A part of this posting appeared above, but there is quite a bit more that was eliminated or left out, not sure why:
The Explica article doesn’t really say anything that hasn’t been said, although it does say it in English. The El País article from 1984 that Coevett cites is really much more interesting. Some highlights:
Headline: The Spanish (Athletics) Federation helps athletes with permitted substances
By JUAN MORA (BTW, Mora was one of Spain’s top journalist on athletics, along with Carlos Toro of El Mundo)
Madrid - 10 MAR 1984
“In a press Conference yesterday, the Federation officially explained the sources of five positives in recent doping controls. These were the result of research by a doctor and a coach…Eufemiano Fuentes, the Federation’s official doctor explained that “for some time now we have helped our athletes with ergogenic substances (glucose or ATP) which are not considered doping…At the same time we are investigating other substances which, in spite of not being forbidden (forbidden in Spain, he fails to add) could metabolize and give a positive reading…” Which obviously we want to avoid, he adds.
Guillermo Laich, medical advisor to the Federation pointed to the experiments’ successes: “…last year…José Luis González came to our labs completely shot (destrozado) and only a short time later he beat Coe.”
“The Federation’s President also announced a new era, where athletes will have the obligation to participate in those competitions that the Federation considers appropriate because ’we can’t permit luxuries like (Colomán) Trabado (800m runner) and González (still Spanish mile record holder at 3:47.79) not participating in the European Championships.’”
This last sentence may be important: did González skip the European Championships because he could not afford to be tested, or because he was injured?
Then: Marca (Spain’s top sporting daily newspaper) published a retrospective of Fuentes’ career just before the interview with Jordi Evole. Some highlights:
“Eufemiano Fuentes: the shadow of doping in Spanish sport, insinuates that our sports world “owes him.”” Eufemiano Fuentes Rodríguez… claims for himself a good part of our sports’ successes, especially in the Olympics, centering on Barcelona ’92. But rather than claim these successes directly, he casts his shadow on them, an ominous presence that projects suspicion, doubt or discredit…”
Fuentes’ career: Graduate of the University of Navarra (probably top medical school in Spain) with a brilliant record, specializing in gynecology. Soon applies himself to sports medicine under his former coach, Manuel Pascua Piqueras.
1980. Along with Pascua Piqueras, he organizes a seminar on “Medicine and Sport.”
1982. Pascua Piqueras organizes a training camp in the Canary Islands, with Fuentes as physician.
1984. Fuentes is named medical director of the Blume Residence, the elite athletes’ training center in Madrid.
1984. He is named medical director of the Royal Spanish Athletics Federation.
1984. Travels to Los Angeles Olympics as medical director of the Spanish athletics team. José Manuel Abascal wins bronze in 1500m.
1984. Juan Carlos Traspederne, Spanish marathoner at the L.A. Games, reports that Fuentes gave him pills “without a box, without a prospectus, with no label.” Traspederne says he threw them down the toilet. He subsequently DNF’ed.
1984 Jarmila Kratochvílová and Helena Fibingerová travel to Madrid and the Canary Islands for training.
1984 Two Polish trainers participate in an athletics seminar in Spain. This was not revealed until 1988.
1988 Cristina Pérez, Fuentes’ wife, tests positive for chlorphentermin. The test is covered up with the cooperation of José Manuel de la Hoz, President of the Spanish Athletics Federation who called the test “imperfect.”
1992 Fuentes is no longer the team physician of the Spanish Athletics Federation, but he has 15 “individual clients” under his medical supervision in run up to the Barcelona Games. Fuentes’ wife, Cristina Pérez states that “many medals at Barcelona ’92 are thanks to Dr. Fuentes.”
2006 and 2008. Operación Puerto and Operación Galgo – details on the other thread Coevette refers to. Fuentes states that these cases and the raids they provoked are the work of Jaime Lissavetzky, the head of the Higher Sports Council, who Fuentes refused to work with in the run up to the 2008 Games. One of those implicated in Operación Galgo commits suicide.
2011. Fuentes is team physician of the professional football (soccer) team Unión Deportivo Las Palmas. After a game in Madrid against Rayo Vallecano syringes, capsules and blister packs are found in the UD Las Palmas dressing room. At a press conference it is explained that these were used for “vitamin complexes.” END of MARCA Article.
I don’t think the last word has been written about Fuentes’ involvement with doping. It would be especially interesting to know more about the good doctor’s relationships with physicians, trainers and athletes from Eastern Europe in the 1980’s. Although he refers to his trip in several early interviews (and says it was financed by the Spanish Athletics Federation), I have not been able to determine exactly when Fuentes went East (some sources say “to Eastern Europe” and others say only “to East Germany”), to learn about their “training methods.” It is clear that it was in the early 80s and that it had a major influence on his career.