The Greatest Finish Fails in Sports History (2024)

With a 3-second lead and just two jumps to go, American Lindsey Jacobellis had a shot at gold during the 2006 Winter Olympics Snowboard Cross final. But instead of simply cruising to victory, she attempted a method grab for style points, wiped out, and watched her first-place finish slip away in an instant.

A bronze medal was in reach for Molly Huddle in the final seconds of the 2015 IAAF World Championships. As she raised her arms to celebrate, fellow American Emily Infeld snuck past her, stealing third place and teaching Huddle a valuable lesson: Thou shalt not prematurely raise the roof.

Counting matters. At the 2018 European Championships in Germany, Israeli athlete Lonah Chemtai Salpeter thought she had secured a silver medal in the 5,000 so she put her arms up in jubilation and slowed down, only to discover she had one more lap to go. The loss of momentum caused her to take fourth—edging her out of podium position.

During the second stage of the 2017 Abu Dhabi Tour, Australian sprinting specialist Caleb Ewan excitedly let his arms up while crossing the finish line in what he thought was first place. It was just enough time to let Germany’s Marcel Kittel edge him out with a savage bike throw.

In 2007, Romania’s Adriana Pirtea was so sure she was going to win her marathon debut at Chicago that she didn’t bother looking back while approaching the finish line. Pirtea’s arrogance caused her to blow her 30-second lead as defending champ Berhane Adere of Ethiopia zoomed past her in the home stretch.

Algeria’s Taoufik Makhloufi won gold in the men’s 1500 at the 2012 Olympics, but two years later, he made headlines for the wrong reason. In the men’s 800 meters at the 2014 Shanghai Diamond League meet, he stuck out his arms—and, crucially, his tongue—before the line, and watched his first-place finish get usurped by Kenyan Robert Biwott.

The scene: The 2012 Italian CIV championship race in Mugello. The crime: Italy’s Ricardo Russo was leading by three bike-lengths at the start of the final lap, but slowed down, stood on his foot pegs, and pumped his fist without realizing he, well, had to finish. Just like that, Russo’s victory evaporated, and we witnessed a gaffe for the ages.

In the fourth quarter of Super Bowl XXVII, with his Dallas Cowboys well on their way to a blowout 52-17 victory over the Bills, Leon Lett stripped Buffalo quarterback Frank Reich, scooped up the ball, and ran toward the end zone for a surefire touchdown. The only problem? Before crossing the goal line, Lett triumphantly reached out his hand … and found Bills receiver Don Beebe waiting for it, ultimately knocking the pigskin out of bounds.

With his Los Angeles Lakers handily beating the New York Knicks in a meaningless 2014 match, Nick Young drained what he thought was a three-pointer and turned around to celebrate without seeing if the ball actually went in. Spoiler: It didn’t. At least Swaggy P’s slip-up made for a great gif.

Nigel “The Freeze” Talton is a member of the Atlanta Braves’ grounds crew who draws on his college track days to race fans around SunTrust Park between innings. Just when it looked like a Braves fan would finally beat The Freeze in a 2017 game, the fan raised his hands up and fell flat on his face. May he live on in Internet infamy.

Lightning-fast wide receiver Desean Jackson electrified—and aggravated—fans in 2008, his rookie year with the Philadelphia Eagles. During a Monday Night Football contest against the rival Dallas Cowboys, Jackson hauled in a bomb from quarterback Donovan McNabb, but accidentally flipped the football behind him at the one-yard-line on his jubilant journey into the end zone.

In 2011, Chris Williams of the CFL’s Hamilton Tiger-Cats pulled a Jackson-like blunder of his own when he ran a missed field goal down the field en route to a certain touchdown. But before he could take it to the house, he turned around, ran backward, and promptly proceeded to get tackled at the one-yard line.

With 0.6 seconds left in the 2010 Adriatic League finals, Marko Tomas and Bojan Bogdanovic shot back-to-back threes to put their team, Cibona Zagreb, up 74-72 over KK Partizan. The thrilling finish prompted Cibona to storm the court, but as time was expiring, Partizan’s Dusan Kecman banked a sneaky buzzer-beater of his own to stun Cibona and steal the title.

Hit a titanic game-winning homer and you have every right to flaunt your strength by flipping your bat. That’s what the Lotte Giants’ Jeon Jun-woo did in a 2013 game against the NC Dinos. Unfortunately, Jun-woo’s would-be dinger turned out to merely be a mammoth fly out.

During a 1964 showdown between his Minnesota Vikings and the San Francisco 49ers, defensive end Jim Marshall recovered a Niners fumble and returned the ball 70 yards to the end zone—the wrong end zone. Marshall excitedly threw the ball out of bounds without realizing he’d just scored a safety for San Fran.

In 2010, Moroccan goalkeeper Khalid Askri of FAR Rabat successfully blocked a ball from entering his goal during a penalty shootout against Maghreb Fez. But instead of picking the ball up, he elected to celebrate the save instead. Bad move: While Askri jumped to his feet, the ball slowly slid in for the goal.

The University of Oregon’s Tanguy Pepiot was set to win the 3,000 meter steeplechase at the 2015 Pepsi Team Invitational, so naturally, he urged the crowd at Hayward Field to cheer him on. Next time, hold the applause: The University of Washington’s Meron Simon seized on Pepiot’s mistake to sprint past him in the final meters and snatch a last-second win.

In the 2010 Toyota Cup, New Zealand rugby winger Glen Fisiiahi sprinted 85 meters down the field toward the goal line with ball in hand, certain to score his 27th try of the season for the Warriors. But as soon as the “Flying Fish” raised his fist to celebrate, Rabbitohs defender Josh Starling knocked the ball free, robbing him of glory.

Germany’s Martin Gluth was just a rookie cyclist in 2016, but even newbies know better than to pull the kind of move he did in that year’s National Championships. In the lead with one lap left to go, Gluth threw his arms in the air to rejoice in victory—and then the rest of the riders blew past him to actually finish the race.

In the final seconds of the 2010 World Roller Speed Skating Championships, Colombian Alex Cujavante had the gold medal in his grasp. You can probably guess what happened next: Feeling comfortable with his lead, he slowed down, pointed his fists to the sky, and watched South Korea’s Sang Cheol Lee zip ahead and skate away with the gold.