In recent days, the dodgy human rights record of international football (soccer) has been dragged into the limelight, including serious concerns about the upcoming World Cups in Russia and Qatar. But human rights abuses in sport aren’t as rare as you’d think—and soccer isn’t the only sport with a problem.

10The Rumble In The Jungle

The Rumble in the Jungle is one of the greatest sporting events of all time, featuring an unstoppable Muhammad Ali in a triumphant knockout victory over his rival, George Foreman. In fact, the fight is so legendary that people tend to forget that the whole thing took place under the auspices of one of the 20th century’s most notorious dictators: Mobutu Sese Seko. Zaire’s kleptomaniac ruler was so eager to stage the fight that he even put up a $10 million purse. The money was all stolen from the people of Zaire, but Mobutu was a close US ally and reporters covering the fight “did not ask many questions.”

To make sure the event went swimmingly, the story goes, Mobutu even had all the known pickpockets and criminals of Kinshasa executed. Meanwhile, conflict raged elsewhere in the country and the fight took place with armed soldiers looking on. Even the stadium where the fight took place had been used as a makeshift prison camp/torture chamber, and it was rumored that they had to scrub it clean of blood before the fight.

In the end, Mobutu’s attempt to use the fight to drum up good publicity for Zaire didn’t go quite as he’d hoped. Reportedly, his officials were infuriated by Ali’s televised boast that: “All you boys who don’t take me seriously, who think Foreman is going to whup me; when you get to Africa Mobutu’s people are going to put you in a pot, cook you, and eat you.”

9The 1968 Summer Olympics

In 1968, Mexico City was abuzz with preparations for the 1968 Summer Olympic Games. But beneath the surface, all was not well. Young Mexicans were fed up with poverty, corruption, and a repressive government. The decision to spend $150 million on the Olympics brought things to a head and protests soon broke out, mostly calling for the repeal of laws allowing the arrest of anyone who attended a meeting of more than two people. On October 2, just 10 days before the Olympics were due to start, 10,000 students gathered in Tlatelolco Square, chanting “We Don’t Want Olympics, We Want A Revolution!”

The government response was immediate and brutal. The military surrounded the square and opened fire, while armored cars rumbled into the mass of students. A subsequent cover-up means the exact death toll remains uncertain, but it’s clear that it was a slaughter, with as many as 300 deaths. Hundreds more were rounded up, imprisoned, and tortured in the aftermath. At the time, the military insisted they had only fired after being shot at from the crowd, but this is now considered unlikely.

Despite the bloodbath occurring just across town, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) declined to move or postpone the games, noting that the violence wasn’t aimed at the Olympics themselves. As IOC head Avery Brundage had earlier explained: “If our Games are to be stopped every time the politicians violate the laws of humanity, there will never be any international contests.” Brundage, nicknamed “Slavery Avery” for his known racist views, wasn’t quite so sanguine when Tommy Smith and John Carlos famously gave the Black Power salute on the podium later on in the games, threatening to ban the entire US team if they weren’t sent home immediately.

8Equatorial Guinea’s African Cups Of Nations

Under the brutal rule of Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, Equatorial Guinea has one of the worst human rights records on the planet, with opponents of the regime regularly tortured and murdered. An oil boom has theoretically made the country rich—GDP per capita is around $25,900—yet the vast majority of the population lives on less than $2 a day. The rest of the money is stolen by the ruling family and their cronies. Obiang’s son is estimated to have bought at least $3.2 million worth of Michael Jackson memorabilia alone. He also recently considered buying a yacht for $380 million, almost three times Equatorial Guinea’s yearly health and education budgets.

Some of the money also went to co-hosting the 2012 African Cup of Nations, one of the most prestigious tournaments in world football. To prepare for the tournament, the regime spent millions of dollars building and refurbishing stadiums (the exact cost was not released). It also cracked down even further on civil liberties and openly harassed foreign reporters who tried to cover anything other than the tournament itself.

Amazingly, Equatorial Guinea was chosen to host the tournament again in 2015, after Morocco pulled out at the last minute due to Ebola concerns. (Although the Equatoguinean team was technically banned from football for cheating at the time, this was politely overlooked.) This required spending tens of millions building two further stadiums. It also apparently required arresting opposition activists. Despite the growing condemnation of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, there has been little international outrage about holding the Cup of Nations in a country with an even worse record on human rights.

7The 1982 African Cup Of Nations

Of course, the Cup of Nations does have something of a track record when it comes to letting monstrous dictatorships host. Take the 1982 tournament, which was held in Muammar Gadhafi’s Libya, already a something of a regional pariah for its military intervention in Chad. Ironically, Gadhafi hated football and had even closed the Libyan league down from 1979–1982. (In one version of the story, the dictator became insanely jealous after seeing the names of popular footballers written on a wall in Tripoli.) He agreed to host the 1982 Cup to further his diplomatic goals but still insisted on opening the tournament with the stirring words: “All you stupid spectators, have your stupid game.”

Sadly, not everyone in Gadhafi’s family felt the same way. His son Al-Saadi actually loved football so much he decided to become a professional player. He wasn’t talented enough, but you don’t need talent when you’re a rich maniac with your dad’s army to back you up. Soon Al-Saadi was the star striker in a Libyan league so heavily rigged in his favor that announcers were forbidden from saying the names of any other players. If a team tried to protest the obvious cheating, they would be forced to keep playing at gunpoint. Al-Saadi’s glittering career only took a nose-dive when he leveraged Libya’s oil money to engineer a hilariously corrupt move to the Italian top division, where he played for less than half an hour over three years, failed a drug test, and was voted the league’s worst player ever. He is currently on trial in Libya for murdering a rival footballer.

