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From doping scandals to criminal charges, these athletes went from heroes to villains in the blink of an eye. Join us as we count down infamous sports figures whose actions tarnished not just their own reputations, but brought shame to entire countries! Our countdown includes Diego Maradona, Lance Armstrong, Oscar Pistorius and more!
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00:00We did what we had to do to win.
00:02Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for 10 athletes who brought shame to their nation
00:07due to their actions, performances, or wrongdoings.
00:09What followed was a police chase that had the entire nation riveted to television.
00:16Diego Maradona, Argentina.
00:18There's no denying the impact that Diego Maradona had on the sport of football,
00:22especially in his home of Argentina.
00:24Argentina, I'm the 1986 World Champions.
00:28But despite his many successes on the field, his constant struggles with substance use were a major factor in his post-retirement life,
00:35and in some cases, his playing career.
00:37During the 1994 World Cup, Maradona played two games before testing positive for the banned substance, Ephedrine.
00:43The shockwaves which followed FIFA's announcement touched all parts of the globe,
00:47but the most immediate impact came later the same day, as Argentina, with a new captain, seemed without direction.
00:54At first, Diego claimed that it was an energy drink that caused the Ephedrine to end up in his system,
00:58before later saying that he had a deal with FIFA that allowed him to use the substance for weight loss.
01:03Either way, without their talisman, Argentina were swiftly knocked out of the tournament.
01:06Well, that's it! Romania have beaten Argentina,
01:11and they are through to the last eight of the World Cup finals for the first time in their history.
01:18He retired from international football shortly after.
01:21Tonya Harding, USA.
01:22Figure skater Tonya Harding was on her way to finish her career as a decorated and well-respected athlete.
01:27I don't think I need to tell you, but you are in first place right now.
01:30As a two-time Olympian, this should have been the story of her run in figure skating,
01:34but in 1994, Harding was involved in a controversy that would define her life.
01:38Her rival, Nancy Kerrigan, was attacked during her preparations for the 1994 United States figure skating championships,
01:44struck over the leg with a baton.
01:46The attack plunged Kerrigan's Olympic dreams into doubt and focused suspicion on rival skater Tonya Harding.
01:54As it turned out, Harding's husband, Jeff Galluli, orchestrated the assault in order to give his wife the edge.
01:59Whether Tonya herself knew exactly what was planned or not is up for debate,
02:02but she was found guilty of covering for her husband in the aftermath.
02:05She received a lifetime ban for her wrongdoings.
02:08Harding says she's done apologizing about Kerrigan's attack.
02:11Enough apologizing. She's got her life, I've got my life, we both have wonderful lives,
02:19and that should be all that matters.
02:22Paolo Rossi, Italy.
02:24The late, great Paolo Rossi is a beloved figure in Italy,
02:27mainly for his efforts in leading the country to World Cup glory in 1982.
02:31Italian goal-scoring machine Paolo Rossi made his name at the 1982 FIFA World Cup Finals in Spain,
02:38guiding Italy to a famous triumph with six goals in their final three matches.
02:43As a prolific goal-scorer for Vicenza and Juventus, he also made a name for himself domestically.
02:49But in 1980, Rossi was involved in a match-fixing scandal known as Totonero,
02:53a large operation involving multiple Serie A clubs and players.
02:57Game outcomes were predetermined in order to facilitate big money betting,
03:00and when the scandal came to light, clubs like AC Milan and Lazio were relegated from the top flight,
03:05and Rossi, despite denying all wrongdoing, was banned for two years.
03:08He did return in time to win a World Cup for his country,
03:11but his integrity as a player will always be tarnished.
03:14He will be remembered as a very special player,
03:16blessed with a goal-scoring instinct that was second to none.
03:20Hansi Cronje, South Africa.
03:22Hansi Cronje was the captain of the South African cricket team
03:25and seemingly one of the country's standout athletes of the 1990s.
03:28Cronje had been one of the most inspirational figures in South African cricket
03:32after their reintroduction into the international fold post-apartheid.
03:36But when it emerged that Cronje had been accepting bribes
03:39to influence the outcome of his and his teammates' performances,
03:42his reputation took a nosedive.
03:44Cronje had repeatedly accepted sums of money
03:46and also offered his money if they doctored their statistical output in a match.
