The Disturbing Dark Side of Athletes

The Dark Side of Athletes Athletes. We see them on the TV screen   landing knockout punches, making great saves, and  achieving comeback victories. But what happens   when the lights dim and the crowds go silent?  Behind all the adrenaline, glory, and victories?   If you think you know everything about your  favorite sports stars, think again because today   we’ll dive into the darker side of these athletes. Ben Johnson  Now, doping scandals are nothing new in the sports  field. Throughout history, athletes have been   willing to ingest just about anything to enhance  their performance. For them, all they seek is   victory, and the path towards it is none of their  concern. When Canadian track star Ben Johnson won   gold in the 100m at the Olympic Games in Seoul,  South Korea, on September 24, 1988, he not only   established a new world record but also defeated  his American rival Carl Lewis. In the press   conference aSerward, he eulogized and I quote,  “a gold medal that’s something no one can take   away from you.” But it turns out they could take  it away from him. And they did. Two days later,   when he tested posiXve for the steroid stanozolol.  But it wasn’t as dark as what Lance Armstrong did.  Lance Armstrong Lance Armstrong was once considered the best   cyclist in the world. In the late 1990s and early  2000s, Armstrong seemingly had it all: He had   beaten tesXcular cancer; he was daXng famed singer  Sheryl Crow; and he just kept winning the Tour de   France with seven consecuXve Xtles from 1999 to  2005. He even took home the bronze medal at the   2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia. But his  stardom came crashing down when it was revealed   in 2012 aSer a major invesXgaXon and a heap of  evidence that he’d been doping for years. The  world had finally discovered the dark reason  behind Armstrong’s outstanding performances.   His fall from grace was swiS, with his  record Tour de France victories stripped,   a lifeXme ban from compeXXve cycling handed down  by the UCI, a remi^ance of his Olympic medal,   a $5-million-dollar se^lement paid to the United  States government, and countless lost endorsement   revenue. Despite losing all his Xtles and being  shamed by the sport, Armstrong said in 2019 that   he wouldn’t have done anything differently. “We  did what we had to do to win. It wasn’t legal   but I wouldn’t change a thing.” That’s shocking,  but what Maradona did was on a whole new level.  Diego Maradona Diego Maradona, one of the greatest footballers   ever, was also infamous for his cocaine addicXon.  Leading ArgenXna to victory in the 1986 World Cup,   his career was marred by doping scandals and  erraXc behavior. From a 15-month ban in 1991 to   his dramaXc expulsion from the 1994 World Cup aSer  tesXng posiXve for mulXple substances, Maradona’s   legacy is a mix of brilliance and controversy.  ASer scoring a superb goal in the game against   Greece in the first round, he famously celebrated  by running towards a TV camera, screaming with   elaXon, eyes bulging out of his head. The  image has become iconic in ArgenXna and serves   as a reminder to many there about how many Xmes  Maradona, despite being the people’s hero, also   frequently disappointed a great many of his fans. Maria Sharapova  Maria Sharapova burst onto the tennis scene in  2004 and quickly assumed the role of tennis’s   glamour girl with five grand slam Xtles under  her belt. Not only is she the first Russian   woman with a world no. 1 ranking, but she is also  the first premier tennis star in history to fail a   doping test and has admi^ed to using the banned  endurance-enhancing drug known as meldonium. The list of athletes involved in  doping scandals does not end here.   But doping is just a minor footnote  among the more scandalous crimes.   So if you thought doping was bad,  wait unXl you hear the rest of it.  Oscar Pistorius Eleven years ago,   on ValenXne’s Day of 2013, Oscar Pistorius  went from being a sports hero who inspired   millions with his dedicaXon and determinaXon to  an internaXonally known villain when he shot and   killed his model girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in her  hometown of Pretoria. It was the beginning of the   decline of an athlete who unXl that day had become  a Paralympics idol not only for his successes but   also for his fight for equality, becoming the  first double amputee to compete in the Olympic   games as he had his legs amputated below the knee  and fi^ed with prostheXcs at just 11 months old.  The former sprinter claimed aSer his arrest  that he mistook his partner for an intruder.   