For some jock , the Olympics are n’t just a competition : they ’re a chance to escape subjugation . Earlier this week , seven of Cameroon ’s athletes vanish from London ’s Olympic Village . The calendar week before , three runners from Sudan ’s Olympic preparation squad filed for mental hospital in Britain . Here ’s a feeling at some other Olympian defections .
1948 Summer Olympics: London
Marie Provaznikova , a Czech who was President of the International Gymnastics Federation , was the first person to defect from the Olympics . Czechoslovakia had recently become a planet of the Soviet Union , and Provaznikova knew her res publica would n’t be the same . She flutter to the United States , where she afterwards taught gymnastics . Provaznikova be in the U.S. until 1991 , die at age 101 .
1956 Summer Olympics: Melbourne
In 1956 , Hungary flew 83 athlete to Melbourne , Australia . While their plane took off , the streets of Budapest cracked with the audio of gunshot : Hungarians were revolting against Soviet principle . By the time the Games were over , the Soviets had jam the opposition . When the team see the news , only 38 athletes decide to ride the woodworking plane back home . Most of the other athlete defected to America and settled in California .
1964 Winter Olympics: Innsbruck, Austria
While her team win and dined , Ute Gaehler , an alternate for East Germany ’s toboggan squad , ran for the border . One night , as her team was celebrating at a receipt , Gaehler slip out of her living quarters and fled for West Germany . She made it safely . The AP report that 13 fans from “ Eastern European Communist land ” also escaped .
1964 Summer Olympics: Tokyo
Two Magyar athletes — a paddler and a sharpshooter — desert in 1964 and later found sanctuary in the United States . Both take flight because Nikita Khrushchev , the Soviet leader , had been ousted from office . Khrushchev was one of the USSR ’s least inhibitory rulers , and the Hungarians feared that life back home would change for the worse .
1968 Summer Olympics: Mexico City
1968 was the first time summertime jock had to take “ sex verification tests . ” The controversial tests shake up up some noise , assist Cuban lawn tennis participant Juan Campos quietly defect to Mexico amid the ruckus .
1972 Summer Olympics: Munich
According to the Associated Press , 117 mass defected at the Munich games . However , there is little information on who they were , where they were from , and where they went .
1976 Summer Olympics: Montreal
In 1976 , four Romanians and one Russian sought refuge in Canada . One of the defectors was Sergei Nemtsanov , a 17 - year - former Russian underwater diver . The straits of the Soviet Olympic squad claimed that “ unidentified terrorist ” had kidnapped Nemtsanov and brainwashed him to “ embrace exemption . ” In reality , Nemtsanov had fallen in love with a female plunger from Cincinnati and was hiding with a kinfolk in Ontario . He eventually had to vacate his renunciation , and he impart heartbroken .
1980 Summer Olympics: Moscow
The road to Moscow was paved with deserters , primarily because the USSR had invaded Afghanistan in 1979 . Many Afghani athletes fear going to Moscow and derail ship to annul it . A calendar month before the games , seven members of the basketball team flee to Pakistan . A twenty-four hour period before the Olympic flight of steps , seven wrestlers also left for Pakistan . Five more players defected during the game , some take flight to America , others to West Germany .
1984 Summer Olympics: Los Angeles
In 1984 , a San Diego newspaper hired Romanian sportswriter Vladimir Moraru as a translating program . When the games cease , Moraru decided that he liked the San Diego sun . The Romanian writer asked for , and received , political asylum .
1996 Summer Olympics: Atlanta
When Iraqi lifter Raid Ahmed move to Atlanta , he carry his country ’s flag at the curtain raising ceremonial occasion . A hebdomad afterward , he reject that same flagstone and defected to the U.S. Ahmed vocally opposed Saddam Hussein ’s regime , and he venerate execution . Afghanistan ’s flag bearer , boxer Jawid Aman Mukhamad , had the same trouble : Afghan officials criminate him of being a commie ( Mukhamad had trained in Russia ) . frightened for his life , he evolve refugee condition in Canada .
