Triple jumping at the Olympics of shame

The recent demise of V. Saneyev made me decide to write the story of the cheating that took place in the men's triple jump during the Moscow 1980 Olympics.

Georgia born, Viktor Saneyev is one of the best triple jumpers ever. When he presented himself for his fourth Olympics in Moscow he had already won three gold medals and was looking towards equalling Oerter's feat. But let us start at the beginning. The first time Saneyev came to the limelight was at the 1968, Mexico, Olympics. Contrary to the long jump competition that was killed by Beamon's out-of-this-world jump, the triple jump was most eventful. Already at the qualifiers, G. Gentile broke the world record with a 17.10 m jump, in the presence of the record holder J. Schmidt who was going to finish a distant 7th in the final. Gentile improved his own world record with a 17.22 m first jump only to be passed by Saneyev, with a 17.23 m third attempt. But even this was not enough for gold as N. Prudencio leapt to 17.27 on his fifth jump. The final word was that of Saneyev who with 17.39 m clinched gold, Prudencio and Gentile having to content themselves with silver and bronze respectively. Walker and Dudkin also jumped beyond Schmidt's record (17.12 and 17.09 m), while May in 6th was, with 17.02 m, just one cm shy of it. That was definitely the highest level competition in triple jump one has ever seen. 

    Saneyev jumping in Mexico

Saneyev went on to win the olympic triple jump again in 1972 and 1976. The latter marked the first appearance of the prodigious brazilian triple jumper J.C. de Oliveira. He had improved the world record to an impressive 17.89 m and was the obvious favourite for the gold medal, but Saneyev's experience prevailed and de Oliveira could do no better than third. 

de Oliveira jumping in Moscow

In 1980 de Oliveira was again the favourite. His world record was still holding (it would only be broken in 1985) and he had won both horizontal jumps (8.18 and 17.27 m) in the 1979 Pan American games. However that was counting without the soviets. After the first day of athletics they requested that all IAAF inspectors leave the field. This meant that only soviet judges were present and nobody was supervising them. And they abused the situation, resulting in defrauding de Oliveira, and also australian jumper I. Campbell, of well merited medals. (In fact they continued doing so in all disciplines, which had as a result the return of the IAAF inspectors. However by that time it was too late for the triple jump). 

The disappointment of Campbell

I. Campbell distinguished himself already in the qualifiers with a 17.02 m leap on his first attempt while de Oliveira and Saneyev did not have any difficulty to qualify. In the final de Oliveira took control with his first jump with Saneyev at second place. And the situation did not change till the third attempt. Then (Estonia born) J. Uudmae jumped a personal best of 17.35 m moving to first place. Saneyev, in a 2015 interview, does not hesitate to point out that Uudmae had overstepped, but the soviet judges, being convinced that Saneyev could not stand up to the challenge presented by de Oliveira, preferred having a sure winner. The brasilian responded with a 17.22 m jump, not yet sufficient for gold. But the worse was coming. In the fourth attempt Saneyev's jump (beyond Uudmae's mark) was declared a foul and then I. Campbell had a humongous jump (estimated at 17.60 m) and started celebrating when a judge, situated midway between the take-off and the pit, raised a red flag: Campbell had committed a "scrape foul," meaning that his trailing leg had touched the track during the second jump. (Not only it is impossible to do this and still jump at almost world record level, but the whole scrape foul absurdity has been since expunged from the rules). All three final tries of Campbell and de Oliveira (most of them beyond Uudmae's mark) were declared fouls. One of Oliveira's jumps was estimated to be a new world record beyond eighteen metres. And in his last attempt Saneyev jumped 17.24 m obtaining silver. Campbell finished fifth and de Oliveira was once again third. The soviet duo won gold and silver.

J.C. de Oliveira was involved in a car accident in 1981, which had as a consequence that he lost one leg. He foundered into alcoholism and died in 1999. I. Campbell has been protesting over the past 40 years. And the Australian Federation has been asking the IOC to award the gold medal that was stolen from him by the soviet judges. The video of the jump is quite clear: there is no foul. (To be fair, a gold medal should be awarded posthumously to de Oliveira as well). Even Uudmae's coach, H. Seinberg, admitted off the record that the judging had leaned in favour of his athlete. Will the IOC make amends for this flagrant injustice? Nobody knows. But the 1980 Olympics, at least as far as athletics are concerned, will remain in our memory as the competition where nationalistic dishonesty prevailed over the rules of fair-play.

V. Saneyev emigrated to Australia after the break-up of Soviet Union. At one point he had to work as a pizza delivery man in order to make ends meet (it was that or selling his olympic medals). He ended up obtaining a regular job as physical education teacher and later as jumping coach. He was 76 when he passed away.