Doping and sports - 2002

2002 Winter Olympics

Because practically the entire Finnish cross-country team in 2001 after the World Cup was caught using Nandrolone, it was excluded for the 2002 Winter Olympics.

Russian cross-country ski star Natalia Baranova-Masalkina (1975-) had to leave the Olympic village after she reacted positive to EPO in a test outside competition, for which she was suspended for two years. Four years later in Turin she won the gold medal with the relay team 4 x 5km.

Belarusian ice hockey player Vasily Pankov (1968-) was caught on the use of nadrolone and had to hand in his Olympic diploma. Team physician Evgeni Lositski was not allowed to participate in the next two Olympics.

Russians Larissa Lazutina (1965-) and Olga Danilova (1970-) had to hand in their gold and silver medals after the Olympics of Salt Lake City, after they tested positive for darbepetin, a product that increases the production of red blood cells. They also received a two-year suspension.

German-born Johann Mühlegg (1970-) participated in the 1990, 1994 and 1998 Winter Olympics. But his relationship with coach Georg Zipfel (1953-) was completely sick. Mühlegg accused the German national coach of damaging his 'spirituality'. Because it got out of hands, the German Federation decided in 1995 to throw him out of the team. A few months later he was re-invited but the eccentric Mühlegg remained difficult. He always demanded a bottle of holy water and he only trusted his Portuguese cleaner and chaperone Justina Agostino. After the 1998 Olympics, in which he didn't achieve, just like in the previous editions, he was finally sent away. In 1999 he asked for Spanish citizenship, thanks to his good relations with Juan Jesús Gutierrez (1969-) and Haritz Zunzunegui (1975-), two members of the Spanish cross-country team with whom he apparently got on well. To everyone's surprise, that year he won the World Cup and at the 2001 World Championships in Lahti, Finland, he won one gold medal and two silver medals. He did even better at the Olympics in Salt Lake City, with 3 golden medals. Not for long though, because the day after his last victory he was caught using Aranesp, an EPO related drug that produces red blood cells in the bone marrow. Mühlegg had to hand in his golden medals and was suspended for two years, which ment the end of his career.

Scott Alain Baxter (1973-) wrote history because he was the first Briton to win a medal in alpine skiing. At home, however, it became known that he had tested positive for methamphetamine in a doping test and he had to hand in his bronze medal. Baxter stated that he had bought a Vick's Inhaler in the United States and that he was unaware that the American version of that product had a different composition. The IOC accepted that explanation and suspended him for only three months.

During those Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, a cleaning lady discovered a complete blood transfusion system in the rooms of Austrian cross-country skiers. The IOC started an investigation and two months later Marc Mayer (1978-) and Achim Walcher (1967-) were disqualified and excluded for the next two Winter Olympics. The Austrians asserted as an excuse that with the equipment ultraviolet irradiation of the blood was done in order to protect their skiers against flu and cold, certainly not for performance-enhancing purposes.

Coach Walter Mayer (1957-) and caretaker Volker Müller got a lifetime ban because they organised the entire doping event.

German Thomas Oelsner (1970-) was the first paralympicus to be sent home due to doping. After his win in the 7.5km biathlon and the 5km cross country, he tested positive for the anabolic steroid methenolone. He was removed from the participants list of 10km cross country and had to hand in his two gold medals. Oelsner shouted his innocence and suspected errors and even sabotage from the laboratory.

Doping in the GDR

Again a bizarre story popped up. Discus thrower Brigitte Michel-Sander (1956-) discovered rather coincidental that she got exactly the same pills as her grandfather. When she read the leaflet of her grandfather's drug she knew immediately why she felt so strange after taking her 'vitamins'. When she then refused to swallow the pills, the doctors threw her out of the selection and made her clean the floor of the sports buildings. At a later age she suffered from her hips and spine, which were worn out by the harsh training sessions. She received a hip replacement, was operated on her back, had a numb leg and was constantly in pain.

The German government provided two million euros in compensation for athletes who were stuffed with steroids by the former communist regime. Those who wanted to claim compensation received the time to report until March 2003.

