#1
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A bloody old mess
Various forms of blood doping have been used in sports for more than 40
years and are still very much with us. International sports organizations tried to pretend it wasn't happening until a mess bubbled up in the U.S. Cycling Team following the 1984 Olympic Games. At that point, the U. S. Cycling Federation became the first governing body to formally ban blood doping. Other national and international sports organizations subsequently followed suit, including the International Olympic Committee. A number of articles now have been added to the Cyclops USA archive, which recently moved to http://www.stanford.edu/~learnest/cyclops/ and provide contemporary accounts of bloody developments in the 1980s. Articles are listed there and below in inverse chronological order, as follows. GROWING RICHER BLOOD, published in January 1989 shortly before EPO became available as a prescription drug, naively advocated its use as a replacement for other forms of blood boosting provided that it could be shown to have no serious side effects. I had earlier requested through channels that the U.S. Olympic Committee undertake a medical review of this matter and had been assured that the study was underway. Unfortunately that turned out to be a lie. If that study had been done in a timely manner and suitable warnings had been issued, it is likely that some of the riders who died as a result of EPO use might have been spared. BLOOD DOPES OF THE 1984 OLYMPICS, published in August 1988, reviews the unethical use of transfusions on U.S. cyclists and points out that this probably did not improve their performance but later might have had serious medical consequences, particularly for women. STONED, in the April 1985 issue, tells how Rolling Stone magazine and the Tank McNamara cartoons publicly denounced blood doping that occurred during the 1984 Olympics. However, Rolling Stone’s claims were mostly fabricated, even though they had accurate inside information. PLEASE BE POLITE! reported that the U.S. national cycling coach continued to advocate blood doping even after it was made illegal. CARDIOVASCULAR CAPERS, which appeared in January 1985 just as the Olympic blood doping story was emerging in public media, circumspectly discusses how the threat of terrorism was used to justify illicit blood testing during the 1984 Olympic Games. (Note that this was long before the Bush administration discovered the political power of terrorism.) BLOOD BATH is an apocryphal account of how blood doping became established in the United States Tiddlywinks Federation (Wink-wink! Nod-nod!). -Les Earnest |
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#2
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A bloody old mess
Les,
I remember when the Rolling Stone article came out and exposed the 84 fiasco. David Grylls came to our club meeting a week later and "gave us the scoop". It was pretty interesting. Do you remember how Rolling Stone came to know of the operation? Grylls mentioned that it was made clear that if your were not on the doping program, you were not on the start list. I'd imagine that anyone who didn;t dope (and didn't ride) might have been the source. Just curious. Enough years have passed now, right? Les Earnest wrote: Various forms of blood doping have been used in sports for more than 40 years and are still very much with us. International sports organizations tried to pretend it wasn't happening until a mess bubbled up in the U.S. Cycling Team following the 1984 Olympic Games. At that point, the U. S. Cycling Federation became the first governing body to formally ban blood doping. Other national and international sports organizations subsequently followed suit, including the International Olympic Committee. A number of articles now have been added to the Cyclops USA archive, which recently moved to http://www.stanford.edu/~learnest/cyclops/ and provide contemporary accounts of bloody developments in the 1980s. Articles are listed there and below in inverse chronological order, as follows. GROWING RICHER BLOOD, published in January 1989 shortly before EPO became available as a prescription drug, naively advocated its use as a replacement for other forms of blood boosting provided that it could be shown to have no serious side effects. I had earlier requested through channels that the U.S. Olympic Committee undertake a medical review of this matter and had been assured that the study was underway. Unfortunately that turned out to be a lie. If that study had been done in a timely manner and suitable warnings had been issued, it is likely that some of the riders who died as a result of EPO use might have been spared. BLOOD DOPES OF THE 1984 OLYMPICS, published in August 1988, reviews the unethical use of transfusions on U.S. cyclists and points out that this probably did not improve their performance but later might have had serious medical consequences, particularly for women. STONED, in the April 1985 issue, tells how Rolling Stone magazine and the Tank McNamara cartoons publicly denounced blood doping that occurred during the 1984 Olympics. However, Rolling Stone's claims were mostly fabricated, even though they had accurate inside information. PLEASE BE POLITE! reported that the U.S. national cycling coach continued to advocate blood doping even after it was made illegal. CARDIOVASCULAR CAPERS, which appeared in January 1985 just as the Olympic blood doping story was emerging in public media, circumspectly discusses how the threat of terrorism was used to justify illicit blood testing during the 1984 Olympic Games. (Note that this was long before the Bush administration discovered the political power of terrorism.) BLOOD BATH is an apocryphal account of how blood doping became established in the United States Tiddlywinks Federation (Wink-wink! Nod-nod!). -Les Earnest |
#3
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A bloody old mess
wrote in message oups.com... Les, I remember when the Rolling Stone article came out and exposed the 84 fiasco. David Grylls came to our club meeting a week later and "gave us the scoop". It was pretty interesting. Do you remember how Rolling Stone came to know of the operation? Grylls mentioned that it was made clear that if your were not on the doping program, you were not on the start list. I'd imagine that anyone who didn;t dope (and didn't ride) might have been the source. Just curious. Enough years have passed now, right? IIRC, it was Tom Dickson and/or Rob Lea. Since that time Dickson has continued to support cycling in the Trexlertown area and his office is currently one of the Corporate Partners for the Lehigh Valley Velodrome. The Lea family has continued to contribute to USCF/USAC. |
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