Doping and sports - 1980

1980

The anabolic steroids with testosteronundecanoaat and with trenbolon appeared on the market.

Doping in GDR

East German weightlifter Roland Schmidt (1962-2018) was unknowingly receiving so many pills of Oral-Turinabol, which stopped his body with male hormones production in 1980. As a result, he got DD size breasts, which he had to have removed surgically in 1983. It was even so bad that tumors had grown in his breasts. In addition, he complained of liver problems and nightmares.

East German Brigitte Michel-Sander (1956-) was chosen in 1970 for the 'Kinder- und Jugensportschule Ernst Grube'. Because of her height and strength she was pushed into the category of power athletes and she specialized in shot put and discus throwing. Her first success was the gold medal at the Youth Spartakiade in 1972, so she was admitted to the men's training camp of Peter Börner. Her training intensity was increased, her nutrition plan was adjusted and the medical supervision was further expanded. The aim of all this was to participate in the 1976 Olympics in Montréal.

"When I was seventeen, the trainer told me that from then on we would be working at the world top. Which meant a few changes and something new. There was a plan laying in front of him and he told me that his goal was 67 meters in discus throwing. It meant more weight and more speed. To achieve that goal there were supportive resources, especially strength training, on which he gave me blue pills in aluminum foil, without packaging, without imprint. I remember that I asked him for more explanation and that his answers were plausible, I had no reason to distrust him."

Her performance improved visibly, but she was not allowed to go to Montréal because she was supposedly the youngest. She switched to the training group of Helga Börner, the wife of her previous trainer, who made her work a lot in the power hall. In 1978 she married hammerthrower Bernd Michel (1954-). She was promised that she could take part at the 1980 Olympics in Moscow, on which she continued to train under extremely heavy load and that was only possible thanks to extremely high medication doses. They were given to her by Karin Kögler, TSC Berlin's attending physician, who increased the anabolic use to five times that of the men. But the selection for Moscow turned out to be nothing for Brigitte Michel-Sander, while the party leadership preferred other throwing stars because they were more in line with the system. The couple Michel-Sander then decided to have children, but when they visited the gynecologist, they got the bad news that Brigitte had the womb of a twelve-year-old and that she immediately had to cut down with top sport if she ever wanted to have children.

Her husband Bernd Michel also got the necessary problems. At the age of 14 he lay in hospital for one hundred days with infectious jaundice, which damaged his liver. The people responsible for the Kinder- und Jugendsportschule were aware of this, but nevertheless included him in their program and with the necessary means they prepared him for an international career. After his sports career, he dragged himself through life with a severe autoimmune disease. He also lost the feeling in both legs

Peter Sander, the brother of Brigitte who was also included in the program of frame athletes, got cancer.

 

American Football

In the 1980s, all football players from Stanford, University of Oklahoma, North Dakota State University, Salisbury State, University of Nevada-Reno, Georgia Southern University, University of Southern California and University of Tennessee, Louisiana State University, University of Pittsburgh, Northwestern University, University of Texas, University of Minnesota and Vanderbilt anabolica. Moreover, the University of Nebraska and Notre Dame, two of the most famous schools in college football, were widely involved in the distribution of steroids, which in some cases elicited the comment:

"Nebraska sometimes seemed more like a powerlifters club than a football team."

One of the largest US criminal investigations into the steroid traffic was in Lincoln, Nebraska. It led to the condemnation of Tony Fitton (1950-), who acted like he was a physician and pharmacist and sent the items from the small post office in Alabama where he worked. The FBI regarded 'the Godfather' as the 'pivot' of steroid traffic from the 1980s.

Bodybuilding

To everyone's surprise Arnold Schwarzenegger (1947-) won in 1980 for the seventh time the title 'Mister Olympia', and that after five sabbatical years and with a narrower size compared to that of the 1970s.

During the presentation before the show, a verbal and almost physical confrontation arose between Schwarzenegger and Mike Mentzer (1951-2001). 28-year-old Mentzer was well on the way to success, but saw his effort thwarted by Schwarzenegger's return. To his great amazement he finished only fifth, on which he decided to never take part in competitions again. From then on he got a lot of problems, according to insiders the result of his amphetamine use from the 70s. He lost his job which meant a big financial loss. In 1985 he became editor-in-chief of the new magazine 'WorkOut', which quickly went bankrupt. That same year his father died, so Mentzer ended up in a deep mental crisis and reacted extremely peculiarly. He walked naked through the streets, wanted to organize traffic, announced the end of the world, was arrested more than once by the police, he waited for the arrival of aliens and drank his own urine. Between 1985 and 1990 he regularly ended up in prison, but luckily he got rid of his amphetamine addiction. He returned to the world as trainer of the bodybuilders and wrote articles for the magazine 'Iron Man'. On 10 June 2001 Mentzer died of the consequences of heart problems.

Cycling

37-year-old Spanish cyclist Vicente López Carril (1942-1980) died on 29 March 1980 of a heart attack.

His death was mentioned by Willy Voet (1945-) in the book Massacre à la Chaîne (Massacre on the Chain), although Voet admitted that he could not make a link between his death and doping.

After his active sporting career, Belgian cyclist Freddy Maertens (1952-) confessed to the French newspaper L'Équipe that he had used 'amphetamines' for 'round-the-church' races, just like everyone else. He stressed, however, that he had driven the important races 'clean', not least because he knew that there would be checked.

German rider Didi Thurau (1954-) tested three times positive in 1980 and later again in 1987. After his sporting career, he confessed his doping use in an interview with the German magazine 'Bild' but he also revealed that most riders did so.

Dutch rider René Kos (1955-) finished second at the Stayers World Championship but had to surrender the silver medal after a positive doping test. The following year he crowned world champion in that event.

Spanish cyclist Bartolome Caldentey (1951-) finished third at the Stayers World Championship, but he also had to hand in his bronze medal after a positive doping test. He became seven times Spanish champion in that event.

Italian rider Pietro Algeri (1950-) was sent home because he tested positive for banned resources during the World Cup. Later he was recruited by several teams as a sports director.

Tennis

French tennis player Yannick Noah (1960-) revealed that the players in the ATP circuit used amphetamines and cocaine to be able to keep up.

Track and Field

Bulgarian Totka Petrova (1956-) won the 1,500m During the 1979 World Cup in Montreal, but later she was disqualified because she had been caught in anabolic use shortly before during the Balkan games. She got a suspension of 18 months, but that was reduced to eight months in 1980 so she could take part in the Moscow Olympics.

Romanian 1,500m runners Natalia M?r??escu-Andrei (1952-) and Ileana Silai (1941-) also tested positively on anabolics during those Balkan games and their 18-month suspension was reduced to eight months allowing them to participate in the Moscow Games.

Weight lifting

East German weightlifter Roland Schmidt (1962-2018) was unknowingly receiving so many pills of Oral-Turinabol, which stopped his body in 1980 with the production of male hormones. As a result, he got DD sized breasts, which he had to have removed surgically in 1983. It was even so bad that tumors had grown in his breasts. In addition, he complained of liver problems and nightmares.