Relive the worst moments and best stories from the history of the Winter Olympics.
With Milano Cortina 2026 nearly upon us, the time is right to look into the history of the Winter Olympics to pull out some of the worst things that have happened in its history. There’s been plenty of controversy, bad behaviour, scandal and bad luck, as well as some dismal performances.
A companion piece to my blog on the best monents of the Winter Games https://bestandworst.net/the-best-of-the-winter-olympics/ this is great preparation for the sporting spectacle to come.
17. What a dope! – Ross Rebagliati, Men’s Snowboard, Nagano 1998
The introduction of snowboarding and other action sports to the Winter Olympics in 1998 definitely brought something of a different vibe to the Games. The sport of snowboarding had developed as something of an antidote to skiing, and its culture was markedly more rebellious, youthful and less stuffy. Many of the competitors who arrived for the debut of the sport in Nagano looked less like Olympic athletes and more like laid-back surf dudes, which in fact many of them were. They were, of course, superb athletes and whilst they may have looked casual and unconcerned, they were as competitive as anyone in the more traditional events.
The first snowboard gold medal ever won in the Olympics went to a Canadian 26-year-old Ross Rebagliati in the giant slalom. An experienced boarder, he had competed on the professional circuit for seven years, and was a favourite for a medal. In a very tight competition, Rebagliati stood only eighth after his first run, but a fearless second run in tough conditions saw him win gold by only two hundredths of a second. The bronze medallist finished only 0.12 seconds behind, and the luckless Dieter Krassnig of Austria missed the podium by only a quarter of a second.
Rebagliati’s joy at winning gold was, however, short-lived when his drug test showed 17.8 ng/mL of THC metabolites, the active ingredient in marijuana, in his urine. This was slightly above the threshold (15 ng/mL) set by the International Ski Federation (FIS). Although marijuana was not considered a performance-enhancing drug (indeed it was arguably quite the opposite) and not on the banned list, the IOC Executive Board voted narrowly (by 3-2) to disqualify the Rebagliati and strip him of his medal.
The Canadian team appealed immediately, and an appeals court ruled in Rebagliati’s favour, judging that as cannabis had not been officially banned by the IOC, they had no right to deny him his medal. So, happily, he was reinstated. The drama for Rebagliati, though, was not over as he found himself called in for several hours questioning by Japanese police on suspicion of a drugs offence before he was released. Then, more damagingly, he was placed on a no-fly list by the US which prevented him from competing on the lucrative X-Games circuit.
Not long after the controversy the IOC did institute an official ban on cannabis use in what The New York Times dubbed “the Ross Rebagliati Rule”. It looks like they understood that some of the action sports athletes took a more relaxed attitude to recreational drug use, as the THC metabolite limit was raised to 150 ng/mL (almost 10 times the amount found in Rebagliati’s sample) thus targeting only current intoxication.
Rebagliati, who claimed in 1998 that his ingestion was second-hand, subsequently became an advocate for the legalisation of cannabis (it is now legal in Canada), and a successful entrepreneur in the CBD industry.
16. Britain’s unluckiest Olympian – Elise Christie, Short-track skating
At the 1988 Calgary Games British speed skater Wilf O’Reilly won two gold medals in short-track speed skating. Unfortunately for Wilf and for Team GB, short-track was only a demonstration event at Calgary, so O’Reilly’s medals are not part of official Olympic record. O’Reilly’s success though did suggest that this sport, introduced to the Games four years later, might provide a rich seam for British athletes. Sadly, apart from a solitary bronze for Nicky Gooch in 1994, the sport failed to deliver the expected haul.
Things looked set to change with the arrival onto the scene of Scot, Elise Christie. The 2010 Games came a little early for Christie, but provided useful experience for her as she saw action in all three Olympic events (500m, 1000m and 1500m). By the time Sochi 2014 rolled around, she had a host of European Championship medals to her name, and was a hot tip to medal in at least one, if not more, of her events.
In her first event, the 500m, there was a grim foretaste of what was to come. Christie got through three rounds to qualify for the final, but in the medal race she was disqualified after colliding with Italian Arianna Fontana. From being odds-on for a medal she found herself relegated to eighth place. In the next event, the 1500m, she was again disqualified, this time bizarrely for not properly crossing the finish line in her heat. It had taken eagle eyes to spot this as she had been only about 1cm outside the permitted zone. Finally, in the 1000m, her best event, she was disqualified for a third time, this time in the semi-final after colliding with the Chinese skater on the final bend. Three events and three disqualifications.
By PyeongChang, it looked as though Christie was certain to make up for her failures in Sochi. Since 2014, she had added multiple World Championship medals, including three golds in 2017, to her impressive run of European titles and medals, and was ranked among the top in the world in all three Olympic events. In the 500m event she was on great form, setting two new Olympic records on her way to the final. But disaster struck again here when Christie was clipped by Dutch skater, Yara Van Kerkhof, and crashed out, finishing fourth and just out of the medals. In the 1500m, there was another crash for Christie, this time in the semi-final, and while the Chinese skater whom she had collided with was allowed to progress to the final (where she won silver) Christie was disqualified for being deemed to have caused the collision. Christie had also injured her ankle, and this put her participation in the 1000m in doubt. Clearly in pain, Christie finished second in her 1000m heat, but, unbelievably, was disqualified yet again for causing two separate collisions.
