Let’s be honest: we’ve all watched a sporting event and had that fleeting thought: I could do better than that.

Whether it’s a soccer player missing an open goal, a tennis player double-faulting, a basketball player flubbing a free throw, or a goalkeeper gifting the ball to the opposing team, we’ve all seen moments where even an amateur might think they could outperform the pros.

In isolated incidents, perhaps that’s true. Maybe we could capitalize on a glaring mistake if we were in the right spot at the right moment. However, we must recognize that maintaining a solid performance throughout an entire match is an entirely different challenge.

This conversation resurfaced recently when Hajar Abdelkader faced a remarkable defeat in women’s tennis. The 21-year-old Egyptian player lost 6-0, 6-0 to Lorena Schaedel, who is ranked 1,026 in the world. During their first-round clash at the International Tennis Federation (ITF) W35 tournament in Nairobi, Abdelkader managed to win just three points, none from her own serve, and the match was over in a mere 37 minutes.

Her performance was so lackluster that it left spectators questioning if she had ever played tennis before. This raises the intriguing question: have there been other athletes whose performances were so subpar that the average person might have done better?

Hajar Abdelkader’s woeful performance in tennis got us thinking: which athletes could the average person do better than? 

Eric the Eel

Eric the Eel was the unlikeliest of Olympic heroes.

Let’s take you back to 2000, Sydney, the Olympics. The 100m freestyle. A pool where some of the best swimmers in the world compete. And then Eric Moussambani.

Moussambani had only started swimming eight months prior and didn’t even know what the Olympics were until he researched it at Equatorial Guinea’s national library. 

He was included via a wildcard system, designed to improve participation from developing nations. His only training had been three hours a week in a private hotel swimming pool and, genuinely, in the shark and crocodile-infested waters of Equatorial Guinea; the nation didn’t have any public pools.

Little surprise that he struggled. Moussambani only just stayed afloat in his heat to record a time of 1:52.72, the worst effort in Olympic history. He was 50 seconds behind his nearest competitor. 

But the athlete trained by fishermen became a sensation. People loved him. He received an ovation from the crowd and global media attention.

‘The last 50m was the hardest time in my life,’ he told Daily Mail Sport in 2021. ‘There was a time that I couldn’t feel my legs, my arms. I was just moving my arms but I didn’t feel like I was moving. 

‘I was very, very tired. I was giving my last effort to complete it. I was almost, almost, drowning. But when I heard people clapping and cheering my name that gave me more power and more courage to complete the other 50m. It was the first time in my life I swam 100m.’

Eric the Eel barely stayed afloat swimming in the Olympics after taking up the sport eight months before – but he became a fan favourite 

Nasra Ali Abukar

People sensed something was wrong when a supposedly international-level 100m sprinter recorded a time which would be considered sluggish in school. 

Nasra Ali Abukar’s performance in the 2023 World University Games in China – a woeful 21.81 over 100m – led to an inquest which made headlines around the world. It is thought to be the slowest ‘official’ competitive 100m run of all time. 

That ended with the chairwoman of the Somali Athletics Federation, Khadijo Aden Dahir, being sacked over claims of nepotism and accused of defaming her country.

It was reported that Abukar was actually Dahir’s niece. People unearthed a Facebook post from Dahir congratulating her on ‘qualifying’ for the tournament. 

Even worse, an investigation by Somalia’s National Olympic Committee found that Abukar was ‘neither a sportsperson, nor a runner.’ 

Ten seconds behind, out of frame when the other runners were completing the race… this is a case where your average person really could have done better. 

Nasra Abubakar Ali clocked the ‘slowest-ever’ 100m time at the 2023 World University Games and sparked an inquest into the chairwoman of the Somali Athletics Federation

Raygun

Australian breakdancer Rachel Gunn – known as Raygun – captured global attention at the 2024 Paris Olympics for dancing, well, not much better than your auntie at a wedding.

The academic had qualified legitimately ahead of 14 other women from Oceania but scored zero points across her three dance battles.

Her moves such as kangaroo hopping led to widespread mockery – and unfortunately a flood of online abuse – and caused Australian hip-hop pioneer Spice to claim she had sent the Australian scene ‘into the Dark Ages’.

‘It made a mockery of the Australian scene and I think that’s why a lot of us are hurting,’ Spice told the BBC. ‘When I first saw it, I was so embarrassed. It’s the Olympics, for God’s sake!’

So poor was her performance that there were unfounded allegations of corruption. Raygun was accused of creating the body which oversaw the Oceania qualifiers. Some said her husband was on the panel. Both were wrong.

One of the nine judges, Wepiha, said: ‘All us judges talked about how she was going to get smashed, absolutely smashed [at the Olympics]… She knew it was going to be rough, so it’s actually courageous of her.’

Raygun was gutted at the negative response she received from critics. ‘I worked my butt off preparing for the Olympics and I gave my all. Truly,’ she said.

‘I didn’t realize that that would also open the door to so much hate, which has frankly been pretty devastating.’

Raygun captured global attention with her horrific breakdancing at the 2024 Olympics

Ali Dia

Ali Dia has gone down in football folklore for his ruse to convince Graeme Souness to play him at Southampton – despite being useless.

The year was 1996 and Souness got a phone call from a man claiming to be George Weah – the FIFA World Player of the Year – asking if he would give his cousin a trial.

While Dia had tried other clubs and failed, Souness was unfortunate enough to fall for the trick and have him along for a trial. The ‘Weah’ figure claimed Dia had played for PSG, but that was untrue. The Senegalese trickster had been playing in the lower leagues of France, Finland, Germany, and England.

Souness claims he realised that Dia was a ‘dumpling’ within five minutes of his first training session but was so desperate for players that he included him in his squad for a game against Leeds.

Partway through the match, the unthinkable happened. Matt Le Tissier got injured and on came Dia. He even had a shot. His dream stayed alive for all of 20 minutes, after which Souness subbed him off. 

‘I thought he had won a competition to come train with us to be honest,’ joked Le Tissier. 

‘When he turned up on the Saturday and he was sat in the changing room, I thought, “Wow, that’s a pretty great competition, he’s going to give the team talk!”.

Ali Dia is widely seen as the worst Premier League player ever – after fooling Graeme Souness into playing him at Southampton 

‘I pulled my thigh muscle and never told Graeme this – I was taking some penalties on the Friday and felt a tweak. I thought it wouldn’t be too bad. I thought I’d get away with it.

‘About 20 minutes into the game I went to whip a ball in, overextended and tore my thigh muscle.

‘It was my fault and I was the player who was substituted for probably the worst ever player in the Premier League.’