S
Sierraman
Guest
Since it might require a username and password, not sure so I included the
article. See below at bottom for other links on Tyler.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/22/sports/othersports/22cycling.html?hp
A Cycling Medalist Denies Evidence of Doping
By SAMUEL ABT
Published: September 22, 2004
Keystone, Steffen Schmidt/Associated Press
Tyler Hamilton of the United States defending himself Tuesday against
accusations of blood doping.
PARIS, Sept. 21 - Tyler Hamilton, the American bicycle racer who won a gold
medal in the individual time trial at the Olympics last month in Athens, is
suspected of receiving illegal performance-enhancing blood transfusions for
that event and for a major race in Spain.
Hamilton strongly denied Tuesday that he had received blood transfusions,
which can aid an athlete's performance because they increase the amount of
oxygen-transporting red blood cells. The practice has been illegal in
cycling since the late 1980's.
"I am 100 percent innocent," Hamilton said Tuesday at a news conference held
in Regensdorf, Switzerland, by his Phonak team.
Hamilton added, according to The Associated Press, that he would "fight this
until I don't have a euro left in my pocket."
Follow-up tests, which are mandated to confirm the first findings, were
started Tuesday and will be finished Wednesday, but it was not known when
the results would be announced, Hamilton said.
A spokesman for Phonak said that the sport's governing body, the
International Cycling Union, or U.C.I., had told the team Monday that tests
Aug. 19 at the Olympic Games and Sept. 11 at the Spanish Vuelta showed
evidence of blood from another person.
Both tests followed victories by Hamilton, 33, a rider ranked behind only
Lance Armstrong in the United States. If the results are confirmed by second
tests, he faces the loss of his Olympic medal and a possible two-year ban.
"I worked hard for that gold medal and it isn't going anywhere," Hamilton
said at the news conference. "I have always been an honest person. I am
devastated to be here tonight."
He added, "I have been accused of taking blood from another person, which
anybody who knows me knows is completely impossible." He explained that he
was afraid of acquiring AIDS from a blood transfusion and passing it on to
his wife, Haven.
According to a Spanish news agency, E.F.E., the cycling union notified the
Phonak team doctor, Iñaki Arratibel, that Hamilton's blood revealed what it
termed inconsistencies in screenings.
Andy Rihs, chairman of the board of Phonak, said that he stood behind
Hamilton and that he did not trust the blood test, which was introduced this
year and used at the Tour de France, the Olympics and the Vuelta.
The test is more sensitive than previous ones used to detect blood doping,
said Dr. Don H. Catlin, director of the Olympic drug-testing lab at
U.C.L.A., in a telephone interview Tuesday. The test, which was developed in
Australia, can detect even smaller amounts of another person's blood cells
in a sample. A person normally has only one type of red blood cell.
"What you are trying to do is identify whether all the red cells in that
sample are one type, or whether there could be a population of other red
cells that don't belong there," said Catlin, who was in Athens performing
drug tests.
The director of Phonak's riders, Alvaro Pino, told Radio Marca in Spain on
Tuesday: "I spoke with the rider and, knowing him as I do, I'm relatively
calm. He told me, 'Be calm, because this will work out in my favor and I'm
telling you that sincerely, because there's absolutely nothing in this.' "
Hamilton, a quiet-spoken and polite person, captured many hearts during the
Olympic time trial, a race against the clock, because he had a red dog tag
affixed to the inside of his helmet. It had belonged to his beloved golden
retriever, Tugboat, who died of cancer in July during the Tour de France.
Hamilton, who was injured in an early crash in the Tour, withdrew from the
race and began preparing for the Athens Games.
After the Olympics, he competed this month in the three-week Vuelta and won
its eighth stage, a time trial, on Sept. 11. But he withdrew late last week,
blaming an upset stomach that had hindered him in the mountains.
