Suspicion and Intrigue on the Track at the Barcelona 1992 Olympics | Strangest Moments 

4:25 The Medal presentation lady definitely enjoying her moment

The silver medalist Richard Chelimo, Rest in peace, he passed away back in 2001 in Eldoret, Kenya....he was a good guy.

I love how two days later, the crowd was like, we ain't forgot. They got zero chill.

I feel like Boutayeb should have incurred a suspension/ban for his actions in the race. And looking up Skah and Chelimo - just sad what became of them later in life. Chelimo died at a young age of a brain tumor less than 10 years after Barcelona. Skah was involved in a very messy custody case, lost, and did not give his children back to his wife and all of this led to an arrest and a diplomatic issue between Norway and Morocco. Sounds like a very complicated situation.

It's ludicrous for people to state that Boutayeb hindered both racers. It is much more draining on a runner, mentally and physically, to have momentum denied, to lose rhythm, especially if you don't know what the next step will bring. This was a joint effort. Skah pretty much knew the moves B was going to make; he hung back, and was not losing energy by having to pat attention tot he ongoing situation. Matter of fact - Skah seemed way more preoccupied with what was happening behind them; making sure their little party wasn't bothered. Also, had Skah really been remorseful at ceremony, like he tells it, there are gestures and actions on can take to convey this.

I've actually watched this race. He blocked both men, slowing both of them down, not just the Kenyan. Likely a bad case of pride, not liking being lapped.

Bruh it’s literally common sense on the track to move aside for other runners.

I remember this at the time. It's a tough one. Boutayeb was a good runner and there's no reason he should have been lapped. I agreed with reinstating Skah because if you can't prove he and Boutayeb colluded, it's rather unfair to DQ him. Skah was a great runner and certainly capable of beating Chelimo without help. This kind of thing hasn't happened since but there probably needs to be a clear policy that you pull the lapped runner off the track if he doesn't stay way clear.

Lapped runners are always suppose to move out to the outer lanes. I had the Cable Red, White and Blue channel to watch all of the Olympics. Took two weeks off from work. It Was great. All the heats.

He received assistance. If they conspired in advance, that makes it so much worse, but even if they didn't, that still doesn't remove the fact that he received assistance. I doubt the cited rule specifies that assistance becomes acceptable if the athlete being assisted isn't on the plot nor agrees with it.

At the end of the day he received assistance, whether is was planned or not. The Kenyan was impeded. He should have been demoted to silver at the very least.

these are so interesting

I know Skah personally, he was very angry and got to the point of insulting hammou for what he did. He was yelling at him and telling him to get out of the way. Believe me, there was no agreement at all and Skah was a double world champion who defeated the Kenyans and Ethiopians in the World cross country and the five thousand and ten thousand meters .

Even Skah doesn’t dispute Boutayeb’s unsportsmanlike conduct. Only the conspiracy couldn’t be proved.

The strange move is when they were about to lap Boutayeb, why did Skah slow down and let Chelimo be in front of him at this specific moment? Has anyone asked him (or Chelimo at the time) about that? Because they seemed to talk...

The only person who knows what was going on in the track Skah and Boutayeb. No one else knows what they were talking about. Just because it looks bad does not mean it is bad. Skah might have been lying or telling the truth. They were talking but of course no one could hear.

There is no suspicion or intrigue as to why Khalid Skah was re-instated to the gold medal after he had been initilly disqualified for allegedly receiving help to block Chelimo,from a fellow country man, Hammou Boutayeb, who was being lapped with 3 laps to go. I was the personal manager and coach to Richard Chelimo and set all his training in London, leading to his earlier world record for 10,000mts in Stockholm and through to his attempt to win gold at the Barcelona Olympics. Shortly after the sensational race it was declared that Skah was disqualified and that Chelimo would be awarded the gold medal the following day at the medal ceremony. An immediate appeal was made by the Moroccon team delegation but which looked in everyone's eyes, bound to fail because the rules were quite clear about a lapped runner not allowed in any way to impede or try to go to the front having been lapped. That in itself would only have meant a disqualification for Boutayeb, but the prolonged effort by Boutayeb interfering in the race, leading, dropping back and then leading again and the obvious fact that Skah was being told something to him by Boutayeb and he still continued for over a lap with no response from Skah, led to the not unreasonable suspicion that he was colluding with Skah to help him, which caused both to be disqualified. Both denied any collusion and Skah claimed he was telling Boutayeb to get out of the way. This seemed very unlikely, because of the way it proceeded and Skah made no real attempt or show of anger and certainly if Boutayeb was told by his Skah to get out of the way, he would have done so or incurred a lot of wrath afterwards from Skah and the team management, especially had Skah lost the race. However, the IAAF responsible for the rules of competition, decided after reviewing the video replays, that the two had definitely colluded and subsequently they were disqualifed, (although Boutayeb stepped off the track without completing the race) It should also be noted, aside from the interference by Boutayeb, that with just 130 mts to go (not seen in this video) with Chelimo leading the sprint, Skah passed him and cut very quickly inside blocking and causing Chelimo to check his stride, and losing momentum. This is also against the IAAF rules as they state, (I paraphrase) ' a runner cannot in passing another athlete, move inside, within a 1 meter space and causing to block them'; but it has to be seen as deliberate. As I understood it from an IAAF source, before it was due to be announced later that night, the Moroccon appeal failed and Chelimo would be duely awarded the win. BUT, the next morning at around 10am it was announced that Skah had been re-instated and would be awarded the gold medal. This obviously caused considerable outrage from most people and the media were also aghast. I tried to contact the Kenyan team delagation to hear their reaction but incredibly they were all out shopping and the first they appeared to know was when I met them coming back into the Village (with bags of shopping!) They too were outraged and could not understand why Skah was re-instated. What transpired, I discovered, was that late that previous night, Juan Samaranch, the President of the IOC, had received a phone call from King Hassan II of Morocco.........Need I say any more!

