Doctor and Cyclist Defend Practice of Blood Doping

The physician reported to have given blood doping transfusions last summer to a third of the 24-member U.S. Olympic cycling team--including five medal winners--said Friday he had done nothing “illegal or unethical or detrimental to any athlete.”

Dr. Herman Falsetti, a University of Iowa heart specialist who also has a home in Laguna Beach and is licensed to practice in California, said: “I know of no Olympic rules that would prohibit (blood doping). It’s commonly used in Europe and I know of no rules in this country against the practice.”

Falsetti said he would not discuss what he had done regarding any specific athlete because it would be a breach of confidentiality, but, he added: “I would never transfuse anyone who hadn’t been carefully typed and cross-matched with the best possible donor. . . . The risk is virtually nonexistent.”

Also defending blood doping Friday was one of the athletes involved, Olympic silver medalist Brent Emery, who readily conceded on NBC’s “Today” show that he had received a transfusion. Other American medal winners who reportedly had transfusions are gold medalist Steve Hegg, silver medalists Rebecca Twigg and Pat McDonough, and bronze medalist Leonard (Harvey) Nitz.

“Cycling preparation is very, very involved on a lot of levels,” Emery said. “We do weight training, we do stretching, we do preparation with our diet. We’re taking a look at our whole program in order to prepare ourselves as best as possible. And we have not done anything illegal. It was a decision which had to be made according to how you approached the sport. Years ago, amateur athletes were receiving sponsorship money, and there were people who thought it was the worst sin possible. Nevertheless, it’s not illegal.”

Asked why the transfusions had been kept secret, Emery replied: “Well, how many athletes do you have going around telling how much money they make through sponsorship?”

Despite Falsetti’s and Emery’s emphasis on the propriety of blood doping, officials from the International Olympic Committee and the U.S. Olympic Committee emphasized Friday that they condemn it and that it is contrary to Olympic policy.

The head of the IOC Medical Commission, Prince Alexandre de Merode of Belgium, sent a cable to F. Don Miller, the executive director of the U.S. Olympic Committee, declaring, in part:

“Since 1976, by means of official declarations and in its medical guide, the IOC Medical Commission has formally condemned the practice of blood transfusions on athletes in good health. . . . (Transfusions are) contrary to sports ethics and can be dangerous.”

De Merode indicated that the only reason the IOC had not banned the practice was that there is no medical test that can detect it after it has occurred.

To this, Falsetti responded: “They (the IOC) have a list three pages long (of prohibited practices) and blood packing is not on there. If we Americans said we thought it was illegal and unethical, the Europeans wouldn’t go along. That’s why there is no rule. I’d be happy to see a rule.”

Miller said that in November, 1983, he had specifically told the U.S. Cycling Federation, in answer to its request that the USOC take a stand, not to engage in blood doping.

Despite Miller’s statement, however, several of those involved with the cycling team said Friday that the USOC had never clearly objected to the blood doping done in Los Angeles.

Jim McFadden, public relations director for the U.S. Cycling Federation during the Olympics, said he had conferred with the team coach, Eddy Borysewicz, and was authorized to say that Borysewicz had been told in advance by Dr. Kenneth Clarke, the director of the USOC’s sports medicine division, that blood doping was not illegal.

McFadden added that another team official who had checked beforehand with USOC officials was told that while they did not condone the practice, it was an internal matter for each national sports federation.

“In the whole USOC buildup against drugs after the blowup at the Caracas Pan American Games (in 1983), there was not one notice against blood boosting,” McFadden said. “And there was a ton of stuff on steroids. Being aware that these transfusions were commonly done, they should have said something about it then. This seems like kind of after-the-fact posturing.”

Falsetti said: “I’m shocked that anybody that had an objection did not raise it at the Olympics. . . . The story is not really blood packing, but a conflict between administrative, bureaucratic officials.

“They’re destroying bicycling. They’re tainting the medals. It’s just outrageous.”

The USOC’s Miller, however, insisted that after he had given a flat no to the practice in November, 1983, he had heard nothing more about the matter until November, 1984, three months after the Olympics. As soon as he heard that the blood doping had occurred, he ordered an investigation, Miller said.

Falsetti said he was puzzled because he was never approached for information by the panel of doctors investigating for the USOC. New Jersey physician Irving Dardik, chairman of the USOC’s Sports Medicine Council, heads the four-doctor panel.

“This board of inquiry by Dr. Dardik has never contacted me,” Falsetti said. “I’ve never received any call from any official of the USOC. I’d be glad to talk to them.”

Dardik responded: “He is not a member of the Olympic program. We have a medical staff that has been selected by me that is responsible for all medical activities at the Olympic Games. . . . If he was asked to come in there (and practice on the U.S. cycling team), he had no official status whatsoever. . . . I have no interest in speaking to him in relation to this at all at this point.”

Falsetti, however, said the cycling team had no official physician and that he had been involved with U.S. cycling teams as a doctor and a racer for 15 years.

He strongly defended the blood transfusions, saying: “If they’re done under correct procedures, there should be no danger. The effectiveness has been demonstrated in the European literature. There is a 1 to 3% advantage. And there hasn’t been shown to be any damage. There are either no effects or a slight positive effect.”

Falsetti said he believes the best way to do the transfusions is to use the athlete’s own blood, removed three or four months previously and stored. But, he said, this was not feasible with the Olympic cycling team because “when you (remove the blood), they can’t be in competition for a while and this would have been during the period when they had to be competing to make the Olympic team.”

So, he indicated, he had used family members’ blood. “The next-best is similar genetic background,” he said. “The least-safe would be to go to some blood bank.”

While Dardik said Friday that the USOC’s inquiry had turned up no instances of blood doping of American Olympic athletes in any sport other than cycling, Falsetti said he believes the practice was widespread in a number of sports.

“You betcha,” he said. “Blood packing has been widely in use in Europe since 1972.”

Meanwhile, the British cycling team manager, Jim Hendry, said in London that it was common knowledge in the Olympic villages that some U.S. team members were given blood transfusions.

“The whole thing stinks,” Hendry said. “We knew it was going on and we also knew we could do nothing about it. Regardless of the rules, one must deplore anything that is an artificial means of raising performance. It’s just the same as using drugs.”