Do the Right Thing by Phillip Whitten
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Do the Right Thing by Phillip Whitten (Editor’s Note: This article expands upon the article of the same name in the April 2013 issue of Swimming World Magazine.) It took awhile, but last January, when the International Olympic Committee (IOC) stripped disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong of the bronze medal he’d been awarded at the 2000 Games in Sydney, it sent a powerful message to would-be dopers: “We’re coming after you!” It also set a heartening precedent. The IOC action came after Armstrong wisely decided not to challenge the staggeringly well-documented indictment against him drawn up by USADA, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, finally preferring to come clean in a televised interview with America’s confessor-in-chief, Oprah Winfrey. Though Armstrong captured all the headlines, he is by no means the only cyclist under investigation by the usually staid IOC. Olympic medalists and Armstrong teammates Tyler Hamilton and Levi Leipheimer—both of whom have admitted using performance-enhancing drugs—will almost certainly forfeit their Olympic medals. Then there’s sprinter Marion Jones, who not only was stripped of her five medals from Sydney but who also spent six months in prison for lying about her doping while under oath. After years of excuse-making punctuated with inaction, the IOC, a handful of national anti-doping agencies and some of the international sports federations are finally taking a stand in favor of clean sport. We welcome this change in attitude. Now it is time—in fact, it is long past time—to take a stand on the worst, most far-reaching and longest-lasting scandal in the history of the Olympic Games, one that cheated more than a hundred young athletes of the glory for which they worked so hard and long: East Germany’s state-mandated doping of virtually all of its world-class athletes. Now, some will say, “Yes, it was a shame, but too much time has passed, and it would be difficult.” We say: “It is never too late to do the right thing, to acknowledge our errors and to honor those who were victimized by the GDR’s perfidy.” As for difficulty, we say: just because a right action might be difficult to do, that is no argument against doing it. But, in fact, it would not be all that difficult. In the follow-up to this article, I will outline a reasonable, doable process that would bring the East German scandal to a satisfactory and just ending. It is not the only procedure that would achieve that end, but it will demonstrate conclusively that such a process can be executed successfully. Without question, swimming was impacted by doping more than nearly all other Olympic sports. This was especially true from the early 1970s to the late ’80s when East Germany’s doped Wundermädchen” enjoyed near total domination of the sport. After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, many of the architects of East German swimming success migrated to China. Shortly thereafter, the Chinese women emerged as the new world swimming power, reigning over the 50-meter jungle throughout the 1990s. During that time, FINA did virtually nothing to keep our sport clean. Nor were swimming’s national governing bodies—including USA Swimming—much better. Only a handful of coaches, notably John Leonard and Forbes Carlile; two coaching associations, ASCA and WSCA; half a dozen journalists writing mainly in Swimming World Magazine; and a small number of fearless swimmers, especially Shirley Babashoff, dared speak out. Their message was far from welcome. Babashoff was christened, “Surly Shirley,” by the media and called a sore loser, while Leonard, Carlile and this writer were summarily dismissed by FINA as “three well-known malcontents.” But that appears to be changing. Under the leadership of IOC president Jacques Rogge, the Lords of the Rings appear to be taking seriously the quaint notion of a level playing field. They actually appear to be willing to do the right thing. Don’t get me wrong. They have not shown any inclination to rewrite the history books. But in analyzing the cases where they have taken a stand against doping, one or more of the following five factors appears to have been decisive: 1. The athlete has confessed publicly; 2. WADA (or a national anti-doping agency) has declared the athlete guilty; 3. A legally constituted court has found the athlete guilty; 4. The coaches or administrators of a doping program have confessed; or 5. Scientific records have been discovered detailing the athlete’s doping program. In the case of East Germany, all five factors have combined to identify those East German swimmers who were using performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs). The number of swimmers who have been cheated out of the medals they rightfully earned is nothing short of staggering. Following, you will find a summary of only the women swimmers who were victims of the East German doping machine at the 1976 Games in Montreal; the 1980 Games in Moscow; and the ’88 Games, held in Seoul, South Korea. (The 1984 Games have been omitted because East Germany joined the Eastern bloc’s boycott in retaliation for the U.S.