6The 33rd Chess Olympiad

Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, president of the Russian Republic of Kalmykia, loved chess. He loved it so much he built a gleaming multimillion-dollar facility known as Chess City and inaugurated it with the 33rd Chess Olympiad in 1998. (Shown above is the official mascot of the event.) How impoverished Kalmykia could afford this isn’t clear, and a local journalist named Larisa Yudina was stabbed to death shortly after opening an investigation into the matter. Local activists were beaten for protesting the expense, with one leader briefly thrown into a mental hospital and then forced to flee Kalmykia.

None of this was allowed to put a dampener on the tournament, with over 1,000 top international chess players ignoring calls for a boycott to enjoy the luxurious hospitality and the offer of a thoroughbred Kalmyk horse for every winner. The luxury came at a price, with Ilyumzhinov reportedly diverting child welfare money to finish Chess City in time. Kalmykia’s crumbling highways were ignored in order to pave the roads leading to the venue, which ordinary Kalmyks were banned from driving on.

Meanwhile, every Kalmyk organization had to sponsor a team, which effectively meant emptying government buildings to furnish the players’ quarters. Experiences varied: “The Statistics Committee got Peru. The apartment had been used by the construction workers, and it was a huge job fixing it up. As for the local publishing house, they got Tajikistan, and they were happy. The Tajiks weren’t used to much comfort, and it was easy to take care of them.” Ilyumzhinov is still president of the World Chess Federation and is best known for his belief in aliens and his bizarre attempts to bring peace to conflict zones through the medium of chess.

5The 1978 World Cup

After a military coup in 1976, Argentina was ruled by a brutal right-wing junta which murdered thousands of opponents during the so-called “Dirty War” that followed. Argentineans suspected of left-wing leanings were regularly kidnapped, tortured, and thrown out of planes into the ocean. But that didn’t stop FIFA from allowing Argentina to host the 1978 World Cup, giving the junta a valuable shot at some good publicity.

They seized it with both hands, hiring a pricy PR agency and even building special walls so that visitors wouldn’t be able to see the impoverished slums of Buenos Aires. In the buildup to the tournament, any remaining dissidents and potential troublemakers were kidnapped or murdered. Even the tournament’s head organizer, General Omar Actis, was assassinated, allegedly for opposing the government’s wild spending.

The tournament itself was not a classic, with the junta widely alleged to have rigged games—35,000 tons of grain and $50 million in credit supposedly got them a 6–0 win over Peru. Despite the junta’s crimes, only one player, West German hero Paul Breitner, declined to play on moral grounds. As Argentina’s star striker, Leopoldo Luque, put it years later: “With what I know now, I can’t say I’m proud of my victory.”

4Dennis Rodman’s All-Stars

At this stage, there’s almost no point in listing the monstrous crimes of the North Korean government. The state has become a such a byword for drab cruelty and oppression that it’s easy to forget just how genuinely nauseating life there can be. At least, that’s the charitable interpretation of former NBA star Dennis Rodman’s actions. Rodman, who is on the record with his belief that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is “an awesome guy,” has made several trips to North Korea and actually organized a team of retired NBA stars to play a game there as a “birthday present” for Kim.

Needless to say, the game attracted a fair amount of controversy. The NBA distanced itself, arguing that while “sports in many instances can be helpful in bridging cultural divides, this is not one of them.” Meanwhile, Congressman Eliot Engel pleaded for the “bizarre and grotesque” tour to be called off. For his part, Rodman apparently had no worries about organizing a PR stunt for the dictatorship, explaining: “I’m not a president, I’m not a politician, I’m not an ambassador. I’m just an athlete and the reason for me to go is to bring peace to the world, that’s it.” The North Koreans apparently won the game. Peace has yet to break out.

3The Rebel Tour Of South Africa

By the early 1980s, South African cricket was in a crisis of its own making. Under apartheid, the country’s cricket team had long refused to play against non-white teams. In 1969, England’s attempt to field a non-white player, Basil d’Oliveira, caused such a dispute that the whole tour had to be abandoned. Meanwhile, opponents of apartheid called for a sporting boycott of the brutal regime. In 1970, South Africa was officially banned from international cricket. As their beloved team stagnated without quality opponents, the South Africans changed their tune, desperately trying to lure anyone who was willing to play them. An unlicensed English team toured in 1982, followed by a “rebel” Sri Lankan squad a year later.

Over in the Caribbean, things couldn’t have been more different. The West Indies were unquestionably the best team in the world, partnering devastating fast bowlers like Joel Garner and Michael Holding with such formidable batsmen as Desmond Haynes, Gordon Greenidge, and the sublime Viv Richards. The world had never seen such a combination of pace, power, and talent. In fact, the West Indies team was so good that many world-class players never even made it onto the team. To make matters worse, there was little money in cricket in those days, and many players struggled to make a living in the off-season. When the South Africans began offering players $120,000 for a single tour, many found it hard to resist.

In 1983, 18 West Indian cricketers agreed to a tour of South Africa. Many were players frustrated by their inability to break into the West Indian first team, but the squad included such big-name players as fast-bowler Colin Croft, wicketkeeper Alvin Kallicharran, and 1979 World Cup hero Collis King. All were given “honorary white” status for the duration of the tour. It was a decision they would regret for the rest of their lives.