Former cyclist Gustav-Adolf Schur (1931-), who sat in the German Reichstag for the Communist Party PDS, voted against the two million Euro fund because it was only intended for East German athletes. His argument was that there had also been widespread doping use in West Germany and that there were undoubtedly also victims.

When Schur, along with 22 other athletes, was a candidate to be admitted to the Hall of Fame of German sports, he got lectured at of the Association for Doping Victims Assistance. Ines Geipel (1960-), Andreas Krieger (1966-) and many other doping victims from the former GRR accused him in an open letter that he had been a central propaganda figure of the criminal GDR sport, who had been a deputy from the People's Chamber of the GDR for over 30 years. Moreover, they threw Schur in the face that he also voted against the clarification of the 'body laboratory DDR' in parliament and they described him as a "notorious history defender who downplayed the criminal acts of the GDR sport and discredited the victims".

In August 2011, during a book review, Schur denied the compulsory doping in the East German sport.

By his statements about the East German doping network, his view on the legitimacy of the wall and the order to shoot at the German internal border, Schur was ultimately not included in the Hall of Fame.

Some 250 athletes united in the 'Doping-Opfer-Hilfe', which brought four hundred 'cases' to justice. The president of the association was the German surgeon and sports physician Klaus Zöllig (1947-), who estimated the number of sick athletes at two thousand.

The South African Athletics Association appointed sports physician Ekkart Arbeit (1931-) as 'consultant coach'. As a sports scientist, Arbeit worked on the infamous East German anabolics program and he also delivered thousands of pages of reports to the Stasi. Within this secret service, Arbeit was known as Claus Tisch.

The rumors of Arbeit's involvement in doping have been buzzing for years. According to the South African sports bobo Banele Sindani (1955-) there was absolutely no reason not to hire him, according to him the East German doping was never proven. The South African 'Sunday Times' contacted German doping researcher Werner Francke (1940-) who knew Arbeit too well. According to Francke, the scientist played an important role in the GDR's doping program. Maybe he did not give hormones himself, but he did control the machinery. In addition, between 1969 and 1989, Arbeit spied on athletes, coaches, doctors, friends and colleagues. He reported all cases in which athletes and coaches did not take their obligatory dose of hormones.

Through his espionage, he ended, among other things, the career of discus thrower Karin Illgen (1941-), simply because she had been eating an ice cream with a foreigner. He certainly did not know for sure, but he still suspected her to also have sexual contact with the guy and so her sport career was over. In 1975 he notified Dagmar Weber, because the physician from Rostock had ethical objections to the administration of steroids because of the serious side effects. The Stasi made sure she could no longer work in sports centers. Arbeit also spied in his spare time. He hung around in hotels that were visited by Westerners and dissidents and reported athletes who were in contact with the West.

With the support of John Coates (1950-), boss of the Australian Olympic Committee, Arbeit was brought in by the Australian athletics federation in 1997. The rumors that he was involved in the East German doping program were dismissed by Coates as nonsense. The questioners should remember that Arbeit was able to present 'a systematic and scientific sporting knowledge', according to Coates.

At the end of April, Arbeit was hired by the British Olympic heptathlonist champion Denise Lewis (1972-).

Because he was the right person for improving her condition and her throwing technique, according to Frank Dick, coach of Lewis and best friend of Arbeit, to journalists from 'The Guardian'. Lewis did not see any ethical problems working with a Stasi spy, coach Dick knew.

"Arbeit was never found guilty by the German judges."

That's right, because according to German law only that person was guilty of actually providing or administering the medicines, Arbeit never gave an injection.

The following year he moved to Iraq, where he had to 'prepare' the national team for the 2004 Olympics.

At the end of October Manfred Ewald (1926-2002) died of pneumonia at the age of 76. Ewald was head of the East German sports federation from 1961 to 1988 and from 1973 to 1990 head of the NOC, but also the person in charge of the East German doping program.

