Day: November 15, 2006

More Dick Pound

From a 2004 Velonews Interview:

(T)he whole thing got its start with the Festina scandal. During the Tour de France (Samaranch) is there in his room in Lausanne watching it on television and he says something to the effect that “To me this is not doping. The IOC list is too long.”

He had apparently forgotten that he had some reporter with him – following the IOC president around to see how hard he was working, that sort of thing – sitting right there in the room. The guy was unable to believe what he was hearing. So out it came in the paper the next day and there was a firestorm that descended on Samaranch over this.

It was the sort of thing where people said “See? It’s just as we always suspected… the IOC is soft on doping.. and blah, blah, blah.”

It got to the point where we had to call an emergency meeting of the executive board of the IOC in August. Samaranch looks at all of us and asks “What are we going to do about this?”

Good stuff. Freakin’ dopers.

Forgot to mention earlier that the money quote from Fresh Air is Pound calling dopers “sociopaths”.

Dick Pound on Fresh Air

So, I’m leaving Boston Monday afternoon, and I find “Fresh Air” on the radio. The main guest was Dick Pound, the man with the name that’ll get any site that tries to discuss doping, etc, blocked on every elementary school computer in the world. The interview’s here.

I really, really enjoyed the bit. Dick’s clearly committed to fighting doping. But he’s been tagged as a bit of a facist for wanting harsh penalties for folks caught doping.

One of the bits that really resonated with me was that, under the current system, the only folks who really get punished for doping are the atheletes. Known “bad” coaches and other facilitators can usually skate. Which is wrong, IMO.

Dick also relayed a bit about Juan Antonio Samuranch’s (then director of the IOC, the head of the Olympics) reaction to the 1998 Festina Affair at the Tour de France that made my blood run cold, and put Pound’s perceived excesses into perspective.

As background, in 1998, the Festina cycling team was caught by the French police with industrial quantities of doping agents. Pretty much the entire team, from the director sportif and the cyclists on down to the kid who fills the water bottles was involved and charged. Big deal.

Samuranch’s reaction? Something along the lines of “To me, this is not doping.”

Anyway, check out the audio. Good stuff. Dick was on to pimp his new book, Inside Dope. Haven’t read it, but might have to after I get done with “Foucault’s Pendulum”. Umberto Eco absolutely rocks.