What is the biggest injustice of track and field history?

Usain Bolt from 2008 on a complete fraud and all they people who supported this fraud.

I have met Don Quarrie and I can't for the life of me, understand how he could shake the hand of this fraud.

Also think they Sham of the Brits not taking Coe to the olympics for the 3 peat in the 1500 in 88, was a joke.

When athletes, through no fault of their own, are not allowed to compete due to religion, sex or pure incompetence like the American Jewish sprinters in the 1936 Olympics or Eleanor Holm, American swimmer kicked off the team for partying too much or the American sprinters in Munich who were late for their heat because the sprint coach had the wrong time schedule.

Henry rono not getting to compete at Olympics

John Woodruff, black runner, won Gold in the 800m at the 1936 Olympics. In 1937 at a meet in Dallas, he beat the current World Record holder at 800m, Elroy Robinson (white runner) in a WR time, almost 2 seconds faster.

Two days later the AAU suspiciously ruled the track was short by six feet, and revoked the WR. According to Woodruff, the track engineer certified it 1/1000th of an inch before the race and he was screwed over because of racism.

canuck runner 1980s wrote:

Wrong, Ben being the only one DQ'd in that race. Whole race should have an asterisk

Exactly my point in an earlier post. Ben was dirty, no question. It pissed off the other dirty runners that he flaunted the fact he was dirty. Ben was set up as the scapegoat to clean up T&F. It did not work.

Agree with the post that said "Rono" Most certainly one of the top 3 in this category. Ryun was unfortunate but not a true injustice. 1980 also belongs in the top 3.

LRC historian wrote:

Wilson Kipketer losing to doper Schumann and then doper Borzakovskiy, never getting the gold.

If you are going to bring up Wilson Kipketer I think the bigger injustice was not allowing him to even compete in the 1996 Olympics.

He had just won gold in the 1995 World Championships competing for Denmark but was not allowed to compete for Denmark in the 1996 Olympics and was no longer a Kenyan.

I also agree with the 1980, 1984 and any other boycotts being an injustice to the athletes who trained for them.

Paula Radcliffe 2:15 marathon WR because it´s illegal. A race confined by the London competition norms to women participation with a different start moment from the men, and they allow 3 men kenyan rabbits to pace her.

Also 1979 (?) World Cross Country Champs, when the organisers lie to the Ethiopan team that the run circuit - laps over horse field track - is 1 lap shorter that really was. Despite that they were able to win individual and team as well, but the second, third, fourth and next Ethiopian runners they would be able to finish 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th so and so, if they were betrayed by the lie of one lap less that what really was.

1936 Munich marathon champion Son Gi-Jeong.

He was Korean and made to run under the Japanese flag. When Japan occuppied Korea in the 1930's .

All three "Japanese" runners were Korean.

They won gold , bronze and a dnf.

There was a North Korean woman who held the 800-meter record by a ton for more than a decade, including much of the '60s, and she was never allowed to compete in the Olympics.

oldold runner wrote:

1936 Munich marathon champion Son Gi-Jeong.

He was Korean and made to run under the Japanese flag. When Japan occuppied Korea in the 1930's .

All three "Japanese" runners were Korean.

They won gold , bronze and a dnf.

Badder Than Ghengis wrote:

It was at least tragic that Boit, Bayi and Yifter couldn't compete at Montreal '76 due to the African boycott.

Anytime a state steps in you are going to get some sort of injustice.

Apartheid, State Sponsored doping, Palestinian Terrorists in 72,

Not inviting the Central Powers to the 1920 games, and it goes on and on.

One thing that I find interesting is that usually when an athlete is stripped of a medal or placing for some sort of political injustice the main supporter of that athlete is the one who gets bumped up. Athletes know the struggle.

1972 Munich...

400m- Wayne Collet, Vince Matthews (also John Smith- inj), and by extension the US 4x400 relay,

100M- Eddie Hart and Rey Robinson,

(and how can you talk of injustice and Munich without mentioning the US basketball team)

Lewis was a doper as well. He has admitted it and USATF has done so much to cover it up. Johnson did cheat, but so did Lewis. Don't act like Ben was the only cheat in that race because of his nationality. The Americans in that race cheated as well.

I think you've made a good decision not to post anything more on this subject. I've discussed the subject in years past, but people who clearly aren't very familiar with the facts keep bringing it up again. I decided to set out a much more detailed narrative here. I'm sure that it won't change the views of some people, because that's how the human mind works.