Pistorius’s defense team argued self-defense while  the prosecuXon painted a picture of a premeditated   crime. The police later revealed a different side  of Pistorius filled with jealousy and previous   arguments in the relaXonship as witnessed by  several neighbors who did not support the version   of the athlete. Eventually, he was sentenced to  more than 13 years in prison. The high-profile   murder trial exposed the now 37-year-old’s darker  side: offering glimpses of a dangerously volaXle   man with a penchant for guns, beauXful women, and  fast cars. In 2009, he had spent a night in jail   aSer allegedly assaulXng a 19-year-old woman at  a party in a case that was se^led out of court.   Two years later, he was accused of firing a  gun through the sunroof of an ex-girlfriend’s   moving car. Weeks before he shot Steenkamp, he  discharged a gun by accident at a Johannesburg   restaurant. Violence and sports do not mix and the  result is oSen nothing less than serious trouble. Karl Malone Karl Malone is considered to be   one of the greatest power forces in NBA history.  A 14-Xme NBA all-star and 11-Xme member of the   all-NBA first team, he ranks third in all-Xme NBA  career points. If that wasn’t impressive enough,   he also holds the record for the most number  of NBA free throws a^empted and made. There   is no denying he is one of the greats, but as any  sports fan knows, great on-court performance does   not mean you haven’t done some pre^y messed  up things off the court. Let’s rewind to the   early 1980s. While playing for the Bulldogs at  Louisiana Tech University, the then 20-year-old   Karl impregnated 13-year-old Gloria Bell, who  he claimed was his girlfriend. Bell said that   her family declined to press statutory rape  charges at the Xme as it was clear Malone   was heading for a big NBA career. Malone later  denied paternity of the child, Demetress Bell,   future NFL lineman. Bell’s family sued Malone and  eventually se^led out of court with the condiXon   that the basketball star was acknowledged as the  father of Demetress Bell. Malone finally met his   son when he turned 17 but reportedly told him  that “it was too late for him to be his father   and he’d have to make it on his own.” In 2014, he  reunited with Demetress, and in 2018 Malone said   that he talks to his son “nearly every day.”  Malone has faced another lawsuit from Bonita   Ford with whom he had twins Daryl and Cheryl Ford.  He was also accused of harassing Vanessa Bryant,   the wife of the late Kobe Bryant. Malone has his  great list of infamous deeds, but Mike Tyson’s   dark side is one to be feared. Mike Tyson  Former heavyweight boxing champion Mike  Tyson may be an all-star athlete, but he   has a rap sheet as long as his list of accolades.  In 1992, Tyson was famously convicted of rape per   The New York Times. His vicXm was an 18-year- old  Miss Black America contestant. He was sentenced to   a whopping ten years in prison, but four of those  years were suspended, and in the end, he only served three years of his six-year sentence.  He was also accused of domesXc assault by his   first wife Robin Givens, who claimed that she was  scared of her husband. Tyson’s worst moment in   the ring came amid his comeback aSer his prison  sentence. In a rematch with Evander Holyfield,   who had stopped Tyson in their first Xtle bout a  year prior, Tyson bit Holyfield’s ear off clean   and was subsequently disqualified from the fight,  fined, and suspended. This was a clear glimpse of   Tyson’s brutality and savage mindset. Let’s  now step onto something more controversial.  Hope Solo Hope Solo, a celebrated goalkeeper of the US   women’s naXonal soccer team, World Cup champion,  and two-Xme Olympic gold medalist, may also be   the most controversial woman in sports history.  Solo’s history of violence began in her senior   year of high school when she had a restraining  order filed against her by another student whom   Hope had punched three Xmes in the face. Hope’s  biggest controversy, however, was the assault on   her half-sister Teresa Obert and her 17-year-old  nephew on June 21, 2014. She was arrested on   domesXc violence charges aSer the police arrived  to find Solo intoxicated and upset, and her sister   and nephew visibly injured. Solo’s nephew had a  bleeding cut on his leS ear and scratch marks on   his arms. The charges against Solo, who entered a  not-guilty plea, were officially dropped in 2018.  Her record of scandals does not end here. In  2022, Hope was found by two police officers   passed out in her car in a Walmart parking lot  with the engine running and her two-year-old twins   in the backseat reeking of alcohol. She  was arrested but refused to submit to a   breathalyzer test. A police officer obtained a  search warrant for a blood sample and found that   Solo had a blood alcohol level of 0.24. That  is three Xmes North Carolina’s legal limit of   .08. She also tested posiXve for THC. Despite  the long sheet of controversies behind her, Hope conXnues to label herself as the vicXm,   provoking many sports fans to call  her a narcissist and psychopath.  Scandals and controversies are a part of the  sports world, but which of these athletes do   you think deserves a second chance? Tell us  in the comments. 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