Although the rebel cricketers insisted that their tour had helped break down racial barriers, all 18 immediately became pariahs in the Caribbean. West Indians were outraged that their cricketing heroes would collaborate with apartheid South Africa for money. The entire team was banned for life (the ban was eventually lifted in 1989) and most never played cricket at a high level again. Shunned wherever they went, most of the rebels had to leave the region and at least three had major mental breakdowns. Richard Austin, one of the most versatile players of his generation, currently begs on the streets of Kingston. The West Indies team continued to dominate world cricket until the 1990s, by which time apartheid had ended and South Africa had rejoined the cricketing world.

2The 2015 European Games

This week, the inaugural European Games will be hosted in Azerbaijan. The multi-sport event, including swimming, gymnastics, and athletics, will essentially be a mini-Olympics, along the line of the older Asian Games. It should be a wonderful event, with just one hitch—Azerbaijan is a deeply repressive crypto-dictatorship, ranked 126 in the world for corruption and 162 for press freedoms. Another report estimates that Azerbaijan is the fifth-worst country in the world when it comes to censorship.

As you’d expect, the buildup to the games, which will cost Azerbaijan over $1 billion (the full cost hasn’t been revealed, but the stadium alone is at least $600 million), has been marred by widespread repression. More than 40 people have been arrested for investigating corruption surrounding the games, while an activist who called for a boycott is now facing up to 12 years in prison on obviously faked charges. The day before the tournament started, critical media outlets like The Guardian and Radio France International were told they would not be allowed to enter Azerbaijan. As Amnesty International put it: “Azerbaijan wants to have these games in a criticism-free zone. It has already wiped out everybody who is critical of the government inside the country, and now it’s a closed-down state for international human rights groups as well.”

1The 2022 Qatar World Cup

The recent arrests and scandal surrounding FIFA, while no surprise to anyone familiar with the organization, have helped focus global attention on the growing scandal of the 2022 World Cup, which, for reasons that remain unclear, was awarded to the tiny and immensely wealthy nation of Qatar.

While this raised some obvious logistical problems (the tournament will likely have to be played during the winter to avoid blistering heat) the real issue surrounds the treatment of the migrant workers building the World Cup’s infrastructure. In 2013, Qatar had a population of two million, of which just 10 percent were actually citizens of Qatar. Most of the rest were migrant workers from the Indian subcontinent. Lured by the promise of higher wages, the unfortunate workers find themselves effectively bound to one employer, forbidden to change jobs or even leave the country without their boss’s permission. They also can’t unionize. It should already be clear why this system of indentured servitude might be open to abuse.

Not only are many workers forced to live in cramped, unsanitary conditions, but an investigation by The Guardian recently turned up a suspiciously high rate of death by “cardiac arrest” among Nepalese construction workers—likely the result of heatstroke caused by working long hours in the desert. Meanwhile, Qatar has actually detained human rights researchers investigating the situation. The additional publicity means some progress has been made, but there’s still a long way to go before conditions for Qatar’s migrant workers are anywhere near acceptable.

The world of sports has given us plenty of memorable moments: World Cup finals, Super Bowls, Jesse Owens at the Berlin Games, the Miracle on Ice, and more. Still, there have been plenty of bizarre sporting moments, too. But they are original and intriguing enough to warrant a closer look.

10 Fireworks Boxing

Boxing is a sport that has been practiced since ancient times, so it’s no surprise that we have tried various methods to spice it up a bit. In 1937, people thought they found a real winner—fireworks. But this wasn’t simply a light show after the match. Instead, the fireworks happened throughout the bout because they were attached to the fighters.

A metal framework in the shape of a person held the fireworks and was attached to each boxer. Then, to make it even more hazardous, the boxers fought in the dark so the audience could fully enjoy the fireworks display. In case you have concerns about the safety of the fighters, don’t worry. They were protected by wearing thick fireproof suits made with asbestos.

Surprisingly, this didn’t really take off as a new method of boxing. Only one such exhibition match took place in London in 1937.

9 One-Limbed Cricket

During the middle of the 19th century, cricket was experiencing its first golden age. After becoming the preferred national pastime in England, it expanded into other countries, mostly parts of the British Empire. But in 1848, a game of cricket was played at the Priory Ground in Lewisham unlike any other—a team of one-armed players took on a team of one-legged players.

All of the cricketers were Greenwich pensioners, navy men who were injured in combat and resided at the Royal Hospital. In preparation for their big match, the men had a large dinner the night before and a large lunch the day of the game. They celebrated the match with a drinking session at the Bull Inn.

For them, this was all about having a bit of fun. But that didn’t stop over 2,400 people from attending the match and even betting on the outcome. The one-armed team was favored to win—and they did—although nobody was really concerned with the final score.

Even though we said that this match was unlike any other, that’s not exactly true. The first one took place in 1796, and it was also between injured sailors. Back then, the game had real stakes—1,000 guineas. When the game finished earlier than expected, the one-legged team organized an impromptu race between its teammates to cap off the show.

8 The Player Who Snubbed Hitler

Matthias Sindelar is one of the greatest Austrian footballers of all time. Known as the “Paper Man” for his slight build, Sindelar earned his greatest professional success as captain of the Austrian national team during the 1934 World Cup.

Austria qualified again for the 1938 World Cup, but there was a problem. By that time, Nazi Germany had already invaded and annexed Austria. On April 3, 1938, Austria played one last football match against Germany before the Austrian team was dissolved and the players incorporated into the German team. It was meant to be a celebration match marking Anschluss, the return of Austria to the fatherland.

