Even prior to the opening ceremonies at the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio, the worldwide event was covered by a dark cloud and cast into controversy due to both the Zika virus and heavily polluted waters.
Several major athletes from across the globe opted to drop out of the Games for one reason or another, but most directly cited Zika as their primary reason.
When the Games did eventually get underway, the Zika concerns slowly faded away. However, the water issues once again bubbled to the surface when the Olympic diving pool turned from a clear blue to a murky green. Still, it wasn’t enough to crack the top five controversies that would ultimately engulf the Games of the XXXI Olympiad.
Here’s a look at the five controversies that stood front-and-center as closing ceremonies began.
5. Boxing scandals abound
It was a bad year for Olympic boxing for a myriad of reasons, but two very specific incidents stood out above the rest.
In early August, Moroccan boxer Hassan Saada was arrested and charged with rape after two Brazilian maids accused him of assault. The women told police that Saada pushed one up against the wall and squeezed her leg before proceeding to grab the second woman’s breasts and motioning that he wanted to pay them for sex.
Under Brazilian law, any non-consensual sex act is considered rape.
Saada was stripped of his Olympic competitor status and remained in police custody for several days before ultimately being released following a habeus corpus petition from his lawyer. He remains under investigation and could face 6-10 years in prison if convicted.
Only a few short days later, boxer Jonas Junias of Namibia, who was his country’s flag bearer during the opening ceremonies, was also arrested and accused of sexual assault after he grabbed and kissed a Brazilian maid.
“Brazilian law needs to be respected and this is something that we have to agree on,” Mario Andrada, spokesman for the Rio 2016 Organizing Committee, told USA Today after the arrest. “What we need to do is make sure that all the legal procedures are being followed and we understand that they have.”
Junias was allowed to compete in his match, eventually being defeated by France’s Hassan Amzile (3-0).
Similarly to Saada, if Junias is convicted, he faces 6-10 years in prison.
Meanwhile, back in the ring, judging controversies once again took center stage — something that seems to be a norm for Olympic boxing.
Several fighters and several camps complained about suspect decisions, including Ireland’s Michael Conlan, who exploded in the ring on live TV following a loss by decision to Russia’s Vladimir Nikitin.
“They are f—— cheats. I am never boxing for anybody again. They are f—— cheats, paying everybody. I don’t care if I’m swearing on live TV,” Conlan said following his match (via Canada’s Olympic Network). “I came here to win Olympic gold and I’ve had my dream shattered. I wanted to go back to Ireland as a winner, not a loser. And today just showed how corrupt his organization is.”
There were more than a handful of bouts that ended in similar fashion, all of which drew ire from the athletes themselves, their coaches and teams, as well as the millions of fans watching around the world.
Ultimately, the International Boxing Association (AIBA) expelled a number of judged and referees — possibly up to six — after it determined they were not performing “at the level expected.” Additionally, the AIBA also reassigned its most senior executive, who previously had operational control for the Olympic tournament.
“They [the AIBA] are corrupt. It is a select few people that are selected to referee at an Olympic Games. You have to be a member of the tribe. You have to be a referee that they hand pick,” veteran boxing analyst Russ Anber told CON. “And these guys they have sent home, they are being scapegoated, they were just following orders, now they are being scapegoated. This is posturing by the AIBA. If you really wanted to do something you would have had a jury overturn the decisions.”
The AIBA has, of course, denied any and all corruption allegations.
4. IOC executive caught scalping tickets
71-year-old Patrick Hickey, president of the Olympic Council of Ireland, the European Olympic Committees and International Olympic Committee executive, was arrested on August 17 and charged with forming a cartel, ticket touting and illicit marketing.
In addition to Hickey, nine others were also accused of organizing the scam, while 40 more were arrested for selling the tickets above face value.
“Continuing our investigation, civil police discovered the involvement of Patrick in the international scheme of ticket scalping,” the Rio police fraud unit said in a statement (via AP).
In total, the ticket scam was valued at roughly $3 million, authorities said.
“The OCI is aware of the media stories regarding Pat Hickey and we are seeking total clarity on the situation before we comment further,” The Olympic Council of Ireland said on its website.
