From Nero's chariot to performance-enhancing drugs: A history of Olympic cheating

From switching twins , to bribery and banned substances, these are the stories of those who wanted an easier path to Olympic glory, sporting honour be damned

Emperor Nero: an early Olympic cheat, by all accounts

Bribing opponents and judges, interfering with equipment, deliberately playing badly, getting your twin sister to take your place, and women being fed "blue beans". One athlete even hitched a lift while running the marathon. 

A carousel of ingenious tricks, shenanigans and skulduggery mark the Olympic path.

"Fair play and respect for opponents" is the essence of sportsmanship, declared Baron Pierre de Coubertin, founder of the modern Olympic games. 

The organisers of Paris 2024 say they are determined to live up to the spirit of the Olympics. 

A challenging task, seeing as from the moment of their foundation in Ancient Greece right up to the last Olympics in Tokyo, there have been numerous instances of cheating.

Monuments to malpractice

Along the road to the stadium at Olympia once stood bronze statues of Zeus hurling thunderbolts. Pausanias, in his 2nd century A.D. guide to Greece, says they were paid for with fines imposed on athletes who broke the rules.

Zeus statues, bearing the names and shames of cheaters

Inscribed on each pedestal is the athlete's name, his transgression, and the names of his family members. One stone carries the name Eupolus from Thessaly, who bribed his opponents in the boxing ring.

Another warns: “Here muscles win, and speedy feet, not lots of money spent to cheat”.

Corruption in high places

The Paris 2024 Code of Ethics bans employees from accepting “any gifts that are likely to lead to their impartiality or integrity being questioned”. 

But in Emperor Nero's day, no such restrictions existed. Ever since Nero was a child, writes Roman historian Suetonius, he “longed to show himself to the public, and drive a chariot”. Having called the Olympics early, in 67A.D., he chose to compete in a 10-horse chariot instead of a regular four-horse contraption.

Things didn't quite go to plan: Nero was thrown from the cart, and gave up. Despite this, the judges declared him champion, and were awarded with Roman citizenship and bags of money.

After Nero’s death, his “achievements” were removed from the records. But the Olympics remained a byword for bribery and sleaze. In 393 A.D., Emperor Theodosius put an end to them, and the Olympic Torch was not relit until 1896.

Fred Lorz: driven to succeed in the 1904 Games

Ride, ride, ride, hitchin' a ride

In the upcoming marathon in Paris, any competitor daring to take a shortcut, or jump over a barrier at the Place de la Concorde, or along the clearly-marked route to Versailles, will be spotted instantly by TV cameras, drones and AI motion-tracking technology. But not that long ago there were none of these devices.

At the St Louis Missouri Olympics, 1904, all sorts of unfit “oddities” ran the marathon (Karen Abbot Smithsonian Magazine, 2012). The route was unpatrolled, and one competitor was chased a mile off course by wild dogs. Another was fed a concoction of strychnine and egg whites by his trainer half way round. A third snatched two peaches from the occupants of a car he passed, and scoffed them as he ran.

But bricklayer Fred Lorz topped the lot for sheer cheek. When he got cramps at the nine-mile mark, he thumbed a lift from a car, and waved at spectators and fellow runners as he passed. The ride lasted 11 miles before he got out and completed the marathon – in just under three hours, a winning time. President Theodore Roosevelt’s daughter, Alice, had just placed a laurel crown upon his head, and was lowering the gold medal around his neck, when a cry rang out: “Lorz is an impostor!” Cheers turned to hisses. Lorz smiled, claiming he’d never intended to accept the award, and finished only for a “joke”.

Disguise, disguise!

In the 1960 Rome Olympics, Tunisia competed for the first time, and their inexperience showed when it came to the pentathlon, an event which, ironically, Coubertin believed tested an athlete’s ‘moral qualities’ as well as their physical skills.

The team got off to an epically poor start, with each being flung from their horse. One narrowly escaped drowning, another was disqualified for firing a gun too close to the judges.

One of the team was, however, a skillful fencer. When it was the turn of the other two, they tried sneaking him out twice more, thinking his protective mask would stop people noticing. They were rumbled, and the entire team thrown out.

Boris Onishchenko: straight to the point at the 1976 Olympics

The tampering temptation

At Montreal (1976), fencer Boris Onishchenko from Ukraine, representing the Soviet Union, ‘modified’ his épée. With a ‘click’ of a button he could notch up a point whenever he fancied – without ever touching his opponent's weapon.

His British opponent, Jim Fox, reported that something fishy was going on: he was certain that Onishchenko's sword had never touched him.

When Boris's sword was examined, officials found the handle had been rigged, and could be made to light up whenever he wanted. He returned to Kyiv in disgrace. The press labelled him "Boris the cheat".

Performance-enhancing pills

The dazzling success of dozens of East German athletes, who ran, swam and shot-putted their way to glory in Montreal (1976) and Moscow (1980) was down to their trainers giving them an anabolic steroid containing testosterone. 

Nicknamed the ‘blue bean’, it led to rapid muscle build-up.

“The worst thing was that I didn't know I was being doped”, recalled swimmer Rica Reinisch, who won three gold medals in 1980 at the age of 15. 

“Whenever I asked my coach what the tablets were, I was told they were vitamins and preparations."

Madeline de Jesus and twin Margaret: the auld switcheroo at the 1984 Games

Identity theft

When Madeline de Jesus from Puerto Rico pulled her hamstring while competing in the long jump (Los Angeles,1984), she knew she’d be unfit to take part in the 4 x 400-metre relay.

So, she handed her identical twin sister Margaret, also a sprinter, all her documents that gave her access to the Olympic village, training facilities and stadium, and persuaded her to line up for the second leg of the 4 x 400 heat.

The team qualified for the finals, but unfortunately for them, a Puerto Rican journalist present on the day, could tell the young women apart by "a beauty mark one had on her cheek". An inquiry found their coach knew of the plan, and allowed it.

Badminton at the 2012 Olympics: half-cocked action in rigged games

Match fixing 

In the women’s badminton doubles at London 2012, two teams from South Korea, one from Indonesia, and another from China, deliberately played to lose their group matches to get an easier draw in the quarter-final.

When they whacked shots wide and served into the net, spectators began to boo.

The referee came onto the court to warn them. The Badminton World Federation disqualified the eight players for not using their “best efforts to win”, and conducting themselves "in a manner that is clearly detrimental to the sport".

Olympic Committee Chairman Lord Coe described their behaviour as "depressing".

Drone surveillance, AI facial recognition, on-the spot anti-doping tests for every athlete, rigorous equipment inspection, and a strict code of ethics should certainly make it more difficult than ever to break the rules at Paris 2024. Let’s hope the athletes taking part in Paris 2024 believe that cheating runs contrary to the Olympic spirit itself – not because they reckon there’s more chance of getting caught.