Top 10 worst losers in sport
"Many a good whine comes from sour grapes", as the old saying goes, and there are few who can whine quite like an athlete who loses a match, race or fight.
Inevitably, for these people who spend their lives in the pursuit of victory, it's when the stakes are highest, the pressure greatest and the stage biggest, that losing brings out the worst in them - and of course, that's when we get to witness it all.
No sport is exempt. You can find examples in every discipline and in every country - on this list alone there are bad losers from tennis, cricket, rugby, football, snooker and athletics. And it's not just the players either; there are sour-graped coaches, managers, fans, spouses and even politicians. It's a testament to how much sport has come to mean in our society that the passions, frustrations and disappointments of losing have so often overcome these sportsmen's ingrained etiquette (and yes, it's telling that this list is entirely made up of men!).
MSN Him reveals 10 of the worst losers in sport.
Ronnie O’Sullivan
Never the most stable of sportsmen, snooker audiences have long been prepared for the unexpected when watching 'Rocket Ronnie', whether it be playing whole matches left-handed or feigning sleep when he feels his opponent is playing too slowly.
However, no-one was quite prepared for the moment when Ronnie simply walked out of his quarter-final match against Stephen Hendry at the 2006 UK Championships. At 4-1 down, O'Sullivan missed a simple pot mid-frame in the sixth and decided to forfeit the entire match. He called it a "bad day at the office", the sport's governing body called it a show of disrespect and fined him £21,000.
Jeff Tarango
After John McEnroe had hung-up his headband, it was generally felt that tennis had outgrown the childish on-court tantrum, but in 1995 Jeff Tarango and his family reminded us what we were missing.
Following a third disputed line call, Tarango threw down his racket and uttered those words so familiar to children throwing tantrums all over the world: "That's it, I'm not playing!"
After a heated argument with the umpire Bruno Rebeuh, he walked off the court, forfeiting the game and landing himself with a £30,000 fine. His wife promptly picked up where he'd left off, slapping the hapless umpire in the face, commenting later that "Jeff couldn't hit him because he might be thrown out of tennis."
Luciano Gaucci
When hosts South Korea knocked Italy out of the 2002 World Cup in the last 16, it was one of the biggest upsets in the tournament's history. Italian fans were understandably furious, but few had an outlet to vent their anger like Perugia chairman, Luciano Gaucci.
South Korea's winning golden goal had been scored by Perugia player Ahn Jung-Hwan and Gaucci promptly sacked him, commenting that he had "no intention of paying a salary to someone who has ruined Italian football. That gentleman will never set foot in Perugia again."
Gaucci eventually backed down but Jung-Hwan felt justifiably wary of playing under such a volatile chairman and opted for a transfer.
Jon Drummond
Unhappy with a decision to disqualify him for a false start during the 100m at the 2003 World Championship, macho US sprinter Jon Drummond decided to stage a protest. In a staggering display of childish petulance, he occupied the track for over an hour, lying across the lanes and repeatedly shouting "I did not move!", before eventually being led away in tears.
When his manager met the press some hours later he claimed the sprinter was still in tears and was being forced to rehydrate.
John Howard
Following his country's home defeat in the dying seconds of the 2003 Rugby World Cup Final, Australian Prime Minister John Howard put on a fine display of sour-graped diplomacy as he presented the England players with their winners' medals.
Viewers were shocked to see Howard shuffling along the line, barely looking the players in the eye and handing over the medals with all the grace of a dinner lady doling out mashed potatoes. England captain Martin Johnson recalled afterwards that Howard had been: "chucking them out. It was a case of: 'here, have one of these. Must go, I'm late'".
Harbhajan Singh
Known for his fierce competitive spirit, Mumbai Indians stand-in captain Harbhajan Singh was a favourite with his home supporters, but his behaviour in the Indian Premier League match against the King's XI Punjab made many question whether his desire to win might have got a touch out of hand.
After losing the match, Singh was approached by Punjab paceman Sree Sreesanth, who offered his hand in consolation. Singh promptly slapped him in the face and reduced the young bowler to tears. "When you lose, you don't feel happy" Harbhanjan later explained. The IPL weren't impressed and banned him for 11 matches.
WG Grace
Cricket's first superstar, WG Grace dominated the game in the second half of the 19th century with bat and ball skills that were well before their time - as was his use of gamesmanship. Such was his yearn to win that he once ran a batsman out when he left the crease to pat down a lump in the pitch.
However, his most infamous moment of ill-grace came when he replaced the bails having been given out and continued to bat, commenting to the umpire: "they have come to watch me play, not you umpire."
Rafael Benitez
At times, the title race of the 2008/09 Premier League season threatened to be overshadowed by the playground taunts being thrown between Sir Alex Ferguson and Rafa Benitez.
In the final months of the season, barely a day passed when the back pages of the tabloids were not filled with the spat as first the Spaniard flew off the handle claiming that the Man United manager got special treatment, then Fergie responded by calling Benitez "'arrogant".
Despite this, few could quite believe it when Benitez pointedly refused to personally congratulate or praise Ferguson for winning the title, commenting only that: "I say congratulations to United because they have won it, and that's it."
Will Carling
The 1995 World Cup may have been won by South Africa but the man everyone was talking about afterwards was a Kiwi - Jonah Lomu. His single-handed destruction of England in the semi-finals was a brutal unveiling of the new breed of rugby professional.
While most people couldn't wait to see more of the man-mountain, England captain Will Carling, still smarting from having been run over as though he were made of straw, could only comment sourly: "He is a freak, and the sooner he goes away the better."
Angel Valodia Matos
The prize for worst loser in sporting history has to go to Angel Valodia Matos, Cuba's taekwondo representative at the Beijing Olympics.
Matos was leading in the second period of his bronze medal bout against Kazakhstan's Arman Chilmanov, when the judge suddenly disqualified him for taking too long over an injury.
The heated argument that ensued was brought to a swift conclusion when Matos delivered a devastating high kick into the side of the Swedish judge's face and had to be dragged from the floor by his coaches. He was later banned for life by the World Taekwondo Federation.