Unbelievable Facts
Does Michael Phelps win or lose?
Did the 2008 Olympics earn Michael Phelps 7 a gold medal?
According to some keen conspiracy theorists, video and photo evidence from the scene suggest that Phelps actually lost a hundredth of a second to his opponent in one of the heats.
These people even created their own website (www. 001ofasecond.com) where they accused US officials that Phelps's victory was bought and that the athlete actually finished second.
However, the Olympic Committee replied that they had no doubts about Phelps's victory, and reacted calmly to all attacks.
Zion logo
After the 2012 Summer Olympics logo was unveiled, Iran announced that the logo was not actually the numbers “2012” but the word “Zion”, and threatened to boycott the London Games. Zionism is an ideology whose main content is anti-communism and chauvinism.
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The Iranians weren't the only ones to criticize the logo. The multicolored emblem, worth $650,000, has come under fire both for being ugly and for being a waste of money.
However, only Iran openly called the emblem a Zionist message.
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Underage gymnasts
During the 2000 Summer Olympics, Chinese gymnast Dong Fangxiao won bronze. Ten years later, she was stripped of her medal after discovering she was only 14 years old during the games.
According to the rules of the Olympic competition, an athlete must be over 16 years of age to be allowed to participate in the games. Moreover, this is not the only time that China has been suspected of sending young gymnasts to the Olympics.
During the 2008 competition, Chinese gymnasts He Kexin and Jiang Yuyuan came under the suspicion of Olympic officials because they were too childish. The girls were allowed to play only after they showed their passports, which made it clear that they were both 16 years old.
Fake tickets
According to the British newspaper Sunday Times, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) officially allows a 20% markup on tickets. This allows event organizers to raise the required amount of money.
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However, some believe this is not enough because the Sunday Times reports that there is a huge black market for Olympic tickets. For example, it was reported that the Serbian authorities offered 1,500 falsified tickets for sale with the promise to also falsify passports if purchased.
The IOC threatened to investigate the event.
Hot Cubans
Matos, a Cuban taquande athlete, was suspended for life after kicking a referee in the face at the 2008 Summer Olympics.
The incident occurred after an athlete was injured in one of the fights and asked for a break. According to the rules, in such cases he is given a break of 1 minute.
However, after this time, Matos did not resume the fight, so the victory was automatically awarded to the opponent. This is where the hot Cuban could not resist.
Fidel Castro rushed to protect his wrestler, accusing Olympic officials of an eternal plot against Cuban athletes.
Black September
During the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Israeli athletes were captured by a Palestinian terrorist group called Black September. As a result of this act, 11 people died, including athletes, coaches and a German police officer.
In response, Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir instructed the Mossad Defense Committee to track down and crack down on those responsible for the attack. Rumor has it that one of the terrorists is still alive.
Political order. The explosion in 1996.
On July 27, 1996, an explosion occurred during the Atlanta Olympics. Two people died, 111 were injured of varying severity.
At the very beginning of the investigation, the authorities had several versions regarding the perpetrators of the terrorist attack.
However, later, American Eric Robert Rudolph was accused of everything, who had done something similar twice before (once he blew up a clinic specializing in conducting abortions, and the second time blew up a lesbian bar).
After five years on the run, the man was caught. Eric is currently serving a life sentence without pardon.
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Since the trial took place in camera and the terrorist's cooperation with the investigation have led to numerous rumors about Rudolph's motivation to commit such an act, including talking about a political order.
Animated logo and epileptic seizures
Within hours of the animated version of the 2012 Summer Olympics logo appearing online, 12 cases of epilepsy were reported.
The Olympic Committee removed the logo from its official website, blaming the animators, not the logo's creators, for the incident.
London Olympics
Fake terrorist attacks
According to conspiracy theory, the 2012 Olympics were supposed to be the springboard for a series of fake terrorist attacks by groups like the Illuminati or the Bilderbergs.
Proponents of this theory said that an alien invasion could be simulated or even a fake terrorist attack could be simulated in order to establish a new world order.
People who spread this theory pointed to the emblem of the 2012 Olympics, talking about it as proof that the UK would try to create a “new Jerusalem”.
The “New Jerusalem”, for the uninitiated, is the new world order that the Bible speaks of and will precede the apocalypse.
Athletes with superhuman strength
Many conspiracy theorists believe that during the Cold War, East Germany sought to create a race of supermen by pumping its athletes with steroids and other doping cocktails.
The case of Heidi Kreger, a gold medalist, is proof of this theory. As Kroeger herself later said, the use of certain drugs caused her mood swings, depression, and other unpleasant side effects.
In the 90s, the girl began to look more and more like a strong man, and eventually underwent gender reassignment surgery.
Now Andreas (this is the name Heidi chose for herself after surgery) accuses former GDR officials of using her as a guinea pig for their tests.
Olympics scandals
Basketball Championship
During the 1972 Olympics, the US men's basketball team competed against the USSR team for the gold medal. A few seconds before the end of the game, the Americans were three points ahead of the Soviet athletes.
This is where the coaches of the USSR team decided to take a time-out. After the break, the Soviet basketball players failed to score. Americans rightly began to believe that they were the ones who won. But it turned out that their joy was premature.
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After the due time, the match continued because Olympic officials noted that the clock was not set correctly. Soviet athletes did not get confused and won by one point.
The Americans refused the silver medal because, in their opinion, the results were falsified, despite the fact that no evidence of this was ever provided.
Deception of the scoreboard
In 1976, Soviet athlete Boris Onishchenko brought the concept of “unsportsmanlike behavior” to a new level. He installed a special device in his fencing sword that made the judge's light bulb, which recorded successful hits, light up whenever Boris clicked on the hidden one button.
However, the device was discovered when the athlete clearly missed the target, and the light bulb nevertheless went on. Onishchenko and the rest of the Soviet team were disqualified.
After this incident, Boris, by decision of the USSR Sports Committee, was disqualified for life, and he was deprived of all previously received awards and titles. The athlete himself preferred solitude and never gave any comments on this matter.
Judicial fraud
In 2002, Russian figure skaters Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze won gold in the short program, beating Canadians Jamie Salé and David Pelletier.
The victory of the Russian athletes was controversial, because the judges, for unknown reasons, did not punish the couple for their fall during the performance. At the same time, the judges themselves denied any violations and were accused of collusion.
As a result, the gold went to Canadians. This scandal led to a review of the Olympic figure skating rating system.
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Corruption scandal
The most famous case of bribery may have occurred in 2002 at the Winter Olympics, when IOC members were accused of taking bribes from the Salt Lake City Olympic authorities the day before choosing a venue for the games.
As a result, 10 people were dismissed from the IOC, and another 10 were punished due to the scandal. Tom Welch and Dave Johnson, heads of the Salt Lake City Olympic Committee, were also charged with bribery and fraud.
However, the charges against them were later dropped, and the games were still held in this city.
1924 Olympics
Was the 1924 Olympics the reason for the outbreak of World War II?
In 1924, Germany was still recovering from a crushing defeat in World War I. In part, the Germans planned to restore their reputation through the Olympics.
However, due to hostility towards the German nation left after the war, the majority of participants in the competition voted against the participation of athletes from Germany in the games, which deeply wounded the patriotic pride of the state.
Nationalist movements were active for several months after the games, and in about one year Hitler quickly succeeded in fully seizing power.
Perhaps if Germany had been allowed to participate in the games, the aggressive Hitler would not have found so much support for his dictatorship.