US cycling scene in the 70s and 80s

[sniper]

Problem with what analysis exactly?
What's your alternative analysis? That Inga Thompson is a bitter loser with an axe to grind?
Why are Hampsten and Lemond celebrating this coach who deliberately ruined the carreer of a rider who didn't want to blood dope?

 

[gillan1969]

Re:

Problem with what analysis exactly?
What's your alternative analysis? That Inga Thompson is a bitter loser with an axe to grind?
Why is Lemond celebrating this coach?

in a number of threads you have built up a picture of US cycling as hotbed of blood doping in order to maintain a the separate picture of lemond being the first epo user...him using both to transform himself into a world class cyclist

the olympic discussion and the informed piece written by Les Earnest paint a very different picture

my analysis is that Eddie B and others used blood doping to very mixed results and that the methodology and impracticality of it meant that for most, after a quick cost/benefit analysis, they decided against it...

 

[sniper]

I think your turning the tables again.
The view of lemond using epo and other dope is not dependent on lemond doing blood doping prior to that.
He won three tdfs in a period when doping was rampant. You agree that all TdF winners before and after him are highly likely to have doped. So let's not argue over what the null hypothesis is. It's pretty clear what it is.

That said, yes he is likely to have blood doped. He had the means, the know-how, the training, the contacts, and he had the results that suggest blood boosting.
And it wasn't illegal until 1985/6, so you gotta wonder why he wouldn't have done it prior to that. You haven't come close to building a plausible case why it would be logistically impossible for somebody with Lemond's money and entourage.
But to be sure, the very likelihood that he blood doped is relevant only to the extent that it puts your argument that he could not have used epo because he (allegedly) didn't improve in 89-90 on ice. And it's just one of many reasons why that argument doesn't cut it. We've discussed the other reasons plentifully.

That said, I still think it would be good to open a thread to discuss blood doping in the 50s/60s/70s/80s with a particular focus on GTs.

 

[Semper Fidelis]

Re: Re:

Problem with what analysis exactly?
What's your alternative analysis? That Inga Thompson is a bitter loser with an axe to grind?
Why is Lemond celebrating this coach?

in a number of threads you have built up a picture of US cycling as hotbed of blood doping in order to maintain a the separate picture of lemond being the first epo user...him using both to transform himself into a world class cyclist

the olympic discussion and the informed piece written by Les Earnest paint a very different picture

my analysis is that Eddie B and others used blood doping to very mixed results and that the methodology and impracticality of it meant that for most, after a quick cost/benefit analysis, they decided against it...

Really hard to tell if the cost/benefit was the deciding factor. I feel like (this is only an opinion) maybe it was the lack of talented enough candidates to pursue. Thinking back onto the talent which was being brought forward was not up to speed so to speak. Also the cycling knowledge here in the USA was bare. We are still an infant player in the European cycling scene.
Armstrong and team brought it up a very long way with respect to PED's. While the 70's and 80's was some experimentation and the 90's we seen even more experiments.
For me it is clear that Eddie B was a doping manager. The way it seems now is that he more than likely Eddie encouraged cyclist to dope.
I don't fall into the LeMond done EPO. I can say that over the years I have changed my opinion with respect to LeMond as in ---before I believed he done it clean-ish compared to others --Now I feel like he might have been influenced by any number of things for recovery etc. I would never rule out his use of EPO. I just don't know why the performance from 90 - 91 showed signs of him being dropped pretty good on climbs etc. But I don't get the feeling from watching those two particular tours that donkey's are crushing him.
There was a ramp up for doping following those years but I think well In my opinion it was a slow progression which saw many good cyclist lose out to dopers. That progression continued and even when folks say someone like Ullie was better than Pantani or Armstrong well that makes for a great discussion because it is more like discussing who the best X-man was etc. During the past years the USA had some talented dopers that is clear. What made them so greedy was the progression of dope in my opinion. They came to Europe and decided that not only did they not have the talent but the only way to get this done was to get on a pro program.

I believe it is still in progression today just different methods with some lull in progression but the advanced methods of cheats today are at the top of the game make no mistake.

 

[sniper]

Re: Re:

...
Really hard to tell if the cost/benefit was the deciding factor. I feel like (this is only an opinion) maybe it was the lack of talented enough candidates to pursue. Thinking back onto the talent which was being brought forward was not up to speed so to speak. Also the cycling knowledge here in the USA was bare. We are still an infant player in the European cycling scene.
Armstrong and team brought it up a very long way with respect to PED's. While the 70's and 80's was some experimentation and the 90's we seen even more experiments.
For me it is clear that Eddie B was a doping manager. The way it seems now is that he more than likely Eddie encouraged cyclist to dope.
I don't fall into the LeMond done EPO. I can say that over the years I have changed my opinion with respect to LeMond as in ---before I believed he done it clean-ish compared to others --Now I feel like he might have been influenced by any number of things for recovery etc. I would never rule out his use of EPO. I just don't know why the performance from 90 - 91 showed signs of him being dropped pretty good on climbs etc. But I don't get the feeling from watching those two particular tours that donkey's are crushing him.
There was a ramp up for doping following those years but I think well In my opinion it was a slow progression which saw many good cyclist lose out to dopers. That progression continued and even when folks say someone like Ullie was better than Pantani or Armstrong well that makes for a great discussion because it is more like discussing who the best X-man was etc. During the past years the USA had some talented dopers that is clear. What made them so greedy was the progression of dope in my opinion. They came to Europe and decided that not only did they not have the talent but the only way to get this done was to get on a pro program.

