From boxing to the Olympics, history shows sporting crowns can be lost for reasons beyond doping, as Senegal’s recent disqualification from the Africa Cup of Nations illustrates.
SENEGAL’S shock disqualification as African football champions is not the first time winners have been stripped of a title for non-doping reasons.
AFP Sports highlights three previous instances where sporting glory was revoked.
Jim Thorpe, the first Native American Olympic champion, won the decathlon and pentathlon at the 1912 Stockholm Games. He was hailed as the “greatest athlete in the world” by Swedish King Gustav V.
Months later, it was revealed Thorpe had earned money playing baseball before the Olympics. This violated the strict amateurism rules of the era.
Thorpe pleaded ignorance in a letter, writing, “I hope I will be excused, because of the fact that I was simply an Indian school boy and did not know all about such things.” His appeal was rejected by the American Amateur Athletic Union.
His titles were stripped in 1913. The silver medallist, Swede Hugo Wieslander, declined to accept the gold.
Thorpe was posthumously reinstated as a joint winner by the International Olympic Committee in 1982 and as the sole gold medallist in 2022. He died penniless in 1953.
Swedish dressage rider Gehnall Persson helped his team win gold at the 1948 London Olympics. The equestrian discipline was then restricted to commissioned officers only.
The Swedes promoted Persson to lieutenant shortly before the Games to circumvent the rule. He competed wearing a non-commissioned officer’s cap, which caught the eye of an official.
An investigation found Persson had been demoted back to his previous rank after the Games. He and the Swedish team were disqualified in April 1949, with France elevated to gold.
Later that year, the International Equestrian Federation relaxed its rules. Persson returned to win team gold in 1952 and 1956.
Muhammad Ali, the legendary heavyweight boxer, lost his world title in 1967 for refusing to be drafted into the US Army during the Vietnam War.
He cited religious reasons, stating, “War is against the teachings of the Qur’an….I ain’t got no quarrel with those Vietcong.” At his induction ceremony, Ali refused to step forward.
He was charged with a felony, his boxing licence was suspended nationwide, and the World Boxing Association stripped him of his world title.
Ali returned to reclaim the title in 1974’s ‘Rumble in the Jungle’. He expressed no regrets, writing, “Standing up for my religion made me happy; it wasn’t a sacrifice.”
The Sun Malaysia
