The Olympics have become the kind of event that people tune into for many different reasons. Some people like to watch the world’s greatest athletes compete with one another. And others simply like to see the craziest things that happen live during a competition!
Perhaps the craziest thing that can happen on live TV is the wardrobe malfunction. Olympics athletes always dress to impress when the eyes of the world are watching them. But those fancy outfits aren’t always up to the task and often come loose at the worst possible times.
Hopefully this year’s athletes will not go through the ordeal these athletes faced. Here are the craziest Olympics wardrobe malfunctions ever caught on camera!
No flashing in the pool
Jennifer Benitez may have been born in America, but she competed for Spain in the 2012 Summer Olympics. She was one of the world’s most skilled springboard divers at the time of the competition. Unfortunately, her performance was soon the last thing people were talking about!
That’s because, after her dive, she ended up adjusting her swimsuit. In that half-second, the camera gets a brief glimpse of her bare chest. The one thing saving her modesty was that Benitez seemingly taped down her nipples, which is a common practice among swimmers.
Keeping calm under pressure
Part of the horror of watching these videos is imagining what we would do in their place. When your clothes are starting to come off in front of the entire world, how do you react?
In the unlikely case that ever happens, we simply hope to keep our cool as well as Yura Min did. While dancing with Alexander Gamelin in the 2018 Winter Olympics, an important piece fell off of her outfit. And without this piece, she was in serious danger of falling out of her clothes.
Min could have stopped the performance to adjust, though that carries with it a penalty. Instead, she simply adjusted how she skated to avoid any unnecessary exposure. This ultimately affected her score (the two came in ninth place), but we still can’t get over how well they both kept their composure!
The slip seen round the world
Christina Tsoukala is one of the most famous Greek athletes in the world. And in 2008, she was competing for her country in water polo during the Summer Olympics. As you can see, she was a little too focused on the competition to notice that her swimsuit had slid down.
It only happened for a moment, but her left breast was exposed. Unfortunately, cameras captured this moment, and it became a nip slip (sometimes censored, sometimes not) seen round the world. This would have been creepy enough on its own, but the fact that she was only 17 at the time makes all of this that much worse.
A revealing celebration
For the most part, Olympic athletes are all about keeping calm in the face of insane pressure. That’s why some of our favorite Olympic moments involve these athletes doing something impulsive simply because they felt like it.
Russian skater Olga Graf knows all about this. In the 2014 Winter Olympics, she competed well enough to earn a bronze medal. This prompted her to take a victory lap where, in front of God and the world, she unzipped her suit down to her belly button.
Later, she explained that her suit was tight and uncomfortable and she simply wanted some freedom. But the fact that she had nothing on underneath quickly made this footage go viral.
A hairy belly surprise
On paper, Sergei Ponomarenko had it really easy. He had already won his bronze medal during the 1984 Winter Olympics, so he could effectively relax while skating with Marina Klimova. It turns out, though, there is such a thing as “too relaxed.”
While these Russians skated, Ponomarenko’s shirt gave out and exposed the world to his very hairy belly. So hairy, in fact, you might think you are seeing a bear ice skating for the very first time!
Who needs pants?
In the Olympics and beyond, skaters and snowboarders have a well-earned reputation for being very chill. But in 2014, skiier Henrik Harlaut pushed this stereotype to the limit with his performance during the Winter Olympics.
His pants were already baggy, so as he skied, his pants sagged down and showed the world a good look at the man’s boxer shorts. He turned in a modest performance (coming in sixth place) but seemed to take the wardrobe malfunction in stride. In fact, he flashed the Wu-Tang Clan symbol with his hand and even shouted the iconic phrase, “Wu-tang is for the children.”
A nip bit slippery
These wardrobe malfunctions can be shocking. But they are also pretty sobering when you realize how devastated the athletes must feel. We certainly saw that after what happened with French ice dancers Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron at the 2018 Winter Olympics.
Near the very beginning of their short program, Papadakis’s halter came unfastened. By the end, her chest was exposed. And to make matters worse, the cameras even zoomed in on her bit of northern exposure. She made it through the performance, but the whole mess left Papadakis crying and leaving her partner to answer questions.
The two eventually came back and even took home a silver medal. But sadly, all anyone wanted to talk about was the embarrassing wardrobe malfunction.