Doping in sports

[Firestarter]

Today I start a “new” topic on widespread abuse of performance-enhancing drugs in professional sports.
I think it’s unfair that some professional athletes have been publicly nailed to the cross over cheating with doping, while all of their competitors were cheating. So I don’t intend to post about the known doping scandals, but intend to post about evidence that “clean” athletes were (are) using performance-enhancing drugs (like steroids and EPO).

While it looks like most of the big doping scandals have been in cycling, it looks like cycling doping tests are the most rigorous among all sports. This suggests that in other professional sports even more performance enhancing drugs are used.


I had earlier posted some of this information in my thread on Quincy Jones and his connections to so many (mostly black) celebrities dying under suspicious circumstances: viewtopic.php?p=85922#p85922


What most people DO know is that celebrities use plastic surgery to look better. These days it is also known that many celebrities use weight loss drugs (e.g. ozempic).
It seems apparent that many movie stars, who won’t admit this, use steroids to get the low-fat, big muscle look that we now all want to look like. This in turn has led to many people getting body dysmorphia, never satisfied at how we look, even when we have already achieved a healthy body.


It aren’t just professional athletes and bodybuilders that use steroids, but also amateurs at the local gym.
The adverse effects of steroids aren’t just physical but also mental, including roid rage. Steroids are as addictive as other drugs and withdrawal effects make it even more difficult to stop taking them.

Steroid use can also lead to acne (especially on your back).


The adverse effects get worse the younger you start taking them, and some are permanent (including the positive effect of big muscles): https://drugabuse.com/stimulants/steroids/effects-use/


I’ve previously posted about the bubble gut that is not uncommon in the current huge pro-bodybuilders…

There are all of these theories about perfect proportions, while there are many, many stories praising the "golden age" of bodybuilding, compared to the current crop of steroids balloon muscles that get bigger every year. There is one part of the body nobody wants big - the belly.

In the 1990s, the ever expanding muscles reached the waist, with the Palumboism, bubble gut phenomenon as the result, with massive shredded six-packs over a bloated and inflated midsection (this isn't fat!).
Bodybuilders can suck their belly in to still look impressive, but sometimes they lose control.

See Kai Greene and Phil Heath (7 time Mr. Olympia, I'm almost sure) on stage.



Also when the abs separate on the vertical centre line and deviate to the sides (which also happens to women during pregnancy), diastasis recti, isn't good...

See Ronnie Coleman, 8 time Mr. Olympia, with a bad case of diastasis recti.


It not only happens to bodybuilders (and pregnant women) but also to men with a big "beer" belly (but you won't see it here for obvious reasons).
viewtopic.php?p=80642#p80642


Another problem is the biometric weighing scales (BIA) that don’t give a good indication of bodyfat percentage at all (even the BMI is better in some cases), “the individual error rates can get high, with some research showing error rates of around 8-9%. In fact, BIA doesn't do much better than BMI at predicting body fat in some cases”: https://weightology.net/the-pitfalls-of ... dance-bia/


Not perfect either, but the Body Shape Index (a.k.a. ABSI), that compares waist circumference to height and bodyweight, gives a better indication of our fat percentage.
According to the BMI, I’m obese at 106 kg (BMI > 30), while I have an ABSI of 0.072, considerably lower (thus better) than the average 0.083 for a 50 year old: https://www.thehealthsite.com/news/body ... ex-125763/

[Firestarter]

The physical transformation of professional players in both basketball and soccer compared to the early 1990s is very suspicious. Another reason to think that top players are juiced up, is that these days they often compete at the highest level even after they turn 35 years of age.


We get told that no doping is used in professional sports (at least not on a massive scale) because of testing.
The NBA, NFL and MLB don’t do blood tests, but only urine tests. The result is that players in these professional leagues can use whatever they want that cannot be detected through a urine test, including human growth hormone (which is one of the main reason that bodybuilders are so much bigger than 30 years ago)…

The offseason doping tests in the NBA are almost like a joke.
The tester calls the NBA player to make an appointment for a test. This gives the player all the time needed to get their urine clean…

By taking banned substances like testosterone or EPO (erythropoietin) in small microdoses in the evening, they would be clear of the doping the next morning: https://www.espn.com/blog/truehoop/post ... ug-testing
(https://archive.is/Rg3AY)


The unnatural shoulder muscle growth of NBA players seems to have happened in the same period as the huge increase in size of bodybuilders.
Were they using the same kind of steroids?!?

