The summer games are a place for glory, victory, and honor. They're also a place for controversy, scandal, and dishonesty. As such, let's round up Olympic moments from both ends of the spectrum, from disgraceful cheating in 1896 to seriously inspiring political statements in 1968. Herewith, 36 of the most buzzworthy "What just happened?" moments in Olympic history.

During the inaugural Olympic marathon, Spyridon Belokas cheated by taking a carriage ride for a good chunk of the race. Yet somehow, even with that extra boost, he only managed to cross the finish line in third place...?

Twenty years before American women could vote, they were allowed to compete in the Olympics, causing quite the stir. (That first year they could only compete in five events: tennis, equestrian, sailing, croquet, and golf, but it was still a pretty huge deal.)

You think he would've learned from that guy in 1896, but...nope. In 1904, American marathon runner Fred Lorz stopped running after nine miles and hopped in his manager's car to be driven for the next ELEVEN miles. The car broke down a few miles short of the finish line so Lorz walked the rest of the way to the stadium, prompting people who saw him arrive on foot to greet him as the victor. Rather than keep the charade up too long, he admitted that he wasn't really the winner before he was found out...but not before indulging it for a little.

What to do when two countries can't agree on the rules of a particular event? You go with the home court protocol...even if you get a ton of backlash for it. That's what happened in 1908 in the finals of the men's 400-meter race, when American John Carpenter maneuvered to block Britain's Wyndham Halswelle— legal under American track rules, but illegal in Great Britain. Carpenter was promptly disqualified, because the Olympics were being held in London. Yet the other two qualifiers left with Halswelle were American and were so angered by the ruling against Carpenter that they protested the ruling by also boycotting the final. In the end, Halswelle ran the redo of the final all by himself. (Spoiler: he won.)

After winning the silver medal in dressage, Swedish athlete Bertil Sandström was moved to last place for allegedly using illegal methods of controlling his horse—making clicking noises, to be exact. Sandstrom insisted it was just the creaking of his saddle, so we'll never know for sure what that sound actually was.

In 1936, defending 100-meter dash gold medalist Stella Walsh of Poland lost the race to American Helen Stephens. Walsh's supporters weren't exactly good sports: They responded by crying out that Stephens's time was simply too fast for a woman, and demanded that a gender examination be performed. Stephens submitted to the humiliating test, letting the Olympic committee perform a physical examination to confirm that she was a woman. The story doesn't totally end there, crazily enough. Decades later, Stella Walsh was shot to death outside a Cleveland shopping mall in 1980, and when they performed an autopsy, it was discovered that Stella Walsh, actually, had male genitalia—not Helen Stephens.

In 1936, Hitler watched as Dora Ratjen represented Germany at the 1936 Olympics. Ratjen earned fourth place, but two years later would set a new record for the women's high jump. It was discovered decades later, however, that Ratjen was actually a man, Hermann Ratjen, who had been forced to live and compete as a woman by the Nazi government.

Paavo Nurmi was one of the best long distance runners in the '20s and '30s, setting six world records and taking home nine gold medals. His home country of Finland, as well as the rest of the world, was anticipating his performance at the 1932 Olympics. However, after Sweden contested his eligibility as an amateur athlete, Nurmi was unable to compete. The Olympian was later tapped to light the torch when Finland hosted the games in 1952.

Tensions between Hungary and the Soviet Union were running high in 1956—which trickled down to an Olympics water polo match between the two countries. Referees were forced to end the game after players began throwing punches at one another in the water, some even drawing blood.

In 1960, "barefoot" style running wasn't a trend. But Ethiopian Abebe Bikila made barefoot running the talk of the entire world when he won the marathon sans footwear—which, despite all the nice shoes he'd been sent by Adidas, was actually the way he had trained for the race.

During the fencing portion of the pentathlon, Tunisian athletes tried to pull a fast one on everyone...and failed. They attempted to secretly send out their expert swordsman each and every time instead of different people on the their team, and just hoped that no one would notice. The third time the same fencer came out, however, the hoax was discovered.

