The Guardian of Liberty - Nemzetőr, 1980 (3. évfolyam, 1-4. szám)
1980-05-01 / 3. szám
12 IOC Powerless to Ban Drug-Takers The International Olympic Committee (IOC) will be examining the question of banning confirmed drug-taking athletes from future Games, but has no powers to do so for the Moscow Olympics. So said Lord Killanin, the IOC President, in a recent British television interview quo+ed in the London Press. Asked whether the IOC would be prepared to ban five East European athletes who were reinstated by the International Amateur Athletic Federation (IAAF) after beinq found guilty of drug-taking last year, he said that he had recently discussed the matter with Adriaan Paulen, the IAAF President. Lord Killanin added: ,1 felt it would be very difficult for the IOC to stop anybody who was qualified under the rules of any international federation. All I can say is that I consider it a very unfortunate decision, which could have long-term repercussions.* A few days earlier, Christine Benning, Britain’s leading woman runner in the 1,500 metres, announced her boycott of the Moscow Games. She emphasised that she was taking this action solely because of 'her disapproval of the pardoning of the five East European athletes, all of whom were found last year to have improperly used anabolic steroids. In recent years it has been confirmed That these synthetic hormonal preparations can cause serious and often long-term damage to health if they are taken for non-medical reasons such as enhancing athletic ability. Anabolic steroids are particularly harmful if improperly used by women and girls, often causing the development of masculine characteristics. The five reinstated athletes include three of the world's fastest women middlê-distance runners: Totka Petrova (Bulgaria), Natalia Maresescu and llena Silai (both of Romania). Petrova and Maresescu failed drug tests for the Balkan Games and Silai’s use of steroids was detected in the European Cup competition. The two other reinstated East European athletes are Daniela Teneva (Bulgaria), winner of the 100-metres hurdles at the Balkan Games; and Santa Vlad (Romania), a long jumper. In addition, two Soviet discus throwers, Alena Kovaleva and Nadia Kudryavtseva, failed drug tests at last year’s European Junior Championships. In August, 1978, Viktor Kuznetsov (USSR) became the first swimmer to be found to have taken an anabolic steroid. He was deprived of a bronze medal received a few days earlier when he swam in the 100-metres backstroke final at the world championships in Wes* Berlin. Kuznetsov was one of two swimmers in each event who were chosen at random for drug testing. In November, 1978, the European Athletic Association confirmed the disqualification of five athletes — four Soviet and one Bu'garian - for having taken prohibited drugs before competing in the European championships held in Prague, Czechoslovakia, two months earlier. The last of these disqualifications occurred about a year after the USSR’s leading specialist in sports medicine, Professor Viktor Rogozkin, had publicly declared anabolic steroids to be „unacceptable ethically and medically, especially in women’s sporting events*. Dr. Rogozkin, Director of the Leningrad Physical Culture Research Institute and Chairman of the Doping Control Commission of the Moscow Olympic Games’ Organising Committee, said in a Press statement in 1978 *hat anabolic steroids had only recently been added to the „doping arsenal" in sport. However, the results of many tests conducted in Soviet, American and Canadian clinics had shown „the destructive influence of synthetic hormones on the body and the development of various diseases with dangerous, though delayed consequences*. The Press statement was issued after a symposium in Leningrad in which Soviet and American specialists in sports medicine condemned the use of anabolic steroids in sport. After she settled in West Germany last September, 25-year-o!d Renate Vogel (Frau Heinrich) described the ten-year course of intensive training in East Germany which led to her becoming a wor'd champion swimmer. At the age of 11 she was enrolled in a special school in Karl-Marx-Stadt along with 19 other children. Bv the time she was 16 she was training five and a half hours a day. Even before she went to the soecial school she was being given a white powder. She believes if was a harmless glucose-based substance intended to prepare her for the anabolic steroids and cortisone which she was to receive later. The school staff tried as far as possible to isolate their adolescent or pre-ado'escent charges from the outside world during this crucial time in which they were being turned into muscular „super-women". During her years of being given drugs, vitamin pills and special diets Renate Voqel put on 70 kilograms of solid muscle. She said in a Press interview last year: „When I look at photos from those days, I feel sick. We swimmers never really noticed what we looked like because we were always kept together." However, she was shocked when an old friend met her and said: „Wow, Renate, your voice is like a man’s, and you have unbelievably broad shoulders!" When Renate’s swimming career was over she had the traumatic experience of rehabilitation to normal life. Inability to slowly cut down her training programme caused a worseninq of her already bad health. When she stood uo after eating, she often lost consciousness. She also sometimes blacked out if she moved her head quickly. Unlike some ex-athletes who have remained in the Soviet-b'oc countries, she is now, fortunately, restored to health, thanks to much specialist medical help. She is again feminine appearance. Her weight is again normal, and her voice has risen to its natural pitch. In her Press interview last year she did, however, express one anxiety over her long course of drug-usage during adolescence. „I would love to have children", she said, „but I am afraid that I would bring them into the world handicapped." Last October, a Moscow newspaper, Sovietski Sport, reported that the drug detection laboratory at the Moscow Olympics would be staffed by Soviet specialists. THE GUARDIAN OF LIBERTY NEMZETŐR) ltiwy>UilUri#it»fni<im iflfir Edited: by the Editori»! 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