See the Chicago Bulls in 1991, when Michael Jordan won hist first NBA title, aged 28.


See the Miami Heat in 2012, when LeBron James won hist first NBA title, aged 27 (check the shoulders on those big boys).




See some NBA player body transformations.
See LeBron’s big LA Lakers team mate, Anthony Davis, who put on 33 lbs of weight (mostly muscle) even before joining the Lakers in 2019 (even bigger shoulders than most swimmers).

https://thesportsdrop.com/articles/nba- ... bodies/29/


You may remember the Major League Baseball doping scandal from a decade ago, after the federal Biogenesis investigation…
This also led to the conviction of clinic mastermind Anthony (Tony) Bosch, who provided athletes with performance enhancing drugs. Carlos Acevedo was one of his business partners in the drug selling.

Ernest "Randy" Mims is a longtime friend and business manager of LeBron James. David Alexander was LeBron’s personal trainer.
Alexander and Mims bought performance-enhancing drugs from Acevedo. Mims (like Alexander) claimed that he didn’t buy the steroid testosterone for his friend LeBron but for himself. It isn’t clear why he wouldn’t buy it legally as he wouldn’t have to hide using steroids to anybody.

Carlos Acevedo supplied Alexander with doping for his clients twice in 2013 (when he was personal trainer for LeBron): testosterone, peptides, HCG and metabolism-boosting injections. Alexander also got testosterone from the Miami anti-aging facility.

Nothing suspicious about any of that, as the federal investigation (that didn’t look into the users but only the sellers of the drugs) didn’t find LeBron guilty (of selling drugs…), and that he never failed a drug test, ALL the mainstream media say that LeBron was cleared of using performance-enhancing drugs: https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/380 ... ggs-others
(https://archive.is/HOQk7)


David Alexander was also a personal trainer for LeBron’s Miami Heat team mate Dwyane Wade: https://cavaliersnation.com/2016/03/02/ ... her-miami/


“Incarcerated Bob” referred to one of his clients with the initials “L.J.” (like LeBron James) for whom a man named “Paul” picked up HGH (a steroid that isn’t tested for by the NBA) once a month. In one of those strange coincidences, Rich “Paul” is LeBron James’ best friend and agent.

It has also been observed that LeBron’s head has increased in size, which is another sign of steroid abuse.

https://ajaythuraisingham.wordpress.com ... -steroids/


Rich Paul is also the agent for Anthony Davis and Draymond Green, and the current boyfriend of British popstar Adele…
Rich Paul joined Live Nation’s board of directors, with SpringHill co-founder Maverick Carter, and music mogul Jimmy Iovine.
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Paul Wachter first met LeBron James and his business partner Maverick Carter in 2005 to become their financial adviser.

The clients of Paul Wachter’s asset management firm, Main Street Advisors, includes such high-profile names as Jimmy Iovine, Billie Eilish, Bono (there he is again!), Arnold Schwarzenegger, Boston Red Sox Chairman Tom Werner, Drake, and Dr. Dre

viewtopic.php?p=85911#p85911

See Rich Paul with Jimmy Iovine.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/busin ... 235373766/


LeBron’s son, Bronny James, suffered a heart attack last year.
Shaq’s son, Shareef O’Neal, who also plays in the NBA, underwent open heart surgery 6 years ago.

Steroids and EPO can cause heart attacks.
Doping is also the probable cause for the recent surge in heart attacks in professional sports (or are it the COVID vaccines?!?): https://www.news24.com/you/celebs/inter ... t-20230808


Retired NBA player Kevin Garnett has accused LeBron James of using steroids (the “new juice”).