American Lance Larson and Australian John Devitt finished the 100-meter freestyle swim within split seconds of each other. Back then, without any hi-tech gear to determine the winner, there was nothing to decide the victor other than the judges' eyeballs, and no one could agree. Ultimately, after about a day, the judges gave the win to Devitt, even though Larson touched the side first.

Ewa Kłobukowska, a Polish sprinter, competed in the 4×100 meter relay and the 100-meter sprint and took home a gold and a bronze medal, respectively. (That's her on the right, above the 3, winning her bronze.) In 1967, she failed a gender test and was stripped of her 1964 medals. Yet, once again, the story doesn't end there. After Klobukowska gave birth to her son years later, people realized that she must have had a genetic abnormality that made her have one chromosome too many. Gender testing: awful, inhumane, and flawed. No one wins.

Gymnast Věra Čáslavská became a heroine of the Czech people when she spent the medal ceremonies for the balance beam and floor events with her head turned down and away from the Soviet flag, in protest of the Soviet-led invasion of her country.

1968 was also the year that the first Olympic athlete tested positive for the use of performance-enhancing drugs. He was Hans-Gunnar Liljenwall, a Swedish pentathlete who lost his bronze medal for alcohol use (which, for many of us, is not a performance-enhancing drug).

During the medal ceremony for the 200-meter race, American athletes John Carlos and Tommie Smith wore black gloves and made the gesture to mimic the Black Power salute. (Their shoeless, socked feet was to represent black poverty.) It was quite the political statement about civil rights, and one that got them kicked out of the games by the IOC chair. (Little known fact: the silver medalist, Australian Peter Norman, may look like he's not participating, but he's actually making a very big statement too by wearing a human rights badge on his uniform. Thirty-eight years later when Norman died, both Carlos and Smith were pallbearers at his funeral.)

It may look like this guy is clearly leading the pack of marathon runners...and indeed that's what everyone first thought when he was the first person seen sprinting into the stadium at the end of the marathon. But he was actually just a prankster German student who was not an Olympic athlete...like, at all. (The real winner was American Frank Shorter.)

Yep, in 1972, alpine skiing was a summer Olympics event. Austrian skier Karl Schranz was declared ineligible because he had been photographed at a soccer game wearing a T-shirt with a coffee advertisement printed on it. (Back in those days, you were still supposed to be an "amateur" to compete in the Olympics, and wearing an ad on your body means that you were a "professional.")

1972 was the year that Soviet gymnast Olga Korbut performed a now-banned gymnastics move known as the "Korbut flip." (On the uneven bars, the Korbut flip involves the gymnast standing on the high bar, doing a back flip and then re-grasping the bar.) It's now outlawed because of the risk in performing it, but man, did it get people talking back then.

Yes, 1972 brought the first ever loss for Team USA basketball since the sport began Olympic play in 1936....but that wasn't why it was such a big deal. It was the how of the loss: With just three seconds left on the clock, the Russians were down, and the officials got sloppy, giving them another chance to inbound the ball after unsuccessfully attempting it once. (That is not the way the game is usually played.) "Forty years later, it is still being replayed," writes The New York Times of that watershed game, and it's still disputed if they should've been allowed to inbound and hit the buzzer beater that won them the gold in a victory of 51-50 over the disgruntled Americans.

1976: The year Romanian Nadia Comaneci became the first gymnast to score a perfect 10 in an Olympic gymnastics event. It was such an unprecedented feat that they didn't even have a way to relay what had happened, with the score registering as "1.00" on the electronic scoreboard because 9.99 was the board's limit!

Boris Onishchenko, a Ukrainian pentathlete, was the three-time world champion in the event, but that still didn't stop him from cheating at the '76 Olympics. By tampering with the sensors on his equipment, he made it seem like he was making contact with his opponents when he really wasn't at all. His scheme was uncovered almost immediately, resulting in his ejection from the Olympics and newspapers dubbing him "Boris the Cheat."

Polish pole vaulter Władysław Kozakiewicz won the gold medal in his event, but then made himself even more famous by showing an obscene bras d'honneur gesture in all four directions to the jeering Soviet public. As a result, he was almost stripped of his medal...but was a hero to the Polish people.

During the women's 3000-meter race, American Mary Decker collided with South African Zola Budd, causing Decker to fall completely and lose the race. Decker blamed Budd, and Budd blamed Decker, and no one ever fully took the blame.

