Paralympic Spanish Basketball Team, 2000
Although cheating in the Olympics has been proved time and time again, it was simply outrageous when it was found that cheating was prevalent in the Paralympics as well. Spain had won the intellectual disability basketball gold medal at the Sydney Paralympic Games in 2000. But all celebrations and felicitations came to a halt when one of the team members, Carlos Ribagorda, returned his gold medal and Spanish team kit after revealing that 10 of the 12 members in the squad were never actually intellectually disabled in the first place.
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Ribagorda did not do this out of a sense of guilt. He was actually an undercover Spanish journalist who revealed the extent of Spain’s methods to ensure that the team would win a medal to attract sponsors, no matter what. The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) decree that the athletes should have an IQ of no more than 70 to qualify. But the Spanish Paralympic Committee had never conducted the necessary tests to determine a person’s disability.
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The president of the Spanish Federation for Mentally Handicapped Sports (FEDDI), Fernando Martin Vicente, initially denied the accusations. But when the proof came out, he delivered a public apology for the organisation’s part in the matter and also accepted full responsibility, before resigning from his post. In October 2013, Vicente was found guilty of fraud and fined $7800 for fielding non-disabled athletes at the Paralympics.
The team was officially disqualified and asked to return their gold medals. The effects of the scandal were widespread as the IPC then suspended sporting events involving athletes with intellectual disability, thereby dashing the hopes of many people who were preparing for the 2004 Paralympics in Athens. It wasn’t until 2009, when the IPC designed a series of tests to confirm disabilities, did they lift the ban.