Christie has been dubbed Britain’s unluckiest Olympian. She was probably Team GB’s most successful winter sportsperson ever, with 12 medals in World Championships (three gold) and 18 in the European Championships (10 gold). But due to a mixture of bad luck, errors of judgement and possibly a little bit of choking, she failed in three Games and nine events to win a single Olympic medal. Since her skating career finished, Christie has struggled with alcoholism, depression and even homelessness. We can only wish her all the best as she puts her life back together after her sporting heartbreak.
15. The Games that were too cold – Speed Skating, Chamonix 1924
The award of the first ever Winter Olympic gold medal should really be an moment that is celebrated ever after. Unfortunately, the gold medal won by Charles Jewtraw of the USA in the 500m speed skating in Chamonix was shrouded in controversy due to the circumstances in which it was won.
The first Winter Olympics featured athletes from 16 nations competing in five sports – bobsleigh, curling, ice hockey, skating (figure and speed) and Nordic skiing (four disciplines including the thrilling new sport of ski-jumping). It may surprise some to learn that the largest team came from Great Britain, although the medals went mainly to the Nordic and Alpine nations. Two of the Nordic nations – Finland and Norway – were expected to dominate the speed skating, and between them they did, winning all but one of the 15 medals on offer. They did not, however, win the first, the 500m.
The unlikely winner was 23-year-old Jewtraw. The American recorded a time of 44.0 beating Olsen of Norway to gold by 0.2 seconds. The problem was that no-one but no-one believed the time. In 1924 officials were still using manually operated stopwatches. The temperature outside for the speed skating was freezing, so the judges had real problems starting and ending the timings accurately. Jewtraw, had never previously competed in a 500m nor trained for it, in contrast to his experienced opposition. The Norwegians protested about Jewtraw’s time, but to no avail. The freezing cold had almost certainly meant that the first ever Winter Olympic gold medal went to the wrong man.
14. The Games that were too warm – Speed Skating, St Moritz 1928
If the USA had been lucky to win speed skating gold in 1924, they were equally, if not more, unlucky not to win one in 1928. As in 1924 they were ranged against the might of Finland and Norway in the four events, but they had a competitive squad and had placed well in the first three – a bronze in the 500m, then narrowly missing the podium in the 1500m and 5000m. They came to the final event, the 10,000m with high hopes. Their best distance skater was Irving Jaffee, a 21-year-old from New York, who had finished fourth in the 5,000m.
The event was to held over five timed heats, each with two skaters, with the fastest times determining the medals. Jaffee was put in the first heat against Bernt Evensen of Norway, the reigning world champion at the distance. In a very tight contest, Jaffee came out on top by a tenth of a second. The skaters in heats 2, 3 and 4 did not come close so, with only one heat remaining, Jaffee’s gold medal looked in the bag. Fate, however, intervened when the final heat was stopped by officials after about 2,000m due to the ice thawing and no longer being suitable to race on. With no time available for a re-run the whole event was cancelled and no medals awarded.
Some eyebrows raised at the fact that the lead judge was Norwegian, and after an American appeal the IOC decided to reverse the referee’s decision and awarded Jaffee the gold. The International Skating Federation, however, overruled the overrule so we were back where we started. Although the beaten Evenson argued that Jaffee should get his medal, it was never awarded.
Jaffee did exact some sort of retribution four years later at Lake Placid when he won both the 5000m and the 10000m events to take two gold medals. There was additional satisfaction for Jaffee, a Jewish athlete, in winning where he did. The Games had been built around the private Lake Placid Club, a notoriously anti-semitic establishment where signs were placed saying “No Hebrews Allowed”. Jaffee’s wins did not, of course, solve the underlying problem, but they really did deliver a slap in the face of the anti-semites.
13. The odd-ball drug cheat – Johann Muhlegg, Cross-country skiing, Salt Lake City 2002
Johann Muhlegg was a cross-country skier who was good but not quite good enough to make it to the very top. He did compete in almost 100 World Cup races winning seven of them, but in the event that really matters, the Olympic Games, he failed to make the podium in the 12 individual and team races he competed in from 1992 to 1998.
One of the reasons for this might have been his eccentric personality. In 1993 having fallen badly ill with diarrhoea, he chose to blame his coach for “damaging his spiritually” and poisoning him. He thereafter took to drinking only from a flask of ‘holy water’ (apparently prescribed by a Portuguese medicine woman), and taking his training advice not from his team but from his Portuguese cleaning lady / chaperone. Eventually, after many years of disruptive, unusual behaviour his federation tired of him and expelled him from the German team branding him a “team cancer”.
Muhlegg managed to find a new home in Spain – not a traditional cross-country skiing powerhouse – and it was here that his form and results started to pick up significantly. He won the first World Cup race in his career, and in the year before the Salt Lake Olympics he won gold and silver in the Nordic World Ski Championships. In Salt Lake the reborn Muhlegg was unbeatable. He won gold in the 30km freestyle, gold in the 10km + 10km pursuit and finished first in the 50km classical.