If you can't compete...send in your twin? That's what Madeline de Jesus, the Puerto Rican track and field athlete, was thinking when she was injured after the long jump event; she tried to send in her twin sister, Margaret, to run in a qualifying heat while she recovered. But as soon as the Puerto Rican coach got wind of her intentions, he shut the whole thing down.

You can see it clearly here: American diver Greg Louganis is hitting his head on the diving board in the preliminary rounds of the Olympics. He suffered a concussion after the gasp-worthy accident, and yet...he still went on the win the gold, earning the victory by a margin of 25 points.

Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson won the 100-meter race (that's him with his arm up in the air, celebrating) but the sweet feeling of victory didn't last long. He was disqualified for doping three days later and promptly stripped of his medal.

When the judges declared that American Roy Jones Jr. officially lost the championship bout to South Korean Park Si-Hun, it was an outrage: Most people there though Roy Jones Jr. would've clearly been the winner—and with good reason. Jones pummeled Park for three rounds, landing 86 punches to Park's 32. (Later, judges admitted to having been wined and dined by the South Korean officials and feeling pressure to award a medal to their athlete.)

True: that gymnast is high up in the air. Also true: that vault is low to the ground...too low. At the 2000 Olympics, Australian gymnast Alanna Slater speculated that the vault wasn't positioned at the right height, and when they measured it, she was right: It was two inches lower than it should've been, which is why it was messing with people's routines. Ultimately, five gymnasts were given the option to redo the event, but it definitely caused disruption and thew many off their game before the error was caught.

When Romanian gymnast Andreea Răducan asked her coach for something to cure her cold during the Olympics, he gave her Nurofen, an over-the-counter cold medicine...and effectively ruined her whole 2000 Olympics by not checking the ingredients list. Apparently Nurofen contains pseudophedrine, an illegal substance for Olympic athletes (though it's just a nasal decongestant!). After being drug tested, Răducan was stripped of one of her gold medals for the violation.

Marion Jones made history at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia. After winning three gold and two bronze medals, Jones became the first female track and field athlete to win five medals at the same games. However, almost a decade after her victory, she was found guilty of doping during the competition and was stripped of her medals. In 2008, Jones plead guilty to lying to federal agents about her use of performance-enhancing drugs and was sentenced to six months in prison.

Twenty two miles into the marathon, British athlete Paula Radcliffe collapsed and was unable to finish the race. She faced lots of scrutiny from the press that she should've just pressed on and at least try to walk it, and debate still continues as to whether she pulled out because she knew she would not catch Japanese winner Mizuki Noguchi, or because she actually physically could not go on. But even the fact that people questioned her "intentions" was a scandal, with many people saying the British press was being unfairly hard on Radcliffe because she was a woman.

He Kexin, a Chinese gymnast, won two gold medals during the 2008 Olympics...all the while dealing with speculation that she wasn't allowed to compete. Though her passport stated she was 16 years old at the time of the Olympics, several other registration systems featured a 1994 birthday for her, making her 14 during the Olympics and ineligible. Speaking to reporters after the 2008 Olympic team final, Kexin said, "My real age is 16. I don't care what other people say," and the IOC agreed to leave it at that.

After he was disqualified for going overtime on an allotted time-out, Cuban Taekwondo athlete Angel Matos put his martial arts skills to the wrong use and attacked two officials. Both he and his coach were banned from the Olympics...for life.

South Korean épée fencer Shin Lam had a one-point lead over German Britta Heidemann in the semifinal match-up when the clock accidentally gave the German a split-second advantage. The time glitch was enough to essentially give Heidemann the victory over Lam, and then―since the official rules of fencing state that once you leave the mat you accept the result―Lam had to stay on the mat while judges reviewed their appeal...for an hour. Even still, in the end it was ruled a German victory.

American gymnast Jordyn Wieber finished fourth overall in the individual all-around gymnastics final qualifiers, but still did not make the finals. Why? An obscure Olympics rule that no country may have more than two gymnasts competing for the all-around title. Since the second and third place athletes were also American, gymnasts from other countries with lesser scores were sent to the Olympics instead of Wieber.