البطل العالمي و الاولمبي السكاح كان قاهر للكينيين و تصرف الغبي بوطييب كان من تلقاء نفسه و السكاح كان اقوى من ان يساعده احد اما الجمهور الإسباني فليدهم للجحيم و لا تاثير لتصرفاته العنصرية ضد كل ما هو مغربي و هم معذورون لاننا نعرف ان لديهم عقدة من المغرب مند قرون و اخر شطحاتهم كانت في بطولة العالم عندما شنوا حملة ضد العدائين المغاربة و لكن بعد ذلك لقنهم الكروج و عادل كراوش درسا لن ينسوه ابد الذهر و السلام

Chelimo was robbed his gold here. I was watching this race and very angry. This was an illegal gold medal. It was obvious that his teammate helped him out destructing Richard. Kenya was robbed......

This documentary didn't show the most important part. When Skah began sprinting. It's important to see if Boutayeb could have as well. If he was free or not. I think they did it to make the documentary more dramatic. Another conspiracy, possibly.

So didnt both athletes get screwed by the back marker? Like what advantage did skah get from it? Both were distracted and had to move round him

To be fair, he was blocking both of them. Not just the Kenyan.

Lapped runners getting into the mix with the leaders? How embarrassing and pathetic can it get? The official should have tackled him and dragged him off the track.

There was another video inwatched that people at the stadium stated that Skah and Boutayeb almost had a fight after the race .....Skah didnt ask for any type of help, he and boutayeb were both running for morrocco but they didnt even train together...plus watching the video it didnt seem like boutayeb was even helping skah, looked like boutayeb was giving both skah and the kenyan a hard time by passing them and then blocking both of them.

R.I.P Richard Chelimo , 21-4-1972 to 15-8-2001

but when 3 kenyans just box mo farah it is ok

I remember this. They even had lip readers try to discern what the two were saying.He shouldn't have been reinstated.

they should implement a new rule: if a runner gets lapped then they should drop out of a race immediately. at this level if an athlete gets lapped then he/she does not belong. this new rule would eliminate slow runners from causing interference.

Totally not intended and 100% an accident. Also santa is real. He deserved to be stripped off that medal.

He should have been stripped of the medal regardless of whether he approved of the assistance or not. If it is true that it wasn't planned, taking away his victory would have been unfair, but that was an even greater injustice to the other athlete who came in second.

yeah, that's some dirty nonsense. even in NASCAR, that's illegal... in fact, i cant think of a racing sport where somebody being passed or lapped is allowed to block or compete with the lead pack.

Thanks for the Strangest Moments series. Super interesting! Keep em coming 😊

Kenyan's still pretty much dominate to this day. There is the occasional outlier from another country but Kenyan's get most of the medals

Chalimo has never beated Skah. The Moroccan speed at the end is crazy

Skah is a great athlete for sure

Ofc they colluded. It was a 27:45 race (so not a particularly fast race) That means that the other guy was in 28:50 pace more or less. There is no explanation why a former champ could be that slow.

Around year 2000 Skah got some kids with a Norwegian woman. After big upsets between them, they divorced. Skah then kidnapped his own children and flew from Norway with them to his home country Morocco. There he held them as hostages for a long time, before the children finally were rescued. This man, Khalid Skah, was (and is) a really bad man in both talks and actions. A shame that he got this gold medal.

