Just one week into the month of October, there have been at least five allegations of cheating across five different sports.
According to Axios, the scandals include chess, poker, cycling, fishing, and Irish dancing, most of which are now the subjects of official investigations by each of the respective governing sports organizations.
An investigation by Chess.com alleges that Hans Niemann, an American grandmaster, may have cheated at least 100 times in online games. The investigation was launched after Niemann was first accused of cheating by rival Magnus Carlsen, who claims Niemann cheated during the Sinquefield Cup. Niemann later admitted that he had cheated at least twice when he was younger.
In the poker world, Robbi Jade Lew was accused of cheating during a World Poker Tour event by rival Garrett “Gman” Adelstein, who claimed he lost $269,000 to Lew despite Lew having a weak hand. While Lew denied that he cheated, he nevertheless offered to return the money, which Adelstein subsequently claimed was essentially an admission of guilt. The World Poker Tour did not respond to Axios’ request for comment.
In early October, professional cyclist Nicholas Clark was suspended by USA Cycling following an investigation into Clark’s alleged fabrications about early events in his career. Clark previously claimed to have won an Australian time title and a medal in the junior men’s world championship; a subsequent investigation by CyclingTips determined that he may have made up these stories. USA Cycling’s own investigation ultimately determined that Clark had violated the organization’s policies by “provid[ing] false information about his background in cycling.”
Earlier this month, two fishermen who initially won the Lake Erie Walleye Trail fishing tournament in Ohio were later disqualified after it was revealed that they had put weights inside their catches. Jacob Runyan and Chase Cominsky each subsequently had their $30,000 prizes taken away, and an investigation has been launched into both men by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.
Lastly, the largest and oldest Irish dancing body in the world, the Coimisiun Le Rinci Gaelacha (CLRG), announced an investigation into a group of at least 12 Irish dance teachers who had been accused of attempting to fix competitions in favor of their own students. The CLRG said that its ethics committee had “received allegations, with supporting documentation, of several grievous breaches of our Code of Conduct.”