Blood doping, as the practice is called, first received publicity after some
members of the successful United States cycling team admitted after the 1984
Olympics that they had received transfusions of blood previously removed and
stored. Blood doping was not yet illegal.
The use of transfusions has been virtually replaced by the use of the
blood-boosting drug EPO, Catlin said. "It is much easier to take a shot and
get more red cells," he said.
But in the last couple of years, better tests for the use of EPO may have
led some athletes to return to blood doping. "If that avenue is blocked, you
could go back to the old style, like blood doping," Catlin said.
He added that from what he had seen, athletes who used blood doping used
blood from a relative or someone they knew well.
Catlin also said that the average life span of red cells was 180 days.
"Transfused blood does not last that long, but it lasts for a while," he
said.
If Hamilton's follow-up tests are positive and he is disqualified from the
Olympics, the three riders who finished behind him would move up. The gold
medal would go to Vyacheslav Ekimov of Russia, who won the event at the 2000
Games; the silver would go to Bobby Julich of the United States; and the
bronze would go to Michael Rogers of Australia, who was the 2003 world
champion in the time trial after David Millar of Britain was disqualified
after testing positive for doping.
Three athletes lost their gold medals because of doping during the Athens
Games.
Hamilton became the leader of the Phonak team this year, after he finished
fourth in the 2003 Tour de France despite a broken right collarbone he
sustained in a crash on the first day of the race.
He is known for persevering through pain. In his nine Tours, he has finished
stages despite dehydration, stomach problems and reactions to medicine.
He finished second in the 2002 Giro d'Italia and 15th in that year's Tour de
France despite a broken shoulder; he said the pain so severe that he kept
grinding his teeth and needed nearly a dozen caps from his dentist
afterward.
In the latest listing of riders by the cycling union, issued late last
month, Hamilton ranked 23rd in the world.
Some other articles...
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/cycling/2004-09-21-hamilton_x.htm
http://msn.foxsports.com/story/3028216
http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/news/story?id=1885736
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,133047,00.html
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tm...040921/ap_on_sp_ot/cyc_hamilton_investigation
article. See below at bottom for other links on Tyler.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/22/sports/othersports/22cycling.html?hp
A Cycling Medalist Denies Evidence of Doping
By SAMUEL ABT
Published: September 22, 2004
Keystone, Steffen Schmidt/Associated Press
Tyler Hamilton of the United States defending himself Tuesday against
accusations of blood doping.
PARIS, Sept. 21 - Tyler Hamilton, the American bicycle racer who won a gold
medal in the individual time trial at the Olympics last month in Athens, is
suspected of receiving illegal performance-enhancing blood transfusions for
that event and for a major race in Spain.
Hamilton strongly denied Tuesday that he had received blood transfusions,
which can aid an athlete's performance because they increase the amount of
oxygen-transporting red blood cells. The practice has been illegal in
cycling since the late 1980's.
"I am 100 percent innocent," Hamilton said Tuesday at a news conference held
in Regensdorf, Switzerland, by his Phonak team.
Hamilton added, according to The Associated Press, that he would "fight this
until I don't have a euro left in my pocket."
Follow-up tests, which are mandated to confirm the first findings, were
started Tuesday and will be finished Wednesday, but it was not known when
the results would be announced, Hamilton said.
A spokesman for Phonak said that the sport's governing body, the
International Cycling Union, or U.C.I., had told the team Monday that tests
Aug. 19 at the Olympic Games and Sept. 11 at the Spanish Vuelta showed
evidence of blood from another person.
Both tests followed victories by Hamilton, 33, a rider ranked behind only
Lance Armstrong in the United States. If the results are confirmed by second
tests, he faces the loss of his Olympic medal and a possible two-year ban.
"I worked hard for that gold medal and it isn't going anywhere," Hamilton
said at the news conference. "I have always been an honest person. I am
devastated to be here tonight."
He added, "I have been accused of taking blood from another person, which
anybody who knows me knows is completely impossible." He explained that he
was afraid of acquiring AIDS from a blood transfusion and passing it on to
his wife, Haven.
