Name 3 Olympians Who Never Should Have Been Olympians

I find it amusing that there is so much hate on Pappas, but somehow most people on this board seem to think Jahvid Best was cool.

Tonya Harding

Everyone who has ever competed in any sport added to the Olympics in the past 40 years or so would be a good start.

And the entire racewalking field, rhythmic gymnastics field, and everyone in any sport involving judging, rather than time, distance, or height. Swifter, higher, stronger, that bit.

"Gaming" the system to get in is not bad, rules are rules. Hate the game, not the player.

Abdi from Atlanta.

Ron Dawes was a huge inspiration for me. I bought his book (The Self-Made Olympian) in the college book store in 1976. The Steve Hoag training block for the 1975 Boston Marathon was great. I still have the book. I became a Lydiard disciple and corresponded with him in 1980.

Why on earth do people keep trying to insert an e into Ron Daws's name?

Mo Farah......

God i hope his medals get stripped. Dirty tramp cheater

The southeast Asian skiers who could barely get down the slopes in the 1990s.

This dude?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YDqwYUe_U7I

All the rhythmic gymnasts and synchronized swimmers etc.

This guy:

http://robertomandje.com/bio/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roberto_Mandje

Got in under the loophole that's already been mentioned, he's never broken 4 for the 1500.

Eric Massombino of Equ. Guinea in 2000. The reason he couldn't swim the full length of the pool was that #1 there were no olympic facilities where he lived and #2 he trained for the 50 freestyle and accidentally got entered into the 100 freestyle. He was about as fast as many of the other swimmers from far flung nations.

If you follow the winter olympics, the alpine skiing branch has a rule to let in one person from every country regardless of qualifying time so everyone from Zambia to Togo to Venezuela to Egypt to Bahrain to Sri Lanka has a skier go down the slalom and a lot of them do it 1 or 2 minutes behind the leader. It's a lot of fun to watch

There was also a case of a married millionaire couple in Sochi buying their way onto the Bahaman cross-country skiing team with a wealthy donation to the Olympic committee and then DNSing before the race. I'd call them pretty shameless bc they tried to make excuses when they got there like they were sick when they likely had little intention of doing anything but adding Olympian to their bucket list.

Abbey D’Augestino, Came in 5th at trials and only made it after Huddle and Infeld decided not to run the 5K. Then she barely even finished the race.

If I'm not mistaken, Asha Praught-Leer is like top 10-15 in the world the last 2 WC years. She belongs in an Olympic final. I'm not that concerned over flag switching if she's top 15 in the world. That only America can send 3 is kind of cruel anyway and she has to give up a lot if she's truly patriotic because she's competing against her home country. I suspect A P-L had an allegiance to both countries and the Olympics benefit from having the best.

Eddie the Eagle was Great Britain's top alpine skier at the time (admittedly not that impressive since Britain doesn't have mountains and no skiers) and it's not like the second sport he took up was as easy as, say, swimming, or cross-country skiing. Ski jumping is ridiculously difficult just to land and not break all your bones, so i'm relatively ok with a guy doing it and not beating his competitors if he can land

The 35 or so women marathoners at Rio who ran slower than 3:00 or dnf'd.

I can't believe nobody mentioned double Olympic champ Semenya yet.

Charles mf jock

Eddie the Eagle and Alexi Pappa were both reigning national record holders who had made the olympic standard. I've got no problem with them.

Vanessa Mae Vanakorn had tried to get into the winter olympics as a skier for 12 years but the Thailand olympic committee would not agree. When she finally did get in she was almost 40 years old. She was not near olympic caliber, but she was a competent skier and was the best that Thailand had to offer in any winter sport.

Eric the Eel tried to get into the next olympics. He had dropped more than 40 seconds off of his time and probably would have beaten some other athletes. But visa problems kept him from competing.

My picks:

Dora Ratjen, female German high jumper, 1936 Berin. Later discovered to be a man.

Tonya Harding. Emperor Nero.

Anastasiya Kapachinskaya. 2008 Beijing, 2012 London.

She took the 200m silver medal at worlds in Paris 2003.

Then got busted for doping at a later track meet and was suspended.

Then Kelli White got busted for using a stimulant to treat narcolepsy and lost her 2003 gold.

Kapachinskaya was awarded the 2003 world gold medal while serving a doping ban.

She later got DQd at 2008 Beijing, 2009 Berlin, 2010 Barcelona, 2011 Daegu, and 2012 London.

ddnbb wrote:

freeidea wrote:

Des Linden when she went to Olympics hurt and DNF'd quickly. Give up the spot for a healthy athlete.

People who bring this up always forget: there were no alternates! Des offered to give up her spot, but:

(1) The alternate that USATF listed was fourth place Amy Hastings, who prepared for the 10,000m and could not switch to the marathon, and

(2) USATF did not list fifth place Deena Kastor as an alternate, so she was not eligible to go.

If Des hasn’t gone, the US Olympic team would have consisted of two athletes. Since no one would gain from her non-participation, Des ran.

This is untrue.

1. Des knew for 2 months that she was hurt and still got on the plane to London. Everyone knew.

2. Your facts are wrong as Deena Kastor was 6th not 5th at the Trials. Janet Bawcom was 5th.

3. Amy Hastings would have rather run the marathon but kept quiet.

4. Des was incredibly selfish to make that choice.