Cyclist Faults U.S. Coach on Blood Doping

U.S. Olympic cycling coach Eddy Borysewicz and one of his gold medalists, Alexi Grewal, disagreed Monday about who was responsible for the controversial blood doping transfusions of a third of the 24-member American cycling team.

Grewal, who passed up transfusions, said that Borysewicz had been primarily responsible for them. Borysewicz said he merely had told his cyclists that the transfusions were not illegal and would be helpful in increasing their stamina.

“I gave strict answers to their questions,” Borysewicz said. “I said: ‘Please, talk to your doctor. It’s an absolute personal thing. If you do or not, I don’t want to know.’ ”

Grewal, asked why he was among the few American endurance racers who had not had transfusions, replied: “I don’t put needles in my body.”

But the 23-year-old Grewal, who had feuded publicly with Borysewicz before the Games, added that contributing to his steering clear of transfusions was his lack of contact with Borysewicz. “I spent only 20 minutes with Eddy B.,” he said.

Grewal’s claim that Borysewicz was responsible was supported by Michael Fatka of the Raleigh Cycle Co., a leading sponsor of cycling races, as well as an official of the Coors International Bicycling event, who asked not to be identified by name. The two sponsors’ representatives were at a wholesalers’ private bike show at the Long Beach Convention Center over the weekend. Each said that athletes who were fairly independent of the coach, such as Grewal and women’s road racing gold medalist Connie Carpenter, resisted his suggestions that they submit to the transfusions.

In an interview in the New York Times, meanwhile, another member of the team, Dave Grills, said he had refused a transfusion. “There was pressure to do it from the coaching staff,” he said. “I felt from the first day it was wrong. . . . It was the gray zone, but too far to the black end of the gray zone.”

Borysewicz, however, responded:

“Nobody from the coach’s staff forced anyone to take a transfusion. Riders came to me and asked questions about this. I gave strict answers.”

But he also said he had told them, “When everybody does (this), and you don’t, you’re a loser.”

Borysewicz said: “For me, the worst thing is, we didn’t have a team physician. The first thing the (U.S. Cycling) Federation has to think about is to give us an official physician in the future. The physician must make these decisions, not the coach.”

At another point, Borysewicz said: “I never recommended a course and the other coaches didn’t recommend. We didn’t push. We said, ‘You make up your mind.’

“Sure, the coach has responsibility, but people say I’m responsible for everything bad that happens and they never give me credit for anything good.

“I don’t care about myself. I feel badly about what it will do to the sport.”

Grewal, the gold-medal winner in the Olympic cycling road race at Mission Viejo, said that he understood those who had taken the transfusions did not believe they had been helped by them. “If it didn’t help them, then I don’t really think it tainted their medals,” he said.

Grewal said he doubts whether it is feasible to declare it illegal, since it’s impossible to test for it.

Both international and U.S. Olympic officials have deplored blood doping as unethical, but no group has ever formally declared it illegal.