The recent story, in the Orange County Register (California), about official concealment of US doping positives in Los Angeles, prior to the Olympic Games there in 1984 is a reminder, among other things that you cannot divorce sport from the society which plays it.
The late entry of the Soviet Union to the Olympic movement in 1952 coincided with the acceleration of the Cold War, and the sportsfield, notably the Olympic Games became the surrogate battleground for the Superpowers. There was of course some real sabre-rattling – the Berlin Blockade, the Cuban missile crisis, the Arms Race, the Space Race, Afghanistan, and several other minor diplomatic skirmishes, not forgetting the Korean and Vietnam Wars (or the American Wars, as the North Koreans and Vietnamese call them), often against troops of future Superpower, China. But a lot of the action was on the track, in the field, and memorably in a couple of Olympic ice-hockey and basketball finals.
The one ‘race’ I left out, since it was at first ignored, then concealed by a succession of national and international federations was the Drugs Race. It probably started in the mid-fifties, via the Californian muscle-beaches, and the laboratories of the Soviet Union, and was brought to institutional perfection by the East Germans. But it took 20 years for the international federation to institute any sort of testing. By which time it was too late. And it probably still is. Does anyone think there was only one BALCO-type lab in the world?
So when Dr Irving Dardik, chairman of the USOC sports medicine council in 1984, told Scott Reid of the Orange County Register last week that, “There was a feeling at the USOC that the Russians were getting away with (doping), and we should be getting ahead,” this is not the ravings of some Cold War warrior. This is what’s called realpolitik, ie when someone inadvertently tells the truth instead of dressing it up diplomatically. Although I have to report that as late as 1993, ie nearly four years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Ollan Cassell (head of the US federation from 1980-97), was such an unreconstructed patriot that he was still complaining to me about, “damned commies” on the IAAF Council.
According to the OC Register of August 1, at least 34 positives have turned up in confidential USOC files. The only surprise here is the number of athletes. We’ve known for 20 years or more that the dope testing lab in LA had to stop coaches and athletes sending in samples, when it become clear that they were using the lab inauguration procedures as a means of discerning clearance times, ie the time it took for drugs to clear the system.
Prior to the Seoul Olympics four years later, four-time US Olympian javelin thrower, Karin Smith claimed that 17 athletes had also tested positive at the 1984 US Olympic Trials, without any sanction. Perhaps they got a warning, since Cassell was quoted last week regarding the USOC ‘informal’ testing, “It gave them (the athletes) a heads-up”. This is a man who is still an IAAF Vice-President, by the way, admitting to covering up doping positives. Not even Primo Nebiolo, the Berlusconi of his time, admitted that. Of the doping controls at the time she made that claim, ie 1988, Smith maintained, “It’s a farce”.
A few months ealier, at the end of 1987, Carl Lewis made a similar claim about that summer’s US Trials for the world championships, a claim backed up by one of Dardik’s successors at USOC medical, Dr Robert Voy, who made a typically diplomatic comment. Voy said he, “was very surprised,” no positive had been announced from San Jose ’87, the implication being that USOC had forwarded details of positives to TAC, as it was then known, and then? Nothing! Maybe they got lost in the post. Or Fawn Hall (cf Ollie North) was manning the shredder (or should that be womanning the shredder?). Anyway, you know what I mean.
Voy’s book, Drugs, Sport & Politics, published in 1991, is a seminal work in this regard. Voy claims he left his post as Chief Medical Officer of the USOC in 1989 – the year after BenJo’s bust, and FloJo’s ‘miracles’ – in frustration at the lack of support for his anti-doping efforts, exemplified by the cuts in his budget post-Seoul. Voy writes, again diplomatically, “…… many people in the USOC were in their business for one reason: to bring home the gold. Just how athletes accomplished that – well, few really cared.”
So, there you have it, the US federation, like pretty much every other one in the world was covering up positives. Oh, and the current administration knows nothing about it. Of course not. Just as well then that testing and penalties for positives have been taken out of their hands, and given to USADA, and on the international scene, to WADA.
