During its history, both the Summer and Winter Olympic Games have been a subject of scandals and controversies, including the use of performance enhancing drugs.
The Summer Olympic Games known as the Games of the Olympiad, and often referred to as the Summer Olympics, is a major international multi-sport event normally held once every four years. The inaugural Games took place in 1896 in Athens, Greece, and the most recent edition was held in 2021 in Tokyo, Japan.
Some countries have boycotted the Games on various occasions, either as a protest against the International Olympic Committee or to protest racial discrimination in or the contemporary politics of other participants. After both World Wars, the defeated countries were not invited. Other controversies include doping programs, decisions by referees and gestures made by athletes.
1908 Summer Olympics – London, England, United Kingdom
In the men’s 400 metres, American winner John Carpenter was disqualified for blocking British athlete Wyndham Halswelle in a manoeuvre that was legal under American rules but prohibited by the British rules under which the race was run. As a result of the disqualification, a second final race was ordered.
Halswelle was to face the other two finalists William Robbins and John Taylor, but both were from the United States and decided not to contest the repeat of the final to protest the judges’ decision.
Halswelle was thus the only medallist in the 400 metres, a race which became the only walkover victory in Olympic history. Taylor later ran on the Gold medal-winning U.S. team for the now-defunct Medley Relay, becoming the first African American medallist.
1912 Summer Olympics – Stockholm, Sweden
American athlete Jim Thorpe was stripped of his gold medals in the decathlon and pentathlon after it was learned that he had played professional minor league baseball three years earlier. In solidarity, the decathlon silver medalist, Hugo Wieslander, refused to accept the medals when they were offered to him. The gold medals were restored to Thorpe’s children in 1983, 30 years after his death.
1932 Summer Olympics – Los Angeles, California, United States
Nine-time Finnish Olympic gold medallist Paavo Nurmi was found to be a professional athlete and barred from running in the Games.
The main orchestrators of the ban were the Swedish officials that were the core of the IOC bureaucracy, including IOC president Sigfrid Edström, who claimed that Nurmi had received too much money for his travel expenses. Nurmi did, however, travel to Los Angeles and kept training at the Olympic Village.
Despite pleas from all the other entrants of the marathon, he was not allowed to compete at the Games. This incident, in part, led to Finland refusing to participate in the traditional Finland-Sweden athletics international annual event until 1939.
1936 Summer Olympics – Berlin, Germany
Peru v Austria was a football match played on 8 August 1936 during the Summer Olympics at Hertha Platz in Berlin. The match became notable for causing a huge controversy after it was annulled because of a pitch invasion from Peruvian supporters who would have also beat Austrian players. Peru had scored five goals on extra time, but the referee disallowed three of them and the match ended 4–2.
After the incidents, FIFA ordered the match should be played again with no attendance. As the Peruvian representatives could not appeal the decision, Austria was declared winner, advancing to the semifinals while all the Peruvian delegation withdrew from the tournament following an order of president Óscar R. Benavides.
1956 Summer Olympics – Melbourne, Australia and Stockholm, Sweden
Seven countries boycotted the Games for three different reasons. Cambodia, Egypt, Iraq, and Lebanon announced that they would not participate in response to the Suez Crisis during which Egypt had been invaded by Israel, the United Kingdom, and France after Egypt had nationalized the Suez Canal. The Netherlands, Spain, and Switzerland withdrew to protest the Soviet Union’s invasion of Hungary during the 1956 Hungarian Revolution and the Soviet presence at the Games. Less than two weeks before the Opening Ceremony, the People’s Republic of China also chose to boycott the event, protesting the Republic of China (Taiwan) being allowed to compete.