I believe it is still in progression today just different methods with some lull in progression but the advanced methods of cheats today are at the top of the game make no mistake.

excellent post.

On the topic of the LA 84 doping scandal: Imo, it would be a big mistake to think that what we 'know' about it is the whole story.

If you read the articles about the scandal, especially those from Les Earnest, one thing becomes clear: as soon as the story broke, everybody involved (riders, staff, governing body, and sponsor) made it a priority to play down / trivialize the matter.
Eddie B, Ed Burke, Herman Falsetti, and Mike Fraysse lawyered up and avoided longer suspensions (eddie B was suspended for a month, Fraysse was demoted from 1st vice president to 3rd vice president).
In the end, the people with a stake in the game managed to play down the whole thing by putting the following narrative out there: 1. the blood program was allegedly *not* systematic (burke and eddie had allegedly started 'talking about it' informally in 1983); 2. the blood boosting had had no impact on the results (or if it did, it was a negative impact).

Just saying, it would be a mistake to think that the few details we know about LA 84 is *all there is to it*.
It most definitely isn't. I think the info we have is the stuff that was impossible to deny for those involved. Nothing more. A bit like Dave Millar's confession.

The rewriting of history has been such that for some of the riders involved, their wikipage doesn't even mention 84.

 

[Semper Fidelis]

Re: Re:

...
Really hard to tell if the cost/benefit was the deciding factor. I feel like (this is only an opinion) maybe it was the lack of talented enough candidates to pursue. Thinking back onto the talent which was being brought forward was not up to speed so to speak. Also the cycling knowledge here in the USA was bare. We are still an infant player in the European cycling scene.
Armstrong and team brought it up a very long way with respect to PED's. While the 70's and 80's was some experimentation and the 90's we seen even more experiments.
For me it is clear that Eddie B was a doping manager. The way it seems now is that he more than likely Eddie encouraged cyclist to dope.
I don't fall into the LeMond done EPO. I can say that over the years I have changed my opinion with respect to LeMond as in ---before I believed he done it clean-ish compared to others --Now I feel like he might have been influenced by any number of things for recovery etc. I would never rule out his use of EPO. I just don't know why the performance from 90 - 91 showed signs of him being dropped pretty good on climbs etc. But I don't get the feeling from watching those two particular tours that donkey's are crushing him.
There was a ramp up for doping following those years but I think well In my opinion it was a slow progression which saw many good cyclist lose out to dopers. That progression continued and even when folks say someone like Ullie was better than Pantani or Armstrong well that makes for a great discussion because it is more like discussing who the best X-man was etc. During the past years the USA had some talented dopers that is clear. What made them so greedy was the progression of dope in my opinion. They came to Europe and decided that not only did they not have the talent but the only way to get this done was to get on a pro program.

I believe it is still in progression today just different methods with some lull in progression but the advanced methods of cheats today are at the top of the game make no mistake.

excellent post.

On the topic of the LA 84 doping scandal: Imo, it would be a big mistake to think that what we 'know' about it is the whole story.

If you read the articles about the scandal, especially those from Les Earnest, one thing becomes clear: as soon as the story broke, everybody involved (riders, staff, governing body, and sponsor) made it a priority to play down / trivialize the matter.
Eddie B, Ed Burke, Herman Falsetti, and Mike Fraysse lawyered up and avoided longer suspensions (eddie B was suspended for a month, Fraysse was demoted from 1st vice president to 3rd vice president).
In the end, the people with a stake in the game managed to play down the whole thing by putting the following narrative out there: 1. the blood program was allegedly *not* systematic (burke and eddie had allegedly started 'talking about it' informally in 1983); 2. the blood boosting had had no impact on the results (or if it did, it was a negative impact).

Just saying, it would be a mistake to think that the few details we know about LA 84 is *all there is to it*.
It most definitely isn't.

The rewriting of history has been such that for some of the riders involved, their wikipage doesn't even mention 84.

I agree it would be a mistake to buy into the sold story of LA84. I hope my post did not read that I was trying to discount it.

They UScycling really do not like the blood story. You can bet they have done their best to try and leave that in the past. I don't doubt it. How did burke and eddie get the benefit of not being doping managers I have no idea.

 

[sniper]

Re: Re:

...
I hope my post did not read that I was trying to discount it.

no, it didn't. I was just seizing the opportunity to make a point i'd been wanting to make earlier, namely that (imo) the knowledge we have on LA84 is largley limited to things that were impossible to deny for those involved.

They UScycling really do not like the blood story. You can bet they have done their best to try and leave that in the past. I don't doubt it.