Following his arrest, Hickey became mysteriously ill and was hospitalized due to a history of cardiac problems. He was later released and transferred to Bangu Prison where he currently shares a cell with another prisoner as he awaits a hearing in front of a judge next week.
Hickey has been denied bail.
3. Egyptian sent home for refusing opponent’s handshake
Egyptian-Israeli relations have been notably strained throughout history, but they’ve been operating under peace for the last 30 years. Of course, you wouldn’t know that by watching the Summer Olympic Games in Rio.
Following a judo loss, Egypt’s Islam El Shehaby refused to bow to Israel’s Or Sasson, which has long been a judo tradition. And while El Shehaby eventually nodded his head and attempted to walk off, he rebuffed a handshake attempt courtesy of Sasson.
The reaction was immediately met with boos from the crowd, and shock from American coach Jimmy Pedro.
“That is extremely rare in judo,” Pedro told the New York Times. “It is especially disrespectful considering it was a clean throw and a fair match. It was completely dishonorable and totally unsportsmanlike on the part of the Egyptian.”
In the interest of sportsmanship, it’s both customary and mandatory that opponents bow before and after each match. And while a post-fight handshake is not required, El Shehaby’s refusal only compounded an instance of clear unsportsmanlike behavior.
“This is already a big improvement that Arabic countries accept to (fight) Israel,” IJF spokesman Nicolas Messner told the AP. “[El Shahaby’s] attitude will be reviewed after the games to see if any further action should be taken.”
Prior to the fight, El Shahaby was pressured on social media to skip the match entirely. The belief was that losing to an Israeli would be a great dishonor.
It’s something Sasson’s coach had him warned him about prior to the match.
“I knew he would do it, so it wasn’t a surprise for me,” Sasson also told the AP. “But I cannot say anything. This was his decision. . . For me, it doesn’t matter because I’m a professional fighter.”
After a review of the incident, El Shahaby was sent home.
“The Disciplinary Commission (DC) considered that his behavior at the end of the competition was contrary to the rules of fair play and against the spirit of friendship embodied in the Olympic Values,” the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said in a statement (via Reuters). “The DC issued a ‘severe reprimand for inappropriate behavior’ to the athlete. It noted … the shaking of hands after a match is not in the competition rules of the International Judo Federation.
“As well as a severe reprimand, the DC has asked the Egyptian Olympic Committee to ensure in future that all their athletes receive proper education on the Olympic Values before coming to the Olympic Games.”
Despite the reaction, El Shahaby has stood by his decision and essentially said he didn’t want to be embarrassed in front of the whole world by shaking Sasson’s hand or bowing to him.
2. The Daily Beast outs homosexual athletes
Dating apps have become all the rage for Olympians since the Sochi Games in 2014, so it was no real surprise when athletes once again turned to them as they arrived in Rio.
That, of course, presented a unique opportunity for The Daily Beast, an online editorial that prides itself on “seeking out scoops, scandals and stories about secret worlds; confronting bullies, bigots and hypocrites.”
Those were the words of Editor-in-Chief John Avlon in 2015, and words that would come back to haunt the publication for the actions they took to find a story in Rio.
So Nico Hines, a reporter for The Daily Beast, decided it would be interesting to write a story about the sex lives of athletes at the Rio Games. More specifically, Hines planned to focus on the usage of dating apps and how the hook-ups were sometimes allowed into the Olympic Village.
After securing a handful of “dates” in a matter of hours, Hines shifted his focus. He nixed the use of apps such as Tinder and zeroed in on apps like Grindr, which are tuned more toward the homosexual community, instead.
Unfortunately for those who responded to Hines, they were promptly outed based on the biographical details that were included in the published pieces.
The backlash was swift and ferocious. And in addition to several gay athletes speaking out against Hines’ piece, Slate published an entire article devoted to the damage it caused and will continue to cause over time.
It’s worth exploring why Hines embarked upon this weird, sleazy quest in the first place. I count two reasons. The first is that Hines simply enjoys tittering with condescension at all the gay athletes who take the bait and engage with him—a straight dude, as Hines emphatically reminds us. Why else zero in on Grindr? The second reason is more repulsive: Hines appears to take pleasure in luring in these Olympians then outing them to all the world.