However, Sindelar saw it as the perfect opportunity to show how he really felt. First, he insisted that the team wear their red-and-white kits, Austria’s national colors, instead of the traditional white-and-black.

There have always been rumors that Austria was told to lose the match or play to a draw. According to eyewitnesses, the Austrian team appeared to miss several shots on purpose. However, toward the end of the game, they had a change of heart and beat Germany 2–0. Sindelar scored the first goal and then celebrated in front of a VIP box filled with high-ranking Nazi officials.

Afterward, Sindelar refused to join the German national team, saying he wanted to retire due to old age and injury. Less than a year later, he was dead of accidental carbon monoxide poisoning, although many have questioned whether it was truly an accident.

7 Wichita Monrovians vs. Klan Lodge #6

On June 21, 1925, the baseball field on Wichita’s Island Park hosted a unique exhibition game between the Wichita Monrovians, a semiprofessional African-American team that played in various Negro leagues, and the baseball team of Lodge #6 of the Ku Klux Klan.

Since the Monrovians were not a professional team, they played against many amateur white teams throughout the US. The reception they got varied wildly based on their location, but it seemed that Wichita was on the positive side of the spectrum.

In fact, by 1925, the Klan’s influence there was starting to wane. This is likely one of the reasons why they wanted to play (and beat) an African-American baseball team in the first place. The Monrovians also wanted to show their superiority, so the game was a PR move for both sides.

Both teams encouraged their fans to attend the game, and a large interracial crowd was present that day. There was a fear of violence, but the teams promised that “all the fans will see is baseball.” Surprisingly, they were right. The game took place without incident, and the Monrovians won 10–8.

6 The Kirkwall Ba

The Orkney Islands form an archipelago in the northern part of Scotland. Kirkwall, the capital of Orkney, hosts a game called the Kirkwall Ba every year. The Ba game is a modified version of mob football and is played throughout various towns in Scotland. But the one in Kirkwall is the largest of its kind and has a long tradition. No one’s sure when the game originated, but we know it is at least 300 years old.

According to legend, the Kirkwall Ba was created to commemorate the death of Tusker, an evil Viking tyrant named for his long, protruding teeth. An unidentified young man defeated Tusker and chopped off his head. However, one of Tusker’s teeth scratched the boy’s leg, causing a fatal infection.

With his last breath, the brave young man reached Kirkwall and threw Tusker’s head into the crowd. Angered by the young man’s death but happy at Tusker’s demise, the people started kicking the head through the streets of Kirkwall. According to legend, that’s how the Ba got started.

The Ba has been taking place as we know it today since the mid-19th century. Hundreds of men participate. They are either Uppies or Doonies based on whether their ancestors lived up or down from the Mercat Cross. The Doonies’ goal is in the sea of Kirkwall Bay while the Uppies must score on the site of the old town gates.

5 Blondin Crossing Niagara Gorge

Daring feats of acrobatics always guarantee a large crowd tantalized by the prospect of someone meeting a gruesome end. Of all these feats, few are more dangerous than the tightrope walk. Going back to the mid-19th century, we have arguably the greatest tightrope walker of all time—Charles Blondin. Arriving in America in 1955, he soon dreamed up the idea that brought him fame and fortune: crossing the gorge over Niagara Falls on a tightrope.

This was long before Annie Edson Taylor became the first person to go over the falls in a barrel. Suffice it to say that most of the 25,000 people who attended Blondin’s spectacle were expecting to see a suicidal man fall to his death.

However, Blondin understood mankind’s fascination with the morbid and even encouraged people to bet on his ghastly death. On June 30, 1859, despite everyone’s doubts, Blondin became the first person to walk across the Niagara Gorge on a tightrope. To increase the excitement, he stopped halfway across, sat down, and had a bottle of wine.

After he reached the Canadian side, Blondin rested for 20 minutes and then returned to the other bank. This time, he carried a daguerreotype camera and stopped to take a picture.

Blondin repeated the feat several times, finding new ways to shock his audience each time. He walked the tightrope backward. He did it blindfolded. He carried his manager piggyback. One time, he even took utensils and food with him, stopping at the halfway point to make an omelet.

4 The Chalmers Award

Back in 1910, two of America’s favorite pastimes came together—baseball and automobiles. Hugh Chalmers, owner of the Chalmers Automobile Company, decided to award a Chalmers Model 30 to the league batting champion. By the end of the season, it was a close race between two players—Ty Cobb of the Detroit Tigers and Nap Lajoie of the Cleveland Naps.

With just two games to go, Cobb was in the lead with a .385 average. He decided to sit out the games to hold the first position. Meanwhile, Lajoie played an almost perfect game in Cleveland’s last match against the St. Louis Browns. He went 8-for-9 and scored in a doubleheader.

But he had some help from the opposing team. Ty Cobb was the most disliked player in the league while Lajoie was exactly the opposite. Even Lajoie’s team was renamed after him due to his popularity. Browns manager Jack O’Connor allowed Lajoie to score hits by playing his third baseman deep for the whole game, giving Lajoie easy bunts.

Lajoie finished with a .384 average, but controversy surrounded the entire event. Cobb was criticized for not playing, and the Browns were panned for helping a player on the opposing team. Cobb was ruled the official batting champion, but Chalmers declared it a tie and gave both players cars to take advantage of Lajoie’s popularity.

In 1989, the controversy resurfaced when it was discovered that Cobb had been awarded two extra hits that season by mistake, so his real average was .383.

