Brief History: Olympic Sore Losers

Andrew Wong / AFP / Getty

Byun Jong-II sulks on the floor of the boxing ring after losing a match against Bulgaria's Alexander Hristov during the 1988 Seoul Games.

The most important thing in the olympics is not to win but to take part." So goes the Olympic creed. It's a romantic ideal, one that can be hard to follow if you're an athlete who has endured years of intense training only to subsequently fall short in front of millions. Take Evgeni Plushenko. Following his silver-medal performance in men's figure skating, the Russian repeatedly insulted his first-place opponent, America's Evan Lysacek, and all but climbed atop the gold-medal podium ... Wait, he did that too. But Plushenko is hardly the first Olympic sore loser. Athletes have pouted their way home...

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