Bhoutayeb moved to be passed in a couple instances in this video...probably the fact that he was hanging around too close to them

Skah did not need to be assisted at that time. His final sprint was outstanding.

Last sprint is all i needed to see. That's where the gold medal comes from.

Skah beat Chilimo 35 times against one only defeat for Skah.. Skah is too far better.

it was such a clear scam I dont understand how anyone can think it wasnt. he clearly was installed as a roadblock.

Khalid Skah Is the One.

The Last lap was clean.. It was a clean win..

Sekkah is a champion. He won fair and square. Leave it to the Spaniards to hate on Moroccans. That hateful colonial mentality.

Anyone else binge watching these clips after the Tokyo games?

I loved chelimo and God bless him ...RIP....but nobody was gonna beat Shah that day...I wanted Todd Williams to win or medal...but again..no one on that track that Monday night was gonna beat the great skah..

Just DQ him and call it a day. Skah was a favorite to win the race anyways. Unless you can prove conspiracy, you shouldn't demote Skah based on the actions of his tm8.

One possible simple answer: you're lapped, rule is you must keep away from leaders and move out of their way. Failing that - the rule is you're lapped you're out of the race. One upside of a road race - can't happen. If a road race has laps they're usually too long for this to be any problem.

Can someone explain how the officials were racist for taking away the medal from one minority and giving it to another? I really don't get his logic there.

I don’t think he cheated, the dude was just prideful and didn’t want to get lapped. He didn’t just slow down the Kenyan he also slowed down his teammate. If that’s the case then the Kenyan should’ve been able to win at the end but he couldn’t, the Moroccan won fairly

It's obvious if you have any sense they did that on purpose If it wasn't on purpose why did the second last runner think it was okay to keep running infront of the other runner.

of course there was a conspiracy ....if the so called athlete was afraid of being over-lapped what was he doing back then

Hammou Boutayeb best lane blocker 2020. He has one of the strongest Dota2 1v1 Mid Only openers of all time.

Just a fact that no one wants to consider: In 36 races, Skah won 35 times and Chelimo one once.

Strange things DO happen during competition and sometimes athletes will NOT fairplay. In my opinion the winner DID NOTHING wrong except that his fellow countryman made him look bad.

Skah is an eternal disgrace to the people of Morocco. This was the most sickening display of bad sportsmanship that anyone has ever seen at the Olympic Games. One can tell from the video that Skah and Bouttaub were together. Skah has no honor.

If you get lapped you should have to get off the track.

I don't think so because Bouteyeb was also blocking his teammate as much as the Kenyan. Plus, Skah was a monster back then, He didn't need that kind of cheating, not before nor after this race.

This man just watched talladega nights and set up for a little shake and bake slingshot action

I watched the video many times I can't see any fraud. I think Skah deserves his medal, I see no conspiracy against the kenyan. The booing can be explained by spanish public been angry that morocco had just chased them from the western sahara few years earlier.

I actually believe what he says about HIS innocence but he still received assistance and so should not have received the gold

Best time 4:25 ones of the most memorable moments of this historic event

They need to 1) find a deaf person to lip read what those 2 were saying 2) slow down the video and zoom in on their faces to get a better view of what was said.

Skah seems very reflective and genuine. I believe his version of how the race unfolded. He deserves his Olympic gold medal. Boutayeb may have been from Morocco, but he distracted and impeded both runners.

Only if there was a way to make them run in a straight 10000m path rather than in a circle.

They need a drive through penalty rule for impeding traffic like in the Formula 1

His medal should have been taken away

a FORMER champion being lapped, totally not suspicious

I don’t understand what is the issue? B is just supposed to move over and not try? I don’t understand moving when lapped…

Isn't it super easy to tell if he's blocking both or just the Kenyan? If he's blocking both then it shouldn't matter. Also, I don't think people would conspire to cheat in such a dimwitted and obvious manner, all while being watched by authorities. People in the comments need to use their brains more.

I remember watching this at the time. Skah had one of the best sprint finishes in the field so didn't need bouteyeb to be a pace maker. I think he would have still won anyway.

エモル図書館から来た人 👇

Yo no veo nada de malo. Además el keniano no podía venderlo en el cierre era demasiado rápido para el

Tragically Richard Chelimo died from a brain tumour aged just 29 in 2001. R.I.P

Olympics would literally allow this gold but disqualified well earned medal to vinesh phogat.

One athlete per country in a track event to prevent this from happening again. Shame on the Olympic committee for giving Shah the gold ultimately.