I guess there must have been a rather bitter taste to it, as the US had put so much effort in telling the world that the communist countries were leading the PEDs arms race (which by all means they probably were).

 

[Dr.Guess]

I like reading about the us doping history. Myths are meant to be broken. Have you guys seen the training montage in rocky 4 and the image it portrays?

On a side note. The miracle on ice, how legitimate is that?

 

[sniper]

Re:

...
On a side note. The miracle on ice, how legitimate is that?

well, blood doping wasn't illegal at the time.
all his communist competitors were doing it, that's pretty much a fact.
so if transfusing is all he did, then the miracle deserves credit.
But I doubt that's all he did. Most steroids weren't detectable yet at the time. Amphetamines were par for the course and could already be masked with diuretics (to the extent that that was necessary, as testing was as easily evaded at the time as it is now.)

In 1981 Eric co-founded 7-eleven with Ochowicz and Och's wife Sheila Young, a medal winning ice-skater herself.

7-Eleven was formed as an amateur cycling team in 1981 by Ochowicz, a 29-year-old former Olympic cyclist from the U.S., who was married to Olympic speed skating gold medalist Sheila Young. Ochowicz had managed the U.S. national speed-skating team and was friends with Eric and Beth Heiden, who were both excellent cyclists as well as champion speed skaters
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven_%28cycling_team%29

Call me sceptic, but imo it's fair to assume that both couples were deep into blood boosting in addition to taking the regular stuff (steroids and amphetamines). In that era, it was the only way to compete with opponents from countries where those methods were institutionalized since at least the 1960s. And we know for fact that blood doping was done by US Juniors at the 74 worlds in Poland. As Les Earnest has amply argued, (blood) doping wasn't being tackled by USOC. Quite on the contrary; overcoming the sports domination of the communist countries was an explicit part of president Jimmy Carter's political agenda:

The [cycling] federation had gained money for coaching and support of athletes from President Jimmy Carter's inquiry into the domination in sport by what were perceived to be state-sponsored amateurs from communist countries https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_Borysewicz#cite_note-Nye1-3

Remember, it's why a guy like Eddie was brought in to replace a local guy like Mike Neel.

Fun fact is that, before becoming a procyclist, Eric Heiden, too, went through the hands of Eddie Borysewicz:

1980: Heiden's performance, coming after just 10 days of workouts with the Olympic squad candidates, flabbergasted Borysewicz, coach of the US team: "If he gets serious about cycling, he could be a potential world champion within a year", said Borysewicz, a two-time champion of Poland before his defection at the Montreal Olympics.
https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1876&dat=19800507&id=VoMsAAAAIBAJ&sjid=484EAAAAIBAJ&pg=2706,1709552&hl=en

So, we have two record-beating, European dopers-beating American miracle athletes (Heiden, Lemond) and a bunch of olympic medal- and GT-winning cyclists (Hampsten, Grewal, Phinney, Hegg, Kiefel, Carpenter, etc.), all emerging in the exact same period, all going through the Olympic Training Centre where PEDs were endorsed and internal testing was provided. What are the odds?
Ochowicz, Eddie B, Sheila Young, Ed Burke, Harvey Newton, Mike Fraysse, Carl Leusenkamp, Max Testa...that's your bunch of class A dope facilitators and apologists if ever there were any. And Chris Carmichael is already in the mix there. Quite the generation.

For the record, of course we must assume that Eric Heiden stopped blood doping when it became illegal in 1985. He would never do anything illegal, nor would Ochowicz or Mike Neel, or Max Testa have encouraged him or any other members of the 7-eleven squad to engage in any such illegal activities. Who cares that everybody else was doing it? The Ammies (and the Canadians) didn't need it. They had more natural ability, better equipment, and benefited from Eddie B's innovative training techniques, making all doping unnecessary. And Max Testa? He only started doping cyclists when Lance came onto the scene.

Having retired, Eric Heiden studied sports medicine. He and Max Testa (coach and doctor of the 7-eleven squad, later of motorola and usps) became best friends and are now working together at BMC...

 

[sniper]

To add some context to the previous post, let me introduce doctor FC Hagerman.

Hagerman was a medic specializing in such trivial things as cardiorespiratory issues, metabolism, blood ammonia, muscle fiber composition, and anabolic steroid ingestion.

1975: The effects of anabolic steroid ingestion on serum enzyme and urine 17-ketosteroid levels.
Hagerman FC, Jones-Witters P, Ranson R.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1219204

Now, what does Dr. Hagerman have to do with anything?

HAGERMAN: In the late 1970s Ed Burke and I studied both Eric Heiden and Greg Lemond at the US Olympic Training Centre.
https://books.google.pl/books/about/Physiology_and_Nutrition_for_Competitive.html?id=AkgQAQAAMAAJ&redir_esc=y

(Ed Burke, the guy who co-designed the blood doping program for the 84 Games with Eddie B.)

 

[Nick C.]

