aThe following year was another slew of sports cheating scandals that won the annual Anti-Spotty Award. This week’s BBC Sports Personality Ceremony will celebrate the hard work of the sporting world, but the Guardian is instead shining a light on the darkest corners of sports misconduct.
Qin Siyue and the new Baduk rules
After last year’s troubles with Xiangqi (also known as Chinese Chess), it was Weiqi’s turn (known in the West as Go) in 2025. The first thing that shook that placid world was the news that Qin Siyue, a 19-year-old Chinese prodigy, had been eliminated in the ninth round of the Chinese team championship — an actual match played in December of last year, but for months that had (ironically) somehow managed to prevent news from surfacing that Go used AI and hidden phones to plan her moves.
And in January, a diplomatic storm erupted over the finals of the Badduk World Championship (Baduk is the Korean name for the game), with South Korea’s Byun Sang-il defeating China’s Ko Jie, thanks to confusion and controversy over new scoring rules introduced midway through the tournament.
“This was a huge psychological trauma for me,” Ke said. “I felt like I was trapped in endless darkness,” Mr. Ke said, adding that shortly after he was reported for leaving a stone in the lid of a bowl, “I heard a cracking sound. I don’t know if it was me or Go himself.”
Go is a little-known pastime in Britain, but it’s huge in China, with 17 of the world’s top 20 players and hundreds of full-time professional Go players, one fewer than a year ago when Qin was stripped of his ranking and banned from all competitions organized by the national association for eight years.
Norwegian ski jumpsuit
In Norway, skiing is more than just a popular pastime, it’s also a national sport, and it’s the driving force that propels the men’s large hill ski jumping competition (from a giant ramp) into the stratosphere at the Nordic World Championships in Trondheim.
The five Norwegian athletes involved in the scandal (including two Olympic gold medalists and three team officials) were all men, and like many men throughout history, they suffered from stiffness in their groin areas. This led to the use of threads to strengthen the crotch of ski suits to improve aerodynamics.
These modifications were secretly filmed and the exact circumstances are unknown, but their existence was proven when they were literally torn apart by suspicious organizers. “What we did was manipulate or modify the jumpsuit in a way that violated the regulations,” team coach Magnus Brevig admitted. “It was an intentional act. Therefore, it was cheating. It was a joint decision. It should have been stopped. I regret it like a dog. I’m so sorry. I got blindsided in this World Cup bubble and went way over the line.”
This is probably not the first time. Reacting to the scandal, retired Norwegian jumper Daniel-Andre Tunde said he had done the same thing. “I’ve cheated a few times,” he said. Retired two-time world record holder Lemen Evensen also fumed: “If wearing a suit that’s a little too big[is cheating]then yes, I cheated.” “In sports, it’s common knowledge that if you’re not caught, you’re not cheating.”
Meanwhile, in vaguely related news about groin improvement, Juan Bernabe, the trainer of Italian soccer club Lazio’s eagle mascot, was fired in January for posting photos online showing off his anatomy after undergoing penile prosthesis surgery. “I’m very active, so I had surgery to enhance my sexual performance,” he explained.
waxy pool ball
With a combination of excruciating awkwardness and a kind of quiet pride, we go from talking about penis enlargement to talking about men waxing their balls. In July, 128 of the world’s best cue players from 40 countries headed to the World Pool Championships in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, for a historic $1 million purse, but things got a little chaotic.
All we know is that there are people who cheated, that cheating is not tolerated, and that it goes unpunished, but all of this seems a little disturbing. Waxgate, as it inevitably became known, began when world No. 3 Aloysius Yap, who lost an early loss to the Philippines’ Jeffrey Ignacio, suggested on Instagram that his opponents were using wax to change the behavior of the cue ball (supposedly a silicone lubricant, first sprayed on the glove a player is wearing and then smeared on the cue ball during play). Ignacio’s reaction? “Don’t make excuses after losing.”
Eklent Kasi almost lost his arm in a car accident in 2023, but made it to the finals in 2024, but fell one step short when he lost to fellow Filipino Patrick Gonzalez in the round of 32. “I think the waxing on the cue ball was pretty bad,” he said. “I had too many overdraw shots…I missed a lot of shots by a mile, and sometimes I was completely out of position. This happened many times in many tournaments, and many players complained about it, but no one was punished.” He also complained that people were “massaging the cue ball like it was a newborn baby.” Gonzalez’s reaction? “That accusation is bogus.”
Various other players got involved, and claims, counterclaims, and denials rolled around like, well, over-lubricated balls on fresh baize. Another Filipino professional, Dennis Orcolo, replied, “There are no rules about wax. That’s why they can use it. It’s not very fair to blame the players for using wax. They have to make rules. That’s my opinion. Whoever runs the tournament should put rules in place. For example, you can’t wipe the cue ball. To be honest, this is a huge advantage.”
