Doping in Track and Field

July 15, 2013

IAAF, now World Athletics was the first international sport federation to ban doping. Even though the sport has some big doping scandals over the history.

 

This blog post will span the different scandals that has happened in Track and Field since the 1970s.

But first. Let’s start with the work being done by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) to fight doping in sport. It all starts in August in 1928, according to Jörg Krieger in the paper “The Efforts of the IAAF Medical Committee from 1968-1981”.

During the 9th IAAF Congress in Amsterdam the federation addressed the use of performance-enhancing drugs. This was the first official definition and condemnation of doping in organized international sport. It would however take 40 years before something active happened. We must go back to 1960 when the Danish cyclist Knud Jensen dies during the Team Trial event at the Rome Olympic Summer Games. That incident forced the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to become more active in the fight against doping. In 1961 IOC founded a doping subcommittee, but it didn’t quite work. In 1967 IOC establishes the IOC Medical Commission. This commission implemented doping controls from the 1968 Winter Olympic Games in Grenoble and onwards.

On the back of this decision, the IAAF also became active in the anti-doping fight. In the IAAF Congress in 1968 it was proposed to establish a Medical Committee inside the IAAF. But the federation refrained from constituting an official Committee. Instead, they established a Medical Advisory Panel. By 1970 the Panel was set up. Their first task was to define a new set of rules for doping control. In their first informative booklet on doping control, the Panel emphasized the need for accredited laboratories.

Two years later, in 1972, the Panel was transformed into a Medical Committee. After the 1972 Munich Olympic Summer Games the new Committee decided to establish doping centers that would conduct doping analysis for all sport events in athletics. The first five centers were King’s College in London (UK), Rome (Italy), Ghent (Belgium), Cologne (Germany) and Nijmegen (Netherlands).

The East German State-Sponsored Doping Scandal

The East German Doping Scandal, spanning the 1970s and 1980s, would reveal a shocking and systematic state-sponsored doping program that shattered records, tarnished reputations, and left a haunting legacy of health issues for countless track and field athletes.

Behind the Iron Curtain, the East German government sought to showcase the superiority of socialism through athletic triumphs. In pursuit of this goal, a secret and elaborate doping program was orchestrated. Athletes, some as young as teenagers, were subjected to a regimen of anabolic steroids, hormonal treatments, and other performance-enhancing substances without their knowledge or consent. The sinister intent was to artificially enhance their strength, endurance, and overall athletic prowess.

The systematic doping program bore fruit in the form of unprecedented success on the international stage. At the 1976 Montreal Olympics alone, East German athletes won a staggering 40 gold medals, second only to the Soviet Union. The medals kept pouring in at subsequent Olympic Games and World Championships. The athletic achievements were celebrated by the regime as proof of the superiority of the East German socialist system.

Beneath the veneer of victory lay a human tragedy. Athletes unknowingly subjected themselves to dangerous and experimental drug regimens, leading to severe and lifelong health issues. Many suffered from liver damage, hormonal imbalances, infertility, and psychological distress. The long-term health consequences were devastating, and athletes paid a steep price for the regime's pursuit of glory.

The dirtiest race in history

The date shows September 24 in the year 1988. Everyone in the world who is interested in sport is watching the 100 meters finals at the Olympic Games in Seoul in South Korea. This distance is the most watched in the sport of Track and Field, and most likely also in the Olympic Games. Eight men has lined up in their starting position and are ready to show the world who is the fastest man on earth. Among them Ben Johnson. A Jamaica-born sprinter from Canada.

In a matter of just 9.79 seconds, Johnson shattered records and captured global attention as he crossed the finish line, seemingly invincible. The victory made Johnson a national hero in Canada. The elation was short-lived. The day after the news broke that the sprinter had tested positive for an anabolic steroid – Stanozolol.

The fallout from Johnson's positive drug test was swift and severe. He was stripped of his gold medal, and the coveted title of the fastest man in the world was abruptly snatched away. The IOC's decision to disqualify him cast a dark shadow over the Games. The positive test of Johnson is also most likely what ignited a broader conversation about the use of banned substances in sports.

Johnson and his coach claimed he was not the only one using prohibited substances in that race, he just happened to be the one getting caught. The 100-meter final has later been dubbed “the dirtiest race in history” because only 2 of the 8 runners remained clean throughout their careers.

