GOODBYE CHARLIE, WITH LOVE, RESPECT AND APPRECIATION - kk
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/a-pariahs-honesty-lifted-curtain-on-drugs/story-e6freyar-1225805150894
A pariah’s honesty lifted curtain on drugs
By Mike Hurst
From: The Sydney Daily Telegraph
November 30, 2009 12:00AM
LAST week, the winner of the Beijing men’s 1500m - one of the five-star events on any athletics program - was banned for doping during the Games and forfeited his Olympic gold medal.
The story rated a two-paragraph brief in this newspaper, about the same coverage it received around the world outside speciality sports mags.
Perhaps the lack of interest was because the International Olympic Committee took a year to decide that Bahrain’s Rashid Ramzi had been guilty of taking CERA, an advanced form of the blood oxygen-boosting banned drug erythropoietin (EPO).
The shock had worn off over time. And that’s the point really.
How different now to when Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson was busted at the 1988 Seoul Games for anabolic steroids. He was the first Olympic gold medallist to fail a drug test and was royalty in the men’s 100m - one of the other five-star events.
Johnson’s bust was front, back and inside every newspaper in the world.
His coach Charlie Francis was banned for life from coaching in Canada.
After refusing to perjure himself at the 1989 judicial inquiry into doping in Canadian sport, known as the Dubin Inquiry, Francis was portrayed by sportswriters as a lone wolf, a pariah, the only coach in the world complicit in the doping of his champions.
Today, Francis has his own coaching website through which he dispenses technical advice and his own piercing observations on the state of the game.
It is laced with a wicked sense of humour.He rejoices in the identity of the avatar which accompanies his posts: a photo of Dr Evil, arch villain of the Austin Powers comedy films.
When he explained his actions to the Dubin Inquiry, he spoke knowingly of trying to compete on a level playing field. He told of the long-standing practice of “doping ships” - floating laboratories - belonging to the USSR and East Germany anchoring at Incheon, the harbour for Seoul. Onboard, their athletes could be treated with dope and tested to make sure they would not be detected during competition.
Sporting and media powers ridiculed him, attacking him for implying that some - most - of Johnson’s opponents were also dopers.
That was 20 years ago - the year the infamous Berlin Wall was torn down. In that time more than 1000 athletes have been banned for doping, none coached by Francis.
And earlier this month, Stasi documents were unearthed confirming everything Francis testified about East Germany’s floating labs at the Montreal Games of 1976 and Olympics to follow.
Montreal has been recalled as the nadir of Australia’s Olympic tradition by those critical of the Crawford report into funding for Australian sport.
We won only three medals in 1976 - none of them gold.
How things have changed; the USSR has fragmented into its constituent states and East Germany has reunified with West Germany, a new superpower in waiting.
Australia has placed as high as fifth on the Olympic medal table, although if the Crawford report is to be enacted upon it is just a matter of time before it’s Montreal deja vu for Australians.
And it’s no longer a surprise when an Olympic gold medallist gets busted, even during the Games. Ramzi was one of five athletes the IOC has retrospectively banned following suspicious results in Beijing last year.