If his improvement seemed too good to be true, it was. The day after the 50km race it was revealed that he had tested positive for darbepoetin, a substance that was not specifically banned, but had much the same effect as EPO – increasing the production of red blood cells and thereby the oxygen-carrying capacity of the blood. He was immediately disqualified from the 50km and expelled from the games, although it took almost two years before he was stripped of his two gold medals. He retired before the two-year suspension that he was also given had expired.
Muhlegg, ever the wierdo, reputedly claimed that “extraterrestrials from space” had helped him win his medals. His claim was never successfully validated.
12. The abuse of a minor – Kamila Valieva, Figure Skating, Beijing 2022
In other circumstances, Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva might have been the star of Beijing 2022. Instead, the youngster was thrust into a scandal that anyone would have struggled to deal with, let alone someone of only 15 years of age.
Valieva was a phenomenon. She was well fancied to win gold in the individual womens’ event, particularly after she had helped her team – not Russia, but the ‘Russian Olympic Committee’ – win the mixed team event with a routine that included the first ever quadruple jump completed by a woman. She did, however, have a very significant cloud hanging over her in Beijing. In December 2021 she had tested positive for trimetazidine, a heart medication banned because it can increase endurance. Her failed test was made public between the team event and the individual event.
The Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA), not necessarily the number one most trusted organisation in world sport, put a provisional suspension on Valieva, but decided to lift it so she could compete in the women’s singles. When the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) ruled that preventing the 15-year-old from competing “would cause her irreparable harm” she was allowed to enter the event, although she would not be presented with a medal should she win one.
The upshot was that Valieva was thrust into a huge public storm, facing massive media attention and considerable hostility in an event that most competitors and observers did not think she should be in. She was a 15-year-old girl. In the event, she did incredibly well to hold it together sufficiently to finish fourth, but was clearly affected by the huge amount of pressure she was under.
Following the Games, she was disqualified and her earlier contribution to the team event rubbed out (her team dropped from gold to bronze). She was also given a four-year ban from the sport, despite many feeling that she had been an innocent youngster ‘abused’ by her Russian coaches and doctors. In fact, it transpired that Valieva had been treated as something of a guinea pig, fed 56 different medications and supplements over a two-year period prior to the 2022 Games. None of these were banned, but this sort of approach seemed seriously unethical for a developing teenager. The banned heart medication, trimetazidine, was not actually among the 56, but her story of how it might have been ingested (from a dessert prepared on a chopping board that her grandfather’s tablets had been crushed on) was simply not believed.
At time of writing, Valieva has returned to competitive skating but not soon enough to qualify for 2026. For her sake, we can all hope that her next appearance in top-class competition is less stressful that her last.
11. The shadowy figure – Karl Schranz, Men’s Slalom, Grenoble 1968
For a country that has hosted the Winter Olympics on three occasions, including the very first Games in 1924, France has a somewhat modest record when it comes to winning medals. When the hosted in Grenoble in 1968, their hopes were high in the alpine skiing events, with one skier in particular expected to shine, Jean-Claude Killy. Entered into all three events – downhill, slalom and giant slalom – the Frenchman really did shine, winning gold in each of them. Killy was the big story of the Games, but it took some sharp eyes to ensure he got all three golds.
The event in which he nearly fell foul was the third of the three, the slalom. The athlete who nearly denied him was Austrian Karl Schranz. Schranz was a top-class skier who was in his third Olympics, having won silver in 1964 (in the giant slalom) alongside a collection of World Championship medals and World Cup wins. Schranz had narrowly missed out in both the downhill (fifth) and the giant slalom (sixth), so was desperate to succeed in the slalom. He skied well in the first run of two, coming in third just 0.32 seconds behind Killy. In his second run, held in dismal conditions he looked to be going well when he came to an unexpected stop half way down the course. The Austrian claimed he had stopped because a man dressed in black had stepped into his path as he was descending. Despite no evidence to corroborate this, his story was believed and he was allowed to retake his run. Skiing now in better conditions, he recorded a fast enough time to overtake Killy and move into an unassailable first place.
The Austrian had won gold. For a few moments at least. French officials decided to review his original, thwarted, second run just to check that everything was in order. Close review of the TV footage revealed that he had missed a gate (#19) just before he claimed to have encountered the mystery man in black (at gate 21). Missing a gate meant disqualification, so home athlete Killy, was promoted to gold. On home soil/snow, Killy had secured the esteemed ‘triple crown’, only the second person ever to do so.
The Austrian team were livid and convinced they were victims of a conspiracy. Was the mysterious man in black a French policeman or soldier who had purposely interrupted Schranz’s run? And, so what if Schranz had missed an earlier gate, it was probably because he had already been distracted by the man. It was to no avail. The French, who were skeptical of Schranz’s story throughout, feeling he had made it up after missing a gate, stuck with the disqualification.
