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Number 10
Flockton Grey - Ringer 'Round the Rosie
Money won is much sweeter than money earned, but when Flockton Grey, a British racehorse, won a race at Leicester racecourse in 1982 by an unconscionable 20 lengths, the mood around the track was more sour than sweet. The margin of victory provoked suspicion of fraud and an investigation ensued. It was uncovered that the horse's owner, Ken Richardson, had switched the two-year-old Flockton Grey for a seasoned three-year-old ringer. Furthermore, Richardson and trainer Stephen Wiles had backed the horse with 20,000 pounds dispersed over several betting outlets. They were both convicted of conspiracy to defraud, fined 20,000 pounds and received long bans from horse racing.
What makes it stranger: Richardson would become the chairman of a football club, which he later conspired to burn down in order to collect on insurance money. He was convicted of attempted arson and spent four years in jail.
Number 9
Spanish Paralympians - How Low Can You Go?
Pretending to be stupid generally has minimal benefits, but the Spanish Paralympic Committee saw otherwise. They produced fake documents for 10 of the 12 members on their 2000 Paralympics basketball team, falsely claiming that they had IQs below 85. With an amazing performance, their intellectually able team captured the gold medal in a tournament for the intellectually disabled. It was soon discovered that the majority of their team members had no mental deficiencies to speak of and their medals were stripped.
What makes it stranger: The story was brought to light by a Spanish journalist who joined the basketball team to uncover the scandal. To make the roster, it was not required of him to complete any medical or psychological tests; all he had to do was complete six sit-ups and a blood pressure test.
Number 8
Kobe Bryant - One-Night Stand
A night to remember took on a new meaning for basketball superstar Kobe Bryant after a sojourn at The Lodge and Spa at Cordillera Hotel in Edwards, Colorado. The Los Angeles Lakers guard was charged with sexual assault after a 19-year-old woman accused Bryant of raping her in his hotel room. A couple of days later, Bryant held a press conference, claiming that he did have sexual relations with her, but that the sex was consensual. When the trial began, Bryant's lawyers focused their efforts on sullying the credibility of the accuser, and with minimal tangible evidence, the case was dismissed.
What makes it stranger: The young female complainant received several death threats from Bryant fans, including one from a Swiss bodybuilder named Patrick Graber, who offered to commit murder for a $3 million fee. He was caught in a sting operation by the FBI and was sentenced to three years in jail.
Number 7
Rosie Ruiz - A Rat Raced
The simple things in life can be completed without breaking a sweat, but not a 26.2-mile race. When 23-year-old Rosie Ruiz crossed the finish line of the 1980 Boston Marathon with the third-fastest time ever for a female runner while barely glistening, speculation started to mount. That wariness was justified when a few onlookers communicated that they saw Ruiz join the race in the final mile, where she sprinted to the finish line. She was stripped of her olive wreath and the rightful winner, Jacqueline Gareau, was crowned.
What makes it stranger: Two years later, Ruiz was imprisoned for stealing $60,000 in cash and checks from a Manhattan real estate firm, and 19 months after that, she was arrested again for trying to facilitate a cocaine deal to undercover FBI agents in Florida.
Number 6
Danny Almonte - Being 12 Again
The advantages of a fake ID are usually to ameliorate the opportunities for underage drinking and clubbing, not to play in Little League Baseball. In 2001, Danny Almonte led his Bronx, New York team all the way to third place in the Little League World Series when he pitched the first perfect game since 1957, but a conflicting birth certificate surfaced during his team's run. His family's copy stated that he was born in 1989, but his Dominican home town's official copy stated he was born in 1987, making him two years too old for eligibility. His pitching feats were erased from the record books and the Rolando Paulino All-Stars were forced to part with their accolades.
What makes it stranger: Danny's father, Felipe de Jesus Almonte, appeared on Good Morning America to defend his son. Investigations by the Little League determined that his father had registered Danny's birth twice.
Number 5
Jamie Sale and David Pelletier - Skategate
Canadian figure-skating pair Jamie Sale and David Pelletier performed a near-perfect program only to receive ordinary ordinals from the judges in the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics. They tried to just smile it off, but they remained puzzled, along with pundits and skating aficionados worldwide. A probe ensued, exposing collusion between Russian and French judges, who agreed to swap votes in a sordid deal. Eventually, the Canadian duo was awarded gold medals and received a share of first place.
