Credit: World Stone Skimming Championships

The World Stone Skimming Championships, which were recently held in Scotland, has surprisingly been embroiled in a cheating scandal.

Cheating in a sporting context is a tale that is as old as time. Typically, allegations are linked to performance-enhancing drugs, in famous cases such as Lance Armstrong or sports teams fiddling their books to get one over on their competitors financially. However, there’s no drug or amount of money that can help somebody win at the World Stone Skimming Championships.

This year, 2,200 competitors travelled from all over the globe to Easdale, a tiny island off Scotland‘s west coast with a population of 60, to go for gold. To win, they simply need to find a stone from the quarry which can’t be bigger than three inches and see how far they can get it to land after two bounces on the surface.

Now, it has been alleged that many competitors brought their own stones, which were perfect for skimming, rather than using the materials found in the quarry, which goes against the rules.

In a statement, organisers shared on Facebook, “Dear Stone Skimmers, it is with great regret that we announce that the organisers of the World Stone Skimming Championships (WSSC) have become aware of doctored stones being used by several competitors at this year’s event.”

After many competitors shared their concerns with organisers, the World Stone Skimming Championships had words with suspected culprits who came clean and admitted to cheating. As a result, the guilty parties were disqualified.

However, the World Stone Skimming Championships have not revealed the exact number of competitors who admitted to cheating.

Toss Master Kyle Mathews told The Scottish Mail: “What started as murmurings grew larger and came to my attention. I got calls from concerned competitors. They were worried people might think that’s how things are done here. I contacted the individuals in question who admitted their transgressions and I had to disqualify them.”

Mathews also believes the matter is resolved, adding, “We accept that’s the end of the matter. To give them their credit, they admitted their transgressions, deeply apologised for bringing the sport into disrepute and accepted disqualification.”

While the Toss Master might believe the issue is ancient history, it remains to be seen whether the World Stone Skimming Championships will recover from the controversy or if it will tarnish its good name going forward.