EPO in other sports
Posted by Mark on January 4, 2008 under doping | 
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Having read quite a few books about EPO use in Cycling there are certain things in other news articles that catch my eye. Take, for instance, this sad tale about Scottish footballer Phil O’Donnell . He died of heart failure following a football match. He was only 35 years old.
Now I’m no doctor, but it still appears slightly strange to me for a healthy, fit, 35 year old chap to drop dead of heart failure. What makes this even more suspect is a further article talking about mysterious heart-related deaths in Scottish football.
The key paragraph from the article above is “Spanish international defender Antonio Puerta, 22, died earlier this season after collapsing while playing for Sevilla, and 16-year-old Walsall youth player Anton Reid collapsed and died during a training session in October”. Does this not reek of the deaths of young cyclists in the 90′s when EPO was becoming more prevalent?
I’m well aware the sport of cycling is still poisoned with drug use, but I’d put money on it’s fairly evident such popular sports as football have their issues too. Even Dr Fuentes claimed he had clients who were prominent footballers.
Alice said,
Hi, As a former amateur cyclist and all round sportsfan, I read your article with interest.
Likewise I immediately became suspicious upon hearing of the death of footballer Phil O’Donnell. No evidence has came to light so far linking his death to deliberate misadventure. But it is a sad indictment of modern sport that the public are less likely to trust athletes in good faith when Asafa Powell can break the 100m record at will. Or when Christina Ohourogo misses scheduled drug tests. Or an inexplicable death occurs on a football field in Spain or Scotland.
I lost my interest in cycling almost a decade ago concurrent with all the drug scandals.
Now my adopted sport of tennis is the latest one to face allegations of drug use and corruption
What’s the answer… heavy punitive crackdowns? Or a relaxed ‘realistic’ approach to performance enhancing drugs? I must admit my heart is with the zero tolerance approach. But my head knows sport is just going to face more and more of these ethical dilemma’s as we move into the age of gene therapy, stem cell transplantation, and advanced pharmacological treatments.
Even stuff like creatine is available over the counter in widespread use among bodybuilders.
The regulatory bodies such as the ICU are playing catch up at best and dragging their heels more commonly.
I’m still confident integrity and honor remains in sport. Just gotta promote the emblems of virtue, and inspiring personalities… and sometimes that may not always be the winner, or the elite, but the honest professional, the comitted amateur. They are where true glory is to found.
Anyways, thanks for allowing may to comment on this, and for your having the balls to at least pose the question regarding Phil O’Donnell… Watch this space eh…
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