Hi. I'm a swede and thus blessed from having doping in our country. (Serious sarcasm there). I've been reading this forum and others about doping for a while and been a cycling fan since the mid 90s.
There is this cross country skiing world championship going on in Sweden where two swedes came from the dead an won gold. You know, the normal procedure to do it. I read some Swedish forums trying to get an opinion about the credibility to the results and obviously the usual people in skiing Sweden believes it's those damn Russians that dope.
So I started to wonder about doping cases, nationality and images in your own country of your own athletes and the relationship to doping. We all know how the talk goes but we also know about Lance Armstrong. Did he change how americans view doping and athletes and their doping? Being sort of up to date with american sports, mostly NBA, I have read pieces about doping in the NBA too. It seems like Lance didn't do a very good job in opening up the publics eyes, still being from Texas and as american you can get.
It reminds me of the former Russian, former Swede, Ludmila Narazilenko/Enqquist. She became a Swedish citizen, won gold only to later get getting caught doping. We all called her for what she really was, a dirty Russian who had infiltrated the pure Swedish national athletic foundation.
But I don't think we have had a high profile case here in Sweden, one that has really opened up the publics eyes. A Lance, a Marion Jones, a Ben Johnson, a Bj?rn Daehlie or a Marco Pantani.
In conclussion I'm asking about how your country and yourself reacted to the very first doping case you became aware of.
I reacted like other Swedes, blaming Ludmila and her Russian history. Nothing like a little racism towards those Russians.
And I will never forget when Pantani got caught in that 99 giro. I think that was the first major case I remember in cycling. I new about the 50% level and how it probably was a result from doping. I also remember nor being too shocked or didn't care that much. Already jaded, I guess.
/Pat
Ps. Sorry about the sly digs at Norway.
There is this cross country skiing world championship going on in Sweden where two swedes came from the dead an won gold. You know, the normal procedure to do it. I read some Swedish forums trying to get an opinion about the credibility to the results and obviously the usual people in skiing Sweden believes it's those damn Russians that dope.
So I started to wonder about doping cases, nationality and images in your own country of your own athletes and the relationship to doping. We all know how the talk goes but we also know about Lance Armstrong. Did he change how americans view doping and athletes and their doping? Being sort of up to date with american sports, mostly NBA, I have read pieces about doping in the NBA too. It seems like Lance didn't do a very good job in opening up the publics eyes, still being from Texas and as american you can get.
It reminds me of the former Russian, former Swede, Ludmila Narazilenko/Enqquist. She became a Swedish citizen, won gold only to later get getting caught doping. We all called her for what she really was, a dirty Russian who had infiltrated the pure Swedish national athletic foundation.
But I don't think we have had a high profile case here in Sweden, one that has really opened up the publics eyes. A Lance, a Marion Jones, a Ben Johnson, a Bj?rn Daehlie or a Marco Pantani.
In conclussion I'm asking about how your country and yourself reacted to the very first doping case you became aware of.
I reacted like other Swedes, blaming Ludmila and her Russian history. Nothing like a little racism towards those Russians.
And I will never forget when Pantani got caught in that 99 giro. I think that was the first major case I remember in cycling. I new about the 50% level and how it probably was a result from doping. I also remember nor being too shocked or didn't care that much. Already jaded, I guess.
/Pat
Ps. Sorry about the sly digs at Norway.