Bad Sport: Gold War

You Can’t Make This Up

The world of sports and true crime collide in the new Netflix series, "Bad Sport." The show examines the misdeeds of athletes,

coaches, officials... and even nations. Episodes include a point-shaving scandal in basketball, a

match-fixing case in soccer, an Indycar drug smuggling operation, and an insurance fraud involving

the assassination of... a racehorse.

But today we focus on the episode set in the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah. For decades, the Russians had dominated the sport of pairs figure skating. But that year, the underdog Canadian pair turned in a flawless performance, while their Russian competitors stumbled. To the shock of the sporting world, the judges denied the Canadians their gold medal. Then the Olympics was thrown into confusion when the French judge said she was forced to give the gold to Russia.

“Gold War” recalls the score-fixing scandal and looks at the two couples caught in the middle of

an international incident. In today’s episode, we speak to Lizzie Kempton, the episode director of "Gold War."

This is You Can’t Make This Up — where we uncover the true stories behind your favorite

Netflix documentaries and films.