Cheating in games has been a problem since the inception of, well, games, but some people cheated in such spectacular or brazen ways that they rise above the lowest of the low. Here are nine such examples.
9Frederick Lorz (1904)
Lorz ran the first nine miles of the Boston Marathon before getting exhausted. At which point, his manager picked him up in his car and drove him another ten miles.
Lorz continued to run from this point and won the race, only revealing the car ride shortly after and claiming the whole thing was a joke (haha?). Though banned he was reinstated and won next year’s marathon.
8Sergio Motsoeneng (1998)
Sergio came in ninth place during the grueling fifty-six mile Comrades Marathon, bit only because he switched places with his identical brother Fika at various spots of the course, leading to Sergio being stripped of his medal and losing his prize money.
What busted him was a scar on Fika’s shin and Fika wearing his watch on the wrong arm, clues that were both photographed.
7Tommy Glenn Carmichael (80’s through the 00’s)
One of the most prolific slot machines cheats in history, Carmichael was known for adapting to changing technologies to hustle the slots.
As security measures evolved, Carmichael would go to great lengths to learn them, including buying the machines and spending months going over their mechanics. After a series of busts and time in prison, he works on the side of casinos.
6Michel Pollentier (1978)
Belgian’s cycling champion concocted a bizarre means to evade drug testing: he had a condom filled with someone else’s urine underneath his arm connected to a tube running through his shorts.
It may have worked had another participant not had difficulty with a similar scheme, raising the suspicion of the doctor present. Everyone was asked to remove their shirts, revealing the cheat.
5Spanish Paralympic Basketball Team (2000)
How low can an athlete go to win? Well, consider this: ten of the twelve members of Spain’s basketball team in the 2000 Paralympics were found after their win to be fully-functional and above the seventy-five IQ threshold.
In one game the coach was even alleged to have ordered the team to allow their opponents to make shots to mask the deception better. That’s pretty low.
4Danny Almonte (2001)
Danny Almonte stood as one of the best Little League pitchers in history, pitching the first no-hitter in the league since the ’70s. He was also two years too old to play in the Little League World Series, a fact that only came to light weeks later following an investigation.
3Diego Maradona (1986)
In the World Cup quarterfinal match Maradona slapped the ball mid-air into the goal. This was done in such a way to make it look like he had merely hit the ball with his head.
At least from where the ref was standing. But the audience saw it clear as day. What should have been a foul was allowed as a scored point.
2Antonio Margarito (2009)
This former welterweight boxing champ’s legacy was called into question when, before about with Shane Mosley, he was caught with loaded gloves.
A previous win was reversed, and after a series of failed rematches, he retired in 2012, only to return four years later. Suffice to say he may never achieve the same level of fame or success.
1Donald Crowhurst (1960)
Crowhurst, a desperate businessman, entered the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race despite no serious sailing experience.
Early on, rather than quitting and facing humiliation, he chartered his own course, falsified logs, and made sporadic radio reports of his alleged position.
However, he never finished the race despite being the projected winner given his reports. Some contend he killed himself based on his increasingly erratic writings in his logs, or he may have accidentally fallen overboard.
His body has never been found. But even if he had survived to finish the race, he seemed aware that his hoax would be exposed upon examination of his false reports.