Ex UFC fighter Chael Sonnen also said he knows LeBron uses PEDs (including EPO) because he uses the same drug guy.
https://youtu.be/c1QnUCCm4CU
https://fadeawayworld.net/kevin-garnett ... s-steroids

[Firestarter]

Mike Tyson has admitted that he used a prosthetic penis with his baby’s urine to pass drug tests, “I had to use my whizzer, which was a fake penis where you put in someone’s clean urine to pass your drug test”.

It looks like at the time no blood tests were performed, so any boxer could have taken human growth hormone without risk of a positive drug test.
Tyson denied however that he ever took performance enhancing drugs, but claimed that he had to hide his use of recreational drugs (weed and cocaine). I think that cocaine can indeed boost one’s performance in a boxing ring…

That sounds unlikely to me, all the more so as he knew that “all the fighters” use it (an understandable argument to do so yourself).

No, no. All the fighters are on it, the ones that can afford it are on it. That’s my opinion only, I haven’t seen nobody do it but it’s common knowledge.

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Some argue that because Tyson was already so incredibly muscular and heavy as a teenager, he couldn’t have been using steroids at a later age.
But as there is no reason at all to assume that he didn’t use performance enhancing drugs as a teenager, this argument has no merit, all the more so as Mike admitted to trying cocaine at the age of 11, and being given alcohol as a baby: https://rs.io/mike-tyson-steroids/
(https://web.archive.org/web/20231205224 ... -steroids/)


None other than Evander Holyfield, that effectively finished Mike Tyson’s career, accused Tyson of using steroids:

Holyfield also disclosed to the paper that he was approached with taking steroids in 1988, right before he moved up in weight from cruiserweight to heavyweight. While he decided against taking any drugs, he was told by the person who approached him, someone "high up" in boxing, that former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson was taking steroids

https://www.boxingscene.com/evander-hol ... oids--7773


There is strong circumstantial evidence that Holyfield bulged up with the help of steroids, from the light heavyweight division (178 pounds max) in 1984 at age 21, to cruiserweight (190 pounds max) winning the cruiserweight title in 1986 aged 24, to becoming heavyweight in 1988.
By the early 1990's, Holyfield had bulked up to an impressive 215 pounds, having gained 40 pounds in 6 years.

See Holyfield when he won the cruiserweight title.


See Holyfield as a heavyweight, even more suspicious than his added muscle size, is the increase in the size of his skull (for which there is no other explanation than steroids)…



It was reported that somebody named “Evan Fields” in June 2004, obtained a supply of testosterone, Glukor, and injection supplies, and 3 weeks later picked up 5 vials of Human Growth Hormone, all through a Georgia urologist.
“Evan Fields” just happened to be born on the same day as Evander Holyfield (19 October 1962), and lived at a similar address as The Real Deal. On top of that when reporters called the listed number on Evan Fields’ prescription, Evander Holyfield answered the telephone.

The heart malady suffered by Holyfield in 1994 was also suspicious, with symptoms consistent with Human Growth Hormone use: http://boxingtalk.com/Evander-Holyfield ... ze-of-Peas
(https://archive.is/8mrgL)


Maybe even more suspicious is that Holyfield hired 8 times Mr. Olympia, Lee Haney, to bulk up to heavyweight size, adding 20 pound in only 5 weeks.
Top bodybuilders are experts in the use of steroids….
https://youtu.be/ibbwsj3cbAQ

[Firestarter]

With all of the 1980s world records achieved with the help of performance enhancing drugs. Every athlete that has broken these records, must have been using doping…

One of the most famous doping scandals is when the Olympic gold medallist Ben Johnson, that ran a 100 meter world record of 9.79 seconds, was banned after a positive doping test for the anabolic steroid Stanozolol in Seoul in 1988.
The 100 meter final at the 1988 Seoul Olympics would be called “the dirtiest race in history”, with 5 of the 8 competitors failing drug tests throughout their careers.

Arguably the most interesting of these is the “clean” Carl Lewis that won gold after Johnson lost his medal.
Notice the shoulder on Carl Lewis, and the big arms of Ben Johnson.


