Doping at the L.A. Games? Ignorance was bliss

[BayGBM]

Doping at the L.A. Games? Ignorance was bliss
Steroid use by athletes was already widespread in 1984 and the Olympics here were no exception, but the public hadn't noticed yet.

By David Wharton

Twenty-five years later, it is hard to recall a time before the rumors and accusations.

A time before athletes competed without suspicion hovering around each record-setting performance.

A time before sprinters and swimmers had to share the sports page with the likes of nandrolone and stanozolol.

The 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, it seems, were the last innocent Summer Games before the dawn of the steroid era.

"You have to make an effort to project yourself back to before the mood changed," says John Hoberman, a University of Texas professor and expert on steroids in sports. "It was before the turning point, at least in the sense of public opinion."

Back then, Hoberman and others -- especially athletes -- knew that doping had saturated the international sports scene.

Fans, though, were still largely in the dark.

And they would remain that way for a while because, as was later revealed, a number of positive test results from the Los Angeles Games were discarded, the alleged cheating kept secret for a decade.

"We knew what was going on," said Edwin Moses, a three-time medalist in the hurdles. "But I don't think it had gotten to the point where it is now . . . the global skepticism."

Four years would pass before 100-meter champion Ben Johnson tested positive at the 1988 Seoul Games, making it impossible to look the other way.

In the summer of 1984 there was no such scandal, but there were dark clouds on the horizon.

A warning shot

Positive tests at earlier Olympics had not generated much concern.

Athletes were caught with too much caffeine in their systems and American swimmer Rick DeMont lost his gold medal for taking asthma medication. At the 1976 Montreal Games, steroids made an appearance in weightlifting, hardly a marquee event.

If the public received any warning of what was to come, it occurred at the 1983 Pan American Games.

Officials arrived in Venezuela with an improved test for banned substances, triggering a new age in doping control. Fourteen athletes tested positive and more than a dozen members of the U.S. track and field team abruptly withdrew from their events, flying home...

http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-1984-olympics4-2009aug04,0,2248861.story