Athletes Banned For Life From Their Sports

Radical changes in sports betting in recent years mean you can now legally make bets in 38 states. But there are still rules about what you can't do when it comes to betting, especially if you are an athlete. 

Jontay Porter of the Toronto Raptors broke several of those rules. An investigation by the NBA in 2024 found that he not only bet on basketball games, he also gave inside information to gamblers, and, worst of all, he faked injuries so bets his acquaintances placed would pay out. Porter was subsequently banned for life from the NBA. Raptors President Masai Ujiri said, "My first reaction is obviously surprise, because none of us, I don't think anybody, saw this coming" (via the AP/CBC).

Ujiri might have been talking about Porter as a person and the unlikelihood he would get involved in this kind of scheme. But he should have seen the problem more generally coming from a mile away. Legal sports gambling is only getting bigger, which means examples like Porter's are "just the tip of the iceberg," Sean McKeever, a professor of philosophy, told Vox. "The corrupting forces are powerful ones. ... And bettors stand to make significant sums if they can extract valuable information and behavior from players and those around them." Professor Andrew Zimbalist, an expert on the economics of sports, told MarketWatch, "...it's really likely it's going to happen a lot more. Everybody, even if they are rich, wants to get richer." 

By the time the first figure skater took the ice at the 1994 Winter Olympics, there had already been more than enough drama between the competitors, thanks to a notorious sports rivalry that took things too far. Six weeks earlier, an unknown man had attacked Nancy Kerrigan with a metal baton, walloping her knee. Amazingly, she was healed enough to skate at the Games, along with fellow Team USA member Tonya Harding. Kerrigan eventually won silver while Harding came eighth.

Failing to medal was only the beginning of Harding's problems, though. Soon, the conspiracy to take Kerrigan out of Olympic contention by men connected to Harding, including her ex-husband, was discovered. Harding was also charged, and while prosecutors believed she was heavily involved in the plot, they agreed to a plea bargain in which she only admitted to hindering prosecution. Part of the deal required her to resign her membership in the United States Figure Skating Association, although this point would become moot since the association ended up banning her for life.

Since then Harding has told her version of the story in multiple formats, including in the Oscar-winning biopic "I, Tonya." She married, had a child, and tried to stay anonymous, although she found that almost impossible. At one point she took up boxing and fought in six professional bouts. She says she has apologized to Kerrigan many times, although the latter disputes this.

Sumo wrestler Wakanohō Toshinori was born Soslan Gagloev in Russia and started his sports career as a talented young wrestler. However, he couldn't keep himself below the 264 lb. weight limit needed to compete in the Olympics, so his father encouraged him to try sumo wrestling instead. By 17, Wakanohō was rich and famous in Japan. By 20, he was in disgrace and taking the sport down with him.

In 2008, Wakanohō was arrested for drug possession. He was caught with marijuana, which might sound tame by U.S. standards but was a serious crime in Japan. He was quickly banned from sumo for life, the first wrestler to be barred for drug use. All sumo wrestlers were subsequently drug tested, resulting in another two being banned for marijuana use just a month after Wakanohō was. Adding to the drama, Wakanohō then claimed he had been paid to throw sumo matches and that many others were involved in match-fixing as well.

After being thrown out of the Japanese sumo world and now going by his birth name, Gagloev tried to make it in American football, playing at Webber International before transferring to the University of South Florida, and eventually trying out for the NFL. He was unsuccessful, however, and eventually returned to sumo — outside Japan, at least — competing in bouts organized by the International Sumo League.

You expect to see some pretty violent kicking when watching an Olympic taekwondo match. The problem for Cuban competitor Ángel Matos, however, was that those moves should only be directed at your opponent, not the referee. Matos was winning the bronze medal match at the 2008 Games in Beijing when he appeared injured. The referee believed Matos exceeded the allowed minute of injury time and disqualified him, meaning his medal dreams at that Olympics were over. In a rage, he ran at the ref and kicked him in the head. He was dragged away by security, and the spectators who had witnessed the incident also heard the announcement just minutes later that Matos was banned for life from the sport.

"It's something I still regret until this very day because I didn't want my sports career to end this way," Matos told the Havana Times in 2018. Beijing was his third Olympics, and he'd won gold in the 2000 Games in Sydney. But while Matos might take responsibility for what he did, he also made claims of match-fixing against others involved. "They tried to buy me off that day so that I would lose the fight. My trainer and I were both offered money and we refused. That's why I still say that they bought the referee off, because ever since the match began, he bothered me."

While it's the athletes at the top of their game that get the most attention when they are suspended or banned, less talented players can face serious consequences for their actions as well. Take Bulgarian tennis player Aleksandrina Naydenova. Her career-high WTA singles ranking was just 218, which she achieved in 2019. We'll never know if she could have achieved a higher place than that because it was the same year she was banned for life for match-fixing. 

Naydenova was not the only one involved, however. In fact, she was one small part of the biggest match-fixing ring tennis had ever seen, organized by a man named Grigor Sargsyan and involving at least 180 players from 35 countries. Players would receive texts before their matches telling them how well — or not — to perform. The same information would be sent to the gamblers involved in the ring, allowing them to make bets they had no chance of losing.

In 2020, an investigation found that Naydenova was involved in at least 12 match-fixing incidents over a four-year period. Her temporary ban from any official tennis competition was made permanent, and she was also fined $150,000.

The honor, as it were, of being the only NHL player ever banned for life goes to Billy Coutu. He'd been playing in the league since it began and had been captain of the Montreal Canadiens. He was also a notable hothead, even in a sport where on-ice brawls are expected. 

Before the 1926-27 season he'd been traded to the Boston Bruins, who ended up making it to the Stanley Cup Final that year. It had been considered a particularly fine year for the NHL, which now had 10 teams. But on April 13, 1927, not only was Coutu about to lose the finals in Game 4 with his team, but by the next day, he would be banned for life from his league. Amazingly, this ban had nothing to do with the fight that broke out during the game itself and required police to break it up. After the game was over, Coutu, along with the Bruins' manager and several other players, jumped one of the referees in a hallway. The reason Coutu was the only one to receive a lifetime ban, however, was that when another referee tried to stop the assault, Coutu attacked him too.

The ban was only enforced for two years. Coutu was eventually allowed to play and coach in the minor leagues and then given permission to return to the NHL, although he never played in another major league game.