Remember Dan and Dave?

Chris Richardson adds: "I think it was just a wake-up call. It was an eye-opening moment and it made United States take things seriously. At first it was a shock, but it made us put better basketball players on the floor."

5. Bode Miller's meltdown (Torino 2006)
The blunder: Bode Miller was arguably the most hyped U.S. athlete for the 2006 Winter Games, scoring huge advertising deals with Nike and Visa, among others. Then he engaged in a torrent of bad behavior, admitting to drinking booze while skiing and then downplaying the importance of Olympic competition. Some of these comments might have been forgotten or forgiven if Miller had won a single medal.

Mitigating circumstances: Skiing fans will note that the athlete has always been laid-back, and his comments were not out of character.

Steve Hall adds: "The biggest danger is aligning yourself with an Olympic athlete: You have no idea what's going to happen. They're going to lose, they're not even going to go to the Olympics or they're not going to qualify early on."

4. The Suzy Hamilton slasher ad (Sydney 2000)
The blunder: Nike unveiled an advertisement that showed U.S. Olympic middle-distance track darling Suzy Favor Hamilton running through the woods, using her speed and shoes to escape a masked slasher film caricature who was trying to cut her up with a chainsaw. Critics said the ad encouraged violence against women, and the ad was taken off the air.

Mitigating circumstances: The advertisement was technically better than the "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" remake that came out a few years later.

Chris Richardson adds: "I thought it was a cool ad, but I can also see how people could think it's not good for everyone to watch. It's the kind of ad I'd expect to see on SportsCenter at 11 at night, not on the prime-time hours during the Olympics."

3. Ben Johnson loses medal (Seoul 1988)
AFP/Getty Images
Was Ben Johnson signaling to his dealer?

The blunder: The year before the Games Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson was the Associated Press Athelete of the Year and had parlayed his fame into endorsements his coach reportedly valued at $480,000 a month. But by the end of the games he was the highest-profile athlete to test positive for banned drugs in Olympic history. He set the world record in the men's 100 meter sprint, and then had to give up his gold medal to second-place finisher Carl Lewis. Johnson wasn't the first athlete to use banned drugs, but his scandal did more to stoke suspicion in the average Olympics fan, and it tarnished the Games.

Mitigating circumstances: Johnson would have fit right in if he played professional baseball or another major league sport, which in 1988 didn't seem to care about banned drugs.  

Chris Richardson adds: "I remember watching the qualifying events, and he wasn't blowing people away. Then he wins big, and loses the medal. I was 17 and still felt an innocence about sports. And I thought, 'Oh my God, there really are cheaters out there."

2. The logo debacle (Barcelona 1992)
The blunder: Reebok had exclusive rights to produce warm-up outfits and other apparel for American athletes at the 1992 Summer Games. Michael Jordan and other members of the USA basketball team had contracts with Nike and refused to bare the Reebok logos when they accepted their gold medals.