In 1989 the German biochemist who ran the drug laboratory in Cologne, Germany - Manfred Donike - retested 88 samples taken at the Seoul Olympics and estimated that 50 athletes were guilty of drug abuse. Since the cards linking samples to names were no longer available, no action was taken.

The design steroid

The design steroid tetrahydrogestrinone (THG – or “the clear”) was developed by the San Francisco-based company Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative (BALCO). The doping-operation was named BALCO-scandal. The lab, under the leadership of founder Victor Conte, gained notoriety for its role in providing athletes with an unfair advantage by administering undetectable substances designed to enhance their physical capabilities beyond natural limits.

The doping scam had been going on for years. At least since before the Olympic Games in Sydney in 2000. In 2002 the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) receives a syringe with trace amounts of a mysterious substance. They forward the content to the UCLA Olympic Analytical Laboratory which was run by Don Catlin. The team at UCLA started developing a testing process for the substance. After testing 550 samples, 20 athletes returned a positive result.

And it wasn’t just anybody that was caught using THG. We are talking about Olympic gold medal winners like Marion Jones and Tim Montgomery from the USA and baseball superstars like Barry Bonds. The package was sent anonymously, but it has later been revealed that the sender was the track and field coach Trevor Graham.

He was at the time coaching the highest profiles in athletics - Jones and Montgomery. And as mentioned earlier, the two athletes were among many who tested positive for the design steroid. For the two athletes, a life in sport went downhill. Fast.

Jones's reputation, achievements, and Olympic medals came under scrutiny when it was revealed that she had been a client of the laboratory. In a devastating turn of events, Jones was eventually stripped of her Olympic medals and banned from competition after admitting to using performance-enhancing drugs.

Montgomery also faced a similar fate. As a former world record holder in the 100m, Montgomery's achievements were tarnished when he, too, was implicated in the BALCO scandal. His world record was nullified, and he was banned from the sport.

A Greek Tragedy on the World Stage

It’s Friday the 12th of August 2004 doping controllers from the World Anti-Doping Agency are looking for the two Greek sprinters Kostadinos Kenteris and Ekaterini Thanou. The controllers had been searching for the fastest Greek track and field athletes for nearly two days. Kenteris and Thanou were supposed to be in the country after arriving from their United States training camp the same day.

But they were not in the Athlete village in Athens as they were supposed to. Instead, they were found at the KAT hospital in Athens in the early hours on Friday. The two sprinters had been – according to them and their coach – involved in a motorcycle accident to which no witnesses had come forward. The sprinters stayed at the hospital for 5 days. There was no need any treatment they might have gotten at the hospital would highly likely removed traces of any prohibited substances.

After the “accident” more information surfaces. It became clear that Kenteris, the Olympic 200 meters champion from the previous Games in Sydney and 100 meters silver medalist Thanou from the same games, had been playing the cat and mouse game with the doping controllers.

The president of the IAAF at the time, Lamine Diack, told reporters that the two had evaded 3 doping controls in the last 14 days. In Tel Aviv on July 27-28, in Chicago on August 10-11. According to the current spokesperson for IAAF at the time, Nick Davies, the pair left Chicago for Germany unexpectedly.

The two sprinters were not alone to avoid doping controllers. In 2003 Greek athletes were responsible for 9 of the 14 no-shows for drug tests that year.

After the Games the coach Christos Tzekos had his offices searched. Tzekos ran a food supplement company in the Greek capital. Inspectors from the Greece’s National Organization of Medicines also raided Tzekos offices and a warehouse. Items they found showed small traces of Anabolic steroids.

Evidence in the USA from the BALCO-investigation that started in 2002 suggested that the two athletes and maybe more were receiving banned drugs as long as two years before the Games. The Greek coach had also formed a relationship with a supplement manufacturer – Patrick Arnold. Arnold is considered the father of androstenedione in the US, according to a report from the Washington Post.

The Nike Oregon Project

The Nike Oregon Project (NOP), founded in 2001 by legendary American distance runner Alberto Salazar, was initially conceived as a beacon of hope for middle and long-distance running. Under Salazar's guidance, NOP assembled a roster of elite track and field athletes, both American and international, with the goal of transforming the landscape of middle and long-distance running.

Operating out of the Nike headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon, the project aimed to elevate American distance running to new heights through innovative training methods, cutting-edge technology, and a rigorous focus on performance enhancement.

