The Scandals of the Winter Olympics

Beginning February the 6th, Italy will host the Olympic winter games, with ice events in Milan and snow events in various parts of the Italian Alps. It's that time when we suddenly all become experts in skiing, figure skating, hockey, and curling for two weeks. While the winter games have always taken a back seat to the summer games, the winter Olympics have had their fair share of scandals. We all remember the rivalry between American figure skaters Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan, which exploded when Kerrigan was attacked and injured. Who won? Ukrainian skater Oksana Baiul.  

But there were scandals from the very first winter games in 1924, when a retired speed skater who didn't train for the event won a gold medal. The first time East Germany and West Germany fielded different teams, several women's luge competitors from East Germany were disqualified for cheating, setting the stage for East Germany's Olympic reputation forever. Lake Placid raised eyebrows when they raised money by building the Olympic Village to be a prison. Read about these scandals and more from the last century of Olympic winter games at Mental Floss.