-led boycott of 1980.) We have omitted the men for three reasons: (1) steroids and other PEDs have a much less dramatic effect on men; (2) the GDR men were far less successful than their female counterparts; and (3) some East German men—such as backstroke world record holder, Roland Mathes—apparently were able to opt out if their coaches insisted and if they achieved international success without drugs. Montreal 1976 The East German women were virtually untouchable in Montreal, dominating the rest of the world in a way that had never been seen before. The ladies of the German Democratic Republic took the gold in 11 of the 13 women’s events contested, going 1-2 in five events. Only the 200 meter breaststroke, won by the Soviet Union’s Marina Koshevaia and the 400 meter free relay, taken by a fired-up American team, escaped the giant East German scythe. So dominant were the Wundermädchen that swimmers from only four other countries—the USA, USSR, Canada and the Netherlands (see Table 1)—managed to win even a single medal of any color. When Babashoff spoke out, pointing to the East Germans’ masculine musculature, excessive body hair, deep voices and heavy acne—all indications of steroid use—she was lambasted by the press while the GDR head coach mocked her, sarcastically saying, “We have come here to swim, not to sing.” Babashoff, whose five-gold-medal performance—the greatest ever by a female swimmer—was nullified by East German cheating, was the major victim, but she was far from the only one. Canada, which suffered the ignominy of becoming the first Olympic host country to fail to win a single gold medal in swimming, ended up with but seven medals, all but one of them bronze. As a result, Canadian swimming became an international backwater until 1984. ___________________________________________________________________________________ Table 1. 1976 Olympics, Montreal: Medal Table Awarded by Country Gold Silver Bronze GDR 11 06 01 USA 01 04 02 URS 01 02 02 CAN 00 01 06 HOL 00 00 02 ______________________________________________________________________________ If you peruse the official results from Montreal, you’ll find that Canada’s Nancy Garapick was credited with two bronze medals. Take away the dopers and, behold!—Nancy is revealed as one of the Games’ superstars, with gold medals in both backstroke events and heading a 1-2-3 Canadian sweep of the 100-meter dorsal race. And she was just one of 10 Canadians who were cheated of 15 medals. In all, in 1976 alone, some 32 women were cheated out of 48 Olympic medals (see Table 3). Take Holland’s Enith Brigitha, for example. Most readers likely would not even know her name. Check the results from ’76, and you’ll find she is credited with winning two bronze medals and a fourth- place finish. But if you eliminate the steroid-assisted efforts of the East Germans, Brigitha emerges as the gold medalist in the 100 free, silver medalist in the 200 and a bronze medalist on the Dutch 4 x 100 free relay. As the fastest 100-meter sprinter in the world, Brigitha would have been universally recognized as the first black Olympic gold medalist in swimming. ___________________________________________________________________________________ Table 2. 1976 Olympics, Montreal – Medal Table with Doped Athletes Removed Gold Silver Bronze USA 07 02 03 URS 04 02 01 CAN 03 06 03 NED 01 01 02 NZL 00 00 01 AUS 00 00 01 GER 00 00 01 ___________________________________________________________________________________ Table 3. Who Was Cheated of Olympic Medals in 1976? GOLD 1. Shirley Babashoff, USA, G-200, 400, 800 free, 400 MR 2. Wendy Boglioli, USA, G-100 fly (bronze) 3. Enith Brigitha, NED, G-100 free, S-200 free, B-400 FR 4. Nancy Garapick, CAN, G-100 back, 200 back 5. Cheryl Gibson, CAN, G-400 IM, B-200 fly 6. Linda Jezek, USA, G-400 MR 7. Kim Peyton, USA, S-100 free (G from 400 FR) 8. Lubov Russanova, URS, G-100 breast (2nd) 9. Laura Siering, USA, G-400 MR 10. Karen Thornton, USA, G-200 fly (4th) 11. Camille Wright, USA, G-400 MR, S-100 fly SILVER and BRONZE (1976) 1. Gail Amundrud, CAN, S-400 FR 2. Gabriele Askamp, GER, B-100 breast 3. Melissa Belote, USA, B-200 back 4. Barbara Clark, CAN, S-400 FR 5. Robin Corsiglia, CAN, S-400 MR 6. Linda Faber, NED, B-400 FR 7.