03:49On April 7, 2000, the Delhi police charged Hansi Cronje
03:54with fixing matches in a one-day series against India.
03:57He denied all wrongdoing when confronted,
03:59but eventually he received a lifetime ban from the sport.
04:02He died in a plane crash at the age of 32.
04:04Despite this, he was still voted by the general public
04:06to be the 11th greatest South African of all time on a national television show,
04:10despite being regarded as a disgraced athlete.
04:12It's a very difficult subject to talk about
04:14because there's still those that love him and adore him
04:16and there's those that are, you know, extremely upset with what he did.
04:20But I think it's time to forgive and move on.
04:22Sun Yang, China.
04:24As a three-time Olympic gold medalist
04:25and the first male swimmer to win Olympic and World Championship gold
04:28at every distance between 200 meters and 1,500 meters,
04:31there's a good argument to be made that Sun Yang
04:33is the greatest freestyle swimmer of all time.
04:35In 2012, Sun Yang was on the path of sporting greatness.
04:39At the Olympics in London,
04:41he would become the first Chinese man ever to win gold in the pool.
04:44But the public's perception of him took a major U-turn.
04:46In 2014, he tested positive for the banner substance, trimatazidine.
04:51Then, in 2018, upon giving a blood sample,
04:53during a random drug test, he refused to cooperate further,
04:56accusing the testing team of not having proper credentials.
05:03He and his entourage supposedly tried to intimidate the officials
05:06before then smashing the vials containing his blood.
05:09All of a sudden, the world got a better look
05:11at the man behind the athlete, and people were not impressed.
05:15It was not for the athlete to decide alone
05:17that an anti-doping test shall be invalidated
05:21and the sample containers destroyed.
05:23Ben Johnson, Canada.
05:25Ben Johnson was a superstar runner in every sense,
05:28seen as the fastest man alive during his peak season in 1988,
05:31where he broke his own 100-meter record
05:33within an astonishing 9.79 seconds.
05:36Ben Johnson, fastest man alive, fastest ever.
05:40For Canadians, a classic where-were-you moment.
05:43However, his moment in the sun would not last long,
05:45as it was revealed that he had tested positive
05:47for the performance-enhancing drug, Stanisola.
05:50He later also admitted that his original world record set in 1987
05:53was also helped by steroid use.
05:55A urine sample of Ben Johnson was found to contain
05:59the metabolites of a banned substance, namely, Stanozolol.
06:05Stanozolol, the name of that infamous drug, haunts still.
06:09In fact, the 1988 100-meter race has since been called
06:12the dirtiest race in history,
06:14with only two of the eight runners avoiding
06:15some form of PED guilt in their career.
06:18But Ben Johnson remains the poster boy for cheating in the sport,
06:21and unsurprisingly, he was stripped of his gold medal and world record.
06:24It wasn't necessary at the time.
06:27I didn't have any second opinion.
06:30I was a young boy.
06:32That's it.
06:33Then, you know, I win the gold medal, and I lost it.
06:37So, that's life.
06:39Lance Armstrong, USA.
06:41Lance Armstrong was a hero to so many for so many years,
06:44becoming an icon of athletics due to his dominance in cycling.
06:47He went from survivor to victor
06:49in what was called at the time
06:51one of the most unbelievable comebacks in sports history.
06:55Armstrong wins the Tour de France.
06:57For seven straight years,
06:58he dominated arguably the hardest sporting event in the world.
07:02He won the Tour de France,
07:03a record seven times in a row.
07:05He survived cancer during the peak of his athletic career
07:07and raised hundreds of millions of dollars for cancer research.
07:10And whenever the question of doping was put to him,
07:12he would always vehemently deny it.
07:14We did what we had to do to win.
07:16Armstrong was a model athlete, or so we thought.
07:18As it turned out, he was a good liar.
07:20Armstrong had been doping for the majority of his career,
07:23shocking the world with a very blunt confession
07:25that called his entire life's work
07:26and the legitimacy of drug testing and cycling generally into question.
07:30But I wouldn't change a thing.
07:31I've said that three times, and I'll say it again.
07:33I would not change a thing.
07:35Oscar Pistorius, South Africa.
07:37Oscar Pistorius was a six-time Paralympic gold medalist
07:40and often referred to as the fastest man alive with no legs.