Baseball

American baseball player Ken Caminiti (1963-2004) stopped competing in 2001. In the June issue of the American magazine 'Sports Illustrated' he confessed his steroids use.

"I have committed thousands of missteps, I do not think the use of steroids was one of them."

He estimated that at least half of his colleagues were being doped. In addition, he also struggled with an alcohol and cocaine problem. In September 2004, five days before his death, he tested positive for cocaine a fourth time and was sentenced to 180 days in prison. Caminiti died in the Lincoln Hospital of New York. At first, a heart attack seemed the cause of death, but the post-autopsy showed "an acute intoxication due to combined effects of cocaine and opiates, with coronary artery disease and heart hypertrophy as contributing factors". On the afternoon of his death he had become unconscious in a friend's apartment after injecting a speedball of cocaine and heroin intravenously.

Boxing

Mexican boxer Fernando Vargas (1977) crowned himself as world champion twice. 'Ferocious', 'The Aztec Warrior' or 'El Feroz', as were his nicknames, was suspended for nine months in 2002 and had to pay a hundred thousand dollars fine after a positive test for anabolic steroid Stanozolol In 2001 Vargas was sentenced to 90 days house arrest together with four friends for an attack on Doug Rossi (1976-), who had intervened in a street fight.

Canoe

Dmitriy Sabin (1979-), a canoer from Ukraine, finsihed second in the 200m sprint at the Seville World Championships, but had to return the silver medal after a positive doping test.

Car racing

In 2001 Czech Tomáš Enge (1976) made his debut in Formula I during the Grand Prix of Italy. At the Prost Grand Prix race he replaced Brazilian Luciano Burti (1975-) who had crashed heavily fourteen days before in Francorchamps. In total Enge drove three Grand Prix's in which he did not score points. In August 2002 he tested positive for marijuana and had to hand in his newly acquired Formula 3000 title. In 2012 he was suspended for eighteen months for doping.

Cycling

In the scientific journal Neurology, the article 'Cyclist's doping associated with cerebral sinus thrombosis' was published, describing the case of a Spanish rider who had registered with his doctor with a severe headache. Research revealed a reduced amount of cerebrospinal fluid combined with a thrombosis. According to the doctors, this could only be explained by a long-term EPO and growth hormones administration combined with high doses of vitamin supplements, something the athlete later admitted.

In June, six cyclists were sentenced to prison terms in Reims for their use of the infamous Pot Belge. The Belgian main supplier André Delrue (1963-) even had to go in for four years and the former track cyclist and multiple French champion Philippe Boyer (1956-) (photo) got two years of which half with postponement. In 2003 Boyer published his autobiography 'Champion, flic et voyou' (Champion, cop and criminal). The case started to roll when French cyclist André Cordelette (1960-) collapsed during a race and was urgently admitted to the hospital in a worrying state with cardiac problems. In his pockets a fiole with amphetamines and caffeine were found and that discovery revealed a network of 'Pot Belge' suppliers. Later on Cordelette had to undergo a heart transplant.

In the French city of Rennes, the trial against twelve defendants who had sold the 'Pot Belge' began in December 2002. Pivotal figure was French ex-cyclist Patrick Béon (1950-) (photo), who was caught amphetamines in 1976 during the Tour of Belgium. The case came to light when the customs intercepted at the French-Belgian border a parcel of 30 bottles 'Pot Belge' addressed to Béon's mother. After the Béon's confessions, a lot surfaced. A few months earlier, Philippe Tomasina (1960-), mechanic at AG2r, had to leave the Tour de France because he was also involved in this story. The big problem was that one could never reach the top of the doping network due to a lack of cooperation between the judiciary of the different countries. The French former riders Pascal Chanteur (1968-), Sébastien Guénée (1972-), Stéphane Ravaleu (1974-), Marc Madiot (1959-), Jacky Durand (1967-) and Roland Leclerc (1963-). ) were concerned. After his sporting career, Béon became sports director, but he switched to the sales of sunglasses. He was on the road a lot and to be able to keep up with the hellish pace, but also to be able to celebrate unrestrained, he used amphetamines again. Soon he also started dealing drugs and so he came into contact with Dutchman Pete Boot (1950-), who deliverd him the 'Pot Belge' for 320 French Francs, which Béon then sold for 1,400 French francs. During the interrogation, Béon stressed that he never sold to riders but that the French caretaker and former rider Erwan Menthéour (1973-) was his best customer. Béon's son and Béon's brother were also in the dock. Through his father's actions, the son himself experimented with doping. In January 2003 the verdict fell. Patrick Béon (1950-), sports officer Serge Degnati (1963-) and caretaker Jean-Yves Verger (1956-) were each sentenced to three years in prison, two of them conditionally. Philippe Tomasina (1960-) received thirty months, twenty of which conditional. The other defendants were given prison sentences of four to ten months. The gang also had to pay 60,350 Euro to the customs.

