At one point during the first game of the tournament, when they were leading China by 30 points, Ribagorda claimed the coach told the players: 'Lads, move down a gear or they’ll figure out you’re not disabled.'
They went on to beat Russia in the final. But their deceit began to unravel when a picture of their victory celebrations on the court was published by Spanish sports daily Marca.
Soon, readers started commenting that they recognised some of the players and revealed how they weren't disabled at all, it was reported by The Local.
Martin Vicente resigned as the head of the Spanish Federation for Mentally Handicapped Sports, which was responsible for screening some participants in the Paralympics in Sydney shortly after the Capital article was published, saying he accepted 'total responsibility'.
They were forced to return their medals and the category of intellectual disabled basketball was removed from the Paralympic program after the 2000 Games.
He had argued that psychological evaluations of mentally deficient athletes as difficult and that mistakes had been made.
'If someone wants to cheat, it's difficult to detect. It's easy to pretend you have little intelligence but the opposite is difficult,' he said when he announced his resignation.
Eighteen other people, including members of the basketball team that went to Sydney and managers of the Spanish Federation for Mentally Handicapped Sports, were also charged over the affair but the court on Monday dropped the charges.
Spain had their most successful Paralympics in Sydney, winning 107 medals to finish third in the medals table after Australia and Britain.
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