Re: Re:

...
On a side note. The miracle on ice, how legitimate is that?

well, blood doping wasn't illegal at the time.
all his communist competitors were doing it, that's pretty much a fact.
so if transfusing is all he did, then the miracle deserves credit.
But I doubt that's all he did. Most steroids weren't detectable yet at the time. Amphetamines were par for the course and could already be masked with diuretics (to the extent that that was necessary, as testing was as easily evaded at the time as it is now.)

In 1981 Eric co-founded 7-eleven with Ochowicz and Och's wife Sheila Young, a medal winning ice-skater herself.

7-Eleven was formed as an amateur cycling team in 1981 by Ochowicz, a 29-year-old former Olympic cyclist from the U.S., who was married to Olympic speed skating gold medalist Sheila Young. Ochowicz had managed the U.S. national speed-skating team and was friends with Eric and Beth Heiden, who were both excellent cyclists as well as champion speed skaters
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven_%28cycling_team%29

Call me sceptic, but imo it's fair to assume that both couples were deep into blood boosting in addition to taking the regular stuff (steroids and amphetamines). In that era, it was the only way to compete with opponents from countries where those methods were institutionalized since at least the 1960s. And we know for fact that blood doping was done by US Juniors at the 74 worlds in Poland. As Les Earnest has amply argued, (blood) doping wasn't being tackled by USOC. Quite on the contrary; overcoming the sports domination of the communist countries was an explicit part of president Jimmy Carter's political agenda:

The [cycling] federation had gained money for coaching and support of athletes from President Jimmy Carter's inquiry into the domination in sport by what were perceived to be state-sponsored amateurs from communist countries https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_Borysewicz#cite_note-Nye1-3

Remember, it's why a guy like Eddie was brought in to replace a local guy like Mike Neel.

Fun fact is that, before becoming a procyclist, Eric Heiden, too, went through the hands of Eddie Borysewicz:

1980: Heiden's performance, coming after just 10 days of workouts with the Olympic squad candidates, flabbergasted Borysewicz, coach of the US team: "If he gets serious about cycling, he could be a potential world champion within a year", said Borysewicz, a two-time champion of Poland before his defection at the Montreal Olympics.
https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1876&dat=19800507&id=VoMsAAAAIBAJ&sjid=484EAAAAIBAJ&pg=2706,1709552&hl=en

So, we have two record-beating, European dopers-beating American miracle athletes (Heiden, Lemond) and a bunch of olympic medal- and GT-winning cyclists (Hampsten, Grewal, Phinney, Hegg, Kiefel, Carpenter, etc.), all emerging in the exact same period, all going through the Olympic Training Centre where PEDs were endorsed and internal testing was provided. What are the odds?
Ochowicz, Eddie B, Sheila Young, Ed Burke, Harvey Newton, Mike Fraysse, Carl Leusenkamp, Max Testa...that's your bunch of class A dope facilitators and apologists if ever there were any. And Chris Carmichael is already in the mix there. Quite the generation.

For the record, of course we must assume that Eric Heiden stopped blood doping when it became illegal in 1985. He would never do anything illegal, nor would Ochowicz or Mike Neel, or Max Testa have encouraged him or any other members of the 7-eleven squad to engage in any such illegal activities. Who cares that everybody else was doing it? The Ammies (and the Canadians) didn't need it. They had more natural ability, better equipment, and benefited from Eddie B's innovative training techniques, making all doping unnecessary. And Max Testa? He only started doping cyclists when Lance came onto the scene.

Having retired, Eric Heiden studied sports medicine. He and Max Testa (coach and doctor of the 7-eleven squad, later of motorola and usps) became best friends and are now working together at BMC...

It had never occurred to me that Eric Heiden went to medical school to master the art of enhancing athletic performance. Now I know.

 

[eporesis]

Judging from his facebook postings of right-wing Koch-funded think tank pieces, Eric Heiden became a physician solely to learn the art of enhancing his income.

 

[Semper Fidelis]

Re: Re:

...
On a side note. The miracle on ice, how legitimate is that?

well, blood doping wasn't illegal at the time.
all his communist competitors were doing it, that's pretty much a fact.
so if transfusing is all he did, then the miracle deserves credit.
But I doubt that's all he did. Most steroids weren't detectable yet at the time. Amphetamines were par for the course and could already be masked with diuretics (to the extent that that was necessary, as testing was as easily evaded at the time as it is now.)

In 1981 Eric co-founded 7-eleven with Ochowicz and Och's wife Sheila Young, a medal winning ice-skater herself.

7-Eleven was formed as an amateur cycling team in 1981 by Ochowicz, a 29-year-old former Olympic cyclist from the U.S., who was married to Olympic speed skating gold medalist Sheila Young. Ochowicz had managed the U.S. national speed-skating team and was friends with Eric and Beth Heiden, who were both excellent cyclists as well as champion speed skaters
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven_%28cycling_team%29

Call me sceptic, but imo it's fair to assume that both couples were deep into blood boosting in addition to taking the regular stuff (steroids and amphetamines). In that era, it was the only way to compete with opponents from countries where those methods were institutionalized since at least the 1960s. And we know for fact that blood doping was done by US Juniors at the 74 worlds in Poland. As Les Earnest has amply argued, (blood) doping wasn't being tackled by USOC. Quite on the contrary; overcoming the sports domination of the communist countries was an explicit part of president Jimmy Carter's political agenda:

The [cycling] federation had gained money for coaching and support of athletes from President Jimmy Carter's inquiry into the domination in sport by what were perceived to be state-sponsored amateurs from communist countries https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_Borysewicz#cite_note-Nye1-3

Remember, it's why a guy like Eddie was brought in to replace a local guy like Mike Neel.

