Spainflyer wrote:
Am resurrecting this thread because this past Sunday, twice-charged Doping Doctor Eufemiano Fuentes appeared on Spanish television to give his “farewell” interview: he’s retiring.
Briefly, Fuentes was trained as a gynecologist but always worked in sports medicine. The Royal Spanish Athletics Federation sent him to East Germany in the early 80’s to learn about their “training methods,” which he then brought back to Spain “so that our athletes could compete on a level playing field (“en igualdad de condiciones).
That 50 professional cyclists from groups for which he was the team physician were caught doping – some of them were actually punished, others got off – and that Fuentes was caught with over 200 code-labeled blood and plasma samples as well as EPO, testosterone and anabolic steroids in his lab is all old news. At the time he was arrested he was carrying 10 mobile phones, several memory sticks containing coded files, and the equivalent of 80,454 US dollars in Swiss Francs and Euros.
What Fuentes revealed on Sunday was that he was the “personal physician” for 15 Spanish athletes leading up to and including the Barcelona ’92 Games and that “some of these were medalists.” The name Fermín Cacho (gold medal, 1500 meters) came up three times in the interview: Fuentes admitted that Cacho was one of “his” athletes, although when asked directly he would not confirm that Cacho was doping; Fuentes said that he met with Cacho in the Olympic Village during the Games; and perhaps most importantly, Fuentes said that, based on their relationship, Cacho was the intermediary between the Spanish Secretary of State for Sport, Jaime Lisavetsky and Fuentes in the run up to the 2008 Games. Fuentes said that the Spanish Athletics Federation “wanted results but they didn’t want problems and they didn’t want positive tests.” Fuentes said that he turned down the offer to be team physician at the Beijing Games.
When the interviewer ask directly if Cacho was doping, Fuentes gave an evasive answer: “It I told you I don’t remember, you wouldn’t believe me…but if I named all the Spaniards who were doping in '92, medals would disappear…”
And, as he insisted several times during the interview, what constituted doping in some other countries was legal in Spain at the time. Doping was not made illegal in Spain until 2013. That is why Fuentes was charged only with “endangering public health” in the two, big doping busts “Operación Puerto” and “Operación Galgo.” In the first he was found guilty and given a one-year suspended sentence. In the second, the case was dismissed.
The day after the television program aired, Cacho’s local newspaper in Soria (northern Spain) contacted him to get a reaction. “I can’t believe it,” he said, “I’m still in shock.” Cacho said he was contemplating suing Fuentes, not for libel or slander, but for “violating doctor-patient confidentiality.” A strange reaction from the champ…
This reminded me of a story I heard about Cacho from a British athlete I knew that had lived and trained in Spain with the national middle distance team, and who had witnessed first hand the lengths they would go to to avoid doping (such as security gated entries and underground secret basements where athletes would hide to avoid being home (this was before the whereabouts rules came into effect). He said Cacho was "heavily religious" (as many drug cheats supposedly are) and lived a double life with respect to doping and the very reverent lifestyle with his wife and family. If any of you remember his career, he won the Olympics in 92, was second in 96 and then set the European record of 3.28.95 in 1997. He had a couple of decent seasons after that running 3.31/2 (which was still very fast back then) and then dropped completely off the map at the age of 30. The reason I was told, was that Cacho's wife found out about the doping and threatened to leave and out him unless he stopped immediately. Cacho, with probably nothing more to gain after such an unexpectedly great career did just that and stopped cold. He couldn't even break 3.42 off the juice so just quit. Classic story. The same British athlete also told me that the reason Reyes Estevez was bald in his late 20's was because he was a complete maniac with doping and would do anything. He once witnessed Estevez lose his mind at a bar and start literally throwing wads of peseta everywhere during the time just before Spain would transition to the Euro. Pretty good times back in Spain in the 90's - especially in middle/distance running