Schranz in fact was not finished with controversy. He qualified for his fourth Olympics, Sapporo 1972, still ranked among the best in the world and searching for his elusive first gold. In Japan, though, he found himself branded a ‘non-amateur’ on account of his commercial agreements by IOC President Avery Brundage (84 years old and a last bastion against professionalism). There was no good reason why Schranz had been singled out, as many others had similar sponsorships, but he was unable to mount his final challenge for gold. He did have the consolation of returning home to a hero’s welcome with a reported 100,000 Austrians greeting him at Vienna airport. And, perhaps, the later satisfaction of knowing that the furore surrounding his expulsion undoubtedly doubt paved the way for the future professionalism of Olympic sport.
10. The string puller – Vanessa-Mae, Sochi 2014
Many of us will occasionally have had a dream in which we’ve somehow qualified for the Olympics and are competing on the biggest sporting stage of them all. Sadly, at some point we wake up with the crushing realisation that there is no possibility at all of this actually happening. In Sochi 2014, someone who had had that dream did realise it, and actually did represent their country at the Winter Olympics. The sad truth, however, was that the ‘athlete’ was there under false pretences.
The person in question was best-selling classical violinist and crossover musician, Vanessa-Mae. Born in Singapore and brought up in the UK, her music had made her hugely successful and very wealthy. She felt, however, that something was missing in her life, say, an appearance as a competitor at the Olympics. A keen skier since childhood, she knew there was no chance whatsoever of making the GB team, but saw a glimmer of opportunity with the country of her father, Thailand. Thailand was not, of course, a traditional ski nation, but Olympic rules at the time allowed such less-established countries to send one man and one woman to the games. There was one condition, however, namely that any competitor they sent had to be capable of performing to a reasonable minimum standard. In the case of slalom and giant slalom, the skier would have to have 140 points or fewer (where fewer points means a better ranking) under the FIS ranking system, and to have started five internationally recognised events.
With the Sochi Games looming it was clear that Vanessa-Mae’s ranking was way too low to qualify, so the Thai Olympic Committee requested that a special competition be organised in Slovenia to give her a chance to improve it. Incredibly, the Thai skier’s results at this event saw her ranking score plummet from 269 to 131, falling just inside the IOC qualification limit. The International Ski Federation (FIS) thus confirmed that she was eligible to compete in the Games.
So, Vanessa-Mae went to Sochi to represent Thailand. As it happens, she did not entirely disgrace herself. She completed both runs in the giant slalom, which is more than 23 other racers in the field of 90 did. But, of the 67 who did finish, she came dead last, a full 50.1 seconds behind the gold medal winner, Tina Maze of Slovenia, and over 19 seconds behind the skier who finished one place above her. It was not quite Eddie Edwards in terms of the gulf in class, but it was not far off.
It transpired that the event staged in Slovenia to enable her to qualify was little more than a sham. In order to make the level of competition appear better than it was (and therefore help Vanessa-Mae’s ranking), entries were invented for skiers who were not actually there, times were adjusted downwards for some who did compete, and a retired ringer was brought in. The FIS issued bans for numerous officials involved in the bogus event, and banned Vanessa-Mae for four years, although her ban was later annulled as there was no evidence that she had herself orchestrated the event. Sadly it all left a bitter taste on what would otherwise have been quite a fun story.
9. Lugegate – Women’s Singles Luge, Grenoble 1968
The Winter Olympics of 1968 were the first in which teams were entered for both East and West Germany. Despite the division of the country in 1949 and the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961, the two countries had still competed as a United Team up to 1964. From their first appearance as a separate nation, it was clear that the East Germans saw the Olympics as a vehicle for demonstrating to the rest of the world that their communist model was superior to the capitalist model of the west. It was also clear that they were prepared to go to significant lengths, both legal and illegal, to prove their point.
The women’s luge in Grenoble gave a sign of how far they were prepared to go. East Germans had dominated the medals in 1964 as part of the United Team, and were keen to assert their superiority under the East German flag. They surprisingly missed out on gold in the men’s event, winning silver and bronze, but looked utterly dominant in the women’s. Their three athletes – Ortrun Enderlein, Anna-Maria Müller and Angela Knösel lay in first, second and fourth after three runs were completed, so with the fourth cancelled due to poor weather, the country was set to take gold and silver.
It was then, though, that suspicions were raised by some of the other teams who had noticed the East Germans arriving late to the track, then leaving quickly after their runs. A top official from the International Luge Federation (FIL) was sent to inspect the equipment, and reported that snow on the sled runners “hissed and vapourised”. He concluded that the runners had been heated, a treatment that reduces friction and increases speed, and is very much against the rules. As a result, all three East Germans were disqualified and the medals reallocated to an Italian and two West Germans.
East German officials vehemently denied the accusations, describing the whole thing as a ‘capitalist plot’, and pointing the finger principally at the West German Luge Association. There may have been something in this, as documents emerged many years later (admittedly from the release of Stasi files) suggesting that the FIL official had been bribed by West Germany and Austria. Whatever the truth is, the East Germans really took their revenge in future Games. From 1972 to their final Games as a separate nation in 1988, East German women won 12 of the 15 medals on offer (with the USSR taking two). West Germany collected only one bronze.
