A Bunch Of Dopes
Behind Heidi Krieger’s back, the East German track-and-field bosses who pumped her full of testosterone called her “Heidi Hormone.”
When the one-time champion shot putter showed up a few months ago at the sentencing of those men, Manfred Ewald and Manfred Hoppner, who were convicted, essentially, of wrecking her life and those of 141 other one-time East German athletes with drugs, they called her Andreas Krieger. Or Mr.
Krieger.
The massive doses of male hormones had so ravaged Heidi’s female form that she decided she had no choice but to complete the transformation to manhood.
Other East German women drugged by Ewald and Hoppner suffered myriad gynecological and general health problems. Infertility. Miscarriages. Ovarian cysts. Deflated breasts. Liver and kidney damage. Excessive body hair. Heart problems. Mental breakdowns.
World-class athletes continue to risk their lives with banned drugs that might make them stronger or faster. Testosterone. Steroids. Blood thinners. Human growth hormones. Scary-sounding stuff called EPO.
On Friday in Sydney, two more Bulgarian weightlifters were disqualified from these Summer Games after testing positive for the banned substance furosemide, a diuretic that can mask steroid use.
The two drug disqualifications brought to 20 the number of 2000 Summer Games’ athletes who have been barred thus far from competing, either by testing before the Games started, before the athletes competed or afterward.
Despite the health risks, not to mention the fact that use of banned drugs is the ultimate affront to fair competition, the continued masochism is not amazing. It does not raise eyebrows. It does not induce shock.
Why doping is still happening is not misunderstood. It is not because there are countries or teams or competitors that failed to get a copy of the rules. It is because these competitions some time ago ceased to be about who wants merely to be an Olympic champion, a gold medalist.
The Olympics for so many athletes nowadays are a global sports version of “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?,” there is so much more fortune to be had with triumph now.
There are athletes from some of the old Soviet-bloc countries, as well as many developing countries, who are running and throwing and jumping just about for dear life. At the end of the rainbow of the Olympics for them sits more than just a gold medallion. There is, maybe, real gold in bar form. A large pot of their country’s currency. A car. An apartment.
Even for athletes from the First World, like the United States, there is much more to reap: bigger endorsement contracts, commercials, sports broadcasting jobs.
And for all Olympics medalists there will be more lucrative appearance fees on the international circuit. One hundred and two hundred thousand dollars per pop.
As a result, there are athletes at these Games who will do anything, including commit injury to themselves, to win. They can’t help themselves. Trying to win with drugs has become an ugly habit.
It seems the only people who can break them of it are those who’ve passed the improved drug testing for these Olympics.
As American John Godina noted after winning bronze in the men’s shot put, it was the first Olympics shot put competition since Los Angeles in which no throw went beyond 70 feet.
He also noted that five of the last six shot-put medalists, at Atlanta in ‘96 and Barcelona in `92, tested positive for a banned substance.
“Nobody in this group has had a positive,” Godina said sitting beside gold medalist Arsi Harju from Finland and silver medalist Adam Nelson, a native of Atlanta. “That’s something to smile about.”
Graphic: Medals by country