3 1904 Olympics

The 1904 Olympic marathon was one of the oddest sporting events in history, plucked straight out of a slapstick comedy. For starters, there was an argument over where the games should be held. The Olympics were originally awarded to Chicago. But St. Louis had the world’s fair at the same time, and they threatened to organize their own sporting events to overshadow the Olympics if the event wasn’t moved to St. Louis. Their threat worked.

Most of the athletes were American. Especially impressive was gymnast George Eyser who won six medals even though he had a wooden leg.

Throughout the Olympics, the organizers scheduled “Anthropology Days“—exhibits where various tribesmen displayed their culture and traditions. Occasionally, they were invited to participate in sporting events to supposedly show how inferior they were to the “white man.” It was just a tiny step above the human zoos that were popular at prior world’s fairs.

As for the marathon, it was initially won by Fred Lorz, but he was disqualified after it was revealed that he had traveled 18 kilometers (11 mi) of the race by car. The real winner was Thomas Hicks, although he had taken performance-enhancing drugs. Specifically, he took strychnine, which acted as a stimulant in small doses.

But that wasn’t the end of the weirdness. Andarin Carvajal, a Cuban postman, competed in his street clothes. During the race, he stopped in an orchard where he accidentally ate some rotten apples and had to take a nap to recover. Even so, he came in fourth.

Another runner named Len Tau was the first black African to compete in the Olympics. He finished ninth. But he had a good excuse—he ran 2 kilometers (1 mi) off course because he was chased by wild dogs.

2 Tour Of Shame

Nowadays, we associate the Tour de France with cheating, but the two have been strongly linked almost from the start. The first race was organized in 1903 by French newspaper L’Auto to increase readership.

It was won by Maurice Garin and proved successful enough to warrant another tournament in 1904, which was rife with such blatant cheating that it makes our modern cycling scandals tame by comparison. In fact, Tour de France founder Henri Desgrange was so “disgusted, frustrated, and discouraged” that he wanted to cancel future events. But he eventually changed his mind.

In the 1904 event, 88 riders participated, with 27 crossing the finish line. But only 15 did it fairly. Almost half were disqualified for cheating, including the first four cyclists and all the stage winners. Initially, Maurice Garin won again. But after months of investigation, fifth-place Henri Cornet was awarded the trophy.

Cyclists were allowed to take almost anything, so there were no doping scandals. In fact, alcohol, cocaine, and chloroform were part of the standard rider diet for decades. Most of the cheating involved using shortcuts, traveling by car or train, and throwing nails on the road.

Riders also relied on angry mobs to beat up the competition when passing through their hometowns. The worst incidents occurred in Saint-Etienne where 100 people armed with stones and cudgels attacked the riders to allow Antoine Faure to take the lead. Giovanni Gerbi was beaten unconscious, and his fingers were broken. From then on, many cyclists were armed with revolvers.

1 Monkey Testicle Doping Scandal

The Wolverhampton Wanderers is an English football club with a long tradition going back to 1877. Throughout its existence, the club has been highly influential. It was one of the founders of the Football League in the UK and later helped to establish the European Cup, which eventually became the UEFA Champions League.

Managed by Major Frank Buckley, the club became involved in the strangest doping scandal in sports history in 1939. Buckley had heard of a revolutionary technique pioneered by surgeon Serge Voronoff that involved grafting tissue from monkey testicles onto human testicles as a rejuvenation method. In fact, his treatment was quite popular throughout the 1920s and ’30s.

Buckley had his players undergo the procedure. He announced it to the media and other clubs, arguing that it wasn’t doping and that there were no rules against it. After the procedure, there appeared to be an improvement in his players’ stamina and strength that was immediately attributed to the rejuvenation therapy.

However, any changes were likely the result of the placebo effect. Even so, more football clubs soon adopted the technique. But other clubs protested so vehemently that the House of Commons had to debate in 1939 whether football players were allowed to use monkey testicles. Eventually, the practice fell out of favor, and Voronoff was ridiculed for his beliefs.

Radu is a history/science buff with an interest in all things bizarre and obscure. Share the knowledge on Twitter or check out his website.

If you watched the Tokyo Summer Olympics, you were reminded of how jaw-dropping these Olympians’ feats of skill, strength, and endurance can be. But sometimes, it’s good to be reminded that athletes often risk not just failure but their life. Here are 10 instances when athletes lost far more than a trophy.

Related: Top 10 Forgotten Murders Of Once-Famous Athletes

10 An Entire Soccer Team Killed on the Field

It’s quite common for participants in sporting events to pray or appeal to a deity for help in a game. Apparently, in the central African nation of Congo, they may also utilize witchcraft. In late October 1998, the village of Bena Tshadi was hosting a soccer (football) match against the nearby village of Basangana in the south-central Congolese province of Eastern Kasai. The game was tied 1-1 when lightning struck the field (pitch), killing all 11 members of the Bena Tshadi team and injuring more than 30 spectators standing on the sidelines. It is the only known instance of an entire team dying on a playing field.

Investigators determined that the freak lightning bolt was the result of witchcraft, no doubt conjured by someone rooting for the Basangana team. That team, after all, walked off the field without a single injury. According to the Congolese Press Agency, sorcery is commonly used to influence games. Not to trample on their beliefs, but lightning strikes to open soccer fields are not at all rare. That same weekend, six soccer players were injured when lightning interrupted their game in South Africa.^[1]

9 The 90-Mile-An-Hour Death of Nodar Kumaritashvili

In the years before the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, the International Olympic Committee had drawn criticism for its efforts to elevate interest in the games by adding more dramatic, more dangerous events such as snowboarding and ski cross. It also used technology and track designs to push existing events such as the luge to faster and faster speeds. Josef Fendt, president of the International Luge Foundation, was one of those concerned about Vancouver’s Whistler Sliding Center track where luge, skeleton, and bobsled teams would compete. After record speeds and some accidents by seasoned luge athletes during an international training week at Whistler, Fendt felt the track was just too fast.

