Systematic Doping by the US Team in '84

Reminds me somehow of the 1980 Moscow OG--not a single positive in the entire Games. See, who says the EGermans and Finns and Soviets were doping! Clearly they weren't.

If the results are valid, they should release the names.

The Vindicator wrote:

Was the USOC trying to prevent doping or trying to prevent positive test results? Me thinks the latter...

At least 34 U.S. track and field athletes either tested positive or had possible positive tests during six weeks of informal testing by USOC in the spring of 1984, according to confidential USOC memos. None of the athletes was sanctioned or lost eligibility, according to USOC documents and interviews.

Athletes were informed of their positive tests and told continued use of banned drugs could result in positive tests at the U.S. Olympic Trials and Olympic Games, where violations would lead to bans from competition.

"It gave them a heads up," said Ollan Cassell, executive director of U.S. track and field's governing body from 1980 to 1997. "It let them know what was coming, what to expect."

Joe Vigil's athletes taking drugs in the 1980's?

However, many U.S. athletes insist they were not told of the strictness of the testing until they had gathered at a pre-Pan Am Games camp in Hollywood, Fla. in the first weeks of August. At that time, few in the U.S. delegation had even seen the Caracas lab, and there was talk that because of organizational problems in Venezuela, there might not be any testing at all. The main source of information for the athletes was Dr. Evie Dennis, U.S. chief of mission for the games, who had heard about the lab while doing advance work in Caracas. "I knew then they weren't fooling around," she says. "I called and told [U.S. team manager] Joe [Vigil], 'I don't know if anyone of yours is taking drugs. I don't have any reason to think so, but if anyone is or has, tell him for God's sake go home.' "

http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1121235/1/index.htm

The Vindicator wrote:

Was the USOC trying to prevent doping or trying to prevent positive test results? Me thinks the latter...

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/usoc-testing-athletes-2515888-positive-drug

Anybody who thinks the USOC was trying to prevent PED use is either an idiot or they've been living under their mommy's skirt for the last 25 years.

The USOC and a lot of American athletes knew the Soviets and East Germans were cheating and not getting caught. This does not morally justify the U.S. cheating, but we don't live in a moral world. Does anyone really think the majority of the people that make up the USOC or any other large organization in the world are not willing to do whatever it takes to win, make money, look the best, or do whatever to meet their objective? Of course, they are more than willing to bend and break rules, find loopholes, lie, etc. Look at our leadership: High ranking members in our government do unethical and illegal things several times a year. It starts at the top and trickles its way down.

I am not stating every American Olympic athlete cheated in the 80s, but their are a lot more who did than the American people are willing to believe. I'm guessing that some time in the next 25 years Ben Johnson and Charlie Francis won't look as bad. Not that I care what Johnson or Francis look like, but it would be nice to see dozens or hundreds of Olympic medals taken away and redistributed to people who played by the rules.

Not news. Vyv Simson wrote about this in his '92 book "The lords of the rings". He didn't have the specific numbers or get anyone to admit anything, but he knew exactly what was going on.

I've always said that prior to about '91 or '92 doping was only nominally against the rules, like traveling in the NBA.

jsquire wrote:

I\'ve always said that prior to about \'91 or \'92 doping was only nominally against the rules, like traveling in the NBA.

Yeah, like, \"It\'s not illegal if you don\'t get caught.\"

Victororia wrote:

At least 34 U.S. track and field athletes either tested positive or had possible positive tests during six weeks of informal testing by USOC in the spring of 1984....

but guys, guys....common now. all of our heros are clean now. and lord knows the poor africans have never even HEARD of PEDs.