Top 10 Worst Sporting Disasters
Published on August 24, 2007 - 38 Comments
Whether we like or not, sport really is a substitute for war. Throughout history, death and sport have stood hand in hand and the people that have died have acquired a legendary warrior-like status. The Juventus fans died in the name of their club and Ayrton Senna died in an accident just as he was about to revolutionize motor racings safety standards. The following top list attempts to look at tragedies in terms of the impact they had on an entire sport, or country, rather than just a few individuals.
1. The Superga Tragedy [Wikipedia]
Returning from little more than a friendly, the plane carrying all but two of the Torino football squad, and many of their coaching staff, crashed into the Superga hill near Turin. Everybody on board died.
At that time Torino was the best side in Italy having won 3 successive Series A titles, with 10 of their players in the Italian international team. Though Torino won another title in 1976, the club never truly recovered. The Italian national side, the best in the world in 1949, did not get to the second phase of a tournament until 1968.
2. Michael Watson [Wikipedia]
The judges robbed Michael Watson in his first jab at the world super middleweight title. To many people, it looked like he had thoroughly outscored his opponent, the unpopular Chris Eubank. The public demanded a rematch and three months later on September 21st 1991, they got their wish.
Watson dominated the fight. By the end of the 11th round all he had to do to win was stay on his feet. Unfortunately, he walked straight into a Eubank punch. The fight continued into the 12th, but while Eubank connected with blow after blow, Watson could hardly raise a glove. Finally, the referee stopped the fight, but it was too late. Watson collapsed in the ring and lay there for 30 minutes while organizers rushed paramedics to the venue. He survived, but after 40 days in a coma and six operations on his brain, Michael Watson and British boxing would never be the same.
3. Hansie Cronje [Wikipedia]
Many of the worst tragedies in sport occur when people take it too seriously. Well known is the shooting of Colombian footballer Escobar. The motivation is unclear, but he was killed shortly after his own goal against the USA knocked Colombia out of the 1994 World Cup. However, football is a massive sport and as such has the habit of washing its hands in the wave of the next big tournament. No such luck for Hansie Cronje.
The cricketing world was shocked to its roots when the South African captain, recognized as one of the nice guys of the game was fingered for match fixing. He was banned for life. Two years later, his death in a plane crash sparked off the conspiracy theorists.
Whatever the truth, Cronje was a very powerful figure in South Africa and may have been on the verge of naming names involved with the betting syndicates. People stood to lose a lot of money. The death of Bob Woolmer at this year’s world cup, and the accusations that followed, no matter how false, proves this matter will not lie.
4. The 1972 Munich Olympics [Wikipedia]
The old adage that sport and politics do not mix does not quite ring true. When it comes to an event like the Olympics, they can mix too well and with disastrous consequences.
In the 1972 Olympics, 11 Israeli athletes were shot dead by the Palestinian terrorist group Black September. The lax German security allowed the 8 Palestinians, with bags of weapons, to scale the fence that surrounded the Olympic village. They then proceeded to enter the Israeli accommodation and take the athletes hostage, threatening to kill them if the Israeli authorities did not organize the release of 234 Palestinians.
In the resulting debacle, including a failed rescue attempt, 11 Israeli athletes, a German police officer and 5 of the Palestinians died. A while later the Israeli government launched Operation Wrath of God, a massive search to kill the hostage organizers. The Palestinians no doubt responded in kind.
It is worth noting that the following Olympic Games in Montreal lost an awful lot of money.
5. Heysel Stadium [BBC]
In 1985, Liverpool and Juventus, two of the biggest clubs in Europe, were facing each other for the first time in a European Cup final. Before the match started, Liverpool supporters reacted to taunts from the Italian fans by charging through the lines of Belgian police. The Juventus fans could do nothing, but retreat as far as a wall, which collapsed under the pressure and onto their own fans below. In the ensuing panic 39 supporters died and over 350 were injured.
UEFA banned English teams from playing in Europe for five years. However, there were positives. The English FA, with backing from the government, went on a huge campaign to take out the hooligan element, and to some extent succeeded. In addition, along with the Hillsborough disaster it made people look closely at stadium safety. Critics noted even before the match, with 58,000 people coming to watch the game, Heysel was a potential death trap.