07:43His place on South Africa's track team
07:45is the culmination of a difficult and at times controversial quest
07:49to become the first amputee track athlete
07:51to ever compete at an Olympics.
07:54He eventually became the first person with a double amputation
07:56to compete in the Summer Olympics,
07:58and at this time he achieved crossover success,
08:00becoming an inspiration to athletes with a wide variety of disabilities.
08:04However, this all changed when he was convicted
08:06of the murder of his girlfriend, Reva Steenkamp,
08:08shooting her four times through a locked bathroom door.
08:11The verdict was unanimous and unexpected.
08:14South Africa's Supreme Court calling Pistorius' original jail sentence
08:18inappropriate and raising it.
08:21Oscar maintained that he believed that she was an intruder,
08:24but most people were not convinced.
08:25Pistorius was widely believed to have murdered her in a fit of rage,
08:29although he was released from prison
08:30after serving just eight and a half years on a murder charge.
08:33For five years he'll live under conditions.
08:35He could be returned to prison if he breaches them.
08:37O.J. Simpson, USA.
08:39The O.J. Simpson murder trial was one of the biggest cultural events of the 1990s,
08:43a totally inescapable saga that held the attention of the entire world.
08:47The scene was set for what would eventually be called the trial of the century.
08:52Simpson was already an NFL legend by the time 1994 came around,
08:56but when he was accused of murdering his ex-wife,
08:58Nicole Brown, and her friend, Ron Goldman,
09:00his life descended into chaos.
09:02The name O.J. Simpson eventually divided the country along racial lines as well.
09:08Many blacks proclaimed his innocence,
09:10while whites were far more skeptical.
09:13Not only did he lead the police on a car chase
09:15that 95 million people tuned in to watch live,
09:18but when he was brought to trial,
09:19the eight months that followed were more widely discussed
09:22and followed than any sporting event that year.
09:25Simpson was eventually declared not guilty,
09:27but public skepticism was overwhelming.
09:29His reputation never recovered, even after his death in 2024.
09:33But in the end, at least publicly,
09:36O.J. Simpson felt content about his place in the world.
09:40Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few dishonorable mentions.
09:43Maria Sharapova, Russia.
09:45I did fail the test, and I take full responsibility for it.
09:50Pete Rose, USA.
09:52Why would you, the cardinal rule of no betting?
09:54I don't know, I was stupid.
09:56I made mistakes, I mean.
09:57Ryan Lochte, USA.
09:59I think it's everyone blowing this way out of proportion.
10:03I think that's what happened.
10:05And, you know, like I said, I did lie about that one part.
10:10And I take full responsibility.
10:12I'm human.
10:13I made a mistake.
10:14Tiger Woods, USA.
10:16I owe a lot of people an apology.
10:18I hurt a lot of people, not just my wife, my friends, my colleagues, the public, kids who looked up to me.
10:26There were a lot of people that thought I was a different person.
10:31Michael Vick, USA.
10:32There was nothing you could do, Jim.
10:34Best thing for me that ever happened to me in my life was me getting shipped off to Kansas, man.
10:42Because other than that, I wasn't going to change.
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11:00Chris Benoit, Canada.
11:02Once seen as one of the hardest working and intensely committed pro wrestlers of all time.
11:06These days, any mention of the name Chris Benoit brings about an undeniably bleak feeling.
11:11In the ring, with the body of an Adonis, he was slamming opponents, being slammed, and putting on a show.
11:18Outside the ring, the former WWE World Wrestling Entertainment Champion was quietly spinning into depression.
11:28Between June 22nd and 24, Benoit murdered his wife and his 7-year-old son before eventually taking his own life.
11:35The news of this brutal crime shook the world to its core.
11:38You didn't want to believe it.
11:39Can't believe it.
11:40Can't be true.
11:41But it was.
11:43What could drive a man to such horrific acts?
11:44While the murder certainly shone a light on the dangers of CTE and general trauma to the head,
11:49with reports that his brain resembled that of an 85-year-old Alzheimer's patient due to all of the hits he took in the ring over the years.
11:55Either way, Benoit's legacy remains in tatters, and it's not hard to understand why.
11:59It's too late for my son.
12:01It's too late for my daughter-in-law.
12:03It's too late for my grandson.
12:04What do you think was the biggest fall from Grayson's sporting history?
12:07Let us know in the comments.
12:14Let us know in the comments.
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