Boris Onishchenko
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Boris Onishchenko (Борис Григорьевич Онищенко; also transliterated as Onyshchenko, Onishenko, Onischenko) was a member of the Soviet Union's modern pentathlon team in the 1976 Summer Olympics, famous for being disqualified for cheating.
[edit] 1976 Modern Pentathlon
Having already earned his country a silver medal four years earlier in Munich, Onishchenko entered the event as an athlete respected by his fellow Olympians. After the first event of the pentathlon, the Soviet team found itself in fourth place, trailing closely behind Britain. Fencing was the next event: a one-touch épée tournament. Onishchenko was considered the finest fencer out of his competitors and was favored to win.
During Onishchenko's bout with their captain, Jim Fox, the British team protested that Onischenko's weapon had gone off without actually hitting anything[1]. The director confiscated the Russian's weapon and brought it to the bout committee, where a modification to the grip was discovered.
In electric épée fencing, a touch is registered on the scoring box when the tip of the weapon is depressed with a force of 750 grams, completing a circuit formed by the weapon, body cord, and box. Onishchenko had added a small button to his épée that allowed him to close this circuit without actually depressing the tip of his weapon. Unlike foil, there are no off-target hits in épée, so Onishchenko could get away with this form of cheating if it appeared to onlookers that he had struck anything at all.
After Onishchenko was found to be cheating, he was immediately disqualified from the competition. Newspapers decried him as "Disonischenko" and "Boris the Cheat" [2]. The British team that exposed Onishchenko went on to win the gold medal in the modern pentathlon.