I hope this story were written better. Halfway through the video I still don't understand what happened

What assistance did Skah receive? Bouttaib (who was actually the defending champion from 1988) was allowed to run with the people that lap him if he wanted to and I didn't see any point where he actually impeded Chelimo. If he got in front and slowed down Chelimo had plenty of room to pass him if he wanted to go faster and if he got in front and tried to get them to go faster they were under no obligation to follow them. I suspect that he was just thinking for a bit that maybe he didn't want to end up being lapped because it's a bit humiliating. If he was plotting with Skah we would have seen him trying much harder to stay really close to Chelimo and actually make him adjust his stride, but he never did. Bouttaib kept a bit of space ahead of Chelimo whenever he went back in front of them. The official really had no business going onto the track and physically contacting Bouttaib. Staying with the runners that lapped him for this long was not very sportsmanlike for sure and he should have just stayed clear and let the other two race on their own, but it wasn't against any rules and it didn't really affect the race. Skah was going to outsprint Chelimo here no matter what, and it was correct to reinstate him and let him keep the gold medal. But it was a bit bizarre to watch because we don't generally see anything like it from lapped runners for more than 50 metres of so after which they usually just drop off.

Al Sakeah was very strong runner he don’t need the help of Abu tyeeb

Ngl he seems to be obstructing both of them

Where’s this strange accent of the narrator from? 🤔

4:24 one fine lady

"My honour was at stake." You lost all honour and credibility when you called the IAAF decision racist.

In marathon 2020 Tokyo 2 Somalian's represnt Nederaland and Belgium won challenging kenya dominance...belgium somalian bronz was due to the other racer's pull won...coz he has no strenght to finish at podium ...after finish it was visible how he collapsed.

kenyan guy could run faster .no excuse .Moroccan deserves gold

You can't be last place and block someone from winning a gold medal

Great job

Skah said that boutaib didn't distract only chelimo but he distracts him also ... He also said that Boutaib is Military guy he didn't know so much rules So do you think that Skah is innocent or he's not and he made conspiracy with Boutaib?

The context is very normal and there is nothing contrary to the law as long as the athlete was running and did not touch the Kenyan athlete and in the end the final speed determined the winner but I see that many want to criticize only for criticism and for information, the two contestants met a few days later and the same champion won

Both have always run strategically as teams to beat opponents. It's a stain on both nations' distance athletes. Not to mention the EPO problem both also have.

It's Chelimo, not Kelimo...Ch, same way you say Charm, or Chest.

2 things about this; the lapped Moroccan, did he file a protest or at least ask officials why the man tried to stop him on the track? If he was innocent, wouldn't he be upset that an official is trying to take him out of the race? Next issue; I've probably watched a couple hundred races in which a runner gets lapped. I've never seen a runner get lapped, then fight back to overtake the guy that just passed him up. The reason it never happens is the guy that gets lapped can't keep up the pace of the leader of the race. That's why he gets lapped to begin with. The Moroccan not only regained the lead after being lapped, he regained the lead 3 times. He could only have had enough energy to do that if this cheating was planned from the beginning. If it was planned, then the guy could have run slowly in order to get lapped intentionally. If he ran slow intentionally, then he would have the energy required to regain the lead 3 times.

Few years later and Moroccans are no where near medal podium in any race. It seems they all retired with El Guerrouj.

Why did chelimo and skah got bothered about boutayeb's sprint when they lapped him ? I mean what would that have changed If they run at the same peace as him knowing than he still needs a lap to join them ? Seems strange to me as he didn't stop them so why chelimo and skah had to slow down or change their peaces ?

He was assisted so should have been stripped of the medal. However I feel sorry for the poor guy cos I believe he didn’t plan it and was punished for his teammate not wanting to be lapped due to pride.

There are important things to know in order to understand what happened, according to Al-Sakah's statement to one of the radio stations, more than twenty years after the accident. Skah had his own team training with him away from the Moroccan Federation, and Boutayeb was not part of the Skah team. Before the race, Boutayeb challenged Skah that he would win the race. Skah replied, "No, I am here." That is why when he passed Kahn and Skah, Boutayeb felt disappointed and weak, so he challenged the two in this way. Skah said that the Kenyan beat him only once, while the Skah beat him more than 35 times In general, Boutayeb did not help Skah, but rather disturbed both

I remember this. Not a cool move. Lapped runners always get out of the way. He probably got mad he got lapped and his pride took over. But I honestly see no proof that the two Moroccians conspired. Whatever the lapped runner was doing affected both runners equally.

bitter spaniards, they dont ever miss a chance to show their hate and arrogance towards Moroccans, 800 years of Moorish rule still hurts, shout out to the Moroccan champ for keeping his coolness he deserved the win.

you wonder if every sport their is cheating. so sick i don't want to watch olympics