According to a Spanish news agency, E.F.E., the cycling union notified the
Phonak team doctor, Iñaki Arratibel, that Hamilton's blood revealed what it
termed inconsistencies in screenings.
Andy Rihs, chairman of the board of Phonak, said that he stood behind
Hamilton and that he did not trust the blood test, which was introduced this
year and used at the Tour de France, the Olympics and the Vuelta.
The test is more sensitive than previous ones used to detect blood doping,
said Dr. Don H. Catlin, director of the Olympic drug-testing lab at
U.C.L.A., in a telephone interview Tuesday. The test, which was developed in
Australia, can detect even smaller amounts of another person's blood cells
in a sample. A person normally has only one type of red blood cell.
"What you are trying to do is identify whether all the red cells in that
sample are one type, or whether there could be a population of other red
cells that don't belong there," said Catlin, who was in Athens performing
drug tests.
The director of Phonak's riders, Alvaro Pino, told Radio Marca in Spain on
Tuesday: "I spoke with the rider and, knowing him as I do, I'm relatively
calm. He told me, 'Be calm, because this will work out in my favor and I'm
telling you that sincerely, because there's absolutely nothing in this.' "
Hamilton, a quiet-spoken and polite person, captured many hearts during the
Olympic time trial, a race against the clock, because he had a red dog tag
affixed to the inside of his helmet. It had belonged to his beloved golden
retriever, Tugboat, who died of cancer in July during the Tour de France.
Hamilton, who was injured in an early crash in the Tour, withdrew from the
race and began preparing for the Athens Games.
After the Olympics, he competed this month in the three-week Vuelta and won
its eighth stage, a time trial, on Sept. 11. But he withdrew late last week,
blaming an upset stomach that had hindered him in the mountains.
Blood doping, as the practice is called, first received publicity after some
members of the successful United States cycling team admitted after the 1984
Olympics that they had received transfusions of blood previously removed and
stored. Blood doping was not yet illegal.
The use of transfusions has been virtually replaced by the use of the
blood-boosting drug EPO, Catlin said. "It is much easier to take a shot and
get more red cells," he said.
But in the last couple of years, better tests for the use of EPO may have
led some athletes to return to blood doping. "If that avenue is blocked, you
could go back to the old style, like blood doping," Catlin said.
He added that from what he had seen, athletes who used blood doping used
blood from a relative or someone they knew well.
Catlin also said that the average life span of red cells was 180 days.
"Transfused blood does not last that long, but it lasts for a while," he
said.
If Hamilton's follow-up tests are positive and he is disqualified from the
Olympics, the three riders who finished behind him would move up. The gold
medal would go to Vyacheslav Ekimov of Russia, who won the event at the 2000
Games; the silver would go to Bobby Julich of the United States; and the
bronze would go to Michael Rogers of Australia, who was the 2003 world
champion in the time trial after David Millar of Britain was disqualified
after testing positive for doping.
Three athletes lost their gold medals because of doping during the Athens
Games.
Hamilton became the leader of the Phonak team this year, after he finished
fourth in the 2003 Tour de France despite a broken right collarbone he
sustained in a crash on the first day of the race.
He is known for persevering through pain. In his nine Tours, he has finished
stages despite dehydration, stomach problems and reactions to medicine.
He finished second in the 2002 Giro d'Italia and 15th in that year's Tour de
France despite a broken shoulder; he said the pain so severe that he kept
grinding his teeth and needed nearly a dozen caps from his dentist
afterward.
In the latest listing of riders by the cycling union, issued late last
month, Hamilton ranked 23rd in the world.
Some other articles...
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/cycling/2004-09-21-hamilton_x.htm
http://msn.foxsports.com/story/3028216
http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/news/story?id=1885736
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,133047,00.html
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tm...040921/ap_on_sp_ot/cyc_hamilton_investigation