Worse, many Olympic athletes complained that they did not have adequate time to practice—not just on Whistler, but also on the ski courses and the speed skating oval. In the week before the Vancouver Olympics, athletes trained on Whistler, and many of them crashed, among them the two-time defending gold medal luger Armin Zoeggeler of Italy.

One luger who hoped to dethrone Zoeggeler was Nodar Kumaritashvili from the Republic of Georgia. Nodar had been competing on the luge since he was 14, seven years before, and according to his father, had never sustained an injury. But Nodar was worried about Whistler, and his father, an experienced luger himself from the Soviet era, told him to start his run farther down the course to slow his speed. Nodar was shocked at the suggestion, replying that he came to the Olympics “to win,” adding, “I will either win or die.”

On February 10—two days before the opening ceremonies—Nodar rolled down Whistler on his back, feet-first, for his second practice run. He crashed. Undeterred, he continued practicing, and on the Friday morning of the ceremonies, he launched his fifth practice run. The run went well, and by the time Nodar reached curve 16, the final turn on the track, he was traveling just under 90 mph. Nicknamed Thunderbird, turn 16 was a sweeping right curve.

As Nodar approached the banked end of Thunderbird, his luge slid downward, his left hand and feet attempting to slow his progress. He hit a wall, upending his luge and sending Nodar over the track’s lip and into two vertical supports, sustaining massive head and torso injuries. He was pronounced dead at the hospital. Olympic organizers blamed the accident on Nodar’s inexperience and claimed it had nothing to do with “deficiencies in the track.” They said the subsequent changes to the track—they altered the Thunderbird turn, moved the starting line further down the track, and wrapped padding around the supports—were simply to soothe the athlete’s fears.^[2]

8 Sweet Kiss of Death

Among the more shocking horse races in the last century was the June 4, 1923, race at New York’s Belmont Park when a longshot named Sweet Kiss and its jockey, Frank Hayes, won. Part of the surprise was that Sweet Kiss was not a winning horse. Records are sketchy, but it appears the horse had won for its owner, a Ms. A.M. Frayling, a paltry sum of $1,775 ($28,000 in 2021 money) in its career and was given 20-1 odds to win the Belmont race. Hayes, too, was a longshot as he worked the stables, was not a jockey, and had never raced a horse before. The reason Hayes was tapped to jockey Sweet Kiss is unknown, but it was reported that he had to drop from 142 pounds to 130 pounds in just one day to take the saddle. On the morning of the race, Hayes spent hours jogging while denying himself food and water just to reach his target weight.

There is a surviving photo of Sweet Kiss and Hayes during the race, and sometime after the photo was taken, but before crossing the finish line, Hayes died of a massive heart attack. As Frayling and officials rushed up to the winners, Hayes tumbled out of the saddle, already dead. Hayes has the dubious distinction of never losing a race and being the only known jockey to win a race as a corpse. Sweet Kiss never raced again as jockeys refused to ride it. Legend has it the horse was given the nickname of Sweet Kiss of Death.^[3]

7 A First No One Would Want

It shouldn’t be surprising that boxing ranks among the top 10 most dangerous sports. Some 90% of all boxers receive some brain damage during their careers, and about 10 fighters a year die of injuries sustained in the ring.

Between 1884, when the Queensberry Rules were adopted, and 1995, an estimated 500 boxers died from their injuries. Twenty-two died in 1953 alone. Perhaps the most famous incident was when Jimmy Doyle died of brain injuries after a punch from Sugar Ray Robinson in a 1947 world welterweight title fight. Just last April, 18-year-old Rashed Al-Swaisat of Jordan died after a knockout blow during the world youth championships.

In 1993, USA Boxing lifted the ban on women in the ring, opening the door for, among others, Laila Amaria Ali (Muhammed Ali’s daughter), Mia St. John, and disgraced figure skater Tonya Harding to compete. Among the 2,200 women registered by USA Boxing in 2005 was Becky Zerlentes, who had a Ph.D. in geography, a black belt in Goshin Jitsu, a brown belt in taekwondo, and competed in triathlons, synchronized swimming, and kickboxing while teaching economics and swimming at a community college. Oh, and she became the Colorado Golden Gloves champ in 2002.

On April 2, 2005, Zerlentes stepped into the ring against Heather Schmitz for a Golden Gloves championship bout. Zerlentes vowed it was her last bout since USA Boxing barred anyone over 34—her age at the time—to fight. Both women passed pre-fight physicals and donned regulation headgear. In the 2nd round, Schmitz socked Zerlentes in the face, causing her nose to bleed. After her nose bleed was staunched, the bout continued, and in the 3rd round, Schmitz delivered a blow to Zerlentes’ left temple, sending her to the mat. She never regained consciousness, dying the next afternoon.

