THE SCRAPE FOUL - Unbanned Triple Jump Technique

Before the 1980’s, there was a rule the prevented athletes from scraping their swing leg on the ground during the triple jump.

The men’s triple jump final at the 1980 Moscow Olympics, has so much controversy that they changed the rules to unban this action.

This is a summary of what happened at the event which led to the rule change.

1980 Moscow Olympics Men’s Triple Jump Finals
1st - Jaak Uudmäe - 17.35m
2nd - Viktor Saneyev - 17.24m
3rd - João Carlos de Oliveira - 17.22m
4th - Keith Connor - 16.87m
5th - Ian Campbell - 16.72m

Viktor Saneyev who won silver was attempting to win his fourth consecutive gold medal in the same individual event and was the favorite to win the event.

Both the Brazilian de Oliveira and Australian Ian Campbell produced multiple massive jumps which were capable of winning the event and even capable of breaking the olympic record, but they were declared fouls by the officials over and over again and were not measured.
8 of the 12 jumps were foul and no legal jumps after the third round

One of Australian Ian Campbell’s later jumps was well past the marker for the olympic record and would have won the competition. But the officials ruled it a foul.

But there was no mark in the plasticine,

The officials declared he had committed a "scrape foul" which was an interpretation of the rules at the time which stated the trailing leg (or the swing leg) could not touch the track during the jump.

Allegations quickly rose that the officials intentionally threw out their best jumps to favor the Soviets.

Because of the publicity this got, the IAAF was forced to reevaluate the rules that played into these events.

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EPISODE 11:
This is the 11th addition to: THE BANNED TECHNIQUE series where we look at unorthodox or banned techniques used in Track and Field.

Be sure to check out my other videos in the Banned Techniques Series about the Long Jump Somersault, Backflip High Jump, Steadying the Bar in Pole Vault, the Spinning Technique in Javelin, the cartwheeling shotput and more.

Banned Techniques

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[iancampbell]

Fantastic video and summary of the events that took place. Athletics Australia recognised my jump as 17.51m in 2015. They partitioned World Athletics to award an additional medal. At no stage did they want the 'result' changed. World Athletics dismissed the appeal out of hand, despite an independent report done by Victoria Universities ISEAL research team that used 2015 technology to actually analyse my jump, concluding that no scrape occurred and the distance was 17.51m with an error factor of up to 2cm.
Glad to know that our own global Federation places a high value on integrity in sport!
To put all this in perspective, please remember that Joao Oliveira had a much troubled life and died very young. That is a real tragedy. He and I both agreed after the Moscow TJ, that yes, in fact, we were both robbed.
Keep up the good fight!

[zarrir]

Brazil was scammed there. João jumped almost 17.50 and was called a inexistent foul

[canaryhills]

great video, one time in high school a judge called a scrape foul on me, so i looked up the rules and showed them that they had changed and they still called my jump foul and i now feel validated :)

[leocremonezi]

"João do Pulo", the Brazilian in this video, was an amazing athlete! I'm pretty sure he would be the Olympic Champion under normal conditions!!! 🇧🇷🇧🇷🏆

[paulyoung]

I remember watching this at the time. There was also controversy in the mens javelin, where, rumours say, the Russians were opening the large stadium doors to allow wind in to aid the Russian throwers.

[robertlangridge]

Still outraged by this 43 years later. Ian Campbell is quite a common name in Australia, and when I hear the name, I'm reminded of this dreadful saga and wonder what Ian Campbell himself thinks about it.

