Eight sports moments of 2016 that were just downright crazy

From elating victories to crushing defeats, and no shortage of nuttiness, the year 2016 has been exhilarating.

From elating victories to crushing defeats, and no shortage of nuttiness, the year 2016 has been another exhilarating year in the world of sports. So without further ado, let the craziness begin.

1. Roses are red and water is, ermm … green

The road leading to the 2016 Olympics was not short of obstacles. It was widely known that Rio’s bays and rivers were heavily polluted, but during the games, it was the swimming pools that made the headlines for all the dirty reasons, after turning a yucky shade of green.

These are the Olympics, for crying out loud, the most prestigious sporting event in the world.

The organisers did come up with an official answer that it was an unplanned dump of hydrogen peroxide into the water which “neutralised” the chlorine in the pools, making way for the growth of “organic compounds” that possibly included algae.


2. The Lochtegate Scandal

From embarrassment inside the pools to humiliation outside of it!

The 12-time Olympic medallist and American swimmer, Ryan Lochte,  sparked a global spectacle full of intrigue and mystery when he claimed that he and three other US Olympic swimmers were mugged at gunpoint in Rio.

“We got pulled over, in the taxi, and these guys came out with a badge, a police badge, no lights, nothing just a police badge and they pulled us over,” Lochte said.

“And then the guy pulled out his gun, he cocked it, put it to my forehead and he said, ‘Get down’, and I put my hands up, I was like ‘whatever’. He took our money, he took my wallet — he left my cell phone, he left my credentials,” he added.

Aww, poor guy! Lochte must have been shaken down to his very core.

Regrettably, it was all fabricated.

Lochte’s story about getting robbed and lying about it was simply a case of an overzealous teen, not wanting to tell his mother about what he did on Saturday night.

But thank god for surveillance video cameras that came and truth prevailed.

The members of the US swim team vandalised a bathroom at a gas station on their way home from a party early Sunday. Lochte later admitted that he had lied, explaining that he “over-exaggerated” in order to deflect attention from the group’s post-party antics.


3. The bizarre US Open semi-finals

In one of the most madcap tennis matches in recent memory, Novak Djokovic held off the uber quirky Gael Monfils to advance to his seventh career US Open final.

The encounter had it all. From Djokovic ripping the collar of his shirt in response to Monfils’s frustrating in-match antics, to Monfils ordering a Coca-Cola mid-match, it was definitely a match to watch.

“This is totally bizarre,” former tennis legend John McEnroe commented at one point on ESPN.

4. The scratch and sniff

While it was his team that had been making comfortable progress in the last four of Euro 2016, Germany boss Joachim Low grabbed all the headlines by becoming an unwitting star of the tournament for all the unhygienic reasons.

The 56-year-old coach simply cannot stop scratching his body and seeing what it smells like. This time around, it was in France where his rather disturbing personal habit became all too public.

Didn’t he realise football matches have cameras that broadcast everything?

The occasion was Germany’s 2-0 win against Ukraine and the event – since it is too gross to explain – can be seen here, if you are up for it:


5. Ronaldo’s moth

It was arguably one of the greatest nights of Cristiano Ronaldo’s already immense career. But a footballer who is notoriously known for hogging the limelight was back seated by, umm … how do I put this, a moth.

It was the final of Euro 2016. An event Ronaldo waited for his whole footballing life. But the Portuguese captain tweaked his knee early in the match and tried at separate occasions to stay in the game. But finally, in the 18^th minute, the vulnerable footballer called it quits and sat hopelessly in tears on the pitch.

What started as a sensitively sombre moment between Ronaldo and millions of viewing fans quickly turned into a social media explosion when a moth flew directly into Ronaldo’s eye. By the end of the night, it was the said moth instead of Ronaldo that was the talk of Twitter town.

https://twitter.com/CristianosMoth/status/752223221139836928

https://twitter.com/ronaldosmoth/status/753240023424757760?lang=en

https://twitter.com/TheCR7Moth/status/752234230864830464?lang=en


6. Suarez strikes again

Everyone knows that Suarez has a history of violent behaviour on a football pitch – he’s a player who has bitten opponents in numerous sporting encounters. The last thing anyone would want to do is incite him. But the Uruguay manager, Oscar Tabarez, did exactly that. He did not name Luis Suarez on the bench during their 1–0 loss to Venezuela in the Copa America encounter. To make matters worse, the Barcelona forward was not even informed that he would be benched until later on in the match. To say that Suarez was livid would be a massive understatement.


7. Cricket mint-gate

Children are not the only ones that become hyper after a sugar rush, as Faf du Plessis’s mint-gate situation illustrates. The South African skipper was found guilty of ball-tampering during the Proteas second Test match against Australia.

Plessis was fined his entire match fee after he was caught on camera sucking on a mint, and then rubbing the ball with his saliva.


8. Samuel Swag

What’s the most unsportsmanlike thing you can do when you need to help win a world cup for your country?

Simple! You put your feet up and take the opportunity to wallow in your opponents’ misery.

After winning the T20 World Cup 2016 for his side, West Indies batsman Marlon Samuels celebrated the occasion in a rather unique manner by attending the post-match press conference with his spikes placed on the table. He then bizarrely bashed spin wizard Shane Warne for no apparent reason.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9TR5oEztpk