Top 10 scandals in the history of sports

Munich Olympics Basketball final – USA vs Soviet Union, 1972

The 1972 Olympics will always be known for the terrible massacre where 11 Israeli athletes were held as hostages and later killed. But on the field of play, there was another scandal that rocked the history books when the United States and the Soviet Union basketball teams faced off in a gold medal match that would eventually be mired in controversy.

The United States had won every gold medal in Olympic basketball since the sport was introduced in the Olympics in 1936. They went into the final with an incredible 63-0 record in the Olympics. In a tight game, USA were down 49-48 when Doug Collins was fouled and went to the line for two free throws. He converted the first to tie the game at 49 and that was when the confusion started.

USA coach Hank Iba upset during dispute after officials gave USSR three tries to win Gold Medal Game at Rudi-Sedlmayer-Halle. Soviet Union won on controversial calls.

The horn at the officials’ table sounded and set in motion a chain of human errors as the Soviet team tried to restart the game with 3 seconds left. But the inbound pass was taken a total of three times with the clock also turned back. The Soviets were unsuccessful with their first two inbound passes and play was restarted for a variety of reasons – for a timeout that was not taken and then for resetting the clock.

On the third inbound play, Soviet Union’s Ivan Edeshko launched a long pass (in spite of stepping on the end line) which was caught by Sergey Belov who made the layup as the buzzer went off much to the delight of the Soviet team and the protestations of the United States team. The Soviets were awarded the Gold medal for the 51-50 win while the United States refused to accept their silver medal when they boycotted the ceremony. They even launched many unsuccessful appeals to overturn the verdict.