8. Skategate – Pairs figure skating, Salt Lake City 2002
In any sport that has a subjective element and that relies on peoples’ judgement, however expert, there is always a possibility of controversy. If the opinions of the judges do not match those of the competitors, crowd or expert observers, feelings of injustice and unfairness can all too easily rise up. Generally, though, you have to take it on the chin as it’s extremely difficult to prove bias or corruption.
There was one occasion, however, when the outcry was so great that not only did it result in a change to the judging process in future Games, but it also led to the losers being awarded the medal most felt they should have received first time around. The event was the Pairs Figure Skating at Salt Lake City 2002.
There were two pairs fighting it out for gold, Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze from Russia, and Jamie Sale and David Pelletier of Canada. The Russians were two-time World Champions and silver medallists from 1998; the Canadians were reigning World Champions and slight favourites. In the Pairs competition, the couples skate twice, first in a short programme where they have to complete a number of specific elements, and then in the free programme where they are given more opportunity to express themselves. The free programme is given more weight than the short when calculating the final standings.
In Salt Lake, the Russians were judged to have edged the short programme. The Canadian duo fell at the end of their routine, albeit after they had completed all elements, and this probably sealed it for the Russians. The free programme, though, was a different story. Whilst the Russians made a minor technical error in their routine, the Canadians skated a flawless programme. Most observers felt that the Canadians had skated the better, but when the marks came in, the nine judges had voted 5-4 in favour of the Russians.
Commentators and spectators alike were outraged. It was perhaps to be expected that the Russian, Chinese, Polish and Ukranian judges would favour the Russian. Similarly, the US, Canadian, German and Japanese might choose the Canadians. But why had the French judge gone with the Russians? When challenged, the French judge, Marie-Reine Le Gougne, claimed she had been pressured by the head of the French skating federation to vote for the Russians so the Russian judge would favour the French Ice Dance pair skating later in the Games. Though Le Gougne later denied this, the seed had been sown.
The International Skating Union (ISU) immediately commissioned a review, the outcome of which was that Sale and Pelletier’s silver medals were upgraded to gold. There was no demotion of the Russian pair, since they had done nothing wrong (and several judges had genuinely rated them the better of the two), so the new medal ceremony was re-run with both pairs being presented with gold. (The bronze medallists from China refused to attend).
In a sense, the damage had been repaired, but the reputation of the sport had suffered. Even though the scoring system was subsequently changed, to become more based on technical elements and also to allow judge anonymity (a change which was then reversed), it remains imperfect, hence controversy is never far from bubbling up to the surface.
7. The lethal inhaler – Alain Baxter, Slalom, Salt Lake City 2002
There is a strong case for saying that the British effectively invented the sport of alpine skiing. Whilst Scandinavians had been skiing across-country for hundreds if not thousands of years, it was the British who turned downhill skiing into a regulated, competitive sport. Sir Arthur Lunn was the pioneer in the 1920s, creating the first slalom course that tested speed not style, and organising the first world championship in downhill and slalom in 1931. His relentless campaigning saw alpine skiing make its debut in the winter Olympics of 1936.
Despite this heritage, there has never been an Olympic medal of any colour for Team GB in the Winter Olympics. (There have, of course, been many in the Winter Paralympics.) This drought looked to have ended in 2002 when Scot Alain Baxter took a surprise bronze medal in the slalom. On a difficult course, Baxter managed to place a very respectable eighth equal on the first run of two. The second run is normally the more pressurised of the two, with skiers pushing themselves to the limit to hit specific targets, and this was no exception. Four skiers in a row going before Baxter were unable to complete the course having gone off too hard. Baxter, though, skiing eighth of the final group, skied impeccably to set the second fastest combined time of anyone. One after another the favourites, including Kostelic of Croatia and Bode Miller of the US, were unable to overhaul him. It took a solid run from Vidal of France, placed first after the first run, to drop Baxter to a still very impressive third place. Presented with his bronze at the Games, Britain’s first ever medallist in alpine skiing returned home to Aviemore, Scotland to a hero’s welcome.
Sadly, Baxter’s joy was cut short when he received a phone call a few days after the Games advising him that he had tested positive for methamphetamine. Pretty well everyone who tests positive will claim that they have no idea how the drugs got into their system, but in Baxter’s case it seemed truly mystifying. It turned out that it was because he had used a Vick’s nasal inhaler to clear his blocked nose and help him get some sleep. Whilst the Vick’s inhaler sold in Britain is entirely legal, the same product sold in the US contains the prohibited drug. Baxter had bought it in a local drugstore and hadn’t even considered the need to get it cleared.
Baxter never managed to get his bronze medal reinstated, but did at least have the satisfaction of being cleared by the Court of Arbitration for Sport of being a drugs cheat. He also knows that most followers of the sport consider him a medal-winner even if the record books state otherwise.
6. The luckiest man ever – Stephen Bradbury, Short-track Skating, Salt Lake City 2002
Short-track skating is perhaps the most perilous event in either the Summer or Winter Games. Sometimes called ‘roller derby on ice’ it is a race where the risk of accident is ever-present due both to the intrinsic physics of the event and to the high-contact nature of the contest. Skaters reach speeds of up to 50 km/h while racing around a tight oval against three or four competitors who are constantly jostling for position. Any tiny slip of the skate is likely to see you fall and be eliminated from the competition.
