Repeating as an Olympic champion in one event makes on a great. In two events leaves no question. Also, Martti Vainio getting caught for doping 8 years after Viren won his last title doesn't imply that everyone in his country was doping. If there had been a slew of Finnish positive tests at the time, then I could see how suspicions would be raised. Of course, it's possible he was cheating, and some may feel it was very probable, but that speculation could be had about every athlete competing at the time.
At the time there was no test for blood doping so a slew of Finnish positives, or for any other country, for blood doping wasn't possible. There were Finns at the time who acknowledged that they had blood doped. Viren was not one of them. He's always denied it but waited until his career was over to do it. And he's said that because blood doping wasn't illegal he'd have no reason to deny it. If four Olympic gold medals don't make you a true great I don't know what does.
This^ and he doubled in an age you had to run a semifinal in the 10,000.
Just as there was no "reindeer milk". It was drugs. It always is.
Educate yourself, you demented, geriatric turd. Ma never mentioned "Caterpillar juice".
From the Irish Times, 2006.
'There are possibly some people, somewhere, who still attribute the most incredible running performances of our time to the fresh turtle blood and caterpillar fungus, plus of course the marathon-a-day training, even when evidence later emerged they were “showered in doping”.'
Help us build the best running shoe review site for a chance to win a LetsRun t-shirt.Help us build the best running shoe review site for a chance to win one of 10 LetsRun t-shirts.