6. The Death of Ayrton Senna [Wikipedia]
The death of Ayrton Senna marked the end of a great era in Formula One Racing. Senna’s generation had produced drivers of the caliber of Nigel Mansell, Alain Prost, Nelson Piquet and Gerhard Berger, all pushing their cars and their own safety to the limit.
Ironically, Senna’s death was faulty steering, rather than a cavalier approach. Unable to control his car around a corner he skidded off the track and crashed into a wall. Upon impact, one of the suspension bars of his car broke loose and collided with his head. The day before, the Austrian driver, Roland Ratzenburger had died in a similar crash during practise.
In the aftermath, the governing body finally addressed safety issues in the sport, concerns that Senna himself had expressed. To some it was at the expense of the sport. The article on Wikipedia is an excellent and very detailed description of the tragedy.
7. Hong Kong [Wikipedia]
There was allegedly a worse disaster at the Circus Maximus, when the second tier collapsed killing 1,200 people. Nevertheless, with no hard evidence, the worst sporting tragedy, in terms of numbers killed, is the fire at Hong Kong’s Happy Valley Race course in February 1918. 590 people died, though supposedly this is a conservative estimate. Whatever the correct number, it is the worst fire in Hong Kong’s history.
8. Ghana [BBC]
Over a few weeks in April 2001, four huge football disasters occurred on the African continent. 43 people died at, 250 injured during a game in South Africa, 14 people died and 51 injured in Congo, and there was 1 death and 39 injuries after a clash between police and supporters in the Ivory Coast.
The worst disaster was in a Ghana league game between Asante Kotoko and Hearts of Oak. It started when Asante’s fans began ripping up seats after the Hearts Oak side had won the match with two late goals. Moments later the police were spraying tear gas into the crowd. As the gas spread, fans rushed for the exits, but found them locked. Despite this, the police continued firing the gas; people continued rushing for the exit. In total 126 people were crushed to death. Many more were injured.
During that year, almost 200 people died at football matches in Africa, a combination of hooliganism, aggressive policing and poor stadiums. Their collective dream of one day holding a world cup tournament looks very far away.
9. Kurt Jenson and others [BBC]
When the Danish rider, Kurt Jansen collapsed during the 1960 Rome Olympics, from an amphetamine overdose, drugs in cycling became big news.
Like many sports, it attempted to play down the situation. In 2003, after years of ignoring the problem, it had no choice but to face up to it. During a period of just 13 months 8 elite cyclist, 4 under 24 years old, and one of them only 16, died of a heart attack. Commentators stated the drug EPO as the reason.
With Michael Rasmussen and Alexandre Virokourov both disqualified at this years Tour de France, critics claim the sport is still rife with drugs, but as Lance Armstrong pointed out at least it shows the cycling world are finally trying resolve the problem.
10. The Colourful 11 [Wikipedia]
In 1989, a plane carrying a group of Dutch Surinamese footballers crashed upon approach to the Paramaribo Zanderiji airport in Suriname. All but a few people died. The players, known as the colourful 11, were all coming back from a friendly with Suriname, a game they organized every year to raise the awareness of positive role models for the isolated Suriname communities in Holland.
Dutch internationals Ruud Gullit, Frank Rikjaard, Brian Roy, Aron Winter and Regi Blinker all pulled out at the last minute due to club pressure.
Contributor: Simon Arms
Technorati Tags: Disaster, Sports
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1. Morphy - August 24th, 2007 at 8:09 am
I remember well the day Senna dies. My father and I are huge F1 fans and loved the battles between Senna and Mansell. I was in college and had just gotten home from working the graveyard shift and flipped on to watch the race, five minutes later Senna slammed into the wall and I knew he had been killed. I called Dad and we sat and watched and talked as the coverage continued. Made me appreciate what those guys were doing a lot more.
2. jfrater - August 24th, 2007 at 8:23 am
Morphy: wow - it is nice to remember exactly what you were doing when a historical event takes place.