In Salt Lake City 2002, Australian Stephen Bradbury was the beneficiary not once, not twice, but an incredible three times of the unpredictability of the event. He won the unlikeliest gold medal of any Games, and in so doing created a new phrase – “Doing a Bradbury”.
Bradbury was a good international skater, but just a shade below the very best in the world. He had been part of an Australian team that had won the 5000m relay in the 1991 World Championships (when Bradbury was only 17), and the same team had then gone on to win Australia’s first ever Winter Olympic medal, a bronze, in Lillehammer 1994. In individual events, Bradbury had been regarded as an outside contender for medals in both 1994 and 1998 but had got nowhere near in either.
He was, though, a fighter. He had suffered a serious skating injury in 1994 that had briefly threatened his life, and in 2000 he broke his neck in another racing accident. Despite being told he would never race again, he persisted, determined to give himself one more chance to compete at the Games. So he arrived at Salt Lake City in 2002 for what would surely be a last chance.
He managed to qualify for the quarter final, but found himself up against hot favourite Apolo Anton Ohno of the US and Marc Gagnon of Canada, the defending world champion. Needing to beat at least one of the two to progress, Bradbury was never in contention and finished third. He was reprieved, however, when Gagnon was disqualified for pushing, so entered the semi-final. In the semi he was again well out of contention in last place when all three competitors in front of him crashed into each other, allowing the trailing Bradbury to skate past them and reach the final. To be fair to Bradbury and his coach, their plan, knowing that the Australian was not quick enough to win in a straight race, had been to avoid trouble at the back and hope that an accident ensued.
They deployed the same strategy in the final. Once again, as the race neared its conclusion, Bradbury found himself stranded at the back, well behind the four medal contenders. Extraordinarily, lightning struck for the third race in a row. As the top four manoeuvred for position, they collided and all four went down like a (very fast-moving) house of cards. Bradbury was able to weave his way through them to cross the finish line first.
It was the most unexpected of gold medals and for many it was truly undeserved. Bradbury himself recognised the absurdity of it, but did feel as though he had earned the medal. “I don’t think I’ll take the medal as the minute and a half of the race I actually won.” he said, I’ll take it as the last decade of the hard slog I put in.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAADWfJO2qM
5. Eddie the Eagle – Ski jumping, Calgary 1988
I know that many British readers will consider this cruel and unjust, but I have chosen to include this story, one of the best known of all, in my list of the worst things to happen in the Winter Olympics. Yes, Eddie Edwards was almost the definition of the ‘plucky Brit’, competing against all the odds, putting life and limb on the line for his country, and some would argue that he represented the true spirit of the Olympics – “What counts is not the winning, but the taking part.” Not me. The days when we were happy to send second-rate athletes to world competitions and applaud them for simply trying hard, are now happily in our rear-view mirror. Once Team GB started taking sport seriously, we actually started winning something, and this, for me at least, is far more enjoyable than seeing our amateurish representatives outclassed.
Notwithstanding this, the story of Eddie ‘the Eagle’ Edwards is one that massively raised the profile of the Winter Games, not only in the UK but worldwide. In a Ski Jumping event dominated by one of the true all-time greats, Finn Matti Nykanen, media coverage was dominated by the guy who finished last in both of the events that he entered. Here are the bald statistics from the Normal Hill event:
- Gold medal to Matti Nykanen with an average distance of 89.5m and an overall score of 229.1
- 57th and second last, position to Spain’s Bernat Sola with an average distance of 70m and an overall score of 140.4
- 58th and last position to Eddie Edwards with an average distance of 55m and an overall score of 69.2
In case you’re no good at arithmetic, Edwards’ score was less than half that of the guy who finished second to last in the whole competition. The same was pretty much true of the Large Hill competition, also won by Nykanen, but where Edwards scored 57.5 vs 110.8 for the next worst competitor (who I think actually fell on one of his two jumps).
Edwards was, to be fair, incredibly brave even to have attempted this. A very good downhill skier, he decided to try and qualify for the ski jump after he failed to make the GB team for skiing. Aside from the fact that there was no GB infrastructure whatsoever to support him in his quest, he also suffered from two natural disadvantages. One, he was heavy for his height (5’8”) at nearly 13 stone (by comparison Matti Nykanen was two inches taller and 25-30kg lighter); and two, Edwards was incredibly short-sighted and his ‘bottle-top’ glasses tended to steam up when inside his helmet. Nonetheless, he pressed on, and with whatever support he could beg, steal or borrow, and an acceptance that he would suffer pain and injury, he learnt to jump. And he did land all of his four jumps at the Olympics. But he did finish dead last in both of his events.
Edwards became a media sensation during and after the Games, but in terms of competing his exploits rebounded badly on him when the International Olympic Committee (IOC) changed the entry rules for future competitions. They effectively made it impossible for athletes as poor as Edwards to qualify and he never represented Team GB again at the Games. Despite his inglorious failure, he remains to this day perhaps Britain’s best known Winter Olympian.