In 2003, Dr. Wade Exum blew the whistle and revealed documents that implicated Lewis had tested positive 3 times at the 1988 US Olympic trials.
In one document, Lewis was informed that he’d tested positive for banned substances and would not be permitted to participate in the Seoul Olympics, a letter addressed to Lewis from executive director of USOC Baaron Pittenger stated:

I must confirm that the analysis for your specimen B was positive for pseudoephedrine, ephedrine and phenylpropanolamine, IOC banned stimulants. By policy of the USOC this finding is cause for disqualification from Olympic team for the 1988 summer games in Seoul, Korea.

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Lewis was of course not disqualified, after giving some explanation that it was in some supplement he took without knowing that it contained doping.

According The Telegraph, 75 American athletes tested positive during this period, but none were sanctioned.
According to Exum, American athletes were exposed to non-punitive testing throughout the early 80s to help educate athletes on how to avoid positive tests while using PEDs.

The world perception is that the USOC does not run a doping control program, they run a controlled doping program.

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British sprinter Linford Christie, who got the 100 meter silver behind Lewis, also tested positive for a banned stimulant after the 1988 100 meter Olympic final but was exonerated by the IOC’s disciplinary committee by a vote of 11 to 10.
Christie continued his career to win the Olympic 100 meter gold in 1992.
In 1999, Christie tested positive for Nandrolone and was banned for 2 years.

The American Dennis Mitchell, who finished 4th at the 1988 Olympic 100 meter, was also banned for 2 years in 1998 for high levels of testosterone.
In 2008, Mitchell testified that Trevor Graham had injected him with human growth hormone. Graham was part of the silver medal-winning Jamaican 4 × 400 m team at the 1988 Summer Olympics: https://thegenuinetailender.wordpress.c ... zed-cheat/
(https://archive.is/iC1DH)


Many noticed that Florence Griffith-Joyner in 1988 had suddenly grown very muscular and that also her voice had become much deeper.
Also look at Flo-Jo’s shoulders (without her face and breasts, this looks like a muscular male)…


In 1987, Flo-Jo wasn’t nr. 1 in any category. Before 1988, she had relatively modest best times of 10.96 in the 100 and 21.96 for the 200 meter.
The world records Flo-Jo set in 1988, 10.49 seconds for the 100 and 21.34 seconds for the 200 meter, to this day have never been broken.

Florence Griffith-Joyner suddenly retired in 1989, shortly after random blood tests had been announced.
Making her career as the nr. 1 female sprinter, a total of 3 months in 1988…

The American sprinter Darrell Robinson said he sold Florence Griffith-Joyner vials of HGH in 1988, and saw Carl Lewis inject himself with probably testosterone. Griffith-Joyner called Robinson a “lying lunatic”, and Robinson was blacklisted…
Darrell Robinson also claimed to have received steroids from Flo-Jo’s coach Bob Kersee, the husband of Jacqueline Joyner-Kersee, who was also the sister of Flo-Jo’s husband (and coach), Olympic champion triple jumper Al Joyner.

Jacqueline Joyner-Kersee won gold medals in both the heptathlon and the long jump at the 1988 Summer Olympics.
Doping insider Victor Conte claimed that he personally witnessed in 1988 that an Olympic official notified Bobby Kersee that Joyner-Kersee had tested positive for doping.

On 21 September 1998, Griffith-Joyner suddenly died in her sleep aged 38.
While the official listed cause of death was suffocation from an epileptic seizure, many suspected that her death was the result of doping: https://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/gr ... a/91631417
(https://archive.is/ZkgB5)

[Firestarter]

In 2009, famous retired American tennis player Andre Agassi published his autobiography, in which he exposed that in 1997 he was addicted to the banned hard drug crystal meth, and was caught by a positive doping test.
Agassi evaded the ban by lying that he ingested the drug unwittingly by drinking a spiked drink from his assistant “Slim”.

While many speak bad about Agassi lying to the ATP, and even about telling the truth years later as this discredits tennis, many forgot that this shows that the tennis doping test were something of a joke (Agassi was addicted for a year before the positive test).