3. Ravstar - August 24th, 2007 at 3:12 pm
surely this list should be extended so that you can add the terrible plane crash in Munich 1958 in which 8 of the ‘Busby Babes’ passed away as well as 15 others on that flight.
http://www.thebusbybabes.com/
4. Crimanon - August 24th, 2007 at 5:40 pm
What about the Brazilian Football team. Stranded in The montains after thier plane crashed. Forced to survive by eating their dead temamates. Not just unfortunate, It had some big time Moral ramifications.
5. rob - August 24th, 2007 at 9:16 pm
no mention of matt busby’s team getting wiped out?
6. jfrater - August 24th, 2007 at 11:41 pm
Thanks for the additions guys - maybe there can be a second list
7. Andre du Plessis - August 25th, 2007 at 12:01 am
Hansie was a nice guy for sure, don’t know about powerful though. But it shows how the love of money can corrupt a good person’s thoughts. He will be greatly missed despite his actions.
@Crimanon : I also thought about that Brazilian team. They made the move ‘Alive’ based on their story. Good movie.
8. Doghouse Riley - August 25th, 2007 at 6:26 am
Check out the story of the 1955 LeMans crash. Pierre Levegh’s Mercedes went into the stands in a ball of fire and took out over 80 spectators. There is video of this (thankfully not too graphic) on the net.
9. ian - August 26th, 2007 at 9:03 am
i know its not as internationally known as alot of these but what about the Marshall football team
i mean the WHOLE team died in that plane crash
10. tjgrs - August 26th, 2007 at 6:24 pm
i second ian’s thought, almost the entire marshall football team and coaching staff died in the plane crash…they were from a town where the college football team was the town, everyone went to the games, and eventually they came back and became a great team
11. rachimp06 - August 28th, 2007 at 12:53 pm
Why didn’t the plane crash that killed Thurman Munson make this list?
12. jfrater - August 28th, 2007 at 2:32 pm
Thanks for all the comments guys - maybe some of the additions will make it to a second list
13. John - September 6th, 2007 at 12:24 pm
What about hillsborough, 96 liverpool fans killed.
14. Simon - September 7th, 2007 at 10:56 am
As a Liverpool fan I feel guilty about not including Hillsborough, but in the end it was a choice between that and Heysel and I felt the reverbations from Heysel were worse, affecting the whole of europe and not just British football.
15. Longball - September 18th, 2007 at 11:15 am
What about Steve Prefontaine from Salem, Oregon. The outstanding runner who died in a car accident?
16. Sean the pyro - October 8th, 2007 at 8:48 am
Thank you for having Senna on this list, one of the saddest days of my life. The Le Mans crash and Marshall plane crash should definetly be on there as well.
17. karlontxo - October 13th, 2007 at 4:36 pm
disaster 3- Escobar country is Colombia, not Columbia. He was killed by drug cartel since they take football a bit too seriously, as you said
comm 4- they werent brazilians football players, they were rugby players from Uruguay, they crashed into Los Andes cord, flying to Chile. http://www.viven.com.uy/571/accidente.asp
18. karlontxo - October 13th, 2007 at 4:43 pm
here is the english version http://www.viven.com.uy/571/Eng/default.asp
19. Rhino - October 14th, 2007 at 3:05 pm
What about the Marshall (West Virginia) plane crash that killed all players and fans aboard.
20. hinjew - November 1st, 2007 at 7:16 pm
or the plane crash that killed some of the US figure skaters sometime in the 60s
21. Demosthenese - November 11th, 2007 at 12:22 pm
All pale in comparison to the Nika riots of 532AD. Tens of thousands were killed. Check it out on wikipedia.
22. davo - November 25th, 2007 at 5:07 pm
why is it the soccer fans are mostly knobs? plus RIP Ayrton Senna
23. Kazorek - December 18th, 2007 at 1:08 am
Maybe a little out of place for this list considering the tragedy didn’t occur during an event and the victim was retired, but I figure Arthur Ashe is worth a mention. None-the-less it was a tragic loss (and story) of a supreme athlete.
24. Dane - December 22nd, 2007 at 7:52 am
A few American omissions:
Len Bias
Marshall football
Thurman Munson
Roberto Clemente. Ok, Clemente wasnt an American, but he played in the US.