Fun fact is that, before becoming a procyclist, Eric Heiden, too, went through the hands of Eddie Borysewicz:

1980: Heiden's performance, coming after just 10 days of workouts with the Olympic squad candidates, flabbergasted Borysewicz, coach of the US team: "If he gets serious about cycling, he could be a potential world champion within a year", said Borysewicz, a two-time champion of Poland before his defection at the Montreal Olympics.
https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1876&dat=19800507&id=VoMsAAAAIBAJ&sjid=484EAAAAIBAJ&pg=2706,1709552&hl=en

So, we have two record-beating, European dopers-beating American miracle athletes (Heiden, Lemond) and a bunch of olympic medal- and GT-winning cyclists (Hampsten, Grewal, Phinney, Hegg, Kiefel, Carpenter, etc.), all emerging in the exact same period, all going through the Olympic Training Centre where PEDs were endorsed and internal testing was provided. What are the odds?
Ochowicz, Eddie B, Sheila Young, Ed Burke, Harvey Newton, Mike Fraysse, Carl Leusenkamp, Max Testa...that's your bunch of class A dope facilitators and apologists if ever there were any. And Chris Carmichael is already in the mix there. Quite the generation.

For the record, of course we must assume that Eric Heiden stopped blood doping when it became illegal in 1985. He would never do anything illegal, nor would Ochowicz or Mike Neel, or Max Testa have encouraged him or any other members of the 7-eleven squad to engage in any such illegal activities. Who cares that everybody else was doing it? The Ammies (and the Canadians) didn't need it. They had more natural ability, better equipment, and benefited from Eddie B's innovative training techniques, making all doping unnecessary. And Max Testa? He only started doping cyclists when Lance came onto the scene.

Having retired, Eric Heiden studied sports medicine. He and Max Testa (coach and doctor of the 7-eleven squad, later of motorola and usps) became best friends and are now working together at BMC...

Sniper----I think Dr. Guess is asking or referencing the "miracle on ice" which refers to the medal round of the 1980 Olympic ice hockey Russia vs USA.

 

[Dr.Guess]

I was indeed but I got a very interesting reply nevertheless.

Good digging sniper!

 

[sniper]

So details aren't facts. Or the other way around?

(And apologies Irondan, I'm not strictly looking to be contrarian.) Sniper may have had an agenda and many may not support it, but I don't really think that's the point here. We all have a different potential perspective on things than was generally available at the time, and for those of us (and there are a handful) who were active in NA cycling back then, much of what Sniper has brought out is provocative and invites at least potential revision of the seamless narratives that were siloed through cycling media and 80s ideologies back then.

And if it's all good, then no one should be threatened anyway.

good post, and thanks.

The narrative of clean US cyclists (including Bauer of course) vs. dirty Europeans is/was very real, and is nicely summarized for instance here:

LeMond, Andy Hampsten and the Canadian Steve Bauer never submitted to the European mentality.
http://d3epuodzu3wuis.cloudfront.net/R025.pdf

That message is fairly explicitly and consistently present in interviews with US pros and/or Olympic cyclists from the 80s, as well as more generally in descriptions of the Lemond/7-eleven era.

In my humble view, it's not hard to see the origins of the narrative in the mid- to late 70s, when the widespread view among US sports administrators and politicians was that Russia and East Germany were too dominant and that they owed that dominance to rampant, innovative and organized doping (which of course they did). It's not as if US athletes weren't already massively doping in that period. They were, of course. Just not yet in an effectively structured/institutionalized way. And so a broad consensus grew among the same US administrators and politicians that the US should join the arms race full-throttle, the sooner the better.
Importantly, however, all this should be achieved without distorting the "good vs. evil" message.

And so when the 1984 scandal broke, USOC and USCF did all they could to white-wash the whole thing and control the message. Guys like Irving Dardik and Don Miller (two guys who were effectively responsible for putting the whole system in place) quickly got on the record expressing their disgust and disbelieve, asking how this could have possibly happened, etc. You get the picture. Meanwhile sponsor 7-Eleven felt the heat because of the negative press and began lobbying behind the scenes trying to contain the message.
Garmin's 'perception is reality' principle avant-la-lettre. (At least that's my take on it)

Somewhat tellingly, the one guy who didn't get the memo in 84 was not even an American.

