London Olympic Controversies

SI Staff | Aug 7, 2012

London Olympic Controversies

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The U.S. women's soccer team won one of the most exciting games team history in the Olympic semifinal, but two highly controversial calls allowed the United States to tie the game before Alex Morgan's winning header at the end of overtime. Morgan's 123rd minute header clinched a 4-3 win for the U.S., which came back from three separate deficits to fend off an exceptional Canadian side. The U.S. benefitted from an unusually rare delay-of-game call in the 80th minute after Norwegian referee Christiana Pedersen claimed Canada goalie Erin McLoed held the ball for six seconds. Megan Rapinoe's ensuing free kick from inside the box hit a Canadian defender, which Pedersen whistled a handball and awarded the U.S. a penalty kick. Abby Wambach would slot home the penalty to tie the game at 3. Canadian players were furious after the game, triggering Canada's Melissa Tancredi to say to Pedersen: "I hope you can sleep tonight and put on your American jersey."

Andres Leighton/AP(2); Michael Regan/Getty Images; Adek Berry/AFP/GettyImages

Eight female badminton doubles players were disqualified from the Olympics after intentionally trying to lose matches for more favorable seeding. A match between South Korea and China at Wembley Arena was loudly booed after players served balls into the net and hit easy shots out of bounds. The two teams were trying to avoid playing on the same side of the bracket as the other top-ranked Chinese team. The Badminton World Federation announced its ruling after investigating two teams from South Korea, one from China and one from Indonesia.

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Sixteen-year old Chinese swimmer Ye Shiwen raised some eyebrows after her unbelievable world-record swim in the 400-meter individual medley, but some immediately accused the teenage sensation of doping. Shiwen smashed the world record by over a second and even out-paced Ryan Lochte's final 50 meters in the men's event, causing USA Swimming executive John Leonard to effectively accuse Ye of doping. Leonard claimed that Ye "looks like Superwoman. Any time someone has looked like Superwoman in the history of our sport they have later been found guilty of doping." Leonard pointed to China's spotty history of doping offenses and did not back off of the claim.

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The men's gymnastics team final was held up by yet another scoring controversy as Japan went from off the medal stand to silver after successfully winning a late protest. With China well ahead and Great Britain angling for its first medal in 100 years, Japan appeared to have solidified a silver medal until three-time all-around world champion Kohei Uchimura shockingly received a 13.466. While the British crowd raucously celebrated a silver medal, Japan immediately protested and was subsequently rewarded. Uchimura's score was raised to 14.166 and Japan won the silver medal, knocking the British to bronze and Ukraine off of the podium. Uchimura is pictured congratulating Great Britain's bronze medalists.

Graham Stuart/AFP/Getty Images; Al Tielemans/SI (inset)

The North Korean women's soccer team refused to take the field for their first game after the video board displayed the South Korean flag next to the players' names. Kickoff for their game against Colombia was delayed over an hour while organizers scrambled to fix the error; North Korea eventually won the game 2-0. Though the North Korean Olympic team accepted repeated apologies, North Korea coach Ui Gun-sin expressed significant displeasure over the incident, creating notable discomfort before the Opening Ceremonies.

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The Olympics always offer controversy, but Greek triple jumper Voula Papachristou and Swiss soccer player Michel Morganella were removed from their Olympics team after posting racially insensitive tweets. Papachristou posted "With so many Africans in Greece, at least the mosquitoes of West Nile will eat homemade food" after reports of West Nile mosquitoes arriving in Greece. Morganella said that the South Koreans "can go burn" and referred to them as a "bunch of mongoloids."

Alastair Grant/AP

Despite a popular online petition and calls from President Obama, there was not a moment of silence at Opening Ceremonies for the Israeli athletes killed at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games. The petition was started by Ankie Spitzer (right), the wife of slain Israeli fencing coach Andrei Spitzer, and received support from Australia, Canada, and the Mayor of London. But the International Organizing Committee opposed the measure, subsequently quashing the opportunity.

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Kobe Bryant incurred the wrath of Charles Barkley, Michael Jordan and others when he claimed the 2012 U.S. Olympic basketball team would defeat the famed 1992 Dream Team. LeBron James echoed Bryant in an interview with ABC News, saying, "If we got the opportunity to play them in a game we feel like we would win, too." Barkley, conversely, claimed that nobody except Bryant, James and Kevin Durant would have even have made the 1992 team.

Anthony Bibard/FEP/Panoramic/Icon SMI

Upset with remarks made by former Olympian and current analyst Brandi Chastain, U.S. national team goalkeeper Hope Solo (pictured) took to Twitter to express her frustration. "Its 2 bad we cant have commentators who better represents the team&knows more about the game @brandichastain!#fb" she tweeeted. "Lay off commentating about defending and gking until you get more educated @brandichastain the game has changed from a decade ago. #fb Its important 2 our fans 2 enjoy the spirit of the olympics.Its not possible when sum1 on air is saying that a player is the worst defender!"