In his autobiography Dane Brian Holm (1962-) confessed that he had used EPO in 1996 on two occasions. Fortunately for him, his confession did not cost him his job as manager of the national team, despite some concerns from the Danish Federation about his role model for young riders. In 2004, colon cancer was diagnosed, of which he recovered. Afterwards, Holm became a sports director at Telekom and Omega Pharma-Quickstep.

In 2002 Italian rider Filippo Simeoni (1971-) confessed that doctor Michele Ferrari (1953-) taught him in 1996 and 1997 how to use EPO and growth hormone. In the courtroom he testified that he had been using doping since 1993.

In an unannounced audit, Jan Ullrich (1973-) tested positive for Ecstasy. The German recovered from a knee injury and he visited the local nightclub regularly. He stated that the purpose of the ecstasy he used there was to improve his performance on the dance floor.

In the Tour of Austria, Irish rider David McCann (1973-) tested positive for norandrosterone which was in a dietary supplement, while not mentioned on the package. Thanks to this proof, he received the minimum sentence of six months and two thousand Swiss francs.

Italian rider Valentino Fois (1973-2008) was caught using Nandrolone in the Tour of Austria. For that third violation, he received a three-year suspension and a fine of eight thousand Swiss francs. He had already tested positive on the use of testosterone during the 1997 Tour of Switzerland and that same year a second time on the same product in the Tour of Poland, which gave him twelve months suspension. Fois suffered from depression and in 2007 he was in prison for 100 days for stealing two laptops. In 2008, at the age of 34, he died unexpectedly from the effects of an acute pneumonia, after his body was weakened by alcohol and drug use, with insiders comparing the early death of his great friend Marco Pantani (1970-2004).

Austrian rider Arno Kaspret (1964-) was suspended for two years after a positive test on ephedrine. After he reacted positive to norandrosterone in 2008, the Austrian National Doping Agency (NADA) suspended him for life.

At the start of the Giro d'Italia Italian Roberto Sgambelluri (1974-) was caught using NESP, which gave him a year suspension.

At a check in the Giro d'Italia the urine of Italian rider Gilberto Simoni (1971-) showed traces of cocaine. As an excuse, he said he had eaten candy from South America that was probably contaminated with the product.

The police arrested Italian rider Nicola Chesini (1974-) after the fifth stage of the Giro d'Italia for possession of prohibited products.

Italian Stefano Garzelli (1973-), winner of the Giro d'Italia in 2000, was caught in the 2002 edition on diuretics and on the masking agent probenecid. According to Garzelli, the discovery of probenecid was the result of the consumption of a 'polluted moorhen' earlier that week. He had to leave the Giro, was suspended for nine months and had to pay a fine of 100,000 Swiss francs, half of which was postponed.

Russian Faat Zakirov (1974-) had to leave the Giro when traces of NESP were found in his pee. He was suspended for a year, but got a year more from the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). The Russian was the first rider to be punished for that product.

The US Postal Team sent Italian Gianpaolo Mondini (1972) walking, after carabinieri had found EPO and growth hormones in his hotel room during the Giro d'Italia.

Italian Roberto Conti (1964-) was suspended for six months when they found NESP, hashish and caffeine in his room during the Giro d'Italia.

