From really awkward language translations to horrifying snapped legs, we count 10 epic
Olympic games failures.
10 – Glory Hole • What should have been the greatest moment
of Olympic Golfing history turned into a really awkward moment on Spanish TV.
• Golfer Justin Rose from the UK achieved the unthinkable – he hit a hole in one during
the 2016 Olympic Games, the first time anyone has done that in 112 years.
Unfortunately, a Spanish television network reported that Rose had achieved a ‘glory
hole’.
• I guess it was pretty glorious, but I don’t think the phrase means the same thing
in Spain as it does in sleazy bathrooms elsewhere the world.
9 – North Korea • For some reason a lot of countries just
doesn’t seem to treat North Korea with any respect.
• At the London 2012 Olympic Games, North Korea was due to play Colombia in a football
match when the big screen introducing the teams showed the wrong country’s flag.
For whatever reason, they showed the South Korean flag by mistake – sworn enemies of
The People’s Democratic Republic of Kim Jong Un, I mean Korea.
• The North Koreans took it pretty personally, but luckily they did not fire nuclear weapons
in response.
8 – Bell End • To ring in the opening of the games in
2012, British organisers decided to try a bell-ringing ceremony - which ended in complete
failure.
• The idea was to get every person in London to ring a bell for three minutes to get into
the Olympic spirit.
However, Jeremy Hunt, the culture secretary got too enthusiastic and nearly injured a
woman on live TV.
He shook his bell so hard that it flew off the stick he was holding.
• The enormous bell they had made to commemorate the games was also cancelled, as it was too
loud to ring.
7 – Green Pool • The problem with Olympians these days
is that they make all these crazy demands, like having clean water to swim in.
• The colour of the diving pool at the Rio 2016 Olympics was a suspiciously algae-looking
green.
Organisers said some of the chemicals were causing the alkaline levels to change in the
pool, but divers were describing how the pool ‘stank like farts’ and stung their eyes.
• I can imagine diving into a pool of farts would be slightly off-putting to even the
most disciplined fart-diver. 6 – Swimeme
• One of the greatest parts of modern Olympics is the majestic imagery that captures athletes
mid-sportsing.
• This incredible photo shows the exact moment a synchronised swimmer raised her foot,
or maybe somebody else’s foot above the water during a routine.
The insanity in her eyes made her an instant meme on the Internet and immortalised her
forever in a split second of Olympic fury.
• At least I can rest easier at night, knowing what it would look like if Voldemort ever
competed in synchronised swimming.
5 – Weightlift Drop • A weightlifter that won gold at the 2008
Beijing Olympic games did not have as much luck the second time in London.
• Matthias Steiner of Germany was attempting to lift 432 pounds (almost 200 kilos) above
his head when his body suddenly gave way and buckled, nearly crushing him to death with
the extreme weight of the steel bar.
He was taken away for X-Rays on his neck, but escaped mostly unscathed.
• Unsurprisingly, he did not win a medal that year.
4 – Gymnast Drop • It only takes a split second to end a
life-time worth of hard work, and unfortunately this was the case for Nastia Liukin in 2008.
• During the trials for gymnastics, Liukin generally executed high-scoring routines until
it came to the uneven bars event.
Her father stood underneath while she spun rapidly around the bars, but failed to grab
the lower bar only 30 seconds into the routine.
She lay on the mat for a few moments, knowing that one microsecond had cost her her entire
career.
• She finished her routine anyway and the crowd gave her a standing ovation.
3 - Hurdles • China’s most famous athlete Liu Xiang
unceremoniously ended his career when he failed to jump even a single hurdle.
• He won gold in Athens in 2004, but his attempt to compete in 2008 was a complete
disaster.
Xiang claimed that just as he was about to jump the first hurdle of his race, he felt
an excruciating pain in his foot.
Controversy started when it was alleged that Xiang knew he was injured before the race
but competed anyway.
• After the incident, he limped back onto the track, kissed a hurdle and immediately
announced his retirement from sport.
2 – The Torch • Sometimes the athletes are not the only
people who find themselves failing epically during the Olympics.
• The 2016 Olympic Torch ceremony in Brazil was absolute chaos.
Even with a military escort, the torchbearers were subject to constant obstacles.
One woman fell to her feet and nearly dropped the torch, another man was attacked by a fire
extinguisher, and on another occasion, a motorcycle fell sideways injuring the rider.
Luckily someone was there to take a selfies at the scene.
• Surprisingly, the torch never went out during the endless barrage of trouble-makers.
1 – Snapped Leg • The most gruesome fail by far was arguably
achieved in the 2016 vaulting event.
• French Gymnast Samir Ait Said was attempting to compete in the preliminaries when he ran
and launched off the springboard, but seconds later landed on the ground with a horrifying
‘snap’.
Said broke his lower leg so badly that the whole bone was bent sideways.
The people who carried him off then accidentally dropped him again, as if he wasn’t suffering
enough.
• Said tweeted the rest of his team from hospital, cheering them on and calling them
warriors.
He said he would be back on his feet and training for Tokyo 2020 in no time.