[ranjeettate]

If the officials hurriedly erase either the ostensible foul (at the board) or rake the pit without measuring/recording and giving the athlete the opportunity to protest, specially with close calls and big jumps, then one can't discard the possibility of collusion.
In college, I learned a better technique for the triple jump, cycling my trailing or inactive leg during the hop, which led to better performance in practice. At an inter-collegiate competition, the host university's triple-jumper was their track captain and obvious hero on campus (he himself was humbler than the aura placed on him).
During the competition (officiated by locals in that rural feudal part of India), i had a couple of indifferent jumps, since I was trying a new not yet perfected technique, sitting around in 2nd or 3rd place. Then on my 6th jump, using the same technique as I had been using, everything clicked and I hit a really good distance. You know how you can tell while you are still in the air. When I got up from the pit I saw my mark was well beyond the top jump, corroborated by the sound of the crowd and by my colleagues watching. But before they measured it, the board official called a fouled and had the pit raked. I thought it was a board foul, but they claimed I'd taken "4 steps", that I'd taken an extra step during the hop. Which is a bit silly because the trailing foot would be at the bottom of its trajectory close to when your CM would be at maximum height, and taking two steps instead of a hop would just be obvious to everybody.
When I tried to protest, they said they they would give me an extra jump after all the rest of the jumpers had finished their 6th jumps. (Which is also not any official thing to do, but I accepted it instead of registering an official protest.) When the rest of the jumpers had had their 6th jumps, they wrapped up and told me that I couldn't do an "extra" jump since the competition was over. On the basis of my valid jumps, I was in third place, and I just wrote the whole thing off.
At the awards ceremony, they called my name for second place, as some weird consolation thing, changing the records and adding in a jump I'd never done comfortably between the second place and first place jumpers'. In doing that, they just compounded their corruption, because they also cheated the second place valid jumper out of his place.

[samharper]

For any athletics fan this is awesome content. Real legit YouTube stuff like back in the day; quality content.

[Mobiuscid]

My father was friends with the chair judge that gave the fouls. He told my father he was instructed by the soviet state to give Joao fouls for his longest apparent jumps.
He added that he would feel miserable everyday from that day on, and became depressed and a heavy alcoholic.

[fritztheman]

As a 66 year old masters track athlete, I find this video very informative and interesting.

[bipolarminddroppings]

Shenanigans with judges at the olympics during the cold war era? Surely not!

Shenanigans with the judges at the olympics held in the Soviet Union? That bastion of sporting integrity? I think not!

As a former high/triple jump specialist, I can relate to having very dodgy calls made on my jumps. I once had to go grab my coach because a judge tried to call my jump a fail despite the bar NOT COMING OFF (this was high jump, obviously). I cleared the bar with everything but my heels cleanly, clipped it with my heels and it bounced up about 10cm and landed back on the supports, which under the rules at the time (and I assume to this day) counted as a good jump. It was my third fail in a row (I had failed twice at a lower height and the other two guys had cleared it, and I knew I could easily clear much higher if I stopped clipping the bloody bar with my heels, so I said to just go to the next height), I threw a right fit, my coach did too, he pulled out his rulebook and literally shoved the judge's nose in it, it was hilarious.

[theadamholly]

Awesome explanation. I’m curious why the shoe conspiracy is needed though; it seems like the Russian judges had enough motivation to cheat just to get their own athletes on the podium.

[Alan_Hans__]

It's so sad that a cheating sportsman can get banned but when an official does it the result can/will stand.

[garyhunt]

Ian Campbell was literally robbed. The jumps were clear and the judges know it.

[JustSluipere]

I think there is about 0% chance that this was a fair game haha

[brandonmartinez]

It’s criminal that you don’t have more subscribers with the quality of these videos

[tonywilson]

I'm Australian and remember this.
The judges didn't simply cheat they BLATANTLY CHEATED.
But then cheating at the Olympics should be its own category and given the appropriate set of medals.

[marekkozub]

Also, in pole vaulting competition, Soviets wanted their athlete to win. Soviet fans were taunting Polish athlete, but he won despite all that. Afterwards, he made a gesture to Soviets, what is widely consider as f... you gesture.

[donnajohnston]

Did the Soviets need a reason to cheat, other than to come out on top? They had a reputation for cheating, particularly in sports that used judges, like figure skating.

[vladimirnacevic]

Would be interesting to see a prequel to this, explaining why they had this rule in the first place.