At that point, the World Pool Association stepped in and argued that there were actually rules already in place. “It was brought to (our) attention that some players were waxing their balls during matches. It has also been suggested that some players believe there are no rules prohibiting this behavior,” the association wrote. “The WPA would like to make clear that waxing a ball is considered a form of cheating and will be dealt with under the WPA’s rules governing unsportsmanlike conduct.”
What followed was a period of six months of radical silence that proved this commitment.
stone skimming scandal
Sadly, further cheating occurred and this year became the World Stone Skimming Championship after the 2024 World Conquer Championship was embroiled in cheating accusations. A quick Conker memory: King Conker, aka David Jakins, was allowed to use a metal replica nut painted to look almost exactly like the real thing at last year’s Conker Comp. To ensure fair play at this year’s event, organizers put competitors through an airport-style security scanner and equipped a “ring master” with a “large magnet with a rod.”
Similar measures will likely be introduced on Easdale Island, home of the Stone Skimming World Championships. It comes after the tournament’s “tossmaster” Kyle Matthews said organizers had heard “rumors and murmurs of violent behavior” and had identified several suspicious throwers. They were found to have indulged in “a little stone work” to create either projectiles that were “suspiciously circular” in some cases, or with notches inserted to aid grip.
“When we contacted them, they admitted the breach and we had no choice but to disqualify them. To their credit, they have deeply apologized for bringing the sport into disrepute and have accepted their disqualification. We accept that that is the end of the matter.” In fact, Matthews found a silver lining in this cloud of misery, saying, “This just shows how keen people are to win this trophy. In many ways, it’s gratifying.”
chinese curling team
This was not the only incident of cheating by Ishi this year. The World Curling Championships, held in the wonderfully named Saskatchewan town of Moose Jaw, caused chaos when the Chinese team was caught on camera apparently “burning stones” (deliberately touching stones with a broom to change course) during their knockout victory against Norway. They were also said to have been seen “kicking stones” en route to defeating Germany, which was especially problematic considering the Chinese team’s situation. The women’s team was accused of “throwing it down on stone” during the world championships in South Korea in March.
In any case, Norway protested, China maintained its innocence, there is no VAR in curling, and the match continued without further repercussions, other than the sport’s now tarnished reputation as an honorable practice. Former Canadian curler George Callies wrote an epic, no-holds-barred opinion piece on the matter: “This is more than bad. It’s a nightmare.” “This is without a doubt the worst thing I’ve seen or heard in my 42 years in this sport.” China lost to Switzerland in the semifinals and to Canada in the bronze medal match.
In summary, this is all very depressing. And after skimming conkers and stones, who can claim that a quirky British competitive event is completely beyond the norm? Now, on to the story of Tiddlywinks. “Competitors can bring their own squidger, but we suspect some competitors are breaking the 51mm maximum width rule to gain better control of their winks,” Andrew Garrard, general secretary of the British Tiddlywinks Association, said before the National Pairs Championship in November. “We are checking the size of the players’ Ikagga. The referees will be watching closely.”
Bite-sized misdemeanor
This year’s commentary gaffes that went unnoticed: New Zealand’s former World Cup winner Ruby Tui provides analysis for the BBC on the Women’s Rugby World Cup, declaring that Rugby’s governing body World Rugby will “certainly take a punitive stance” in response to Axel Berthoumeux’s bite of Aoife Wafer in the quarter-final match between France and Ireland.
To be clear, it’s Bertomeux, not Tui, who gets the anti-Spotty nomination. Because, as her subsequent 12-game suspension (reduced to nine on appeal) proves, biting is not what’s actually going on.
Related controversy this year: In unnecessary rugby violence news, South African lock Eben Ezebeth was also given a 12-match ban for gouging out the eye of Wales’ Alex Mann. “I owe you an explanation,” he said. “I made a mistake and I’m happy to receive the suspension I deserve. I don’t want young kids to think it’s OK to gouge people’s eyes out. It’s not, but unfortunately mistakes happen and I made a big one.”
However, this should not be misconstrued as an admission of intentional harm. “It was never intentional. I would never do something like this intentionally.”
Meanwhile, in tart sports news, serial offender Luis Suarez is once again in the headlines, this time for exchanging saliva from a distance, and in September he was suspended for three games for spitting on Seattle Sounders head of security Gene Ramirez after Inter Miami’s team lost in the League Cup final. “It was a very tense and frustrating moment. Immediately after the game, something happened that shouldn’t have happened,” he explained.