Somehow, Coach Eddie B. did not get the message. About a month later, he was again being quoted in the press as saying “Blood doping is legal and should be a personal matter left up to the athlete.” Only after the Executive Director wrote him another letter telling him politely to shut up did the he stop talking about this. http://web.stanford.edu/~learnest/cyclops/dopes.htm

 

[sniper]

http://www.arielnet.com/chapters/show/gba-wri-01002-12/the-olympic-connection
(same text in PDF format: http://www1.arielnet.com/personal/The%20Discus%20Thrower%20and%20his%20Dream%20Factory/Chapter-12/Chapter-12-Olympic-Connection-Integrated-5-31-11.pdf)

More fascinating reading.
Gideon Ariel explains the how, what and why of the OTCs in Squaw Valley and Colorado Springs.

Cherry picking:

It was in one of these meetings with Bill Toomey and Russ Hodge that the idea of an Olympic Training Center was born. I often described my 1972 visit to the East German Olympic training facilities in Leipzig. Usually, I would become animated in the descriptions of how the United States lagged behind the East Germans and other Soviet bloc countries, in their athletic training. I complained that the United States relied strictly on DNA to win events. There was so much talent in the US but no one optimized the athletes’ abilities but rather left them alone to do their best. With far fewer people, the East Germans focused their combined efforts to harness science and nutrition into their training.

The regional training centers would be the hub of gathering and disseminating information related to the newly introduced USOC Sports Medicine Program. The Sports Medicine Concept would include studies, research, and programs in exercise physiology, biomechanics and kinesiology, nutrition, sports psychology, and medical services (orthopedic and internal medicine). Studies and research at the regional centers would provide factual information concerning the use of Bee Pollen, anabolic steroids, blood doping, and other elements that had been proported to have beneficial effects on performance. The Sports Medicine Program would also have the responsibility to correlate the information gathered from various research programs and determine its effects on preventing athletic injuries as well as its effect on preventing diseases common to the American public.

...

One of the first decisions of the new US Sports Medicine Committee made was for the USOC to open three regional training centers by the end of 1977. Squaw Valley, California was the first center with other sites being considered in the East and Midwest. The regional training centers would be self-sufficient units that would be able to accommodate a number of sports simultaneously. Training facilities, room and board, staffing and the necessary services would be under the control of the USOC. Several specific targets for development and training were established at this initial meeting.

The concept was to gather, process, and use as much information from many different areas. The synthesized information would be provided to the athletes, coaches, and trainers to maximize training and performance. Also, the center would be used as an educational institute with medical and scientific people continually rotated through Squaw Valley. They would bring knowledge into the center and, in turn, return to their home institutions with the new knowledge they had acquired. I was specifically assigned to the area of Biomechanics and Dr. Fritz Hagerman was assigned to area of physiology.

As the meeting progressed, Colonel Miller became increasingly excited about the idea. He was as frustrated as we were about the continuous defeat of American athletes by, seemingly, everyone. He told us that the statistics showed that the United States had dropped from first place to third place in the overall medal standings. Colonel Miller wanted the United States to be strong and successful. This desire was more than just part of his job. Success grew and developed from a deep sense of honor and loyalty which he felt for the United States.

In addition to what I had seen in Leipzig, I explained the wide variety of options that we could and should provide to our own athletes. I presented our vision for a USOC Training Center that would rival anything that the Eastern bloc countries had. Our ideas were based on quantification of the sport and the athletes in conjunction with proper training, coaching, fitness, and nutrition but we would excel without the use of any performance-enhancing drugs. These goals could best be achieved in a focused, supported living and training environment, such as the Olympic Training Center idea that we were proposing. It seemed to me that I had spent a lot of time on this Olympic training “soap box” but maybe this time someone would hear my plea and be able to do something to effect it.

Shortly after our meeting in Amherst, on a sunny day, Dr. Dardik and I met Colonel Miller at the Algonquin Hotel in Manhattan. Colonel Miller was a tall, handsome athletic man, of military bearing but warm and upbeat. He listened intently to our vision for success for the American athletes and the plan we proposed to accomplish the task. Once again I described the scientific focus that the East Germans used for training in their Leipzig Center, as well as their other more secret locations. Although the United States is a huge country in size and population compared to the East Germans, they were far superior to the Americans in the support and preparation given to their athletes. The East Germans had decided to make athletic success a national priority and then set the plan into motion. We, on the other hand, only gave attention to our American athletes when they paraded into the stadium during the Opening Ceremonies. During the intervening four years, the American athlete was left in the “wilderness” with regard to support.

After a long day of sharing ideas and considering many alternatives on how to proceed, the decision was made to approach Colonel Miller with our ideas. Dr. Dardik and I contacted Colonel Miller and, based on the credibility and successes in our respective fields of expertise, he agreed to meet us in New York City. At that time, the home office of the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) was in New York.
...
Colonel Miller agreed with our ideals and goals. He was as determined as we were to provide more and better opportunities to the American athletes. As the Head of USOC, he was obviously the best man and in the right place to get things done. He appointed Dr. Dardik as the Chairman of Sports Medicine Committee and I became the Chairman of Sports Science which included physiology and biomechanics. Colonel Miller’s task was to organize the structure and funding for the USOC Center which would be put in place as soon as an appropriate site was selected
...

