With the Pyeongchang Olympics nearing their final weekend in South Korea , we thought we ’d take a look back at some of the angry and most unpredictable moments of Winter Games past .
1. AUSTRALIA WINS ITS FIRST WINTER GOLD MEDAL WHEN SPEED SKATER WAITS FOR HIS COMPETITORS TO FALL DOWN
Knowing he was overmatched by his fellow jock during the 1000 Meter Short Track Speed Skating competition at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics , Australian Steven Bradbury devised a scheme of waiting in the back of the pack on the off chance that his competitors might trip up . surprisingly , the strategy worked when a disqualification in the quarterfinals find him through to the semi and a smash sent him to the finals .
In the concluding , favorite Apollo Anton Ohno and the three other competing skaters jar in an epic clangour ; the trailing Bradbury was close enough to the coterie to pass over the finish line before any of the fallen skaters , becoming Australia’sfirst gold medalistin the Winter Olympics .
2. ALPINE SKIER HERMANN MAIER FLIES OFF THE COURSE AT 70 MPH, GETS UP AND WALKS AWAY
In downhill alpine skiing , skier travel at extremely high velocities ( typically 60 to 85 miles per hour ) down courses that closely watch the passel ’s fall line .
In 1998 , Nagano Olympics race officials were worried about the declivitous course — specifically , a steep angle between the sixth and 7th gate . They castrate this portion but the section still posed a risk .
AustrianHermann Maierfinished first in the World Cup standings before the Olympics but had a reputation for recklessness within the skiing circuit — in fact , according to Olympic historianDavid Wallechinsky , “ caution was not a watchword in Maier ’s lexicon . " Maier did n’t slow down before the aforementioned dangerous good turn in Nagano and belong flying off the course at 70 miles per hour , tumbling to a halt some 50 metre away . In a sport where injuries — and even death — aren’t unheard of , Maier shocked boob tube audience by have up and walking by with nothing more than a bruised shoulder .
Benefiting from a 24 - hour conditions delay on his next effect , the Super - g-force , Maier used the supernumerary residue to get back in full form and guide home the Au . He also came in first in the Giant Slalom three day subsequently .
3. WOMEN CHEAT BY HEATING UP THEIR SLEDS
There have been a limited number of cases of cheating in the Winter Olympics ( far fewer than in the Summer Olympics ) , but that does n’t mean it ’s an impossibility . Just ask Ortrun Enderlein .
Enderlein , the oppose luge champion , and her two East German teammates aroused mistrust by showing up just before their foot race and leaving the scene in haste after . Enderlein won gold and her mate placed 3rd and 4th , but upon closer inspection , it was discovered that their sleigh had been heated immediately before the race , which reduced friction with the ice and lead in faster clip . The three were disqualified and the East German Olympic Committee blamed the occasion on a " capitalist revanchist plot of land . ”
4. SKI JUMPER RALLIES NATIONAL PRIDE BY FINISHING LAST
English plasterer Michael Edwards travel to Lake Placid , New York two year before the 1988 Calgary Olympics to meet his dream of making the result as a downhill skier . When money run curt , he decided to interchange to ski jumping because it was importantly cheaper and there would be no competition at the national trials . Edwards became the first Olympic ski jumper in British history , but was far below the standards of the rest of the theater .
Edwards crashed at the World Championships the year before the ' 88 Games and was jest at by the external press , whodubbedhim “ Mr. Magoo ” due to his dense - rimmed glass and heavy material body .
To the British , however , Edwards became a great author of fascination , which become into a full - fledged national craze as he became the first Olympian ski pinny in the area ’s chronicle and successfully down his attempt at the Calgary Games . Although he did n’t even score half the full points of any other competitor , he realize esteem worldwide and was given the nickname " Eddie the Eagle " by the President of the International Olympic Committee during the end ceremony .
deplorably , many others in the Olympic community did not take him seriously , and they raised the pass monetary standard to prevent Edwards from participating in the futurity . This did n’t hold back him from trying , but he failed to condition on three successive occasions . Today , Edwards still beplaster for a keep and estimates that 70 percent of his income comes fromspeaking engagements .
In 2016,Eddie the Eagle , a biopic about Edwards ’s life feature Hugh Jackman ( not playing Edwards ) , was released in field .
5. GOLD MEDALIST IN OLYMPICS' INAUGURAL SNOWBOARDING COMPETITION GETS BUSTED FOR MARIJUANA
At the 1998 Nagano Games , snowboard was introduce in an exploit to make the Olympics more appealing to a younger hearing . Still , there was some trepidation about the perceive robustious life style of the snowboard community and how it would accommodate in with the formalness of the Olympics .
Nothing better illustrated this clash of values than when Canadian Ross Rebagliati became the inaugural winner in the Parallel Giant Slalom and was quickly strip of his medal three days after the event for testing cocksure for marijuana .
