Olympics 2012 Build-Up: The worst Olympic moments

As much as we can't wait for the London Olympics and have many fond memories of previous stagings, there has been some not-so-memorable moments in the Games history. Alex Lee looks back at some of the worst...

Terrorism

Emotions often run high in the Olympic Games, but people having a bit of a cry after narrowly missing out on the medals pales into insignificance alongside the altogether more horrific events of 1972. That year, Palestinian terrorist organization Black September was found responsible for the kidnapping and murder of eleven Israeli athletes and officials, and the fatal shooting of a West German policeman, during the Olympics in Munich.

Tit-for-tat boycotts

Rather than concentrate on putting aside their long-rumbling political differences by competing in the Olympics, 1980 Olympics saw the USA boycott the Moscow Olympics as part of a package of actions initiated by the Americans to protest the Soviet war in Afghanistan. With depressing predictability, this was followed four years later in 1984 when the Olympics was boycotted by the Soviet Union and other Communist-friendly countries.

Ben Johnson drugs cheat

The 1988 100 metres final had been hyped up beyond recognition in the days building up to it, but the pre-race excitement was nothing compared to the post-event shock. Carl Lewis was widely expected to coast the race, but Canadian Ben Johnson breezed past Lewis as if he'd imbued some sort of wonder drug. Trouble was, it turned out he had done. Drugs cheat Johnson, as he is now commonly known, had taken the banned steroid stanozolol and his gold medal was swiftly removed from his trophy cabinet. Lewis' silver, therefore, became gold and Linford Christie's bronze became silver.

Mary Decker/Zola Budd

It's rare that a women's race is given as much media attention as this one. South African-born and barefoot runner Zola Budd, who had been 'fast-tracked' through as a British citizen for the purpose of competing in the 1984 Olympics faced the glamorous and much-supported Mary Decker in the final of the 3000 metres. To cut to the chase, Budd and Decker collided three times just past the half-way point of the race, with the third collision sending Decker sprawling off the track and clearly upsetting Budd. The partisan crowd booed Budd, blaming her for Decker's downfall, when video evidence has since proved the incident was totally accidental. Budd finished a disappointing seventh, later claiming that she slowed down so as not to face the wrath of the crowd if she'd won.

Greg Louganis smashes his head

Despite the incident being broadcast with predictable regularity every time diving is mentioned on TV, you cannot help but scream 'OUCH' when Greg Louganis cracks his head against the diving board. In trying to perform a complicated mid-air manoeuvre (a reverse 2 and a half pike, fact fans), Louganis suffered concussion after his miscalculation caused him to smash his bonce, rather than simply hurtle gracefully water-wards. The American had the last laugh, however, taking the gold medal in two events - the three metre springboard and the 10 metre platform.

Paula Radcliffe misses out

Multi-medallist Paula Radcliffe holds the World Record for the marathon and has won countless cross country, 5000 metres and 10,000 metres events in her career, but an Olympic gold medal has eluded her, with her most recent attempt, in 2008, ending ignominiously. Despite winning the New York Marathon in November 2007, Radcliffe finished a lowly 23rd which with hindsight wasn't a bad effort considering she'd broken her leg in the May.

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Thomas Levet and the 7 worst golf injuries

The Open / Dan Fitch / 13 July 2011 / Leave a Comment

Next time Thomas Levet will simply open a nice bottle of champagne.

Dan Fitch takes a look at the seemingly peaceful world of golf and finds hidden dangers at every turn.

On the face of it the sport of golf isn't a particularly dangerous one. There's no physical contact between the participants and no need to break out into as much as a jog. What could go wrong?

Well the ball is pretty hard for one, as are the clubs. There's also some rather dangerous elements around like deep bunkers and the odd water hazard - as Thomas Levet recently found out to his cost.

To celebrate his win at his native French Open, Levet jumped into the nearest lake. His over-excitement resulted in a broken shin, which would require surgery to insert screws and a metal plate. He will now miss the Open at Sandwich.

Levet is not the only golfer to have injured himself playing the gentle game. Here's the footage of his leg break, along with some other harrowing golf injuries.

Thomas Levet got more than he bargained for when he took the plunge.

A man uses his fat stomach as a tee and has to deal with predictably painful repercussions.

The rest of these injuries are stupid, but at least they're accidental.

Never go golfing with children or animals.

You'd think you'd be safe in the crowd, but watch out if Stewart Cink is around.

If your golf cart ever falls on it's side, don't try to get it back on it's wheels like this.

It's bad enough to suffer a broken bone when playing indoor mini-golf, but it's much worse when your wife is filming the sorry episode and is in hysterics at your pain.

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Can Bill emulate his old man? Does Anthony have the game to improve on a missed cut and could this finally be the year that Phil masters links golf? These are some of the questions Dan Geraghty as assesses the...

Some big outsiders have won this famous championship in the past but Mike Norman believes there's plenty of clues to suggest an in-form fancied star will break his Major duck this week....

