Following an Austrian and German police raid of an “internationally active doping network” in February, BBC revealed in late March that 21 athletes from three winter and two summer sports were connected to that network by way of a German doctor.
The investigation was sparked from comments made by Austrian cross-country skier Johannes Duerr, who admitted to taking growth hormones and having blood transfusions among other things in Germany. Duerr was convicted of doping in 2014 after the Sochi Olympics and was recently arrested on March 5th due to his aforementioned remarks.
According to BBC, the alleged doping of the 21 athletes occurred from 2011 to 2019. It was also discovered that blood transfusions were not just occurring in Germany, but in many other countries around the world, including the United States according to a DW article.
These action prompted Thomas Bach, who is president of the International Olympic Committee, to speak out and call for tough sanctions on those 21 athletes connected to this ring according to an article from Reuters.
“We hope that all this will be clarified and everything will come on the table and there those responsible and the entourage of these athletes, the doctors and the personnel, that they will be punished soon and hard,” Bach said in the Reuters story on March 27.
Other athletes have confessed, such as Austrian cycler Georg Preidler as he admitted to attempted doping to police. Five cross country skiers, two from Estonia, two from Austria and one from Kazakhstan all confessed to blood doping and were released from custody after being arrested in February.
The prosecutors did not identify the accused and some of these cases remain ongoing throughout various legal systems. Names and sports of most athletes involved have not been released.
I do not understand suprise from some people. I started to swim when I was a kid (35 years ago) and in my teenage days I was offered ‘pills and fluids’ by colleauges and coaches to enhance my performance. They said that it wasn’t illegal and that everyone is doing it. I denied, and still got the chance to achieve really good results on national level at least. Today, doping is not a metter of choice, but necesitty to stay on the same level as others. I really do not want to generalize, but everyone probably is using something and it is usually called medicine. We have young girls with the strength of men and men looking like gorillas, we… Read more »
Finally they are getting Dressel
L.
I don’t get it …
Even if he would be doping, why the hell would he go to Germany for it? That makes absolutely no sense, the US is decades ahead of Germany when it comes to doping.
Oh, now its morning in the USA, let the downvote fest begin!
Only 21 . An international network was supposed to be uncoverd & we have 21. Their fees would not even cover the medical refuse collection . Bwahh
This is a good point – to make good money the doctors need a lot more clients than this.
Efimova ???
Ryan Lochte, Amanda Kendall, Grace Ariola & Jack Casey
You can be arrested for doping??
Yes, it became illegal in many continental European countries in the wake of the Festina scandal.
Austria considers it to be a form of theft since it can involve prize money for an event- so the non-doping athletes who finished behind the dopers had that prize money stolen from them in the eye of the law.
Yes, it’s a country-by-country matter. It can be fraud, sometimes the drugs themselves are illegal…sometimes its explicitly the doping. Different countries handle it different ways, but in many places around the world, it can be criminal.