It's always hard sometimes for professional athletes and sports personalities to consistently keep up with the pace and always seek an edge over their competitors.
Sometimes, however, they tend to go the extra mile in the most unconventional and shadiest of ways to achieve their ultimate goal even at the highest of levels.
Suffice to say that some of these athletes were eventually found out and as such, paid severely for their actions.
Here are five of the sports athletes who cheated in their careers:
1 Dwight Howard - Basketball Player
In 2016, a Former Houston Rockets star was caught using Stickum - a spray normally used by NFL receivers when the Rockets faced Atlanta Hawks in the NBA.
After the game was re-started, the rest of the players discovered that the ball felt sticky as if it had super-glue applied all over it.
However, Howard who currently plays for LA Lakers received no punishment as the officials deemed his actions harmless to the game and the Stickum posed no advantage whatsoever as he went 2-7 but the Rockets ultimately lost that game.
Cheating Crime: Stickum Master
2 Diego Maradona - Football Legend
The Lt. Diego Armando Maradona is an Argentine Legend and one of the all-time greats in world football today.
Also widely considered by many as the greatest footballer in history, Maradona was notorious for his theatrics at the 1986 Mexico World Cup in which he scored one of the most famous goals in football.
With the score still at 0-0 in Argentina's Quarterfinal match against England, the ball was lifted into Maradona's path in the second half and he appears to have guided the ball into the back of the net, ultimately giving Argentina the lead.
Even though his second goal in that game was even spectacular as Brazil knocked out England, he was asked about the goal and Maradona describes it as "Hand Of God".
Cheating Crime: Hand Of God
3 Antonio Margarito - Former Pro Boxer
Antonio Margarito was deemed as the greatest cheat in boxing history.
In 2009, the former welterweight Champions and his trainer Javier Capetillo were banned for a whole year because, in his fight against Shane Mosley, he used plastered substances and illegal pads put on him by his trainer.
After being caught red-handed, an investigation was opened and Margarito would have to rewrap his hands, ultimately getting knocked out convincingly by Mosley in that event.
Cheating Crime: Plastered Disguise
4 Lance Armstrong - Former Pro Cyclist
Lance Armstrong is the all-time champion of the Tour de France winning it consecutively seven times between 1999 to 2005 and is widely recognized as the greatest cyclist of all time.
However, after he agreed to the use of Testosterone, Cortisone, HGH and various forms of blood doping,
He was stripped of all 7 titles in October 2012 ad was tagged the greatest 'fraud' in Cycling history.
5 Marion Jones - Former US athlete
Marion Jones was one of the U.S.A's most famous Olympians.
She won three Gold medals and two Bronze medals in the Sydney 2000 Olympics.
However, it was revealed that Jones' success wasn't entirely down to hard work but she had tested positive for illegal substances such as steroids which she had started taking in 1999.
Technically, that would mean that Jones wouldn't have won any medal if she had played fair.
Even though she was encouraged by her coach and personal trainer to continue with the intake when she realized how it was affecting her system, she didn't stop and that led to both her and her coach ending up on trial with criminal charges.