In that period several other positive drug tests were covered up by the ATP, like those of Petr Korda from summer to Christmas 1998 and Britain's Greg Rusedski that tested positive for steroid use, but both faced no penalties: https://archive.is/6tPsL


Even more damaging is that Agassi as a junior player was given a pill by his father that helped him win. Andre’s brother Phillip had warned him that their father would probably help him win by giving him a pill with the amphetamine speed.
This probably happened at a tournament in 1985 in Kalamazoo, Mich., when Andre Agassi was 15.

If his dad gave the young Agassi speed to win a game, isn’t it likely that he would likewise give his tennis-playing boys (other) performance-enhancing drugs: https://www.cbc.ca/sports/agassi-says-d ... d-1.833447


Many people find Rafael Nadal’s physique an indication of steroids use.

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Steroid use can also lead to acne

Many people also find Carlos Alcaraz’s transformation from skinny to muscular in 6 months suspicious, also note the acne in his face…


Former world nr. 1, Simona Halep, had her ban greatly reduced after an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), even though her excuse that she took the banned substance roxadustat unintentionally by ingesting a contaminated supplement could never account for the test results, that could only be explained by a doping program: https://tennishasadopingproblemblog.wordpress.com/
(https://archive.is/xOODH)


In 2022, the ITF let players know in advance when their blood would be tested for drugs, letting players make appointments for blood-doping tests before the Miami Open.
Tennis players were also given advance notice on blood-doping tests before the 2019 French Open and 2021's US Open.

This gave tennis players advance notice so they could beat the doping tests: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/sport ... sting.html

[Firestarter]

Personally I think that those female tennis players with big biceps and muscular back look even more suspicious than Nadal and Alcaraz. Arguably the most famous and muscular of these masculine female tennis stars is Serena Williams, arguably the greatest female tennis player of all time.
Also notice the increase in skull size (compare her change in physique to Barry Bonds who achieved his homeruns with the help of steroids).


Reportedly Serena evaded drug testing completely for 2 years in 2010 and 2011, covering up failed tests by citing phantom injuries.
In October 2011, Serena refused an out-of-competition doping tests, by acting some sort of anxiety attack, locking herself in a panic room and even calling 911, simply refusing to provide a sample. One possible reason for these refusals is being “terrified” of a positive doping test…

In March 2011, Serena suffered from a pulmonary embolism and hematoma.
Embolisms and DVT (Deep Vein Thrombosis) are often associated with sedentary lifestyles, which certainly didn’t apply to Serena. Anabolic steroid can cause these diseases.

Several tennis players have admitted to use PEDs and recreational drugs, including John McEnroe that admitted taking steroids and Richard Gasquet that took cocaine: https://vascularcme.com/2017/01/29/is-s ... er-so-far/
(https://archive.is/qZvfm)


See Serena and Venus Williams (born in 1981 and 1980) at the 1998 Roland Garros French Open, when Serena still looked “normal”.


Serena’s older sister Venus Williams always looked very strange to me.
Hard to argue, or figure out why I think this, but it looks like steroids severally influenced her development during puberty.
See Venus Williams at the 2006 J&S Cup in Warsaw.



It does seem a bit odd that the very fit Serena and sister Venus Williams got several medical exemptions for drugs that are normally described for serious illnesses and injuries: https://tass.com/sports/899652


Years before she married Prince Harry, in 2010, Meghan Markle met Serena Williams at a Super Bowl party; they became close friends.

See Serena and Meghan to cheer on Harry at the Sentebale Polo Cup in Miami, April 2024 (does Serena’s skull keeps getting bigger?).

www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1330 ... -polo.html


Will Smith won his long-desired Oscar for his portrayal of the father of Serena and Venus – Richard Williams – in “King Richard” in 2021.

Richard Williams stopped his daughters from playing in junior competition, maybe to instead experiment on them with steroids to turn them into abnormal freaks?!?

