Originally Posted by CAMPYBOB .
"More than 600 miles per week...bicycle racer. Less than 600 miles per week...cyclotourist!"
Eddie B.
Ohhhh another dodgy
Blood doping scandal America's successes at Los Angeles were coloured by revelations that riders had blood transfusions before their events, a practice known as blood doping or blood boosting. The transfusions were to increase red blood cells in riders' blood, thus taking more oxygen to their muscles. They received the blood of others with similar blood types.
The French coach and former world champion, Daniel Morelon, told the sports paper
L'Equipe that American medical treatment was "extremely elaborate". He added: "I didn't say they were taking drugs but on the other hand we and many others were still at the stage of trying our little vitamins."Steve Hegg won a gold and a silver; Rebecca Twigg, Pat McDonough and Leonard Nitz won silver medals. They were identified in the subsequent inquiry as having had transfusions. The others were John Beckman, Mark Whitehead and Brent Emery. The rest of the team refused. Transfusions were suggested by Eddie, by staff members or by the physician who oversaw the boosting, Dr. Herman Falsetti, a professor of cardiology at the University of Iowa.
Fraysse, who had brought Borysewicz's appointment as national coach, said: "We've been looking into this stuff for years and years and years. We weren't gonna fall behind the Russians or East Germans any more." The practice was not against Olympic rules although Games medical guidelines discouraged it. Ed Burke, without Borysewicz's knowledge or approval, set up a clinic in a Los Angeles motel room. Four of the seven athletes who had transfusions won medals.[8] The US federation banned blood-doping in January 1985. Although Borysewicz denied involvement, both he and Burke were fined a month's pay. Fraysse was demoted from first to third vice-president.
