4 Times Olympians Refused Their Medals

When it came time to collect their medals, these athletes said, "No thanks."

1. U.S. Men’s Basketball Team, 1972

At the 1972 Munich Games, the United States met the Soviet Union in the men’s basketball final. The Americans trailed the far more experienced Soviets by five points at halftime and by 10 points with less than 10 minutes remaining, but mounted a furious rally and took a one-point lead on a pair of free throws by Illinois State guard Doug Collins with three seconds remaining. Then things got weird.

International rules prohibited a team from calling a timeout after a free throw, so the Soviets inbounded the ball. The Soviet coach and bench ran onto the court to demand a timeout and Bulgarian referee Artenik Arabadjan stopped the clock with one second remaining. Arabadjan denied the Soviets a timeout, but allowed them to re-inbound the ball. After the Soviets’ ensuing pass was deflected and the buzzer sounded, the Americans began to celebrate.

R. William Jones, the secretary general of the International Amateur Basketball Federation, approached the scorer’s table and ordered that the Soviets be awarded a timeout and three seconds be put back on the clock. Despite the fact that Jones didn’t have the authority to make such a demand, the referees complied. Aleksandr Belov caught a full-court pass on the third inbound attempt and converted the game-winning layup before the buzzer, giving the Soviets a 51-50 win.

After their protest was dismissed, the Americans decided to boycott the awards ceremony and refuse their silver medals. The 12 members of the U.S. team have received numerous invitations to accept their medals since then, but they have always declined, and the awards remain in a vault in Lausanne, Switzerland. U.S. team captain Kenny Davis and teammate Tom Henderson have provisions in their wills that none of their descendants ever accept a silver medal from the 1972 Games.

2. Ara Abrahamian, 2008

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Competing for Sweden at the Beijing Games, Ara Abrahamian lost his semifinal bout in Greco-Roman 84kg wrestling because of what he considered “blatant errors in judging.” Abrahamian had to be restrained from wrestling officials after the incident and initially refused to participate in the bronze-medal match before changing his mind. Abrahamian won the bronze, but removed the medal from his neck during the award ceremony, dropped it in the middle of the mat and walked away. The IOC disqualified Abrahamian for insulting the other athletes and the Olympic movement and stripped him of his medal.

3. Ibragim Samadov, 1992

After placing third in the 181-pound light-heavyweight category at the Barcelona Games on a technicality, Unified Team weightlifter Samadov threw his bronze medal on the ground and walked off the podium to boos. Samadov lifted a total of 814 pounds – the same number as gold medalist Pyrros Dimas of Greece and silver medalist Krzysztof Siemion of Poland – but was awarded the bronze because he weighed one-tenth of a pound more than his fellow medalists. “I don’t know why he did it,” Dimas said. “But I think this sort of incident kills the spirit of the Olympic Games.”

Samadov had been heckled by Greek fans when he failed in his final attempt to surpass 814 pounds and was reportedly upset when a Greek Olympic Committee member awarded him his bronze medal on the podium. After giving Samadov a chance to explain himself, the IOC ordered Samadov to leave the Olympic Village and stripped him of his medal.

4. Hugo Wieslander and F.R. Bie, 1912

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At the 1912 Stockholm Games, Native American Jim Thorpe (pictured) won the gold medal in the pentathlon and decathlon. Less than a year later, a newspaper reporter discovered that Thorpe had played professional baseball in 1909 and 1910, and therefore should have been ineligible to compete in the Olympics. Thorpe admitted that he had violated his amateur status and the IOC asked him to return his trophies and medals.

After removing Thorpe’s name from the record book, the IOC recognized Hugo Wieslander of Sweden, who finished second in the decathlon, and F.R. Bie of Norway, who was second in the pentathlon, as the rightful winners of each event. Both men refused to accept their gold medals. In 1982, the IOC decided to restore Thorpe’s gold medals, but the organization continues to recognize Bie and Wieslander as co-winners.