But the offensive purpose of Hines’ article is really the least of its problems. Far worse is the actual damage it will likely cause to real, live human beings—inevitable consequences that Hines blithely ignored. Several athletes who are closeted at home (and possibly to their own teammates) will wake up on Thursday morning to the news that the Daily Beast has outed them.
Among those outed was an athlete from Kazakhstan, which is a country that not only restricts legal rights for same-sex couples, but is notoriously known for violence against the LGBTQ community.
Hines eventually apologized for his piece and the damage it had caused, removing the biographical data that led to the outing of several athletes who shall remain nameless for their own protection.
“For the record, I didn’t lie to anyone or pretend to be someone I wasn’t—unless you count being on Grindr in the first place—since I’m straight, with a wife and child. I used my own picture (just of my face…) and confessed to being a journalist as soon as anyone asked who I was,” Hines wrote after editing down his article.
The apology wasn’t graciously accepted and the furor continue to pour in. Ultimately, The Daily Beast removed the entire piece and replaced it with a company apology.
Today, The Daily Beast took an unprecedented but necessary step: We are removing an article from our site, “The Other Olympic Sport In Rio: Swiping.”
The Daily Beast does not do this lightly. As shared in our editor’s note earlier today, we initially thought swift removal of any identifying characteristics and better clarification of our intent was the adequate way to address this. Our initial reaction was that the entire removal of the piece was not necessary. We were wrong. We’re sorry. And we apologize to the athletes who may have been inadvertently compromised by our story.
Today we did not uphold a deep set of The Daily Beast’s values. These values—which include standing up to bullies and bigots, and specifically being a proudly, steadfastly supportive voice for LGBT people all over the world—are core to our commitment to journalism and to our commitment to serving our readers.
As a newsroom, we succeed together and we fail together, and this was a failure on The Daily Beast as a whole, not a single individual. The article was not intended to do harm or degrade members of the LGBT community, but intent doesn’t matter, impact does. Our hope is that removing an article that is in conflict with both our values and what we aspire to as journalists will demonstrate how seriously we take our error.
We were wrong. We will do better.
Unfortunately, this story may not yet be over. The athletes who were outed must now return to their countries and, in some cases, potentially face violence because of it.
1. Ryan Lochte, US swimmers create chaos in Brazil
The Ryan Lochte robbery story is like the web of a spider. There are so many different strands leading to different bits of conflicting information that it’s nearly impossible to wrap one’s mind around it all.
On Sunday, August 14, Lochte and three other US swimmers — Jimmy Feigen, Jack Conger and Gunnar Bentz — claim to have been the victims of a robbery. At first, it was alleged to have happened at a party. Later, Lochte changed the story in an Instagram post that has since been deleted, claiming the robbery came at the hands of men flashing police badges.
With violence and corruption known issues in Rio, Lochte’s story immediately caught international attention.
“They pulled out their guns, they told the other swimmers to get down on the ground — they got down on the ground,” Lochte told NBC News at the time. “I refused, I was like, we didn’t do anything wrong, so I’m not getting down on the ground.
“And then the guy pulled out his gun, he cocked it, put it to my forehead and he said, ‘Get down’ and I put my hands up, I was like ‘whatever.’”
Within hours, Mark Adams, the director of communications for the IOC, stated the story was fictitious. But accounts and statements would then go back-and-forth for several hours as more clarity was added to the situation.
By Tuesday, Brazilian authorities released a statement claiming they could not find the taxi driver or any other witnesses to corroborate to swimmers’ story. The following day, a Brazilian judge ordered the seizure of Lochte and Feigen’s passports, but Lochte had already found his way back to the United States.
With international speculation mounting, Brazilian authorities would go on to pull Bentz and Conger off a plane departing Rio for the United States. At the same time, Feigen was also meeting with local authorities.
At that point, coupled with a surveillance video from the gas station, Lochte’s story began to unravel.
Conger and Bentz informed the police that the robbery account had been fabricated, ultimately forcing the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) to issue an apology to Rio. Despite that Brazilian police would recommended that Lochte and Feigen be indicted on charges of falsely reporting a crime.
Lochte proceeded to issue an apology for his actions via social media.
