13. Gold Medal Thievery

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.