Basketball ID at the 2000 Summer Paralympics

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Basketball ID at the 2000 Summer Paralympics consisted of a men's event with eight teams competing. The sport was a form of basketball adapted for players with intellectual disabilities (ID).

Cheating controversy[]

Main article: Cheating at the Paralympic Games § Basketball controversy

The Basketball ID event at the 2000 Paralympic Games were marred by one of sport's biggest controversies which saw a classification of athlete removed from the next two Paralympic games. Fernando Martin Vicente, former head of the Spanish Federation for Mentally Handicapped Sports, allowed athletes with no disabilities to compete at the Games in order to win the gold medal. The team at the centre of the row was the Spanish basketball team, who won the gold medal after beating Russia in the final despite fielding a team mainly composed of athletes with no intellectual disability. The athletes were quickly exposed and the IPC reacted by stripping Spain of their medal and removing all events from the following Games for athletes with intellectual disabilities.[1] Events for athletes with intellectual disabilities returned to the Paralympic schedule in 2012.[2]

Medal summary[]

The gold medal was initially awarded to Spain, but they were disqualified after it was discovered that ten of the team's twelve players were not disabled.[3] As a consequence of this, the official results indicate that no gold medal was awarded for this event.[4] Thomas Reinecke, who at the time was the Chief Operating Officer of the International Paralympic Committee, stated in an interview with the BBC that the second-placed team Russia was not awarded the gold medal because it failed to provide evidence regarding the classification its own team.[5]

Event Gold Silver Bronze
Men's team Not awarded  Russia (RUS)

Oleg Chubasov











 Poland (POL)












Group stage[]

Group A
Team Wins Losses Points Competition
score 		vs. ESP vs. POR vs. BRA vs. JPN
 Spain (ESP) (DSQ) 3 0 254:126 6 - 73:58 94:48 87:20
 Portugal (POR) 2 1 251:146 5 58:73 - 71:56 122:17
 Brazil (BRA) 1 2 207:189 4 48:94 56:71 - 103:24
 Japan (JPN) 0 3 61:312 3 20:87 17:122 24:103 -
Group B
Team Wins Losses Points Competition
score 		vs. RUS vs. POL vs. AUS vs. GRE
 Russia (RUS) 2 1 239:211 5 - 111:97 79:64 49:50
 Poland (POL) 2 1 245:214 5 97:111 - 77:66 71:37
 Australia (AUS) 1 2 220:182 4 64:79 66:77 - 90:26
 Greece (GRE) 1 2 113:210 4 50:49 37:71 26:90 -

Finals[]

 
Semi-finalsFinal
 
      
 
 
 
 
  Spain (ESP) 97
 
 
 
  Poland (POL) 67
 
  Spain (ESP) (DSQ) 87
 
 
 
  Russia (RUS) 63
 
  Russia (RUS) 73
 
 
  Portugal (POR) 45
 
Third place
 
 
 
 
 
  Poland (POL) 65
 
 
  Portugal (POR) 51

References[]

  1. ^ "PLUS: PARALYMPICS; Paralympic Group Orders Suspensions". The New York Times. 30 January 2001. Retrieved 2019-07-20.
  2. ^ "Intellectual disability ban ends". 2009-11-21. Retrieved 2021-09-07.
  3. ^ "Spain ordered to return golds". BBC. 14 December 2000. Retrieved 27 August 2008.
  4. ^ "Results Archive, Sydney 2000: Basketball ID". Retrieved 23 September 2021.
  5. ^ "The Fake Paralympians, Episode 4: Probe". BBC. 7 September 2021. Retrieved 23 September 2021.
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