Venus Williams’ skull has likewise grown wide, with her face now looking very similar to that of Serena. Serena and Venus Williams also have low-pitched voices (lower than the voices of Mike Tyson and Carl Lewis).

See Serena and Venus with Will Smith (looking skinny next to the muscular Serena), in an interview to promote “King Richard”.
https://youtu.be/R-SMMoITJ9U
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Richard_(film)

[Firestarter]

I know I should have been cheering with the rest of the herd, when in 2000 out of nowhere the Netherlands had 2 Olympic champion swimmers from the same team – Inge de Bruijn and Pieter van den Hoogenband.
This is what the 26-year-old De Bruijn looked like at the Sydney Olympics in 2000, check those shoulders (I thought it was obvious that she was abusing steroids).


While we didn’t hear many of those stories here, in other countries there were accusation of performance-enhancing drugs.
US women’s swimming coach Richard Quick claimed that “it’s not a clean Olympics”, obviously insinuating that the Dutch swimmers were using doping.
Pieter’s father, Cees-Rein van den Hoogenband, responded:

He’s the most stupid idiot I ever saw...
It’s enough. It’s absolutely enough. Those silly, bloody Americans–they can’t swim. They are stupid.

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This exchange between the Dutch and American team is especially strange against the background that De Bruijn suddenly went from a relative mediocre swimmer to a world record breaking Olympic champion, after she was trained in the US by Paul Bergen in 1997.
Before 1999, De Bruijn had never won first place in any world competition. In 1998, at the World Championships in Perth, Australia, Inge de Bruijn finished 7th in the 100 meter butterfly in 1:00.09 and 8th in the 100 meter freestyle in 56.49 seconds. At the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, De Bruijn won the 100 meter butterfly in a world record of 56.61 seconds and she swam a world record of 53.77 seconds in a 100 meter freestyle heat (she predictably also won gold). She also won gold in the 50 meter freestyle, swimming a world record of 24.13 seconds.

Pieter van den Hoogenband also won 2 gold medals and scored world records in the 100 and 200 meter freestyle at the 2000 Olympics: https://www.chicagotribune.com/2000/09/ ... -laughing/
(https://archive.is/nCJY1)


Pieter van den Hoogenband’s father, Cees-Rein van den Hoogenband, who had been doctor for the top soccer club PSV Eindhoven, in late 2016 was selected as a doping expert (really!) for the “anti” doping agency WADA: (in Dutch) https://www.dopingautoriteit.nl/nieuws/anp/8720


Michelle Smith won 3 gold swimming medals for Ireland at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, after a previously mediocre career.
In 1993, Michelle Smith met the Dutch discus thrower Erik de Bruin (almost the same surname as Inge…), the same year he was suspended by the IAAF for 4 years after a failed drugs test. Erik de Bruin became her coach, and they married in 1996.
De Bruin knew more about doping than about swimming (like Cees-Rein van den Hoogenband?!?)…

From 1992 to 1994, Michelle Smith made improbable progress. There was also a change in her physique. Gary O’Toole, a two-time Olympian for Ireland, commented:

It was a complete metamorphosis. The Michelle I remembered had been round and feminine and carried not a lot of excessive weight, but some. I looked at her and said, ‘My God, what have you been taking?’

In 1998, Michelle Smith was banned for 4 years for tampering with her urine sample with alcohol. Jordi Segura, head of the IOC-accredited laboratory in Barcelona, testified that Smith took the banned substance androstenedione: https://www.swimmingworldmagazine.com/n ... ing-world/
(https://archive.is/8estO)

[Firestarter]

A more current swimming doping scandal involves 23 Chinese swimmers that all tested positive for the banned heart drug trimetazidinem (TMZ) 7 months before the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2021, but were allowed to compete anyway…

At a New Year’s event held in December 2020 and January 2021 in Shijiazhuang, 23 (of 39) swimmers tested positive for trimetazidine.
The Chinese antidoping agency Chinada claimed that they found traces of trimetazidine in the kitchen of the hotel where the swimmers were staying. Even though this doesn’t really explain how all of them tested positive, “anti” doping agency WADA cleared them of wrongdoing anyway.