4. The Salt Lake Scandal – 2002 Winter Olympics
In 1932, 1972, 1976 and 1998 Salt Lake City of Utah in the USA tried and failed to persuade the IOC that the Winter Olympics should be hosted in their city. When they bid, again, to host the 2002 Games, the organising committee was determined that it would not be fifth time unlucky. The methods that they employed to increase their chances of success would lead to the biggest scandal in the history of the Games.
Until the process was overhauled, partly as a result of the Salt Lake City scandal, bidding for either the Winter or the Summer Games was a laborious and expensive process. Interested cities would start by submitting a formal bid to the IOC, who would slim the list down to 3-5 names to make it manageable. The shortlist would then be evaluated by a team of IOC experts who would write a report for the voting members. A period of lobbying would then ensue, with each of the aspiring cities attempting to persuade the voting members, typically up to 100 representatives from across the globe, to vote for their bid. With ‘persuasion’ taking many forms, this phase was rife what some would call dubious practices, but what others would call downright corruption.
Here are some of the ‘services’ that were alleged to have been provided to IOC members and their families by the Salt Lake City bid committee to try and secure their votes:
- Individual payments ranging from $5,000 to $70,000 were made to IOC members from African and Latin America
- $400,000 was spent on a tuition payment and athletic training programme that benefited 13 people, six of whom were relatives of IOC members
- $28,000 of medical services were provided to three people connected to the IOC
- Shotguns, skis, shopping sprees, even expensive violins were gifted, many with a value well above the USOC’s $150 limit on gifts
- One IOC member was allegedly helped to make a $60,000 profit on a real estate transaction
Not all of the allegations were proven but the concern was serious enough that four separate investigations of the process were mounted, including one by the US Department of Justice. The joint heads of the organising committee both resigned before the investigations got underway, and then subsequently, 10 IOC members were expelled or resigned, and a further 10 were sanctioned.
The Games itself was not moved from Salt Lake City. Notwithstanding the bribery and corruption it was actually a good venue for the Games, and the scandal broke too late for the IOC to find an alternative. One thing the IOC did do, though, was totally reform the process for host city selection. Interestingly, the new process has resulted in Salt Lake City again hosting the Games in 2034. Apparently their ‘hospitality’ budget was much reduced this time.
3. The devastating crash – Sabena Flight 548, Brussels 1961
Technically this is not really a story from the Winter Olympics, but it is probably the greatest tragedy in winter sports history and certainly had a significant effect on the 1964 Games.
On February 15, 1961 Sabena Flight 548 was en route from Idlewild International Airport (now JFK) in New York to Brussels Airport in Belgium. The Boeing 707 had reported no difficulties in its seven and a half hour flight across the Atlantic, and was set to land on a clear day at Brussels. After the first approach was aborted due to a smaller plane failing to clear the runway, a second attempt was then also aborted. As the plane circled again for a third attempt, it looked as though the pilots lost control. The aircraft veered sharply upwards before levelling, then plummeting almost vertically from about 500m straight into the ground.
All 72 people on board plus one on the ground were killed. It would have been a tragedy in any case, but it had special poignancy and significance for US winter sports. All 18 members of the American figure skating team plus 16 others – family members, coaches, officials – who were accompanying them were on the plane. They were on their way to the 1961 World Championships being held in Prague. All were killed.
The fatalities included nine-time US champion-turned-coach, Maribel Vinson-Owen, and her two daughters, 16-year-old Laurence, recent US ladies’ champion and 20-year-old Maribel, US pair’s champion. Laurence had appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated just two days previously. The men’s champion, Bradley Lord was also on board, as was Maribel’s pair’s partner, Dudley Richards. In a period in which the US was the strongest figure skating nation in the world (they had won two gold and two bronze from the three events in 1960) all of these would have expected to be medal contenders in 1964.
American figure skating had to rebuild from the ground up but, incredibly, managed two bronze medals with a very young team in 1964. Four years later, they could rejoice when Tim Wood won silver in the mens singles, and Peggy Fleming, whose early coach William Kipp had been killed in Brussels, went one better with gold in the ladies. USA figure skating was back after seven very painful years.
2. Tonya and Nancy – Ladies Figure Skating, Lillehammer 1994
In the early 1990s two US figure skaters waged a bitter battle for supremacy in their sport. In the red corner, the golden girl of American figure skating, Nancy Kerrigan. Graceful, balletic and precise on the ice, classically pretty and with a beaming smile, she was loved by skating fans and non-fans alike. In the blue corner, the ‘bad girl of skating’, Tonya Harding. Athletic, strong and capable of landing big jumps including the elusive triple axel, she was a brilliant skater but of a different style to Kerrigan. She was also a different style off the ice, brash, sassy, blue-collar, a girl from ‘the wrong side of the tracks’.
A year apart in age (Kerrigan was the older) they found themselves competing against each other in all the major competitions. In the 1991 US Championships Harding won gold with Kerrigan getting bronze. Harding also finished ahead in the 1991 World Championships with silver to Kerrigan’s bronze in an American clean-sweep (Kristi Yamaguchi won gold). In 1992 the positions were reversed when Kerrigan earned Olympic bronze with Harding just out of the medals in fourth, then in the Worlds Kerrigan took silver with Harding sixth. 1993 saw Kerrigan draw ahead, establishing herself as US number one, while Harding’s form dropped off a little.