25. Rick B - January 9th, 2008 at 8:27 am
I will never understand setting fire to things after a team wins but this “hooligan” element at soccer games leaves me empty. What particularly peeves me is the press’ ability to make these morons sound like they are no more than the playground bully. Hooligan is too colorful of a word - how about hood, or thug or even rioter?
26. Kai4a - January 11th, 2008 at 2:29 pm
I’d have to agree that the Marshall plane crash and 1955 Le Mans crash should be on the list. It must be tough to rank these disasters. Do you go by body count, prominence of the people killed or impact on the sport/all sports? Personally, #’s 2 & 3 mean little to nothing to me, not being a fan of boxing or cricket.
27. 3 - January 22nd, 2008 at 7:12 am
I know these lists are very subjective, but I would have thought Dale Earnhardt would have made the list. His death completely changed NASCAR.
28. Matt - January 23rd, 2008 at 9:48 am
a few things i would like to add, firstly, the brazillian football team that crashed in the andes mountains were actually a uraguyan rugby team, not that it makes a big difference and secondly, you have to truly understand football before you comdem all acts of hooliganism, i come from a place where one of the biggest rivalries in the world takes place and ordinary people who could be the nicest person you could ever meet can get caught up in the mass confusion, also consider that many people who support football in poorer countries consider their club to be more important than their own families and is the only relief they have from their usual lives, i don’t condone it but i can understand why it happens
29. nelson - February 5th, 2008 at 6:22 pm
torino was playing a friendly with benfica!?
30. Matt - February 6th, 2008 at 3:52 am
true but usually in europe the word friendly only means the players don’t show as much passion, an italian team renouned for it’s ultras that very rarely has a chance to leave italy playing a portugese team also renouned for its fanatical fans is a deadly situation, even if it is a friendly.
31. devilishgrin66 - February 14th, 2008 at 1:22 am
I will definitly agree that marshall should be added on the list and a mention of earnhardt…although i have a hard time considering earnhardt a disaster because it isn’t exactly unexpected in racing for there to be crashes, i just feel that tragedy/disaster implies that it wasnt expected (maybe someone dying isnt expected in racing, but how many races have you ever seen that haven’t had a crash?)
32. superdude5683 - April 10th, 2008 at 10:57 am
how about dale??? his death affected nearly every american in some way
33. Jose - July 7th, 2008 at 8:53 am
I dont know if this list includes only professional tragedies, but the andes disaster involving amateur rugby team of old christian is by far the worst tragedy, 72 days in the freezing andean mountaings, having been forced to eat the flesh of their friends, no discuss and thats even worse than any other disaster
34. SouthernGal - July 25th, 2008 at 1:42 am
I was quite impressed by the list. I have to admit that I was rather shocked and distressed upon learning that Dale Earnhardt’s death did not make the list. He was the most iconic figure the sport had seen, and his death at the top track during NASCAR’s premier event left us all absolutely reeling. The resulting investigation and subsequent safety changes implemented by NASCAR have forever changed the sport. Prior to Dale’s death, the NASCAR world had lost drivers to on-track incidents, but it took the loss of the sport’s absolute superstar to create revolutionary and needed changes in our sport.
Because of Dale, all future drivers can drive and compete feeling somewhat safer in their cars as they push themselves and their machines to their limits.
35. joebecca - September 2nd, 2008 at 1:19 pm
Dale Earnhardt should definitely be on this list. Although he is American, he’s a huge icon over here and it’s a shame he wasn’t recognized. His funeral was televised nationwide.
36. Fred Doevils - September 9th, 2008 at 5:14 am
Good list. But at no. 10: It’s ‘Rijkaard’ not “Rikjaard”.
Thx foorhours of great pleasure
37. jajdude - October 9th, 2008 at 10:51 pm
fresh guns on the list g for exposing hanse cronje for the cad that he was.
38. PastTime491 - November 18th, 2008 at 1:58 am
The Marshall Football Plane crash was a horrible sports disaster and probably the worst in U.S. history. We are Marshall is a good and sad film depicting the tragedy.