The nineteen eighty Summer Olympics in Moscow were defined by controversy. Even before the games had begun, more than sixty countries stage to boycott in protest of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Some also pulled out for economic reasons, but without the likes of the United States, Japan, and China. It had a direct impact on competition. Take the men's triple jump. It was fiercely contested, but the results were hotly disputed.
Australian Ian Campbell was tipped as one of.
The favorites, and he managed to stun the crowd by smashing an Olympic record. That was until the judge pulled him up and ruled that Ian had fouled. What happened next would change the rules of triple jump for good. Hey, welcome to the ballroom where we celebrate the winners, losers, and the weird stuff between.
I'm Tony Armstrong.
Before he was a star track and field athlete, Ian Campbell was a Nouzi RULs footballer. As a teenager, he played in the junior representative comp the Teal Cup, and was good enough to grab the attention of Collingwood.
He was a tall and skinny kid, but he was fast. Growing up in Victoria, playing professional football.
Was the dream, but when that didn't pan out, Ian found his true calling in athletics. His local track and field club, the Ivanhoe Harriers, was where he honed his technique in the triple club. But soon Ian was off to the USA. He scored a scholarship to Washington State University and went on to win back to back NC Double A titles for indoor triple jump. At twenty one years old, Ian qualified for the nineteen seventy eight Commonwealth Games,
which were held in Edmonton in Canada. He came away with the silver medal, which put him on the path for the biggest stage of all, The Olympics. Nineteen seventy nine proved to be good preparation for Ian. He competed at the I Double AF World Cup in Montreal, winning bronze. He also faced some opponents that he'd be seeing again real soon. So Moscow nineteen eighty there were twenty three
competitors in the triple jump. Two qualifying rounds determine who'd make the final, and Ian was the only one who managed to clear seventeen meters. He was one of the best triple jumpers in the world by this point, along with the Brazilian Di Olivera. Eleven athletes progressed to the final, and Ian was in the box seat to take home the gold. But pretty quickly all expectations went out the window. Each athlete had to make a total of twelve jumps.
Ian started strong, at least on paper, because this is where the event started to turn. Ian's first effort was ruled a foul by the judges, who said he dragged his trailing foot on the ground what's called a scrape fowl. Ian couldn't believe it, he protested, but the officials weren't having it.
Now. If the drama ended there, maybe I wouldn't be telling you this story.
But out of Ian's twelve jumps, nine of them were deemed fowls, and his fourth jump, which is around seventeen and a half meters, would have been a new Olympic record and enough to secure Ian the gold. Instead, it was ruled out. It's practically unheard of for elite triple jumpers to perform successive fowls like this, and jumping as well as Ian had was pretty much impossible while dragging your feet clearly something was off and get this, Ian
wasn't the only one affected. His closest competitor, Diolivera, who was the official world record holder.
At the time, received the same number of fowls, so who took home the medals well.
Two Soviets were awarded gold and silver in the final, while the Brazilian Diolivera somehow managed to claim bronze, and as for Iam, he finished in fifth place. It sounds like a Cold War spy thriller or something, but years later a conspiracy emerged. Only Soviet officials were assigned as judges for the long jump, impartial Olympic officials were pulled from the event, meaning it may have been rigged in the soviets favor.
The heartbreak of.
Moscow loomed like a dark cloud over Ian Campbell following the nineteen eighty Games, and his career was cut short by injury.
Just a couple of years later.
Fast forward a few decades and the video footage of Ian's jump was analyzed in slow motion detail. Athletics Australia commissioned biomechanics experts to take a closer look, and they found that Ian had not scraped his foot They also confirmed that his fourth jump was in fact a record distance of seventeen point five meters. Finally, it was definitive proof that Ian Campbell was robbed of the gold medal
in nineteen eighty. With this new information at hand, in twenty fifteen, Athletics Australia appealed to the world governing bodies to have Ian awarded the gold. We weren't calling for the Soviets to be stripped of their medals, only for Ian to be recognized for his record breaking jump, But the appeal was dismissed. The whole thing was incredibly frustrating for Ian, especially when you consider the fact that the scrapefowl was abolished from the rules shortly after the Moscow Games.
It was obvious that the action simply didn't provide any advantage to triple jumpers. Ian Campbell went on to have a successful career in sports business and administration. He worked for Nike in the States and Richmond Football Club back home.
But while his rightful gold medal is omitted.
From the history books, he'll always have a place in the hearts of Ossie sports fans.
Well, that's it for another episode of The Ballroom I hope you liked it. I'm Tony Armstrong and I'll see you next time.