Excuse me for type error. It´s not Viren, It´s Virén (with an accent on the “e” !). It´s not Antonio as well, It´s António with an accent on the “o”. It´s not Juha Vaatainen it´s JUHA VÄÄTÄINEN ...is this correct this time with diaeresis ? ....kidding...
My afraid is that this thread changes from the main issue, but It´s also my responsibility to be engaged in the Finn runners discuss. Some percent of the Finn discuss is related to Lydiard because Lydiard did work for the Finn federation and revindicate some part of the Finn success of that period. However runners like JUHA VÄÄTÄINEN (...is this correct this time with diaeresis ? ....kidding...) they deny every Lydiard influence or Lydiard training. Therefore what we can say it´s that A FEW Finn runners of the 70s-80s eventually got some Lydiard training influence, during the late 60s Lydiard stay in Finland.
Who is the runner that after be catch with drugs confess ? Who is the runner that isn´t catch and confesses ? Not many.
In the Khua case he couldn´t be accused from blood-doping-transfusion, because what he did was not illegal at the time, only after 84-85, and you want his confession ?
What i know it´s that the Finn federation on the mid 60s start one strategic project to enhance the distance runners performance. That long time project is did include among other things: systematic stays in altitude; to pay for the runners to be full- time professionals (or eventually have total free-time training facilities out of their jobs and plenty of time to train; training facilities, and also the runner took part of one scientific plan of reaseach that included the experiment with self-blood.-tranfusion that was been tested by ski-cross-runners and experiment with success. One part of the project is that the coaches be in-date with new modern training methodology, and it´s at this point that they did contact Arthur Lydiard because they were aware of the Lydiard sucess, and they wanted a new kind of training for their distances athletes. The Finn federation selected some runners for this project, selected some scientists-physiologists, but all was done in secret somehow. The Finn federation made them all people of te project sign one contract-agreement that in the condition that every person from the project: from scientists to coaches to runners, they couldn´t reveal what they Are doingm how they are doing.
The reason they did didn´t confess, and mosty of the Finn runners didn´t confess it´s because they sign that contract with the Finn Federation to accept the self-blood-transfusion method and on that contract ther´s one clause that states they can´t make no reference about self-blood transfusion at all.
As you imagine it´s hard to keep a secrete. Some revelations were been done. Actually by extrapolation of confessions we know for sure that from the top best Khua, Vaatainen, Viren, Kantanen, Paivarinta, Vasala, Janne Holmen, Vaino, Maaninka, Olavi Suomalainen, did self-blood-transfusion, among others.
I know that later in Europe, in other countries, other Federations and other runners individualy – they did teh self-blood-transfusion in the 80s folowing the pratice of the Finn federation. Therefore what the finns did it was not illegal at that time, but it was private, but an official and syetematic and organized project, not individual pratice.
I also know about European Federation that at that time did contact the Finn one to ask if they could learn how is done, to use it in their own distance runners.