Rebagliati claim to have absorb it second - hand at a party and the Canadian Olympic delegationsuccessfully appealedthe IOC ’s decisiveness on the basis that marijuana is n’t a functioning - enhancing drug . He got his medallion back before the Games terminate .
Today , 20 class after the tilt , Rebagliati has moved on from his snowboarding past tense and is trying his hand at entrepreneurism : he ’s the founder of Ross ’ Gold , a marihuana business sector .
6. NANCY KERRIGAN VS. TONYA HARDING
Tonya Hardingwas an ice skating omen from a humiliated household who ascended to the creation stage in the other ' ninety . As her fiscal security department and world ranking started to decline in the calendar month direct up to the Olympics , Harding became frustrated and lead her ire at fellow American Nancy Kerrigan , who was uprise in the world standings and down remunerative commercial endorsements .
Harding ’s on - again - off - again hubby Jeff Gillooly conspired with two other workforce to attack and injure Kerrigan before the 1994 Olympics . They take out the strike after Kerrigan ’s practice skate before the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Detroit . Shane Stant , Gillooly ’s hired serviceman , hit Kerrigan on the knee with a police baton as she was talk to a newsperson in a stadium hall . He escaped by diving event through aplexiglassdoor before running to a getaway motorcar .
The attack lead in a bruise , but because there was no bone or ligament harm , Kerrigan was able to do and was selected ( along with Harding , who was under investigating for the attack ) for the U.S. Olympic squad . At the Lillehammer Games , Kerrigan famously skated to a silver medal after howling back - to - back performances while Harding , disgraced , finished in eighth place . Harding ’s animation , and the scandal surrounding her competition with Kerrigan , has been turned into the Oscar - nominated film , I , Tonya .
fit in to Olympic Historian David Wallechinsky , when CBS executives thanked their stave in Norway for the great paygrade ( the figure skating final examination were the one of the most watched events in television set history at the time ) , a CBS employeewrote back : " Do n’t give thanks us . give thanks Tonya . "
7. TWO AMERICAN HOCKEY TEAMS ARE SENT TO THE OLYMPICS, BOTH ARE DISQUALIFIED
Amid the confusion , both teams made their path to St. Moritz to contend . Before they were set to march in the Opening Ceremony , the Swiss Olympic Organizing Committee banned the AAU . Because they were favored by Brundage , though , the AAU squad got the honor of constitute the U.S. in the opening ceremony , while the AHA team — which was actually allowed to contend by the organizing committee — had to sit in the stands .
8. LUGE TRACK WITH A HISTORY OF FATAL ACCIDENTS SELECTED AS SITE OF INAUGURAL LUGE COMPETITION
Luge racers regularly hit speeds of over 95 miles per time of day , meaning that even the lowly chemise in body position can easy leave in catastrophe . This was apparent before the 2010 Vancouver Games , when Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili careened off the raceway during a training run and died of his injuries .
It was an eerie replay of the luge ’s first - ever coming into court at the Olympic Games . Two weeks before the Innsbruck Games in 1964 , Kazimierz Kay - Skrzypecki , a British RAF fender who was inexperient in the sport , fly off the track and died during a education run . to boot , a German double up luge team was injure on the track in a separate accident . The track had had several fatal accidents when it open up decennium before , and although it was change thereafter , Olympian participants had to buttonhole for further safety precautions to reduce some of the danger .
9. FRENCH JUDGE CONFESSES TO THROWING THE COMPETITION
The pairs figure skating contender at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics result in a massive scandal that gave wind to the long - standing notion that figure skating judges can be persuade . Russian competitors Yelena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze made noticeable error in their long computer programme , while Canadians Jamie Salé and David Pelletier performed a flawless routine that had the crowd chant " Six ! Six ! Six ! "
When the Book of Judges rule 5 - 4 in favor of the Russians and loud Bronx cheer rang from the orbit , the Canadian Olympic officials lodge a protestation . Protests file away by the turn a loss party have become relatively common in the Olympics and the employment is often a symbolic and ultimately fruitless motion . But in this case , some dirt in reality turned up .
In the subsequent investigation , it was revealed that the swing vote , FrenchjudgeMarie - Rene Le Gougne , was up for a rear on the International Skating Union ’s powerful technical commission , and report rise that she confided to a British ref a few Clarence Shepard Day Jr. originally that she had been squeeze by her own national commission to confound her right to vote for the Russian pairs .
Le Gougne changed her history a few days later in an crusade to save face , but her at odds statements only exacerbated the coverage into a full - blown medium frenzy nickname “ skate - logic gate . ” In the end , Le Gougne was suspend for three years , the Canadians were awarded a 2d pair of gold medals , and the fun underwent reform with judges ' slews being kept secret and chosen at random .
