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In pictures: Unsportsmanlike conduct

Al Jazeera showcases 10 infamous cases of sports celebrities allegedly involved in acts of violence.

South African paralympic star Oscar Pistorius is being questioned by South African police for the shooting of his girlfriend, domestic media said on February 14. Johannesburg(***)s Talk Radio 702 said Pistorius was understood to have shot his girlfriend in the head and arm, although the circumstances surrounding the incident were unclear. He may have mistaken her for a burglar, the radio report said. 
Published On 16 Feb 2013

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South African Olympic and Paralympic sprinter Oscar Pistorius – a double amputee – was arrested on Thursday after he allegedly shot dead his girlfriend in his Pretoria home.

The incident is making headlines, but this is not the first time that sports celebrities have courted controversy over alleged violence.

Al Jazeera looks back at 10 infamous cases of sportsmen embroiled in alleged acts of violence.

In 1994, figure skater Tonya Harding(***)s (right) husband and bodyguard hired a man to break the leg of Harding(***)s competitor, Nancy Kerrigan (left). Kerrigan quickly recovered and won a silver medal at the 1994 Winter Olympics. Harding was later sentenced to three years(***) probation and fined $160,000 after pleading guilty to conspiracy to hinder the prosecution of Kerrigan(***)s attackers.
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In 2008, volatile British Premier League midfielder Joey Barton was sentenced to six months in jail for punching a man 20 times in Liverpool. Before the attack, Barton had reportedly drunk 10 pints of lager.
Former National Hockey League player Mike Danton was arrested in 2004 for conspiracy to commit murder. Danton pled guilty to hiring someone whom he thought was a hitman to kill his agent, David Frost. The man was in fact a police dispatcher.
Former Wigan striker Marlon King was convicted of sexual assault and actual bodily harm after breaking the nose of a woman who spurned his advances in a London nightclub in 2009. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison but served only half that time.
In 1995, American football player OJ Simpson was acquitted of murdering his ex-wife and her friend in one of the most publicised trials of the 20th century. In 2008, Simpson - nicknamed "The Juice" - was sentenced to 33 years in prison for kidnapping and armed robbery.
Former Indian cricketer and Bharatiya Janata Party member of parliament Navjot Singh Sidhu was convicted in 2006 of killing a man, Gurnam Singh, in a road rage incident 18 years earlier. Sidhu was sentenced to three years in jail for culpable homicide, but the Supreme Court stayed his conviction, and Sidhu has since returned to parliament.
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In 1992, notorious American boxer Mike Tyson (left) was convicted of raping a beauty queen in an Indiana hotel room. He was sentenced to six years in jail but only served three. Later, in 1997, Tyson infamously bit off part of the ear of Evander Holyfield during a boxing match - for which he was disqualified and forced to pay a fine of $3m.
Former middleweight world champion boxer Carlos Monzon (second from right) was sentenced to 11 years in jail for killing his common-law wife, Alicia Muniz, in Argentina in 1988. Monzon later died in a car crash during a furlough from prison.
Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Michael Vick (right) was convicted in 2007 for his involvement in a dogfighting ring. Vick helped finance the ring, and was said to have personally killed several dogs who did not perform well in fights. After serving time in jail, Vick returned to the National Football League.