Danish rider Lars Brian Nielsen (1970-) tested positive for high caffeine doses and was thrown out of the national team for the World Cup in Ballerup. In 1998 he tested positive on Nandrolone with two years suspension as a result.

American rider Scott Moninger (1966-) was suspended for a year because he had used 19-norandrosterone in the Saturn Cycling Classic.

Juan Pineda (1975-), another American, tested positive for 19-norandrosterone and 19-noretiocholanolone after the First Union Invitational in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He was suspended for two years.

Pool Piotr Przydzial (1974-) of the CCC-Polsat team tested positive on EPO in the 55th Peace Race, which resulted in two years of suspension. The year before he was not allowed to start in that same race because his hematocrit was over 50% at the time.

After Lithuanian Raimondas Rumšas (1972-) finished third in the Tour de France, he was suspended by his team Lampre the day after his arrival on the Paris Champs Elysées, because the police had found EPO and testosterone in his wife's car. Rumšas himself denied having used anything, his wife insisted that the products were intended for her mother. In 2003, Lampre fired the Lithuanian when it became apparent that he had used EPO during the Giro d'Italia of that year, which resulted in a suspension of one year. He was arrested in June 2005 and in January 2006 he and his wife were sentenced to four months in prison and three thousand euros in fine by the French judiciary. The Polish doctor who prescribed the banned drugs flew twelve months behind the bars. On May 2, 2017, Rumšas' son Linas (1995-2017) died at the age of 21. In September of that year it became known that his father Raimondas was one of the five suspects in the investigation into death, after banned substances were found in his home. In October it became known that his other son Raimondas junior (1994-) had tested positive for the growth hormone GRHP-6 the previous month.

Swiss Stefan Rütimann (1978-) tested positive on testosterone during the 2001 Tour de Romandie, which cost him seven months suspension. When he was caught in the same race in 2002, he got four years and he ended his carreer.

In 1999, Frank Vandenbroucke (1974-2009) became involved in an affair of his doping suspected caretaker Bernard Sainz (1943-). Vandenbroucke was summoned as a witness and acquitted. At the beginning of 2002, EPO, Morfine and Clenbuterol were found during a house search, for which he was suspended. 'VDB' casually stated that the medicines were meant for his sick dog. In the first instance he received a community service of two hundred hours, in appeal it became a fine of two hundred and fifty thousand euros. Vandenbroucke went to the court of cassation and was acquitted at the beginning of 2007, when the public prosecutor's office, in its turn, filed an appeal. Privately Vandenbroucke also had a lot of problems: depression and drug use, two divorces, twice driving drunk a car, a suicide attempt, purchase of cocaine. On October 12, 2009, Vandenbroucke died in suspicious circumstances during a holiday in Senegal.

Austrian rider Matthias Buxhofer (1973-) had to go to the doping check in August after a ride in the round of Denmark. Use of Norandrosteron gave him two years of suspension.

After Belarusian cyclist Zinaida Stahoerskaja (1971-2009) became world champion on the road in 2000, she also won the Giro d'Italia in 2001. However, she had to surrender that victory after a diuretic had been found in her urine. She also received a four-month suspension. In 2004 she tested positive for ephedrine and that gave her another two months suspension. In 2005 a third infringement followed, this time on stanozolol and testosterone, which meant staying home for two years. In 2009 she died when she was hit by a car during training.

French rider Freddy Bichot (1979-) won the national title with the amateurs. After the championship it appeared that he had injected corticoids and for that he was suspended for six months.

Football

Quim (1975-), the nickname of Portuguese Joaquim Manuel Sampaio Silva, defended the goal of the national team of Andorra and of the Portuguese first division SC Braga. In 2002 he was suspended for six months after a positive pee on nandrolone.

Cocaine was found in the urine of goalkeeper Mark Bosnich (1972-). Chelsea immediately disbanded his contract and FIFA gave the Australian nine-month suspension, for him reasons enough to end his career. At that time he earned about fifty thousand Euro per week, and that as second goalkeeper who did not play any game in the first team. His cocaine addiction cost him four thousand euros every week, he lived like a hermit, and every day he snorted about ten grams of the substance. One day he almost shot his father, because he thought it was a burglar.

