Opinion
Ben Johnson, Marion Jones highlight most infamous Olympic doping cases
Russian star Kamila Valieva is on the middle of the largest doping story of the Beijing Video games after Russian newspaper RBC reported that the determine skater examined optimistic for a banned substance earlier than the Olympics.
Russian athletes are competing as ROC, quick for Russian Olympic Committee, on the Beijing Olympics as a result of the nation was banned for working a state-sponsored doping scheme on the 2014 Sochi Video games.
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If Valieva finally ends up being punished, she’d be probably the most well-known Olympic athletes ensnared in a doping scandal. Listed below are some others:
On this Thursday, Sept. 21, 2000 file photograph, Andreea Raducan of Romania, receives her gold medal within the ladies’s all-around gymnastics competitors on the Olympics in Sydney, Australia. Raducan was the ladies’s all-around gymnastics champ when the Romanian star examined optimistic for pseudoephedrine, which was contained in a chilly treatment she received from the group physician.
(AP Photograph/Amy Sancetta, File)
BEN JOHNSON (1988)
Most likely probably the most notorious drug scandal in Olympic historical past concerned Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson, marring one of many signature occasions of the Summer time Video games — the 100-meter sprint. Johnson appeared to have received the race on the Seoul Video games in world document time, however he examined optimistic for an anabolic steroid and had his gold medal taken away. It went to American rival Carl Lewis as an alternative.
Juan Antonio Samaranch, the president of the Worldwide Olympic Committee on the time, stated that penalties towards Johnson and others have been a sign that “now we have received the battle towards doping.”
MARION JONES (2000)
One of many greatest American stars of the Sydney Video games, Marion Jones received three gold medals and two bronzes. In 2007, she admitted mendacity to federal brokers about her use of performance-enhancing medication. She spent six months in jail and the IOC stripped her of all 5 medals.
JOHANN MUEHLEGG (2002)
A triple gold medalist on the Salt Lake Metropolis Video games, Spanish cross-country skier Johann Muehlegg misplaced all three of them after testing optimistic for darbepoetin, which reinforces endurance by stimulating the manufacturing of oxygen-carrying crimson blood cells.
HANS-GUNNAR LILJENWALL (1968)
Doping management started on the Mexico Metropolis Olympics, and Liljenwall’s downside sounds quaint in comparison with fashionable violations. The trendy pentathlete from Sweden misplaced a bronze medal for alcohol after consuming beer to calm his nerves earlier than the taking pictures competitors.
LANCE ARMSTRONG (2000)
Lance Armstrong’s bronze medal on the Sydney Video games wasn’t an enormous a part of his legacy, given all his Tour de France victories, however returning that medal was a part of the fallout from his performance-enhancing drug use. The IOC vacated the medal he received within the street time trial.
ANDREEA RADUCAN (2000)
Additionally in Sydney, Andreea Raducan was the ladies’s all-around gymnastics champion when the Romanian star examined optimistic for pseudoephedrine, which was contained in a chilly treatment she received from the group physician.
“I really feel quite a lot of sympathy for her as a result of she has to undergo from a mistake by her group physician,” IOC President Thomas Bach stated greater than a decade later. “Much more so as a result of this occurred on the age of 16, when as an athlete you’ve got absolute confidence in your medical group.”
NICKLAS BACKSTROM (2014)
Swedish hockey star and longtime Washington Capitals ahead Nicklas Backstrom additionally examined optimistic for pseudoephedrine and needed to miss the Olympic ultimate in Sochi. Sweden misplaced to Canada.
Backstrom, who did obtain his silver medal, finally reached a settlement, dropping his attraction towards the IOC ruling that he dedicated a doping violation. He obtained a reprimand and was cleared of any intention to cheat. He stated the stimulant was contained in a sinus medicine he had been taking for allergy symptoms.
ROSS REBAGLIATI (1998)
When snowboarding debuted on the Olympics in Nagano, Ross Rebagliati had a win within the big slalom taken away as a result of he examined optimistic — for marijuana. The victory was reinstated as a result of the game’s governing physique didn’t have a rule banning the substance.
THERESE JOHAUG (2018)
Johaug missed the Pyeongchang Video games 4 years in the past after testing optimistic for a banned substance and receiving an 18-month suspension. She blamed a group physician who mistakenly gave her lip balm that contained the substance.
Johaug is again at this yr’s Olympics, and the Norwegian has already received two gold medals in cross-country snowboarding.