Dr. Dardick was very enthusiastic about the idea of better training for the US athletes and he liked the technology which CBA had been using to analyze people, products, and their interactions. All of us were committed to the health of athletes in addition to the opportunity to help them improve their athletic skills. Dr. Dardik also foresaw medicine as being preventive, before many others did, and so he liked the idea of a center where everyone was working toward optimum health. We shared the ideal that positive-health related ideas developed in the Training Centers would flow to the general public. These goals were in addition to helping the US athletes achieve Olympic victories.

The strategy was for athletes to come to Squaw Valley for a two-to-three week sessions periodically during the year. This would allow them time to maintain their ordinary lives and, presumably, work schedule. For those athletes who needed a permanent base for living and training, they could stay full-time at the Squaw Valley Camp. The flexibility of schedules was achievable with a permanent base of operation which the Squaw Valley facility afforded us. This allowed the athletes to be analyzed during their residency using the biomechanical technology provided through CBA along with the exercise physiology tests. The physiology department was under the direction of Dr. Fritz Hagerman.

My initial appointment had started in 1977 in Squaw Valley and continued to Colorado Springs.

 

[sniper]

Sports Illustrated, 1977:

http://www.si.com/vault/1977/08/22/626744/its-a-site-for-sore-eyes

Seventeen years after it hosted the Winter Games, Squaw Valley, Calif. is once again the scene of Olympic activity. At the little mountain village near Lake Tahoe, the U.S. Olympic Committee has done what it should have done years ago: provided a year-round training site for athletes in all Olympic sports. At Montreal, the U.S. dropped to third in the overall medal standings—not only behind the U.S.S.R. but also behind East Germany, a nation whose population is about 8% of this country's.

...
Upon arriving, most athletes undergo a physical examination. The head trainer is Bob Beeten, who quit his job as a track coach and trainer at Idaho State last May because, "This is a worthwhile project which has been needed in this country for a long time." When serious problems arise, Beeten has physicians on call, including Dr. *** Steadman, an orthopedic surgeon at the South Lake Tahoe hospital. There is also an exercise physiology department run by Dr. Fritz Hagerman who used to teach at Ohio State. Among Hagerman's gadgets is a Cybex machine.
...
The sports medical program at Squaw Valley was put together by Dr. Irving Dardik, a cardiovascular surgeon at the Englewood, N.J. hospital and a member of the USOC medical staff at Montreal. His Olympic experience provided the incentive for Dardik to seek a scientific approach to developing world-class athletes. "At the last Olympics," he says, "the U.S. athletes were psychologically at a disadvantage because they didn't have a sports medicine program to help them. They were insecure. Frank Shorter, after he had won the silver medal in the marathon, said that he might have won had he had a doctor. Now we've got a program going."

Plans are already under way for more training centers, with Lake Placid, site of the next Winter Games, a logical location for a winter sports program. Later this year Colorado Springs will open a center much like the one at Squaw Valley. Bob Mathias, the 1948 and 1952 Olympic decathlon champion, who will be its director, has been studying the facilities at Squaw Valley. Mission Viejo, Calif. and Baton Rouge, La. also want to get into the act.

 

[sniper]

And another from Sports Illustrated, again 1977.

Fascinating that there is hardly any 'reading between the lines' required here. It's all rather explicit.

A test pioneered in East Germany, which involves a computer and a few drops of blood from the earlobe, may well alter U.S. methods of training and competition

...

Now the U.S. is trying to catch up with the Communists on yet another front—sports medicine. This time the front-runner is not the Soviet Union but East Germany, which has made spectacular use of advances in nutrition, physiology and pharmacology to win Olympic glory out of all proportion to its population of 17 million. Taking a dim view of the U.S.'s own sports-medicine efforts, which have run largely to taping ankles and treating the sniffles, the President's Commission on Olympic Sports has called for a coordinated program to "apply lessons of the laboratories to achievement on the field." Our doctors, in other words, must beat their doctors.
....
One person who is troubled by Greenwell's narrow focus is Dr. Irving Dardik, the New Jersey vascular surgeon who is chairman of the United States Olympic Sports Medicine Committee. The 41-year-old Dardik oversees medical research at the USOC's new training center in Squaw Valley, Calif. (SI, Aug. 22) and Colorado Springs. He has promised thorough research into such matters as blood doping and steroid use, but he declined a request by Greenwell that the two of them collaborate on lactic-acid testing, at least until the whole Olympic program is worked out.
...
It is not surprising that the lactic-acid procedure has caused its biggest stir in the U.S. among swim people. They are notably receptive to technological advances—and to gimmickry—and their interest in East German methods has been fueled by that country's dramatic and overwhelming domination of women's swimming.

 

[sniper]

1984: Paul Ward publicly supporting the use of steroids.
Short, fun read.

https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1314&dat=19840702&id=BFhWAAAAIBAJ&sjid=-e4DAAAAIBAJ&pg=4142,1242610&hl=en

 

[sniper]

1983: "Using science in the service of the sport"

Fencing is one of nine sports currently involved in the U.S.O.C.'s ''elite-athlete'' project. The program, directed by Dr. Irving Dardik, chairman of the sports medicine council, has already awarded $500,000 in grants to national governing bodies, with the idea of assisting athletes and teams through the use of advanced scientific procedures.