With the 1994 Olympics looming, Harding would have felt that action was required. No one, though, could have predicted the action that actually transpired.
The US Championships were set for early January and were to be used as qualifiers for the Games. Both Harding and Kerrigan were expected to qualify, but the showdown between the two was the undoubted highlight of the Championships. It never happened. The day before the women’s competition was due to start, Kerrigan was leaving practice when she was attacked by a man dressed in black who began hitting her on the leg with a metal baton. She was left on the floor, screaming in fear and pain as the man fled. The attack was massive news in the US, not least because TV cameras were quickly on the scene and recorded Kerrigan howling “Why? Why? It hurts so much. Why me?”. There was some vague suspicion that Harding might have been involved in some way, but the prevailing reaction was one of shock and disbelief.
If Harding was affected by the incident and the associated innuendo, she did not show it. With Kerrigan unable to compete, Harding won the event to qualify for the Olympics. The US skating officials sportingly and sympathetically kept the second slot on the team open for Kerrigan, should she recover in time to compete.
Things now unravelled very quickly. A mere four days after the US Championships had finished, the FBI received a confession from Harding’s bodyguard, Shawn Eckardt. He admitted that he had been involved in the attack, and implicated Harding’s ex-husband Jeff Gillooly plus two friends, Shane Stant and Derrick Smith, as well as Harding herself. Within a week both Stant (who had been the actual attacker of Kerrigan) and Gillooly had surrendered to the FBI. Gillooly also corroborated Eckardt’s claim that Harding had been party to the incident.
Somehow, Harding, who gave an emotional press conference admitting that she did know more about the attack than she had let on, was still allowed to represent the US at Lillehammer. She would be up against Kerrigan, whose injuries were not as bad as everyone originally feared and had recovered sufficiently to compete.
There has never been more focus in the US on a women’s sporting event, indeed some estimates suggest that the figure skating showdown in Lillehammer was the sixth highest-rated TV broadcast of all time. Of the two, there was only one winner. Kerrigan skated beautifully and was denied gold (which went to Ukraine’s Oksana Baiul) only by a very narrow and controversial decision by the judges (4-5). Harding finished only eighth, after being allowed a reskate when her laces became untied.
Soon after the Games, Harding and all of the co-conspirators were convicted of offences relating to the attack. Harding was spared jail time due to a plea deal, but was stripped of her 1994 US Championship and banned from competitive skating for life. Her life since skating has been one of almost constant grifting, using her (infamous) celebrity status whenever she gets a chance. She made a bit of money from the film, ‘I Tonya’ released in 2017 and starring Margot Robbie. Kerrigan lives relatively quietly with her husband and three children.
1. Putin’s propoganda – Sochi 2014
With the benefit of hindsight, it is astonishing that the 2014 Winter Olympics were ever awarded to Valdimir Putin’s Russia. In truth, it didn’t really require much hindsight to know that awarding the Games to one of the most corrupt and dangerous countries in the world was a bad idea. The Games were still going on when Russia effectively annexed the Crimea in Ukraine, and plenty worse was to follow in the ensuing years.
On the face of it, the Games went pretty well, but aside from the rather dubious politics, there were other significant scandals. First was the massive cost and corruption involved. The Games were supposed to cost $12Bn but costs ballooned to around $50Bn. Russian opposition leaders alleged that up to $30Bn of this was stolen through corruption and kickbacks, and there were many examples of huge contracts being awarded to cronies of Vladimir Putin.
Second, were the human rights concerns. Only one year before the Games, in 2013, Russia had instituted Federal Law #135-FZ, prohibiting the ‘propoganda of non-traditional sexual relations’. While it stopped short of banning homosexuality, many saw this as discriminatory and homophobic, and against the principles of the Olympic movement. There were also concerns about environmental damage caused as a result of the construction of the site, and about the campaign to exterminate thousands of stray dogs in advance of the competition.
There were also judging controversies, with home athletes appearing to be favoured in some events, but the biggest controversy related to the use of performance-enhancing drugs, and the clear involvement of the state in covering this up. The centrepiece of the cover-up was simplicity itself – a hole built into the drug-testing laboratory wall, through which tainted urine samples were swapped out with clean samples coming in. The whistle was blown by Grigory Rodchenkov, former head of Russia’s anti-doping lab, who also revealed how steroids had been administered to athletes in ways that would speed up absorption into their bodies, and thus shorten the window for detection.
An independent report, fronted by Canadian lawyer Richard McLaren was launched, and its findings were damning. The investigation found that more than 1,000 Russian athletes – not only in Winter Sports, but across all Olympic and Paralympic disciplines – had benefited from the state-sponsored drugs programme. A handful of medal winners from 2014 had their medals stripped (although it really should have been far more of them) and many received bans. Perhaps more significantly, Russia itself was barred from entering a team in any Olympic Games, although individual athletes may compete under the Olympic flag. As we approach Milano-Cortina 2026, this ban still holds and there is no sign of it being lifted any time soon. It may be some time before Russia hosts another Games.