The project gained attention for its high-altitude training camps, biomechanical analysis, and emphasis on sports science. Athletes like Mo Farah, Galen Rupp, and Mary Cain joined the NOP ranks and achieved notable successes on the track, winning medals at the Olympic Games and World Championships.

As the project success grew, so did scrutiny and whispers of impropriety. The project faced allegations of promoting a win-at-all-costs mentality and pushing ethical boundaries. In 2019, Alberto Salazar was handed a four-year ban by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) for multiple anti-doping rule violations, including trafficking testosterone. The ban effectively shut down the Nike Oregon Project, leaving a trail of questions about the methods employed within the project.

Leaked blood data

The Sunday Times newspaper and German broadcaster ARD/WDR say they were given access to the results of more than 12,000 blood tests provided by more than 5,000 athletes over 11 years in a case that could plunge athletics into a new doping crisis.

The data came from an IAAF database.

More than 800 athletes had given blood samples that were “highly suggestive” of doping or “abnormal”, reported the BBC, who added they had also seen the documents.

The outcome of the leak was that IAAF set up the Athletics Integrity Unit to have an independent unit to enhance anti-doping and integrity efforts in the sport of athletics. The need for an independent body like the AIU was emphasized by various doping controversies, including cases like the leaked blood test data.

The Russian Cover-up operation

After the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi the head of the Moscow lab told the world what the Russians had done during the Games. A sophisticated sample swap system had been set in place so medal candidates wouldn’t test positive before or during the Winter Games.

But this scheme was in place before the Games in Sochi. According to the Richard McLaren Independent Person Wada Investigation of Sochi Allegations (the IP Report) Russia were fine tuning their swapping operation during the IAAF Moscow World Championships in 2013.

How did the operation work? Selected athletes would provide clean samples which were stored by the Moscow laboratory. During the Championships and the Games, samples from these events would be swapped with the clean ones. This would make it possible for doped Russian athletes to compete at the Championships and Olympic Games.

It was the former Director of the Moscow Laboratory, Dr. Grigory Rodchenkov who blew the whistle. He is now living in an undisclosed place somewhere in the USA.

Doping problem in Kenya

In April 2023 the Athletics Integrity Unit published a press release regarding what seems to be a doping operation happening in Kenya.

The AIU writes: Striking similarities in at least two recent Tampering cases involving Kenyan athletes have led a Disciplinary Tribunal to conclude there is a medically-savvy operation helping athletes to try and cover up doping offences – behavior amounting to “criminal conduct involving frauds on the (Athletics Integrity Unit) AIU”.

This assertion comes in the wake of the latest sanction on a Kenyan athlete – Eglay Nafuna Nalyanya – who has been banned by the AIU for eight years for three breaches of the World Athletics Anti-Doping Rules. While assessing the facts of Nalyanya’s case, the three-member panel noticed a similar pattern of explanation and evidence by the athlete regarding her two Adverse Analytical Findings (provided from in-competition urine samples in Germany on 1 February and 12 February 2022) to that of her compatriot Betty Lempus who was banned for five years in January for two ADR violations. Nalyanya and Lempus told the AIU they received intramuscular injections while being treated at the same Kenyan hospital and produced falsified medical documents to support their respective claims.

This is not the only problem with doping in track and field in Kenya. BBC has found that in the previous year's 50 Gold Label races - the world's biggest road races below the Boston, London, New York, Chicago, Berlin and Tokyo marathons - 76% of winners had not been drug tested out of competition prior to their victory.

World-Anti Doping Agency (Wada) report published in 2018 titled 'Doping In Kenya' found 138 Kenyan athletes had tested positive for prohibited substances between 2004 and 2018, but a lowly 14% of those were caught in an out-of-competition test.

The Anti-Doping Database has registered that Kenya has 204 doping violations. Out of these, Track and Field alone has 187. In Track and Field 69 of the cases involved Norandrosterone which is more than three times as many as EPO which is used in 20 of the cases we have registered when we wrote this article. Among these are former marathon world record holder Wilson Kipsang, former half marathon world record holder Abraham Kiptum, Rio 2016 Olympic marathon champion Jemima Sumgong, London Marathon winner Daniel Wanjiru, triple world 1500m champion Asbel Kiprop and his successor Elijah Manangoi.

Sources:

Access the world's largest Anti-Doping Database, spanning over 60 years of doping cases and investigations.

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