An entire team of malingerers was exposed at the Paralympics. The gold has already been given to Russia!

Cheating is usually discussed in the context of the Olympic Games. However, a kind of “doping” is also used at the Paralympics. Remember the episode of “South Park” where Eric Cartman pretends to be mentally retarded in order to win a competition with children with special needs? The Spanish team pulled the same thing in 2000.

The deception was exposed and the victory was rightfully given to the Russians.

Too good

The Spanish men’s basketball team, made up of players with intellectual disabilities, swept everyone in a row at the Sydney Paralympics. In the group, the Spaniards easily dealt with Portugal (73:58), crushed the Brazilians (94:48), and at the end of the stage, simply destroyed Japan (87:20). One could only marvel at such superiority in class.

The situation did not change at all in the playoffs. The Spanish won the semi-final match against Poland with a 30-point advantage — 97:67. In the decisive confrontation, the invincible team faced the Russian team, which also failed to put up any resistance — 87:63. That’s when rumors began to spread that the Spanish basketball players were playing too well. Were they swindlers?

It soon became clear that the Spanish were indeed involved in something bad. More and more evidence was found that the basketball players who played for the national team at the Paralympics had no problems with intelligence at all, and many of them even played for quite ordinary teams.

The final nail in the coffin was a first-hand confession.

Fake certificates

Basketball player Carlos Ribagorda’s conscience couldn’t take it anymore. As a journalist, he managed to turn his unpleasant confession into a media sensation and seemed to stay out of it. Nevertheless, his inside information made an incredible impression on the public. It turned out that out of 200 members of the Spanish national team at the Olympics, about 15 people had no pathologies. Most of them were members of the basketball team.

Carlos Ribagorda / Photo: © Social networks

Ribagorda said that to become a member of the team, you don’t even have to pass any special tests. All he and his teammates had to do was six push-ups, after which their blood pressure was measured. And just before the Games, the athletes were given fake medical certificates allowing them to participate in International Paralympic Committee (IPC) competitions.

The basketball player also added that during one of the matches, the coach asked the athletes not to get too carried away, otherwise, he said, the opponent would guess that something was fishy.

The scandal was unprecedented. The leadership of the Spanish Federation of Sports for People with Intellectual Disabilities had to resign in full. Its head, Fernando Martin Vicente, tried to justify himself by saying that it is very difficult to recognize malingerers with a diagnosis of “intellectual disability”. However, there could be no concessions.

Vicente was fined over 5 thousand euros and also ordered to return 142 thousand euros in subsidies that his organization had received from the state. And the gold medal ultimately went to the Russian team. And rightfully so!