on several projects. You can write him at [email protected].