What makes it stranger: As the investigation continued, there were allegations that implicated a famous Russian mobster as one of the masterminds behind the scandal.
Number 4
BALCO - Perfect Strangers
Steroids and performance-enhancing drugs have always been the elephant in the room that nobody wants to address, but when the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative -- a sports nutrition center in California -- was exposed in 2004 for mass producing and distributing illegal anabolic steroids, the topic of drugs in sports became a hot one. BALCO's founder Victor Conte was quick to drag sports icons down with him, as he incriminated baseball legend Barry Bonds and American track star Marion Jones for steroid use. It wasn't long after that American Congress invited the executives of the four major sports leagues in for an interrogation and forced them all to beef up their drug policies.
What makes it stranger: In an interview with ABC's 20/20, Conte claimed to not only have supplied five-time Olympic medalist Marion Jones with illegal steroids and human growth hormone, but also to have sat right beside her while she injected the drugs into her thigh. She has since struggled in track and field competitions.
Number 3
Mike Danton - The Blues Lagoon
In 2004, Mike Danton, a former St. Louis Blues player, enlisted the help of a 19-year-old girl to hire a hit man, who was actually a police dispatcher. The FBI was quickly alerted and Danton was convicted of plotting to commit murder, with the exact target still unknown. The details were muddy and the suspected motives were varied. Some believed Danton was trying to remove a gay lover threatening to out him, while others claimed he was attempting to end a miserable relationship with his svengali-like, mind-controlling agent, David Frost. People close to the situation came forward and disclosed how Frost manipulated Danton to the point where he became his hand puppet, even forcing Danton to sever his relationship with his parents. Given these strange details, the common hypothesis was that Frost was the target.
What makes it stranger: Frost's influence over Danton was frequently discussed but remained indistinct until the transcript of a prison telephone call was revealed to the public after Danton's arrest. At the end of the phone call, Frost asked Danton, "Do you love me?" and pressed him to reinforce his positive response twice.
Number 2
Patrick Dennehy - The Basketball Diaries
The story started when Baylor basketball player Patrick Dennehy was reported missing in June 2003. A month later, after teammate Carlton Dotson was charged for murder, Dennehy's dead body was found in chest-high weeds. The police had been tipped off after Dotson told a cousin of his that he shot and killed Dennehy during an argument.
But the black eye didn't end there for Baylor University's basketball program, as Dennehy's girlfriend reported violations to the NCAA. Investigations revealed that head coach Dave Bliss had been improperly paying for Dennehy's tuition, had not reported players' failed drug tests, and had told players and coaches to lie to authorities by claiming that Dennehy had been dealing drugs. The school is now under probation until 2010.
What makes it stranger: In October 2004, Dotson was deemed to be psychologically incompetent and was sent to a mental hospital where he was evaluated. He was returned to jail after doctors doubted his accounts of hallucinations, and a week before his trial was to begin, with no plea bargain in hand, Dotson pleaded guilty in the death of Patrick Dennehy. He is currently serving a 35-year jail sentence.
Number 1
Tonya Harding - Knee-High Goodbye
The leg bone is connected to the knee bone, and knowing that, American figure skater Tonya Harding calculated that it would be more difficult for her rival to compete if she hired a man to take out her knee. Harding hired Shane Stant to put fellow American Nancy Kerrigan out of commission at the 1994 U.S. Figure Skating Championships, paving the way for Harding's victory. Soon after, her ex-husband cut a plea bargain deal in which he spilled the beans of their scheme to implicate Harding. When her time came, she had no choice but to plead guilty and received three years of probation, a $160,000 fine, a ban from U.S. figure skating, and was stripped of her 1994 title.
What makes it stranger: Tonya Harding didn't just climb into a grimy cave and disappear after the scandal, though, as she kept her face in the limelight with a pornographic sex tape, of which stills were posted in Penthouse magazine. She also had a brief boxing career that included a celebrity bout with well-known Paula Jones, and ran into the law on several occasions for drunk driving and domestic violence.
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