Shocking doping scandals in sports
 

Shocking doping scandals in sports

 

Lance Armstrong's lifetime ban from the Tour de France as well as the stripping of his 7 titles makes him just the latest in a long line of high-profile athletes brought low by doping scandals.

 
June 14, 2012
 
 
 
Lance Armstrong's lifetime ban from the Tour de France as well as the stripping of his 7 titles makes him just the latest in a long line of high-profile athletes brought low by doping scandals.
 

Lance Armstrong's lifetime ban from the Tour de France as well as the stripping of his 7 titles makes him just the latest in a long line of high-profile athletes brought low by doping scandals.

Photograph by: Peter Dejong, Associated Press Files, Vancouver Sun

 
Lance Armstrong's lifetime ban from the Tour de France as well as the stripping of his 7 titles makes him just the latest in a long line of high-profile athletes brought low by doping scandals.
Marion Jones was just one of many Olympians to be caught or admit to using performance-enhancers, but hers was among the most shocking. She won five gold medals in at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney before a drug test took them all away. And then she was sentenced to six months in prison for perjury after lying about it to federal prosecutors.
Mary Decker Slaney was a running sensation from the age of 14. By 16, in 1974, she held world records in the 1000m and 800m events. In the 80s, she set six world records in distances from the mile to 10,000m, and was named Sports Illustrated’s Sportsperson of the Year in 1983. But in 1996, at the age of 37, Decker Slaney qualified for the 5000m at the Atlanta Olympics, only to test positive for testosterone. She was banned from competition in 1997.
Ben Johnson was beloved in Canada in the mid-1980s after setting world records in the 60m and 100m sprints and winning a gold at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul. But shortly thereafter, he tested positive for steroids and was stripped of his medals.
Michelle Smith won three gold and one bronze medal at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, but the Irish swimmer's sudden success raised suspicion because she had never been a contender before, let alone a dominant force. In 1998, two drug testers showed up at Smith's home. The resultant sample shocked everyone, as it contained a level of alcohol that would be fatal if consumed by a human. FINA concluded that Smith had added whiskey as a masking agent.
The East German Olympic team became a sporting powerhouse in the 1970s and '80s, as you'd expect when thousands of their athletes were given performance-enhancing steroids in an effort to prove East German superiority over the West. But with the medals and titles came the negative health side effects, such as liver cancer, organ damage, psychological defects, hormonal changes and infertility, and after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, athletes such as swimmer Kornelia Ender came forward. Ender, who won four gold and four silver medals at the 1972 and 1976 Olympics, revealed she started receiving injections at the age of 13.
Baseball has been dogged by steroid scandals for years, but few were bigger than Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire -- literally. The two stars got physically massive over the mid-1990s and took the world captive in 1998 when they both broke Roger Maris's home run record. McGwire has since admitted that he used steroids during his career, and Sosa tested positive for steroids in 2003.
And speaking of home run kings, Barry Bonds shattered Hank Aaron's carer home runs record, but he did so amidst serious questions about his cleanness. In 2011, he was tried for perjury over lying to federal prosecutors on several occasions about being drug-free.
Roger Clemens went before Congress in 2008 over perjury charges when he was implicated in a steroid scandal, severely diminishing his legacy, which included playing at a remarkably high skill level into his 40s.
Lance Armstrong was a seven-time Tour de France winner until Friday, when the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency stripped him of all 7 titles. Armstrong called USADA's investigation a witch hunt.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Scoreboard

5/21/2013 11:57:33 PM
 
Final123otscore
 
Boston
002-2
NY Rangers
010-1
 
    123otscore
     
    San Jose
    		110-2
    Los Angeles
    		000-0
     
       
       

       
      Your voice
      How should the Toronto Maple Leafs feel about the season?
       
      		 Devastated after Game 7
      		It's a good building block for youngsters
      		Don't know.
      		Too soon, I am still hurting