SI.com Daily Cover: The Boldest Cheat in Olympics History

In the pantheon of Olympic sports, modern pentathlon ranks toward the bottom.

In the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal, however, it was front-page news.

If you don’t know pentathlon – and who would blame you? – it’s riding, fencing, shooting, swimming and running. The Soviet Union’s Boris Onischenko is a titan in the sport. He has won a world championship and an Olympic silver medal and been part of gold-and-silver-medal-winning Olympic teams.

In 1976, however, his career ended in global embarrassment. His story is detailed by Michael Farber in Tuesday’s SI.com Daily Cover.

Onischenko’s initial opponent is Adrian Parker, another lefthander. Onischenko lunges, and the light signaling a hit goes on. (A hit, scored when the tip of the épée is depressed, closes the open electrical circuit by making contact between the two wires that run the length of the sword to the base inside the bell guard. The circuit continues from a plug near the handle through the body wire in the fencer's jacket, through the electric spool, and to the scoring box, which triggers a red or green light to indicate who scored the hit.) Fight over. Onischenko’s touch seems too good to be true, at least to Parker. He removes his mask and protests to referee Guido Malacarne that he hasn’t been hit. Following a cursory examination of Onischenko’s épée—all swords must pass inspection before competition—the referee does not annul the touch.

Onischenko got away with cheating in that match. He wouldn’t against Jeremy Fox.

“We hadn’t started yet, so we’re watching their match,“ Canadian pentathlete Jack Alexander recalls. “We’re sitting next to our coach, [Joe Bucsko], who was a real exaggerator. The light goes on and he says, ‘Boys, Onischenko’s so fast you couldn’t even see it.’ And all three of us are going, ‘Coach, he didn’t touch him.’ ”

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