If life is anything like the movies, it must be fun having an identical twin playing pranks on your parents and your teachers by switching places unexpectedly just for fun. But as annoying as that would be for your authority figures when you're young, the Olympic Committee also frowns on the practice.
According to UPI, it happened at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. One Puerto Rican competitor, Madeline de Jesus, had qualified for the long jump and the 4x400 relay. She did her thing on the long jump, according to Remezcla, but she hurt herself. There was no way she'd be able to run the relay. She could have done the honest thing and bowed out, but instead she decided to turn to her identical twin sister for help.
Margaret de Jesus was also a competitive athlete, but she hadn't qualified for the Olympics. Still, like a supportive sister, she came out to Los Angeles to cheer Madeline on. So she was right there in the stands and available to help out when Madeline asked her to be a ringer. A dead ringer, in this case, since the only difference between the girls was a beauty mark on one's cheek.
Margaret subbed in and Puerto Rico made it to the finals, until a journalist outed them. The coach said he was told about the plan but "didn't think they would go through with it." Which is probably what most rational, non-cheating people would think.
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