Famous Olympians Who Fell From Grace

After years of dodging rumors, U.S. track and field star Marion Jones finally came clean in October 2007. She admitted to using performance-enhancing drugs, lying about it to federal investigators, and lying about her involvement in a check-fraud case. Jones was sentenced to six months in prison, two years probation, and 400 hours of community service. She was also stripped of the five medals she won—three gold and two bronze—at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia, reported ESPN.

"Her admission is long overdue and underscores the shame and dishonor that are inherent with cheating," a chairman for the International Olympic Committee said at the time of her confession, according to The New York Times.

The doping scandal that stripped cyclist Lance Armstrong of his seven Tour de France titles and banned him from cycling for life also impacted his Olympic legacy. In January 2013, the International Olympic Committee stripped Armstrong of the bronze medal he won at the 2000 Games in Sydney. "We have written to Armstrong asking him to return the medal," an International Olympic Committee spokesman told the BBC.

Armstrong admitted to taking a variety of banned performance-enhancing drugs throughout his cycling career during an interview with Oprah Winfrey, yet he did not exactly hustle to return his Olympic hardware. In September 2013, IOC Vice President Thomas Bach said the committee was still waiting to receive Armstrong's medal, reported NPR. Shortly thereafter, Armstrong confirmed he had returned his bronze in a rather embarrassing tweet.

Michael Phelps, the most decorated Olympian in history, received a suspended prison sentence of one year, plus one and a half years of probation, after pleading guilty to a drunken driving charge in 2014. USA Swimming also banned him from the sport for six months. The embarrassing incident marked Phelps' second DUI arrest in 10 years.

At the time of his 2014 sentencing, Phelps' lawyer claimed the swimmer had completed a 45-day stint in rehab, was attending Alcoholics Anonymous, and seeking further help from a counselor, according to The New York Times. "I now have the tools to move past this," Phelps told the court. "What I did was wrong, and I made a bad mistake. I'm looking forward to having a much brighter future than I had in the past."

Five years prior to his 2014 arrest, Phelps came under fire after a photo of him with a marijuana pipe was published in a British tabloid. Phelps acknowledged the photo was real, received a three-month suspension from USA Swimming, and lost one of his biggest sponsors, the food company Kellogg, The New York Times confirmed.

Phelps was back in the pool and and back on top at the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, adding another five gold medals and one silver to his extensive collection.

What list of disgraced Olympic athletes would be complete without the infamous Tonya Harding? The figure skater's name was implicated in the nasty attack on competitor Nancy Kerrigan after a practice session for the 1994 U.S. Figure Skating Championships. Word quickly got out that Harding's ex-husband, Jeff Gillooly, and three other men had organized the ambush, leading many to suspect that Harding was somehow involved as well.

During the attack, one of the men struck Kerrigan's right knee with a collapsible police baton. They reportedly chose the right knee because  was Kerrigan's "landing leg," so severely injuring it would take her out of competition, reported The New York Times.

To this day, Harding has maintained her innocence, as documented in the ESPN documentary The Price of Gold. She did plead guilty to hindering the investigation in a plea deal with prosecutors. Harding received three years' supervised probation, 500 hours of community service, and was required to pay a $100,000 state fine, donate $50,000 to the Special Olympics, and undergo a psychiatric examination. She was also stripped of her 1994 U.S. National Championship medal and banned from U.S. Figure Skating Association-related events for life.