Now, apart from the catastrophe that awaits us when gene-doping becomes possible, thus inevitable, there’s just one question I’ll leave you with for a week or two – given that Chinese athletes won just two bronzes in the track and field in Beijing, what’s Uncle Sam going to do when the Chinese get someone like Liu Xiang in every event?
(This is probably my last blog until after the World Championships. But I shall be doing two pieces each day – a preview and a report – for the IAAF website from Berlin)
I will not divulge my sources or experience at the moment, but suffice it to say there is a larger political reason for drug cover-ups in the sport. Not all of it has to do with money. For instance, while everyone wows at the amazing E. African distance runners, some of these athletes are in fact doped. And have been caught. And have been let go due to behind the scenes political maneuvering. Same has been done for one very well known, multiple record setting sprinter (not Carl Lewis) who was let off to keep the sport from getting another black eye. Same goes for a couple of well known E. African distance men. But this type of thing will never be mentioned in polite company, will it? It’s sad that much of the sport is turning into a farce.
Excellent piece. In addition, I believe that Carl Lewis tested positive for a stimulant drug at the 1988 US Olympic Trials; but this was conveniently hushed up by authorities (USOC?) and he was allowed to proceed to Seoul, where he became the first man in history to retain the Olympic 100m title even though he crossed the line behind Big Bad Ben from Canada.
This from the man who described himself as “the guy in the white hat” regarding drug cheats seems on the face of it to be a classic case of hypocrisy; though I believe Lewis subsequently sought legal advice and threatened to sue anyone who brought the matter up in public.
Lewis has since carped on about Usain Bolt’s achievements in Beijing; hinting at a Jamaican drug programme. He may have a case regarding the recent drug busts there – or it may be just sour grapes from a man who just hated to be beaten at anything he attempted – either sprints or Long Jump.
In his biography, Lewis made some very bitchy comments about his American Long Jumping rivals Mike Powell and Larry Myricks.
At Tokyo in 1991, Lewis kicked out to the greatest Long Jump series in history, yet still lost the world title to a world record leap of 8.95metres by Powell. He was (understandably) not happy about that.
Heartened not only by Pat Butchers article, but byDave Coc ksedge’s comments but particularly the dudu hitting the fan rather late in the day, via the American Press.
We all have known for decades that some of the Yanks cheat at everything they compete at so I was thrilled to see the finger stuck where it needs to be in the States.
I got removed from TFN Forum by Gary Hill for hinting that Briscoe Hooks was a cheat, going from anunfit athlete in early 1984 to a super hero and triple Goldie bysummer 1984 in sub 49 seconds.
The details of the cover up on Carl Lewis’s behalf by the nasty dishonest creeps who ran the USOC are set out in Wallechinskiy’s book of the Summer Olympics
Well, in the absence of any names or data re East African athletes, it is obviously impossible to comment meaningfully on them. However, my then PhD student Dr Brian Moore (for some years the UK Athletics sports haematologist) went to Kenya, to the athlete’s altitude training camps and made a lot of blood measures on Kenyan athletes. The Australian Institute of Sport in part financed the work – and partly what we were all looking for were the limits of normality – in athletes who lived at altitude – and trained at higher altitude. This was because if blood tests were to be based on haematocrit blood values, then it is absolutely vital to know the limits of normailty, i.e. the human outliers. But in our work, and other reported in our 2007 book East African Athletes (Yannis Pitsiladis, John Bale, Craig Sharp and Tim Noakes) we found no evidence of Kenyan athletes taking any doping agents whatever. However, they were certainly unusual in the mode and severity of their training, in their pre-race weight-loss, in their minimal drinking, and in their running mechanics (but not, apparently, in their genetics, to our surprise) – and perhaps one should consider these factors before making unsupported statements about doping. There was also, I understand, a lot of jealousy in the USA sprint world, some of it directed against Carl Lewis. Again, one must be wary of unsupported statements and anecdotes, and possible vested interests. Yours in Sport, Craig Sharp.
