Michael Phelps won seven Gold Medals at the 2008 Olympics. Or did he? In his final event, the 100 meter butterfly, America's Golden Boy seemed to come in a close second to Milorad Cavic; on the final stroke, Phelps appeared to arrive behind the Serbian, yet judges said he won the race by .01 seconds. Among the internet rumors: Omega, one of Phelps' sponsors, had rigged the touch board so it went off a moment early. However, Silvio Chianese, Omega's timekeeper, said that Cavic may have finished first but Phelps first applied the necessarily amount of force to the board.

The U.S. Olympic basketball team had never lost a game until a controversial call in the final moments of the 1972 Gold Medal match gave the USSR a victory. It's been speculated that in order to take America down a notch or two, the game's officials were ordered to boost the Soviets' chances, which they did by directing the game's timekeeper to put an extra (phantom) three seconds back on the clock, allowing the Russians one last successful shot at victory. The U.S. appealed the decision, but the committee had two judges from democratic countries and three from communist ones, so the Russians got gold, while the U.S. refused the silver.

Did the NHL have a hidden agenda that drove the most famous trade in hockey history? In 1988, the sport's biggest draw, Wayne Gretzky, was traded from the Edmonton Oilers to the Los Angeles Kings for a number of very solid reasons (the Oilers' owner was broke, Gretzky had a wife who was an actress). But could it have been that the NHL, desperate to gain popularity in the U.S., engineered the move that would send the sport's most recognizable figure to a Southern California team? If so, it worked. Within five years the league added four new American teams.

On June 22, 1986, Argentina and Britain clashed in the quarterfinals of the World Cup. It was the first time these two teams had met on the pitch since their homelands had met on the battlefield during their war over the Falkland Islands. World opinion (and perhaps referee decisions) seemed to be on the side of Argentina, which helps explain the ruling on the most famous goal in World Cup history. Five minutes into a scoreless second half, Argentina's Diego Maradona leaped into the air and knocked a ball into the goal, but illegally with his hand. The referee let the goal stand; when asked about it later, Maradona claimed "the hand of God" sent the ball into the net.

On the eve of the World Cup Final in 1998, Brazilian superstar Ronaldo suffered convulsions and was rushed to the hospital. But that's not the conspiracy. Despite being in no shape to play, Ronaldo started the game, which was dominated by the victorious French. Rumors suggested that Nike, Ronaldo's sponsor, was unwilling to give up the enormous exposure that came with soccer's biggest stage and demanded he play both halves. (Nike calls these rumors "absolutely false.")

In 1973, Bobby Riggs challenged Billie Jean King to a Battle of the Sexes tennis match and lost, perhaps on purpose. He had summarily defeated Margaret Court, the top female tennis player in the world at the time, in straight sets, leading some viewers to conclude that he must have gambled against himself in the subsequent match to King. Reinforcing this theory is the fact that Riggs often chose not to chase after King's shots. Riggs denied the rumors, stating: "She outplayed me."

"Basketball is back in New York City, my friends!" So said announcer Pat O'Brien of the grand prize in the 1985 NBA draft: Georgetown center Patrick Ewing, who went to the New York Knicks. Conspiracy theorists believe the Knicks' good fortune wasn't exactly the luck of the draw: Commissioner David Stern, they claim, had a hand in selecting the Knicks by picking the one envelope he knew had a bent corner. But upon closer examination, it's clear that Stern looked away before reaching into the pile and couldn't have known what he was picking.

In February 1964, Cassius Clay (he converted to Islam and changed his name to Muhammad Ali the next day) beat heavyweight champ Sonny Liston. The result was so controversial (Liston, claiming a shoulder injury, refused to come out for the seventh round) that a rematch was soon scheduled. In that second bout, an undetectable "phantom" punch sent Liston to the canvas in the first round. Although Liston publicly denied it, it has been speculated that he bet against himself to get out of debt with the Mob or that he was threatened by Muslim extremists who supported Ali.

It was 1991 and the University of Nevada at Las Vegas basketball team was unbeatable, until stopped cold by Duke in the national semifinals. The Blue Devils' unlikely victory seemed especially suspicious when photos later emerged showing three UNLV players in a hot tub with Richie Perry, a convicted sports fixer. Was the fix in against the Rebels, who say they fought for every point in that game?

In the 1980's, Major League Baseball's owners came up with a novel solution to their ongoing revenue problems; they secretly decided to stop signing other teams' free agents. Owners kept this status quo from 1985 through 1988, which sharply spiked owner profits while lowering player salaries. The players caught on and their union sued. The owners settled the three resulting collusion cases for $280 million.

Image really might have been everything in 2004 in the NBA. That year, Kobe Bryant was to stand trial for sexual assault (the charges were later dropped) and the league was anxious to find a new star to take his place. Rumor had it that Dwayne Wade was the anointed one and that the refs were charged with making sure his Miami Heat beat the Dallas Mavericks in the finals. They certainly gave him plenty of opportunity, including more free throws than the entire Mavericks team in one game.

It's the most famous home run in Major League history: Bobby Thompson's "shot heard round the world," which won the 1951 pennant for the New York Giants. But did Thompson have advance knowledge of what pitch he would be thrown? According to a 2001 investigation by the Wall Street Journal, the Giants relied on an elaborate sign-stealing scheme that season, using a confederate in center field armed with a spyglass to read the catcher's signals and then relay the information to the bench electronically. When the Giants left New York, the suspicions died with the team name.

Did Michael Jordan's admitted gambling "compulsions" force him into early retirement? In 1993, the NBA reportedly began an investigation of Jordan's alleged betting habits, but Jordan suddenly announced his retirement, ending the probe. Perhaps it was the heartbreak of his father's death that pushed him from the court; maybe David Stern uncovered something so damaging to the sport that he gave Jordan no other option. While Jordan returned to the league in 1995, many still maintain that his self-imposed exile was Stern's punishment, although Jordan said he was merely "exhausted."

Few gave the New York Jets of the AFL any chance to beat the Baltimore Colts, the NFL champs, in Super Bowl III. The 1969 Jets were 18 point underdogs. Some strange Colts coaching decisions (star Johnny Unitas didn't make it into the game until the end of the third quarter) and erratic quarterback play (how could Earl Morrall not see Jimmy Orr wide open?) led many to conclude that the newly consolidated League had fixed the game to avoid a blowout (read: ratings disaster.) Although the leagues denied it, Colts lineman Bubba Smith later said that he firmly believed the game was fixed.