Meet The Albanian Long Jumper Who Conned His Way Past Everybody Into The Tokyo Olympics

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You’ve probably never heard the name Izmir Smajlaj. And if you did, you probably forgot the name very quickly. And that’s okay!

Smajlaj is a 29-year-old Albanian long jumper who took 17th in the event at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. Not exactly anything to write home about. But as it turns out, Smajlaj wasn’t supposed to even be at the Olympic Games to begin with. And that’s where things get weird.

Albanian Long Jumper Faces Lengthy Ban After Faking Way Into Tokyo Olympics

Now to clarify, Smajlaj isn’t a complete and total bum. This isn’t a 2018 Winter Olympics ski halfpipe deal.

Smajlaj won gold at the 2017 European Indoor Championships with a then national record jump of 8.08 meters. But he still didn’t do what’s necessary to qualify for Tokyo 2020 (which then became Tokyo 2021).

According to the Associated Press, Smajlaj and two Albanian officials have been accused of falsifying results in order to qualify him for the event.

The Athletics Integrity Unit said Friday it had charged long jumper Izmir Smajlaj, Albanian track federation president Gjegj Ruli and the federation’s general secretary Nikolin Dionisi with disciplinary offenses over a competition held in Albania in May 2021, two months before the Tokyo Olympics. They are all provisionally suspended until the case is resolved.

Smajlaj was named as the competition winner with a national-record jump of 8.16 meters.

“It is alleged that false information was submitted to World Athletics and the AIU in support of this competition result,” the AIU said.

Smajlaj’s result wasn’t good enough to qualify for the Olympics outright, but he got a place under the “universality” rule that allows countries to send one male or female athlete to the Olympic track events. Those athletes still have to apply with evidence of their “technical level” and experience of international events to persuade officials to grant them a place. – via the Associated Press

Smajlaj Isn’t The Only One To Fake His Way Into The Tokyo Olympics

But it appears he’s also not the only athlete to have falsely qualified for the Tokyo Olympics.

It’s not the first time Tokyo Olympic qualifiers have allegedly been manipulated. Swimming’s world governing body FINA said last year there was “nefarious behavior” around two swim meets in Uzbekistan just before the Olympics and refused to recognize the results. An Indian swimmer who took part in one of the meets said the results were faked and that he had been offered a bribe to keep quiet.

It’s hard to imagine why someone would want to fake their way into an event. Is it really that much of any accomplishment if you didn’t earn it?

Either way, the athlete now face serious sanctions. And you can bet they’re not likely to be in Paris in 2024.