Russia’s Svetlana Khorkina didn’t take her loss of the gold medal to U.S. gymnast Carly Patterson in the 2004 Athens Olympics lightly. “I practically did everything right; still they just set me up and fleeced me,” she said in an interview at the time. At age 25, Khorkina knew she would not compete in another Olympics, and that Patterson’s win meant her chance at being the all-around champion was forever gone. She blamed the judges for her defeat, saying her loss was “because I’m from Russia, not from America.”
A Brief History of Olympic Sore Losers
Russia's Evegni Plushenko believes he deserved the men's figure-skating gold medal instead of silver at the Vancouver Winter Olympics. In honor of his poor sportsmanship, TIME takes a look at other Olympic complainers