Top 5 biggest cheats in sports

• For every honourable way to make it in the sporting world there are dozens of ways to get there too through cheating
• Whether it happens via doping or sport manipulation, cheating is cheating and it has been there for the thousands of years sports has existed
• One of the biggest and controversial cheating scandals in sports took place on 6 January 1994 when Nancy Kerrigan was assaulted by the ex-husband of her opponent Tonya Harding

What are the biggest cheats in sports? For every honourable way to make it in the sporting world there are dozens of ways to get there too through cheating. Whether it happens through doping or sport manipulation, cheating is cheating and it has been there for the thousands of years sports has existed. We dug through the archives and here are some the biggest cheats in sports.

1. Assault Of Nancy Kerrigan

Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan. Photo/ Cosmopolitan.

One of the biggest and controversial cheating scandals in sports took place on 6 January 1994. The incident involved assaulting American figure skater Nancy Kerrigan who was preparing to compete in the Winter Olympics in Norway.

Kerrigan was hit with a baton in the knee, causing damage and rendering her unable to participate in the upcoming  Figure Skating Championships. One week after the attack, fingers started pointing at her opponent Tonya Harding. It soon emerged that Harding’s ex-husband is the person who attacked Kerrigan and the plot was to injure her so she misses the Winter Olympics.

Harding pleaded guilty and was sentenced to three years of probation and 500 hours of community service. On top of that, the American paid a fine of $160,000 and got banned from the U.S. Figure Skating Association. Meanwhile, the injury on Kerrigan was actually not too bad as she competed at the Winter Olympics and won silver.

2. Rosie Ruiz 

Rosie Ruiz would now be a legend for winning the Boston marathon in the fastest time and also recording the third-fastest female time ever in a marathon. However, it was later discovered that Ruiz did not run the full race and only joined the other runners half a mile before the finish line. She was disqualified from the race.

Rosie Ruiz. Photo/ The New York Times.

3. Cheating At The Paralympic Games

Spain cheating at the Paralympic Games is not only one of the biggest cheats in sports but also one of the biggest scandals in sports history. Spain’s intellectual disability basketball team that won gold in Sydney was later found to be fraudulent as ten out of twelve players had faked their disabilities.

The team got charged with fraud and all the players were forced to return their medals. This infamous cheating scandal led to the entire category of intellectual disabled basketball scrapped off from the Paralympic program.

4. The Hand Of God

The hand of God refers to the infamous goal scored by football legend Diego Maradona during the quarter-finals of the 1986 World Cup between Argentina and England. The goal gave Argentina a 1-0 lead and the South American side went on to win the match 2-1 en route to World Cup triumph.

It is illegal to score using your hand in football, so the goal shouldn’t have stand. However, the referee and the linesmen did not have a clear view of the play hence allowing the goal to stand. When asked after the match if he had scored the goal illegally, Maradona replied: “A little with the head of Maradona, and a little with the hand of God”.

Diego Maradona used his hands to score during the 1986 World Cup quarter-final match between Argentina and England. Photo/ LinkedIn.

5. Baseball’s steroids era

Concluding our article of biggest cheats in sports is the baseball steroids era. The steroids era refers to a period of time in Major League Baseball when players allegedly used performance-enhancing drugs.

From the late 1990s and early 2000s, dozens of players were implicated in the scandal, including Rafael Palmeiro and Mark McGwire. The use of steroids in the MLB was banned in 1991 but the league’s failure to implement PED testing allowed players to dope without being caught.

The United States congress got involved in the matter and together with pressure from the public, the MLB decided to bring to an end this era of cheating.