Featured Image Credit: Getty
Topics: Olympics
Luke Davies
When an athlete steps onto the podium to receive their medal at the Olympic Games, it is usually one of the best moments of their life – but not everyone is always so pleased.
In most sports, it is all about winning, but even those that finish second or third in Olympic events are usually overjoyed that they have secured a silver or bronze medal.
This could not be further from the actions of footballers who have been pictured throwing away their runners-up medals after finals.
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However, at the Olympics, sportsmanship and respect are an expectation - with the motivation behind athletes’ success often being for reasons other than financial gain, which is commonly associated with professional sport.
But there are two well-known incidents during which Olympians showed a lack of respect for the historic event.
At the Barcelona Olympics back in 1992, Russian weightlifter Ibragim Samadov represented the Unified Team while the Soviet Union was still in transition.
And the competition was one of the closest of all time, with all three medallists tied after lifting the same weight.
The winner was decided through a tiebreaker based on the athletes’ body weight, and Samadov was 0.5kg heavier than his opponents, which meant he secured the bronze medal.
Then at the medal ceremony a disappointed Samadov refused to lean forward when accepting his medal and instead took it with his hand before he dropped it on the podium and walked away amid a chorus of boos from those in attendance.
Greek champion, Pyrros Dimas, attempted to hand the medal back to Samadov, but he tossed it the ground again.
On August 3, 1992, the International Olympic Committee announced that the Russian's medal had been revoked and he was banished from the games.
“He did not respect the International Olympic Committee, the spirit of the Games, his colleagues, the anthems, the flags," said Dr. Tamas Ajan [via The New York Times], general secretary for the International Weightlifting Federation, at the time.
"He did this in front of 4,000 people and a television audience of billions."
Samdov was hit with a lifetime ban, which was upheld despite him apologising.
A similar situation occurred involving Swedish wrestler Ara Abrahamian at the Beijing Olympics in 2008.
Abrahamian lost to Italian Andrea Minguzzi in the semifinal of the 84kg weight class of the Greco-Roman wrestling event.
He said there were "blatant errors in judging", and he and his coach accused the officials of corruption.
And despite winning the bronze medal, he was not best pleased. Although he accepted his medal, he swiftly removed it before placing it on a mat.
The IOC promptly disqualified and banned him for life following a hearing, with the medal rendered obsolete.
"The awards ceremony is a highly symbolic ritual, acknowledged as such by all athletes and other participants," the IOC said in a statement.
"Any disruption by any athlete, in particular a medalist, is in itself an insult to the other athletes and to the Olympic Movement. It is also contrary to the spirit of fair play."
In 2009, the ban was overturned, but he never wrestled again.