Discovering new ways and means of linking world-class athletes with researchers has become a major priority with the U.S.O.C. in recent years. Within the last 10 days, an environmental scheduling facility was opened at the Brigham Women's Hospital of the Harvard Medical School. One of the first projects at the facility will be a chronobiological hospital study that will focus on daily variations in an athlete's performance and whether such elements as crossing time zones and the use of anabolic steroids can affect an athlete's timing systems.

In the hospital study, a group of about 10 world-class athletes will be monitored closely for a 40-hour period, while researchers collect blood and urine samples every 20 minutes and check countless other body functions. Some of the volunteer athletes will have taken anabolic steroids - synthetic male hormones - in their training before they arrive in the hospital, while others in the study, for comparative purposes, will be steroid-free. Many athletes believe they improve their strength by taking steroids.

''I'm very excited at the prospects,'' said Dr. Charles A. Czeisler, a professor at the Harvard Medical School, who will head the hospital study. ''The purpose is not to see if anabolic steroids will enhance athletic performance and not to see when you can drop anabolic steroids so it's not picked up in any test. The purpose is to gather pilot data and find out what kind of effect certain elements are having on the physiological functioning of athletes.
....

''By understanding athletes' processes from one week to the next,'' Dr. Dardik explained, ''we can apply physiological testing over a period of time. In that way, we can learn how and when the athletes peak in terms of their performances. By understanding that, we can then work with the athlete and monitor them on a regular basis.''

''The U.S. appears to be behind several countries in athletic areas that are based on a high degree of equipment technology,'' the report summarized. ''Though correlation does not necessarily mean causation, the fact remains that U.S. performance in sports with considerable equipment technology involved is far below that for sports with minimal technological involvement.'' ...

Dr. Dardik believes the next few years are critical if the U.S.O.C. hopes to maintain America's place internationally and retain the faith of its athletes.

''Athletes are not responsive sometimes because scientists come in with scientific tricks and can't follow up,'' he said. ''The way to do it is to get the best scientists, incorporate all their knowledge and then take this knowledge and give it to the athletes in a way they can apply to their training. ''We shouldn't worry about winning gold medals. Whoever knows how to scientifically apply the techniques of science will find the Carl Lewises and Mary Deckers. Right now, we're doing it on a random basis hoping for follow-through. We've got to centralize our efforts and work toward long-term continuity. Once we put sports and science together, the athletes will see the results.''

 

[sniper]

As if in recompense, Ariel has offered his services at cost to the U.S. Olympic Committee as it readies for the Moscow Olympics. "Until 1964," he says, "talent alone still worked. Since then sport has been a science, not an art. There is no way anyone is going to beat the talent in this country if it is properly prepared."
http://www.arielnet.com/articles/show/adi-pub-01007/gideon-ariel-and-his-magic-machine

 

[sniper]

anybody with a better google preview see what is said here about Fritz Hagerman? Something with anabolic steroids and Olympic pentathletes in 1966:
https://books.google.pl/books?id=ytdqAAAAMAAJ&q=1972+golding+fritz+hagerman&dq=1972+golding+fritz+hagerman&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y

 

[sniper]

btw, prior to the 1984 scandal, another important event with bad publicity had happened in 1983 at the Pan Am Games.

Officials arrived in Venezuela with an improved test for banned substances, triggering a new age in doping control. Fourteen athletes tested positive and more than a dozen members of the U.S. track and field team abruptly withdrew from their events, flying home.

http://articles.latimes.com/2009/aug/04/sports/sp-1984-olympics4

The response to that was (a) increased internal testing and (b) increased antidoping PR, both illustrated in the following article: https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1915&dat=19831113&id=LEZSAAAAIBAJ&sjid=WTYNAAAAIBAJ&pg=1523,2837338&hl=en

 

[blutto]

....as I have always suspected and above clearly shows Merikan athletes are as clean as the driven snow and their performance driven by milk and apple pie and hugs from mom....whereas you can't trust those swarthy underhanded European types, especially those gawd-less Eastern ones, as they will do anything and everything to snatch the glory that rightfully belongs to those righteous citizens of the shiny city on the hill ( and occasionally other worthy English speakers )...as it has always been so help me gawd...

Cheers

 

[blutto]

Re:

btw, prior to the 1984 scandal, another important event with bad publicity had happened in 1983 at the Pan Am Games.

Officials arrived in Venezuela with an improved test for banned substances, triggering a new age in doping control. Fourteen athletes tested positive and more than a dozen members of the U.S. track and field team abruptly withdrew from their events, flying home.

http://articles.latimes.com/2009/aug/04/sports/sp-1984-olympics4

The response to that was (a) increased internal testing and (b) increased antidoping PR, both illustrated in the following article: https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1915&dat=19831113&id=LEZSAAAAIBAJ&sjid=WTYNAAAAIBAJ&pg=1523,2837338&hl=en

....nothing to see here, just move on....apple pie and milk are being served at the side table...

Cheers