Nearly half of the swimming team that China sent to the 2020 Tokyo Games (held in July/August 2021 because of the plandemic) had tested positive, including:
Zhang Yufei – winning 4 medals in Tokyo, including 2 golds;
Wang Shun - winning gold in the 200 individual medley;
Qin Haiyang - who in 2023 set the world-record in the 200-meter breaststroke.

Many of them still compete and several will compete again for China at this year’s Olympics in Paris: https://archive.is/OCXqG

[Firestarter]

In the Spanish top football division, La Liga, from 2019 to 2022 there were a grand total of 4 blood tests (only in 2022, with 0 in the 3 previous years).


As Human Growth Hormone (HGH) can only be detected in blood, this effectively means that HGH is allowed…

Since 2017, 13 professional footballers in Spain have tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs, but only 2 of these were banned, with one remaining anonymous, and the other - Papu Gomez – allowed to play and win for the Argentina national team at the 2022 World Cup after testing positive for terbutaline, a month before the World Cup.
Some 10 months after the positive test, Gomez was banned from sport for 2 years by the Spanish “anti” doping agency (CELAD), bizarrely backdated to before the start of Qatar 2022 (which means that he is effectively banned for 14 months).

Papu Gomez was playing for Sevilla when he tested positive.
In 2011, Sevilla signed the cycling doctor Nicolas Terrados, who in the infamous 1998 Tour de France was arrested by French police in connection with the Festina Doping Affair and was accused of trafficking banned substances into France.

In the early 1990s, Terrados was one of the team doctors for ONCE, together with the notorious doping doctor Eufemiano Fuentes.
In the 2002/03 season, Real Sociedad hired Fuentes for their miraculous run to second in La Liga.

While 15 footballers in the Premier League (the English top league) had failed drug tests, none of them were banned: https://archive.is/n4v2g

[Firestarter]

While it looks like most of the big doping scandals have been in cycling, it looks like cycling doping tests are the most rigorous among all sports. This suggests that in other professional sports even more performance enhancing drugs are used.

For as long as I can remember, we’ve been getting stories that doping was rampant in cycling, but is now a thing of the past…

It is a blatant example of double standards that - with the majority of cycling heroes doping cheaters - that Lance Armstrong was even retroactively stripped of his record-breaking 7 Tour de France victories, while I haven’t heard about them testing the blood samples of other cycling champions.
This was obviously not done because he had been a doping cheater, but probably because he exposed how easy it had been to continue using banned drugs, while evading positive tests. Which really shows that the doping tests aren’t designed to find doping cheaters, but only to give the impression of “clean” sports.


Dutch cyclist Leontien van Moorsel, that had already retired in 1996 to return in 1998 after having been a world champion several times in the early 1990s, won an impressive 3 gold and 1 silver medals at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, winning another gold medal at the 2004 Olympics in Athens.

In 2017, retired Dutch cycling doctor Peter Janssen exposed that he had administered EPO to Van Moorsel in the spring of 2000, before the Sydney Olympics: (in Dutch) https://archive.is/UFt27


From 1986 to 1989, Janssen had been the team doctor for the PDM cycling team.
Janssen gave the PDM cyclists blood transfusions that had been banned since 1986 (but couldn’t really be detected in the doping tests).
In 2013, extracts from the notebook of PDM soigneur Bertus Fok were published, which showed that 7 of the 8 PDM cyclists at the 1988 Tour used banned substances.

Gert-Jan Theunisse and Steven Rooks were among the biggest stars for PDM at the time.
Theunisse tested positive for testosterone in the 1988 Tour de France for which he only got a 10 minute time penalty (a common practice at the time after a positive doping test). In 1989, Theunisse was back in the Tour to win the king of the mountains title.

In 1990, Peter Janssen moved to the Panasonic team with Rooks and Theunisse.
In 1991, PDM withdrew from the Tour due to problems with their “saline drips” that are often used to hide the use performance-enhancing drugs: https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/van-mo ... -olympics/
(https://archive.is/9W9cY)