The autopsy determined that the blow to Zerlentes head jarred her brain, causing it to bleed uncontrollably. The coroner found no vascular malformation or aneurysm that might have ruptured with the blow. Nor did Zerlentes have any drugs in her system. It was just an unfortunate blow—one Zerlentes had shrugged off numerous times—that opened up a blood vessel. She was the first woman to die from an injury at a sanctioned amateur boxing event.^[4]

6 Death by Celebration

A perusal of the risks of death in sporting events reveals few surprises. For instance, boxing has about 46 deaths for every 100,000 participants. BASE jumping has about 43 deaths, while skydiving has one fatality in 100,000 jumpers. Around 1,000 drivers die for every 100,000 who race behind a steering wheel, while 100 racers die astride a motorbike. Swimming—which includes open water and endurance swimming—has two fatalities per 100,000 participants, while scuba diving has three.

One surprise, however, is the number of deaths during or immediately after soccer games. One study found that there may be as many as seven deaths out of every 100,000 footballers due to cardiac arrest alone. And this does not count fatalities due to collisions with other players, the ground, and the ball, resulting in head injuries, ruptured bowels, ruptured kidneys, ruptured blood vessels, and even infections due to broken bones. Nor does it count the unusual deaths due to lightning strikes (see #10), due to disappointed fans, or being shot by police (stay tuned).

The October 2014 death of Peter Biaksangzuala definitely falls in the latter category. Peter, a 23-year-old midfielder for Bethlehem Vengthlang FC, India, was in the 62nd minute of a match against Chanmari West when he scored the game-tying point. He then celebrated with a somersault, one he misjudged. He landed awkwardly on his neck and collapsed on the field. He was rushed to the hospital, where a CT scan determined he had extensive damage to his spinal cord. He lingered for five days before succumbing.^[5]

5 Death by Snow Groomer

The year 1992 marked the last time the winter and summer Olympics were held in the same year, and the Albertville (France) Winter Olympics were the first after the fall of the Soviet Union. Six former Soviet-bloc countries formed a Unified Team while the Baltic states of Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia and a newly reunified Germany participated in the Olympics as independent nations for the first time since 1936.

On the next-to-last day of the Olympics, Swiss speed skier Nicolas Bochatay, 27, was warming up for the finals on a public slope at La Lechere, France. Bochatay used slalom skis instead of his wider speed skis as he and teammate Pierre Yves-Jorand roared down the slope at top speed. As Bochatay approached a hill, people downslope started shouting and waving off the skiers. Too late, Bochatay flew over the hill only to find a snow groomer—a vehicle that works the snowpack for optimal skiing—on the other side. He slammed into the groomer, sustaining massive internal injuries and dying immediately. The Swiss team claimed the snow groomer was idle, hidden behind the hill without its siren or flashing lights activated. Other witnesses disagreed.^[6]

4 Bloody Sunday (1920)

The citizens of Dublin, Ireland, awoke on the morning of November 21, 1920, to gunfire. The Irish War of Independence had been raging for nearly two years between British forces and the Irish Republican Army (IRA). That Sunday morning, the IRA touched off coordinated assassinations of undercover British intelligence agents, killing 15 and wounding five. In pursuit of the assailants, the police arrived at Croke Park, where a soccer match between the Tipperary and Dublin soccer teams was being held. The police suspected some of the assassins had slipped in among the soccer fans. At 3:25 that afternoon—10 minutes into the game—the police blocked the Croke Park exits, and a contingent was sent in to search the crowds—estimated to be 5,000 strong—for IRA gunman.

Who fired the first shot is still, a century later, under dispute, but the police began firing indiscriminately into the crowds. The first shot was 11-year-old William Robinson, who had climbed a nearby tree to better view the game. Shot in the chest, William died later at the hospital. Two other schoolboys—Jerome O’Leary, 10, and John William Scott, 14—were also killed, along with Jane Boyle, a shopkeeper who was to be married in only five days. A military inquiry later concluded the police shootings were excessive and unauthorized.

At least three members of the IRA were also killed at Croke Park, one of them a footballer on the Tipperary team. Michael Hogan was team captain as well as captain of the Grangemockler company of the IRA. In the melee, Hogan was shot in the back at the corner of the pitch, now known as Hill 16. Tom Ryan, a gas fitter, was one of the IRA volunteers sent to kill a British agent that morning (the target was not at home). He decided to attend the Tipperary vs. Dublin game that afternoon. He was reportedly whispering the rites of contrition in Michael Hogan’s ear when he himself was shot in the stomach and died later.^[7]

3 “The Honor of My Race, Family and Self Are at Stake”

The October 6, 1923, game between the Iowa State Cyclones and the University of Minnesota Gophers meant a lot to 21-year-old Jack Trice. He was the only African-American on the football field, and this was his first game for the Cyclone’s varsity team. While most African Americans were only allowed to attend black colleges in the South, they had been attending Iowa for 32 years by then. But none had ever played on a Cyclone varsity team, and Jack, a sophomore, was on two varsity teams: football and track.

Jack felt the weight of his responsibility the night before the game. Using a piece of hotel stationery, Jack wrote down his feelings and intentions for the next day: “My thoughts just before the first real college game of my life. The honor of my race, family, and self is at stake.” As the Cyclone’s defensive lineman, Jack said he would “break thru the opponents’ line and stop the play in their territory.” Last, he told himself to “watch for crossbucks and reverse end runs” and “roll block” any runners.

American football in the early decades of the 20th century was brutal. Helmets were leather and had no padding or facemask. Padding under the uniform was minimal, mostly along the shoulders. Many plays that are illegal now—such as the roll block—were perfectly legal back in 1923.

