6. The Death of Ayrton Senna [Wikipedia]
The death of Ayrton Senna marked the end of a great era in Formula OneRacing. Senna’s generation had produced drivers of the caliber of Nigel Mansell, Alain Prost, Nelson Piquet and Gerhard Berger, all pushing their cars and their own safety to the limit.
Ironically, Senna’s death was faulty steering, rather than a cavalier approach. Unable to control his car around a corner he skidded off the track and crashedinto a wall. Upon impact, one of the suspension bars of his car broke loose and collided with his head. The day before, the Austrian driver, Roland Ratzenburger had died in a similar crash during practise.
In the aftermath, the governing body finally addressed safety issues in the sport, concerns that Senna himself had expressed. To some it was at the expense of the sport. The article on Wikipedia is an excellent and very detailed description of the tragedy.
7. Hong Kong [Wikipedia]
There was allegedly a worse disaster at the Circus Maximus, when the second tier collapsed killing 1,200 people. Nevertheless, with no hard evidence, the worst sporting tragedy, in terms of numbers killed, is the fire at Hong Kong’s Happy Valley Race course in February 1918. 590 people died, though supposedly this is a conservative estimate. Whatever the correct number, it is the worst fire in Hong Kong’s history.
8. Ghana [BBC]
Over a few weeks in April 2001, four huge football disasters occurred on the African continent. 43 people died at, 250 injured during a game in South Africa, 14 people died and 51 injured in Congo, and there was 1 death and 39 injuries after a clash between police and supporters in the Ivory Coast.
The worst disaster was in a Ghana league game between Asante Kotoko andHearts of Oak. It started when Asante’s fans began ripping up seats after the Hearts Oak side had won the match with two late goals. Moments later the police were spraying tear gas into the crowd. As the gas spread, fans rushed for the exits, but found them locked. Despite this, the police continued firing the gas; people continued rushing for the exit. In total 126 people werecrushed to death. Many more were injured.
During that year, almost 200 people died at football matches in Africa, a combination of hooliganism, aggressive policing and poor stadiums. Their collective dream of one day holding a world cup tournament looks very far away.
9. Kurt Jenson and others [BBC]
When the Danish rider, Kurt Jansen collapsed during the 1960 Rome Olympics, from an amphetamine overdose, drugs in cycling became big news.
Like many sports, it attempted to play down the situation. In 2003, after years of ignoring the problem, it had no choice but to face up to it. During a period of just 13 months 8 elite cyclist, 4 under 24 years old, and one of them only 16, died of a heart attack. Commentators stated the drug EPO as the reason.
With Michael Rasmussen and Alexandre Virokourov both disqualified at this years Tour de France, critics claim the sport is still rife with drugs, but as Lance Armstrong pointed out at least it shows the cycling world are finally trying resolve the problem.
10. The Colourful 11 [Wikipedia]
In 1989, a plane carrying a group of Dutch Surinamese footballers crashed upon approach to the Paramaribo Zanderiji airport in Suriname. All but a few people died. The players, known as the colourful 11, were all coming back from a friendly with Suriname, a game they organized every year to raise the awareness of positive role models for the isolated Suriname communities in Holland.
Dutch internationals Ruud Gullit, Frank Rikjaard, Brian Roy, Aron Winter and Regi Blinker all pulled out at the last minute due to club pressure.
Contributor: Simon Arms
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