It is not at all sure if they were true positives and could be actioned.If they could not be actioned then there was no cover up.They were trying to use HRMS for the first time and fouled up the process and thus what might well have been indicative carried no real scientific weight.
In short the lab fouled up and no cover up.
It is easy for the lab to let it known that the athuorities(sp) would not act but the lab work was just not up to the task.
Difficult time to be a naive track fan and think you are watching a clean sport. I am not surprised at the decades old revelations, but discouraged by the diffuse pattern of deception and cover up that occurs with positive testers. We saw this in 2000 when, then Marion Jone’s husband, CJ Hunter was spilling dirty urine all over Europe and allegations were made that this was covered up unless lose his wife as a headliner in Europe. The lid blew off spectacularly at the Olympics, with Victor Conte from Balco sitting next to them at the press conference, only a glimpse of the scandals that were down the road… Now that is athletic entertainment.
Now we fast forward to 2009 where Jamaica turns in its first positive test in recent history, showing 5 of their 60+ squad tested positive for drugs. Finally! We think, they are taking drug use seriously in a previously relatively protected training enclave. But it just gets more bizarre as it unfolds. The athletes all test positive for methylxanthine (a coffee/caffeine derivative) that has little or no benefit and therefore will likely result in a no foul ruling. No one test positive for anything of significance as we are told, no Ben Johnson’s or Marleen Ottey’s on the team.
Then it gets even more implossable in that the drug the Jamaican 5 test positive for isn’t methylxanthine but methylhexanamine, whoops,a minor stimulant found in diet pills and no longer banned by WADA since 2007 we are told. How complex chemical names are! A perfectly understandable error to be made in a certified drug testing facility! Happens all the time, just a lucky coincidence. Also a lucky coincidence is that Brooks was freed due to a procedural error in testing the B Sample (not unique, ask Baala and Legat). Also a lucky coincident is that the Team Jamaica had the foresight to keep the Jamaican 5 on their roster even before finding out what they had tested positive for, must be clairvoyant…
Great article! Yeah..well.. Bad Ben was on the “juice” in order to run 9.79 but all these other “fantastic sprinters” who ran faster “never used anything illegal” Sure!!!! (hahaha)
By the way, I never read any article (against) – should do so Pat – on the disgracefull WADA’S so called “Doping Code” and the Where About rule. I really would like to see how many people in the world, if any (in any kind of social activity – that’s what sport is, right?) are willing to be obligated to report where they are at least 1 hour per day / 365 days a year!!!!!!
Just think about it. No freedom anymore…
Hi Patrick,
Another insightful piece. First time I can recall hearing about non-punitive drug testing at the 84 US Trials was when Charlie Francis said that in evidence at the Dubin Inquiry in 1989. I probably heard it years earlier but it was more of a rumour than a declaration. Ditto about the USSR anchoring a ship somewhere near Montreal to drug test their competitors and make sure they were “cleared” before 1976 Olympics.
I don’t believe for one moment that no-one at USOC knows the names on that list or, indeed, has a copy of that list tucked away in a locked cabinet. That would be such an explosive document, no-one would have destroyed all the evidence. They just need the motivation to release the list.
“The Australian Institute of Sport in part financed the work – and partly what we were all looking for were the limits of normality – in athletes who lived at altitude – and trained at higher altitude. This was because if blood tests were to be based on haematocrit blood values, then it is absolutely vital to know the limits of normailty, i.e. the human outliers. But in our work, and other reported in our 2007 book East African Athletes (Yannis Pitsiladis, John Bale, Craig Sharp and Tim Noakes) we found no evidence of Kenyan athletes taking any doping agents whatever.”
Man, you should wake up from your naivety! Why would they take blood doping during training in Kenya? It is not a training aid! There is no doubt that times of Africans exploded around 1995 due to the introduction of EPO!