The Portuguese Football Association called Daniel Kenedy (1974-) for the 2002 World Cup, but after a positive test on Furomeside and Nandrolone, he had to stay home and was suspended for eighteen months.

British goalkeeper Billy Turley (1973-) of Rushden & Diamonds tested positive for Nandrolone, but came away with a warning. In 2004, however he was caught for cocaine. FIFA suspended him for six months and his team threw him out.

The talented winger Leon Jeanne (1980-) had already been arrested for driving under the influence. In 2001, the Welshman tested positive again and received a conditional two years. In May 2002 he was appointed for a doping test, but when the results returned from the lab, it appeared that the liquid delivered was not urine. When he refused a second pee, his club Cardiff threw him out. In September 2002 he was arrested together with two other men for drug trafficking. During the trial he confessed his cocaine addiction. In July 2009 a new arrest followed, this time for money laundering.

Striker Euzebiusz 'Ebi' Smolarek (1981-) has been selected 46 times for the Polish national team, but when he played with Feyenoord Rotterdam against PSV Eindhoven in the UEFA Cup match, he was caught using cannabis. Strangely enough, that product was not banned in the Netherlands and it was not even on the list of prohibited substances. UEFA eventually suspended him for two European competitions.

Handball

Danish handball player Mads Lind (1980-) was caught using anabolic steroids.

Judo

João Derly (1981-) is the only Brazilian judoka who became world champion twice. After the South American Games in Bogota, he tested positive for diuretics, which he had swallowed to be able to fight in his weight class.

Shooting

Australian Phillip Adams (1945-) won eighteen medals at six different Commonwealth Games, making him the most acclaimed archer in history. He also participated in four consecutive Olympics. In June 2002 he reacted positively to beta-blockers. Despite the fact that the Australian shooting federation acquitted him, the Australian Olympic Committee suspended him for two years, preventing him from attending the 2004 Olympics in Athens.

Tennis

Spanish tennis star Lourdes Domínguez Lino (1981-) was suspended for three months after a positive cocaine test.

Track and Field

Indian Sunita Rani (1979) won the gold medal on the 1500m and the bronze medal on the 5000m at the Asian Games. The doping test afterwards, however, turned positive for Nandrolone. Three months later she got her medals back because the test was not taken according to the rules. Quite coincidentally, her new coach came from the former Eastern Bloc.

"These coaches come cheap," sighed the Indian newspaper 'The Tribune'.

Ukrainian heptathlonist Ljoedmila Blonska (1977-) was suspended for two years after she was caught on anabolics at the 2002 European Championship in Munich. Because she had no money to appeal, she was serving her sentence. After that she did a successful re-entry with winning the heptathlon at the 2005 Universiade and the 2006 World Cup. In 2008 she won the silver medal in that event at the Beijing Olympics and she placed herself for the long jump final with the third best jump. The doping test after the heptathlon, however, showed the use of anabolics, so she had to hand in her silver medal, she was not allowed to participate in the final of the long jump and together with her husband-coach she was suspended for life by her own federation.

English pole vaulter Janine Whitlock (1973-) delivered a positive pee on methandienone at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester, for which she was suspended for two years.

Triathlon

Brazilian triathlete Mariana Ohata (1978-) got sixty weeks of suspension when they found furosemide in her urine. After a second infringement in October 2009, she had to be sidelined for six years, preventing her from participating in the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.

Weightlifting

Kunjarani Devi (1968-) was the most lauded Indian sportswoman in weightlifting, but tested positive for strychnine and got six months suspension and a fine of 1,200 USD.

During the Commonwealth Games Indian weightlifter Pratima Kumari (1974-) had to hand in her gold medal after the doping test yielded a positive result on testosterone. Two years later she tested positive for Testosterone just before the start of the Athens Olympics, which put her at the sidelines for two years.