In the first half of the game, Jack broke his collarbone but refused to leave the field. At halftime, the game was tied 7-7, but by the middle of the third quarter, Minnesota had pulled ahead 14-7 and had the ball. At the snap, the Gophers sent a gaggle of blockers to clear the way for their fullback. Jack ran right at them, throwing himself in front of the blockers and rolling forward to trip them. It was a roll block, but instead of rolling on his belly, Jack rolled onto his back. “The fullback, going through the hole, stepped on Jack’s stomach and maybe his groin,” recalled a teammate. “He was badly hurt but tried to get up and wanted to stay in. We saw he couldn’t stand and helped him off the field.” He was taken to a local hospital where doctors determined Jack could travel back to Iowa with his dejected team. They had lost the game 20-17. Jack died two days later of internal bleeding.

Questions still persist about whether Jack was purposely or accidentally stepped on. We’ll probably never know. Iowa, however, refused to play Minnesota for the next 66 years. In the 1980s, a statue was erected of Jack that stands outside Jack Trice Stadium, the only major college stadium named after an African American.^[8]

2 The Final Ride of Lane Frost

Bull riding is another extremely dangerous sport, with 20 catastrophic injuries for every 100,000 riders. Between 1989 and 2016, at least 21 professional bull riders died, along with an unknown number of amateurs. For instance, in 2016, a 15-year-old amateur was trampled to death by a bull after being thrown at a New Mexico rodeo. It happened again in 2019 at the Denver Western Stock Show when a pro bull rider was thrown, and the bull brought its 2,000 pounds down on the rider’s chest, killing him.

Lane Frost was born into a rodeo family, his father a bronco buster and calf roper. And while his parents tried to steer Lane away from the dangerous bull riding sport, Lane’s attention seemed riveted to it. According to his Mom, Elsie, his first spoken word was “bull,” and he’d go around the house riding a toy horse on rollers, claiming he was riding one.

At five, Lane often sat astride the arm of a couch, pretending it was a bucking bull. He graduated to riding calves on the family’s Utah dairy farm, and when the family moved to Oklahoma, he came under the tutelage of legendary bull rider Freckles Brown. At 19, Lane was a member of the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association and became a favorite on the circuit. He was crowned the world champion at 23 and went to the Calgary Olympics in 1988 to compete in a rodeo exhibition.

The Cheyenne (Wyoming) Frontier Days was the largest and oldest rodeo in the world, and on the last day (July 30) of the 1989 event, Lane was set to ride a tough but not particularly mean bull that some sources called Takin’ Care of Business (TCB). Lane’s ride of TCB was perfect, lasting the proscribed 8 seconds, and as TCB turned right, Lane dismounted to the left, landing safely on his hands and knees. Then TCB did something unexpected: he turned and drove his right horn into Lane’s back. “A lot of bulls do that. It’s kinda their nature,” said another bull rider Cody Lambert. “It’s something that happens to every one who rides bulls, and sometimes you get a nick or a bruise. But usually you just get up, and later everyone pats you on the back and laughs about it. That’s what it looked like. I’ve seen a lot worse wrecks [gores] than Lane had there.” But TCB’s horn had broken some of Lane’s ribs and punctured a major artery. Lane got up, took a few steps, then signaled for help before falling into the mud. Within minutes he was dead. Lane was inducted into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame the next year. Five years after his death, Lane was immortalized in the movie 8 Seconds.^[9]

1 Death by Fans

Every sport has fans who lose their minds and toss anything and everything at the athletes. Basketball had the 2004 infamous “Malice in the Palace” when a fan threw a cup of beer at Indiana Pacer Ron Artest. Baseball has the lemons thrown by Chicago Cubs fans at New York Yankee Babe Ruth during the third game of the 1932 World Series. Legend has it, the lemons prompted the Babe to “call his shot,” pointing at center field before swatting a home run in that direction. For golf, there’s the fan who threw a hot dog at Tiger Woods in 2011 (how much anger management therapy should you receive if you’ve lost it at a golf game?). But these incidents reach a whole new level when the projectiles become deadly.

On August 23, 2014, Albert Ebosse Bodjongo, 24, was playing for the Algerian soccer club JS Kabylie at home against another Algerian team—USM Alger. Albert scored the only point for his team in their loss, 2-1. As the home team ran off the field, they were pelted by objects from the fans that allegedly included roof tiles from a nearby construction site. A short time later, Albert was dead from a blow to the head that was sufficient to crack his skull and push pieces of it into his brain. Initially, it was determined that Albert had been hit by a heavy, sharp object thrown by the fans. The truth was far more sinister.

His family was not satisfied with the official cause of death and hired a pathologist to conduct another autopsy which found the head injury was delivered at close range, not from the fans in the stands. Worse, Albert had a stab wound near a collarbone as well as wounds consistent with an assault. Had fans attacked and murdered Albert in the locker room? His murderer has still not been identified.

If this seems far-fetched, soccer fans have a history of violence. Peruvian fans were incensed during a May 24, 1964, game between Peru and Argentina when a referee disallowed a game-tying point to count with just two minutes remaining. One fan ran onto the pitch to smack the referee, and dozens followed, creating a riot. The police launched tear gas into the crowds, creating panic and starting a stampede toward the locked steel gates. As many as 328 were crushed to death. About 127 fans died in a similar riot during a 2001 game in Ghana.

Seventy-three died at Port Said, Egypt, during a soccer brawl in 2012. Then there’s Andres Escobar, who contributed to Columbia’s loss to the U.S. when he accidentally deflected the ball into his own goal in the 1994 World Cup. A little more than a week later, Escobar was confronted at a hometown restaurant and shot multiple times, the killer reportedly shouting “Goal” as he fired.^[10]