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The 5 worst grunters in tennis

Wimbledon Betting / Dan Fitch / 25 May 2011 / Leave a Comment

Peter Ustinov has been spared.

Dan Fitch takes a look at the tennis stars who just can't play the game quietly.

Tennis is a tough enough game to play without being distracted, so spare a thought for anyone who has had to face the noisiest characters in the sport.

Here are the five worst grunters in tennis.

Tennis grunting may be thought of as a female pursuit, but the Godfather of the Grunt was Jimmy Connors. Others would eclipse him in terms of decibels in later years, but Connors was the pioneer of the art of making a funny noise while simultaneously hitting a tennis ball.

Having one grunter at the other side of the net is bad enough, but two is really difficult to cope with. When the Williams sisters play together in double matches, Venus provides a solid if unremarkable high-pitched shriek and Serena emits a low guttural groan that makes us slightly scared.

Once the reigning monarch of tennis screamers, Monica Seles' grunts attracted a lot of attention for sounding a bit rude. Even Peter Ustinov felt compelled to comment, stating: "I'd hate to be next door to her on her wedding night." Seles remains unmarried.

A young pretender to the grunting throne is the 18-year old Portuguese pro Michelle Larcher de Brito, whose noisy net-play has caused a lot of controversy. On being labelled as unsportsmanlike, Larcher de Brito said: "I could (stop grunting), but, you know, it won't feel natural, because it feels like something is missing in my game if I just stop." In case you're wondering, the thing that will be missing is the sound of an animal that has been caught in a mantrap and is being tortured with a red-hot poker.

The cream of the screamers is Maria Sharapova, who screeches 'whoooooa' every time she hits the ball, in a manner somewhat reminiscent of the wrestling legend Rick Flair. In the following match in Australia her cries left the crowd in hysterics and even prompted one spectator to tell her to 'shut up'. Her opponents wish she would.

From McEnroe to Serena, Dan Fitch looks at the players who let their tempers get in the way of their tennis....

Rafael Nadal made light work of Tomas Berdych this afternoon to win his second Wimbledon title......

The pre-tournament favourite blows away Vera Zvonareva to successfully defend her Wimbledon title......

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The 5 worst Manchester City kits ever

/ Dan Fitch / 01 April 2011 / 1 Comments

City's loyal supporters have had their faith tested by some of the club's kits.

Dan Fitch takes a look at the worst Manchester City kits of all time.

When it comes to football kits, Manchester City's sky blue shirt is one of the most most recognisable in the English game. It's one of those shirts that has always looked cool, from the days when it was worn by Lee, Bell and Summerbee, to the iconic shots of the Gallaghers clad in the Brother sponsored efforts of the mid-nineties.

There's also been some nice away shirts through the years, from the white shirt with red and black slash, to the violet number that made City look like Fiorentina. However, with kits now being updated every season, it's difficult to always get it right and Manchester City have worn their fair share of stinkers. Here are the five worst Manchester City kits of all time.

Despite the connotations with their rivals down the road, City's red and black away strips have normally looked pretty sharp. Even the one that looked like a draughts board.

This striped effort did not quite hit the mark though. In order to differentiate it from previous efforts, Umbro slapped two entirely unnecessary patches onto the shirt, made of some sort of strange netting material through which you could clearly see the red and black stripes underneath.

Whoever designed the kits at Kappa during the late-nineties must have worn sunglasses while working. It was during the Italian firm's tenure as City's kit provider that the famous sky blue was replaced by a lurid electric blue number, but it had nothing on this away shirt.

Black and red stripes go together - just ask AC Milan, but this marriage of black and florescent yellow was less successful. Still, at least there would have been no need to abandon the game if the Maine Road floodlights had given out.

A decade after the bright yellow stripes, City returned to a day-glo change strip. Le Coq Sportif's kits for City always looked pretty cheap, which is no surprise considering the amount of toweling 'leisure wear' they manufacture for Mike Ashley's horrible shops.

The problem with this shirt is not just the workman orange, but also the design, which would have been offensive even if it wasn't brought to life with colours capable of burning your retinas.

The orange number was somewhat reminiscent of another third kit from the 2005/06 season, which also featured a horrible colour and a design that looked like it had been scribbled on a beer mat, five minutes before it had to be handed in.

Reebok are responsible for this shirt, which would have looked reasonable if a little garish, had the designer just kept the black to the shoulders. Perhaps his yellow felt tip ran out.

Every now and then a football club will try to pull off a silver coloured shirt, but what looks good on a car made of metal, doesn't look so great on a shirt made of polyester.

Congratulations go out to Le Coq Sportif for being the only manufacturer to have two of their shirts featured on their list. The worst City shirt of all time is another that would have been passable, had they just kept the flourishes to a minimum. Instead they stuck a lime green bar running up the middle of the shirt and then splashed a bit on the cuff. City were the unlucky recipients of this kit, but it's so random that it could have been worn by anyone.

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