When I see someone accusing another of something called "moral relativism" and making analogies to what Hitler did to Jews, I have a pretty good idea of the level of discourse and the likelihood that an interesting and productive exchange is taking place. I do, however, think that it's important to understand that an overarching principle, whether in sports or law, that the actual rules in place at the time make a difference; even the most ardent defenders of universal moral principles and natural rights understand that the rules governing a 1500m competition or a chess game cannot all be found in the moral ether of the universe.

Under the rules in place in 1972, the Olympic officials acted properly in determining that there was insufficient evidence of a foul to Jim Ryun and in rejecting his plea to be advanced to the next round. Regarding the heat assignments, the U.S. team's submission of Ryun's mile time instead of his 1500m qualifying time may have been boneheaded, but was no injustice of any significance to Ryun, especially since he wasn't disqualified by Olympic officials for submitting an incorrect qualifying time. (The ones who had more reason to complain were the other guys in the heat, who appeared to be left with just two spots, after Keino and Ryun, to compete for in order to advance to the next round.)

By the way, I'm not sure where you heard that Ryun only took money once, for the purpose of buying a car. He admitted to taking money on three separate occasions, and he did it because he didn't want to have to work at a real job to support himself while training for the 1972 Olympics. If you don't think that he got a competitive edge from doing that, you don't understand much about running. He knowingly participated as a professional in a competition restricted to amateurs. He wasn't entitled to run in any heat in the 1972 Olympics, much less the semifinals or finals.

give it a rest wrote:

A heat is a heat. Contact happens, runners fall. Doesnt matter how slow the other guy is. 2012 precedent did not exist back when Ryun fell.

The Ryun situation does not rise to the level of greatest injustice. Stuff happens.

It not being the greatest injustice has nothing to do with whether he should have been advanced. And there was no 2012 precedent needed. Runners that fail to advance because of a foul are advanced on appeal. That's not some new rule.

fisky wrote:

Ben Johnson winning the World Championships in 1987 and the 1988 Olympics was the biggest injustice in US sprinting history.

.

Carl Lewis was just as dirty as Ben Johnson was, and conspiracy theories suggest that post-race Lewis spiked Johnson's drink to ensure Ben tests positive (not like any of them were clean in the first place, but they were all using some sort of masking agent to dodge the testing.)

US Sprinting History - FULL of foul play and doping

Henry Rono being denied by boycotts a chance to compete in either 1976 or 1980. It's hard to say if he could've stood up to the kick of Vieren or Yifter, but he definitely would've been in the mix for a medal in the 5 or the 10k, and he likely could've won gold in the steeple.

Les wrote:

When athletes, through no fault of their own, are not allowed to compete due to religion, sex or pure incompetence like the American Jewish sprinters in the 1936 Olympics or Eleanor Holm, American swimmer kicked off the team for partying too much or the American sprinters in Munich who were late for their heat because the sprint coach had the wrong time schedule.

Les, I tend to agree with most of what you post and do so on this topic as well. Your rationale of "through no fault of their own" is why I think Smith/Carlos are the biggest injustice in t & f history. They had medals taken away "that they already earned" for standing up for what they believed to be an entire race being treated as second class citizens. In my eyes, the Olympic committee taking their medals 'after the fact' is equivalent to telling them to shut up and get to the back of the bus. This was/is a terrible injustice on a number of levels.

Rooting for the No-Namer wrote:

The biggest injustice of track and field history:

When a worthless Irish protester grappled Vanderlei de Lima of Brazil in the Men's Olympic Marathon in 2004 in Athens. He was ahead the whole time and even though skeptics say he would have been caught by the following pack, that set back in the race was completely unfair as he would have stayed on pace to win. It was out of his control that some lunatic would impede the lead runner. The race officials didn't stop the race or anything (I'm not saying they should have). But it was painful to watch.

Skeptics: Sure, he might have fallen back but you can not deny that because of that w*nk*r, de Lima was denied a fair attempt at the gold medal.

I know this maybe miniscule in comparison to what everyone else is proposing. In 1985 at the Texas State High School Meet the national record was broken 3 times all within 1 hour. All these were FAT times by the way.

First, Stanley Kerr at 20.40...class 1A.

Second, Joe Deloach(yes that Joe Deloach) in 20.26 in 4A

Third, Roy Martin(robot) in 20.13 in 5A...here is the injustice. The stadium clock read 19.75. That would have tied the American Record and was only .03 from the World Record. They were using the stadium clock time as the official time until Roy's...everyone in the stands had 19.7 to 19.9, but almost no one had 20.13....ask anyone that was there and that to me is one big injustice. I think it was simply because he was in High School. Keep in mind he finished 4th in the Trials in the 200m as a junior, but I just don't think anyone(officials) could believe that a HS Runner could be that fast.