The greatest controversy at the 1984 Games occurred during the women's 3,000 meter race. American great Mary Decker stumbled and fell off the track when she ran into South-African born Briton Zola Budd, while trying to overtake the race in the inside lane. Budd's seventh place finish was immediately disqualified by American track judges. Bud came under brutal attack from the American crowd and media, in a campaign led by Decker herself. Subsequent television replays and the testimony of other runners proved Budd's innocence. Her Olympic result was reaffirmed.

		Competing in the first out of two sessions, usually reserved for the less favored weight lifters, Finland's Jouni Gronman completed his Olympic schedule with a 312.5 kg result and wandered off to enjoy other events. At the next day's medal ceremony the lightweight bronze medalist was missing. Gronman had not checked the second session's results and was unaware that he had won an Olympic medal!

Canadian swimmer Alex Bauman, winning an impressive 200m and 400m individual medley double, ran into unexpected problems during his drug testing. Unable to produce a urine sample for drug testing, Bauman was not allowed to have a beer, which is the usual practice in such cases. Why? At the tender age of 20 he was one year below the legal California drinking age.

Gabriele Andersen-Scheiss, an Idaho ski-instructor representing
Switzerland, limped into the Olympic stadium at the end of the
first woman's marathon, in a state of exhaustion. She was suffering
from heat prostration, almost unconscious. Medical personnel rushed
to help her but Gabriele, wanting to complete the race, waved them off.
The stadium watched in admiration and horror as she slowly circled
the 400m track. She fell over the finish line, in 37th place, and was
immediately rushed to the hospital. Remarkably enough, two weeks
later she completed a 20 mile race and 18 mile horse-back ride
in a competition in Utah.