Doping and sports - 1955-1959
1955
In Italy, the first doping controls were carried out, but only after serious change only came after the first fatalities.
1955
After the Second World War, cycling increasingly played a central role in the explosive use of stimulants. Cycling races from that time were described as 'hotbeds of doping'. After a road race in 1955, five of the 25 urine samples taken responded positively to stimulants.
1955
During the Vietnam War, which lasted from November 1955 to April 1975, American navies fought under the influence of amphetamines and cannabis.
1955
During the 100km time trial at the World Championships cycling, the entire GDR quartet suddenly collapsed. There were big suspicions that they had doped, but that could not be proven.
1955
In 1955 the British Olympic champion heptathlon Mary Peters (1939-) declared:
"An American medical team wanted to start an extensive investigation into the effects of steroids on weightlifters and pitchers, but found that only a few did not take them, so the researchers could not make a comparison."
1955
The use of steroids spread very quickly to other sports. Paul Lowe (1936-) a former running back of the American football team San Diego Chargers declared in 1970 to a California Legislative Commission on Drug Abuse:
"We had to take the steroids in the afternoon. An offical put them on a dish and ordered us to use them, if we did not take them we would get a fine."
1955
In the 1955 Tour de France Jean Malléjac (1929-2000) suddenly dropped down during the ascent of the Mont Ventoux, which was attributed to doping use.
Ten kilometers before the summit, the Frenchman crashed to the ground and became unconscious. Deathly pale, with foam on his lips and with sweat on his forehead. After a fiftheen minutes resuscitation, Malléjac recovered, thanks to tour doctor Pierre Dumas (1920-2000), who had given him oxygen and an injection of solucamphor. In the ambulance, he maintained that he was unknowingly drugged and that he would initiate legal proceedings. In the hospital Malléjac fought a life-and-death battle for hours, the Breton could only just be saved. He continued to deny his own use until his death in September 2000.
1955
During the same climb of the Mont Ventoux, Ferdi Kübler (1919-2016) swept over the road. Everyone expected that he could go down at any moment, but the Swiss reached the finish line. Upon arrival, he roared:
"They are pigs that do this to us ... Never, never again."
He locked himself in his hotel room and when someone dared to knock at the door, he roared incoherent sentences:
"Ferdi will explode soon, Ferdi is loaded with dynamite!"
For the first time in the history of the Tour, commissioners searched the rooms of riders and masseurs. They were shocked when they found an arsenal of prohibited drugs: syringes, pills, bottles and bags full of performance-enhancing drugs.
After his career, Kübler confessed that he had used amphetamines in that specific stage.
1956
The anabolic steroid with Metandienone appeared on the market.
1956
In the psychiatric clinic of the Italian Montello an Italian cyclist who was completely confused after amphetamine use was brought in.
1956
During the Melbourne Olympics, accusations about the use of strychnine were heard.
1956
The weak throwing arm of American hammer-thrower Hal Conoly (1931-2010) was treated with muscle strengthening preparations. In three months he gained ten kilos of body weight.
1956
At the 1956 Olympics, the Russian weightlifter Arkady Vorobyov (1924-2012) lifted his own bodyweight twice, with which he won gold and humiliated the American top favorites. Vorobyov was also a remarkable scientist who obtained the degree of Doctor in Medical Sciences at the Moscow Aerospace Institute, which explains why he was skilled in the use of testosterone.
1956
After the fourteenth stage of the Tour de France, the whole Belgian team collapsed mysteriously. Officially attributed to eating 'bad fish', an excuse that was also frequently used in 1962 and 1991. The team won three road victories with Fred Debruyne (1930-1994) and the Grenoble-St-Etienne mountain stage for World Champion Stan Ockers (1920-1956).
1957
The anabolic steroid with Fluoxymesteron appeared on the market
1957
During a TV interview, Dr. Herbert Berger (1932-2003), the president of the New York Medical Society, reported that many athletes used amphetamines to improve their performance. The sports world strongly denied this accusation. But as time passed, it became clear that Berger was right.
