Ever notice how many people love to watch the Olympics even though they don’t normally watch sports? That’s because the Olympics are more than just another competition between a couple of rival teams. This is an event where the best athletes in the world have a chance to write their own illustrious page in the history books.
However, while everyone remembers the Olympics as a time of triumph, it can also be a time of tragedy. Some athletes come for the gold and walk away with nothing but heartache. Which athletes are we talking about, and what awful tragedies did they endure? Keep reading to find out!
Dutch gymnasts murdered by Nazis
Back in 1928, the Dutch Olympic gymnastics team made a major impression on the entire world. They earned the gold that year and made countless headlines. Because of that constant coverage, it was well known that five of these athletes as well as their coach were Jewish, something that would make them targets 12 years later.
It was in 1940 that the Nazis invaded the Netherlands. When this happened, the coach and all his players except Elka de Levie were sent to labor camps due to their heritage. Horrifically, they all died in the camps, making this undoubtedly the darkest part of Olympic history.
Aly Raisman abused by her physician
While the Olympics themselves are great, you never know when a very bad actor may threaten to forever ruin the event’s reputation. That nearly happened in 2016 when the USA Gymnastic team’s national medical coordinator Larry Nassar had to be removed from his position. This followed a complaint that led to authorities discovering the unthinkable: that the doctor was engaging in sexual misconduct with the young women under his care.
One of his victims was the Olympic gymnast Aly Raisman, and she bravely refused to stay silent about what Nassar did to her. In 2018, she testified during his trial and vividly described how he abused her under the guise of providing treatment. And in a wonderfully cathartic moment, she got a chance to deliver a direct statement to her abuser that lasted 13 minutes!
Shannon Miller’s cancer diagnosis
In many ways, we take the health of Olympic athletes for granted. After all, they have to be in peak physical condition to even compete in the first place. It’s only natural to assume that they will stay much healthier than the average person for many years after they retire.
However, Shannon Miller is proof that we should never make such assumptions. After she gained five gold medals in 1993-1994, she seemed practically unstoppable. But in 2010, she revealed to the world that she had been diagnosed with a rare health condition: germ-cell ovarian cancer.
The sudden death of Simone Biles’ aunt
Simone Biles continues to be one of America’s best Olympic athletes, and her achievements would be impressive in any light. However, some of those achievements are even more amazing when you consider what she was going through. A great example of this occurred during the 2020 Olympics.
This was the year that Biles took home the bronze medal for the balance beam, meaning it would normally be time to celebrate. However, the athlete revealed right before her victory that her aunt had passed away only two days before. Rather than be consumed by her grief, Biles used this opportunity to remind the public that, win or lose, we never know what individual struggles these athletes may be dealing with.
Sunisa Lee’s father getting paralyzed
Earlier, we discussed how Simone Biles had to compete despite the stress of her aunt dying shortly before she earned a bronze medal. Few people can beat that sad tale, but Sunisa Lee is one of them. She is a gold-winning American gymnast whose father suffered a horrific accident days before she competed in 2019.
He had been cutting down a tree when it fell on him, paralyzing Lee’s dad from the waist down. That would have been bad enough on its own, but in 2024, she revealed that she had been diagnosed with a kind of kidney disease for which there is no cure.
The death of Jessica Hogg’s mother
While Sunisa Lee had to deal with the stress of her father getting paralyzed before she competed, the athlete could take cold comfort from the fact that he was still alive. Sadly, Singapore Youth Olympian Jessica Hogg had to deal with something even worse when it came to the shocking death of her mother.
Hogg is an Olympian from Wales, and talent ran in the family…after all, her mother was also an international gymnast. But when Jessica was only 18 months old, her mother died of a brain tumor at the tender age of 29. The athlete was taken in by her grandparents, but grandma died suddenly when Hogg was only 15.