Speaker 1: The nineteen eighty Summer Olympics in Moscow were defined by controversy.
Speaker 1: Even before the games had begun, more than sixty countries
Speaker 1: stage to boycott in protest of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
Speaker 1: Some also pulled out for economic reasons, but without the
Speaker 1: likes of the United States, Japan, and China. It had
Speaker 1: a direct impact on competition. Take the men's triple jump.
Speaker 1: It was fiercely contested, but the results were hotly disputed.
Speaker 2: Australian Ian Campbell was tipped as one of.
Speaker 1: The favorites, and he managed to stun the crowd by
Speaker 1: smashing an Olympic record. That was until the judge pulled
Speaker 1: him up and ruled that Ian had fouled. What happened
Speaker 1: next would change the rules of triple jump for good. Hey,
Speaker 1: welcome to the ballroom where we celebrate the winners, losers,
Speaker 1: and the weird stuff between.
Speaker 2: I'm Tony Armstrong.
Speaker 1: Before he was a star track and field athlete, Ian
Speaker 1: Campbell was a Nouzi RULs footballer. As a teenager, he
Speaker 1: played in the junior representative comp the Teal Cup, and
Speaker 1: was good enough to grab the attention of Collingwood.
Speaker 2: He was a tall and skinny kid, but he was fast.
Speaker 2: Growing up in Victoria, playing professional football.
Speaker 1: Was the dream, but when that didn't pan out, Ian
Speaker 1: found his true calling in athletics. His local track and
Speaker 1: field club, the Ivanhoe Harriers, was where he honed his
Speaker 1: technique in the triple club. But soon Ian was off
Speaker 1: to the USA. He scored a scholarship to Washington State
Speaker 1: University and went on to win back to back NC
Speaker 1: Double A titles for indoor triple jump. At twenty one
Speaker 1: years old, Ian qualified for the nineteen seventy eight Commonwealth Games,
Speaker 1: which were held in Edmonton in Canada. He came away
Speaker 1: with the silver medal, which put him on the path
Speaker 1: for the biggest stage of all, The Olympics. Nineteen seventy
Speaker 1: nine proved to be good preparation for Ian. He competed
Speaker 1: at the I Double AF World Cup in Montreal, winning bronze.
Speaker 1: He also faced some opponents that he'd be seeing again
Speaker 1: real soon. So Moscow nineteen eighty there were twenty three
Speaker 1: competitors in the triple jump. Two qualifying rounds determine who'd
Speaker 1: make the final, and Ian was the only one who
Speaker 1: managed to clear seventeen meters. He was one of the
Speaker 1: best triple jumpers in the world by this point, along
Speaker 1: with the Brazilian Di Olivera. Eleven athletes progressed to the final,
Speaker 1: and Ian was in the box seat to take home
Speaker 1: the gold. But pretty quickly all expectations went out the window.
Speaker 1: Each athlete had to make a total of twelve jumps.
Speaker 1: Ian started strong, at least on paper, because this is
Speaker 1: where the event started to turn. Ian's first effort was
Speaker 1: ruled a foul by the judges, who said he dragged
Speaker 1: his trailing foot on the ground what's called a scrape fowl.
Speaker 1: Ian couldn't believe it, he protested, but the officials weren't
Speaker 1: having it.
Speaker 2: Now. If the drama ended there, maybe I wouldn't be
Speaker 2: telling you this story.
Speaker 1: But out of Ian's twelve jumps, nine of them were
Speaker 1: deemed fowls, and his fourth jump, which is around seventeen
Speaker 1: and a half meters, would have been a new Olympic
Speaker 1: record and enough to secure Ian the gold. Instead, it
Speaker 1: was ruled out. It's practically unheard of for elite triple
Speaker 1: jumpers to perform successive fowls like this, and jumping as
Speaker 1: well as Ian had was pretty much impossible while dragging
Speaker 1: your feet clearly something was off and get this, Ian
Speaker 1: wasn't the only one affected. His closest competitor, Diolivera, who
Speaker 1: was the official world record holder.
Speaker 2: At the time, received the same number of fowls, so
Speaker 2: who took home the medals well.
Speaker 1: Two Soviets were awarded gold and silver in the final,
Speaker 1: while the Brazilian Diolivera somehow managed to claim bronze, and
Speaker 1: as for Iam, he finished in fifth place. It sounds
Speaker 1: like a Cold War spy thriller or something, but years
Speaker 1: later a conspiracy emerged. Only Soviet officials were assigned as
Speaker 1: judges for the long jump, impartial Olympic officials were pulled
Speaker 1: from the event, meaning it may have been rigged in
Speaker 1: the soviets favor.
Speaker 2: The heartbreak of.
Speaker 1: Moscow loomed like a dark cloud over Ian Campbell following
Speaker 1: the nineteen eighty Games, and his career was cut short
Speaker 1: by injury.
Speaker 2: Just a couple of years later.
Speaker 1: Fast forward a few decades and the video footage of
Speaker 1: Ian's jump was analyzed in slow motion detail. Athletics Australia
Speaker 1: commissioned biomechanics experts to take a closer look, and they
Speaker 1: found that Ian had not scraped his foot They also
Speaker 1: confirmed that his fourth jump was in fact a record
Speaker 1: distance of seventeen point five meters. Finally, it was definitive
Speaker 1: proof that Ian Campbell was robbed of the gold medal
Speaker 1: in nineteen eighty. With this new information at hand, in
Speaker 1: twenty fifteen, Athletics Australia appealed to the world governing bodies
Speaker 1: to have Ian awarded the gold. We weren't calling for
Speaker 1: the Soviets to be stripped of their medals, only for
Speaker 1: Ian to be recognized for his record breaking jump, But
Speaker 1: the appeal was dismissed. The whole thing was incredibly frustrating
Speaker 1: for Ian, especially when you consider the fact that the
Speaker 1: scrapefowl was abolished from the rules shortly after the Moscow Games.
Speaker 1: It was obvious that the action simply didn't provide any
Speaker 1: advantage to triple jumpers. Ian Campbell went on to have
Speaker 1: a successful career in sports business and administration. He worked
Speaker 1: for Nike in the States and Richmond Football Club back home.
Speaker 2: But while his rightful gold medal is omitted.
Speaker 1: From the history books, he'll always have a place in
Speaker 1: the hearts of Ossie sports fans.
Speaker 2: Well, that's it for another episode of The Ballroom I
Speaker 2: hope you liked it. I'm Tony Armstrong and I'll see
Speaker 2: you next time.