1957
A former high school basketball coach in Ashland, Ohio stated that he had given Dexedrine tablets to his best players for years and that these pills were being used in many American colleges and high schools. The coach was forced to resign when one of his players got a nervous breakdown.
1957
In 1957 the Russian Marina Itkina (1932-) pulverized the world record 400m twice and in Bern she earned the European championstitle 200m. Rumors had it she was the first woman to use anabolic steroids.
1957
Jacques Anquetil (1934-1987), winner of the Tour de France in 1957, 1961, 1962, 1963 and 1964 openly admitted that he used amphetamines and saw no reason why he as a professional should not prepare himself as it suited him. The Frenchman stated that the Tour could not be driven out without chemical assistance. More than likely the Tour winners of 1956, 1958, 1959 and 1960 also doped themselves with amphetamines.
1958
A study of Italian sports doctor and former calcio player Gerardo Ottani (1909-1993) revealed that 27% of the players in the Italian football first league swallowed amphetamines, 62% analeptics and 68% anabolics. In addition, 94% of the clubs would be involved.
1958
American Bill Pearl (1930-), who became Mister Universe, was one of the first bodybuilders to experiment with the new anabolic steroid from the pharmaceutical company Searle. He did a 12-week cycle with 30 mg Nilevar, which increased his body weight by fifteen kilos.
1958
After his sporting career, French cyclist Roger Rivière (1936-1976) confessed that he had used amphetamines and solucamphor in 1958 during his successful attempt to break the world hour record.
1959
The anabolic steroid with Nandrolone fenylpropionaat appeared on the market
1959
According to rumors the use of anabolic steroids in high school began when a Texan physician administered Dianabol to a high school football team throughout the season in 1959. The clandestine research also showed that the doctor cooperated for this with a pharmaceutical company.
1959
The French association of physical education formed in 1959 the first anti-doping committee and encouraged ISMF to act internationally.
1959
The Belgian cyclist Pierre Becu died after the Belgian amateur championship. The autopsy showed the use of amphetamines and of other prohibited products.
1959
For his thesis German Jürgen Bliesener, student sports sciences at the Sporthochschule Köln, asked former and active cyclists with which they doped. The result was disconcerting: coramine, cardiazole, strychnine, arsenic, sympatol, pervitin, ephedrine, adrenaline, testosterone and if possible also anabolics, morphine and cocaine. The reaction of the German cycling federation was that the sports scientist was very well informed, but that they could not do anything about it.
1959
The first reports appeared from the United States that some users were injecting themselves with the contents of Benzedrine inhalers, so that these inhalers were taken off the market. The first cases of illegally produced amphetamines were also reported.
1959
Spaniard Andrès Gimeno (1937-) was the first tennis player who admitted that he had received a massive number of testosterone injections. Just before the DavisCup match against Great Britain, he had received an injection, by witch the Spaniard as fit as a fiddle defeated his opponent Billy Knight (1935-) after a 148 minute marathon match and thus gave the 3-2 final victory to Spain.
1959
American sports physician John Ziegler (1920-1983) developed the anabolic steroid Methandrostenolone (Dianabol, dbol), which was commercialized by Ciba in the United States in 1958. In 1959, he first handed the product to the American weight lifting champion Bill March (1937-). The drug was banned by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Later, Ziegler turned against its use:
"It's bad enough to deal with drug addicts, but now healthy athletes are in the same category. It's shameful. Who's still doing sports for fun?"
Ziegler had a heart disease, which was attributed to his personal experiments with steroids. In 1983 he died of heart failure.
1959
In July 1959, just before the start of the Tour de France, French customs seized ampoules amphetamine with the Luxembourg rider Charly Gaul (1932-2005). Gaul had already been caught in the Tour of 1955 and 1958 on the use of amphetamines during the ascent of the Mont Ventoux.
