Cycling Coach Sees No Doping Scandal

These are dark, angry days for Eddy Borysewicz, suspended by the United States Cycling Federation for 30 days as coach of the Olympic cycling team for his role in the blood doping of eight team members last summer.

Borysewicz, in Santa Ana over the weekend for a two-day coaching clinic, said in a interview that the blood transfusions given the athletes were nobody’s business, other than the athletes and their doctors; that in cracking down on the doping, America had made him a laughingstock in Europe, and that doping is really no different than taking Vitamin C.

The 45-year-old coach, a defector from Poland nine years ago and known in cycling as Eddy B., said he doesn’t believe he will be the American cycling coach for the 1988 Games. “It’s not necessary that I be with the U.S. Cycling Federation,” he said.

He was particularly bitter that what he termed an episode “present(ed) like a scandal” by the media resulted in salary and bonus penalties by the cycling federation that cost him nearly $9,000, or, as he put it, “for each medal (American team members won), almost $1,000.”

“People think we in a big scandal, some wrong thing, and I think we do nothing wrong,” Borysewicz said, speaking in the kind of shorthand English he habitually uses. “Because for me (the) wrong is invasion of privacy.

“I’m not going to tell you what I do with my doctor,” he said. “I’m not going to tell you or anybody what my wife is doing with her doctor and I’m not asking you or anybody what you do with your doctors. That’s your private thing. It’s not ethical for me to ask how much money you make. . . . Several things you don’t publish what you doing. Many companies don’t say what they doing. It’s a secret of business.

“And in general I’m not going to tell what I tell my rider because many time that’s private between him and me. Even advice.”

Borysewicz repeatedly asked why the media have made such a big thing of blood doping--a procedure whereby an athlete gets a transfusion of his own blood or someone else’s blood a short time before his or her event. The procedure is aimed at increasing oxygen-carrying red corpuscles in the bloodstream and thus building more endurance.

“I respect media,” he said. “I like media. For me, media is very important. No media, no sport, no publicity. (But) I ask you question. When this is not illegal, why is all this trouble?”

Borysewicz is also bitter about U.S. Olympic Committee leaders, who, he said, never told him straight out not to do the transfusions; officials of the Cycling Federation, who made a big thing of the matter after it was disclosed, and Thomas B. Dickson, the Pennsylvania doctor, who, he said, named some of the riders as having had transfusions.

“It’s not right Dr. Dickson mentions names in talk,” he said. “Possibly suing him for this. Right now, I hear several lawyers like to make the case and I think possible successful case. It’s incredible. These guys is not criminal, OK? These guys did nothing wrong. Why this noise?”

Many training and competition practices are, in Borysewicz’s view, “balance(d) on the border.”

“You understand me? Sport performance, work is on the border,” he said. “Everything is on the border. Controversial is our bike. Controversial is our wheels. Even controversial is our air in the tires. . . . Even our clothing, our accomplishment is controversial. People (abroad) say, ‘That’s not fair. America is wealthy, rich, and this country not.’ All life is controversial.”

Is he convinced that the blood transfusions were proper and good for the athletes?

“Everything is dangerous,” he said. “Even your own bed is dangerous. For me, doctor have to make decision if it’s good for you or bad for you. That is between two persons, patient and doctor. . . . He (doctor) is professional for this and he’s responsible for this. You have freedom whether to do or not.”

But in the case of the U.S. Olympic cycling team, Borysewicz said, there was no official team doctor, only volunteer physicians, and in some respects he had to perform a doctor’s functions.

“I am not a doctor,” he said. “That’s just in my department. That’s not my specialization. I’m asking (the cycling federation) eight years already for a doctor, a team doctor. It’s incredible we don’t have it. And some doctor goes on a trip, because he needs that in his resume, and he even cleans bikes. That’s not joking. It’s true, because he’s not license(d) for the state (in question).”

“My friends call me from Europe and ask me: ‘Hey, you are doctor or you are coach?’ ” Borysewicz said.

“Lots of jokes about this, because that is not coach’s responsibility.”

Borysewicz said, however, that he remains a believer in what he calls blood boosting or blood packing, and he is willing to assume the responsibility for it.

“I’m responsible for everything,” he said. “I’m the coach and you can blame me for everything.”

He added that he had been particularly influenced by East German techniques, since the East Germans have been so successful in cycling.

“I tell (the athletes) . . . you don’t have to listen to me, OK? . . . When I push you, and how I push you. I grab you, I advise you. For sure, for me, for research work, I recommend book World Runner. Read this book, beautiful book, about (Finnish runner) Lasse Viren . . . three times gold medalist. He explain how he take blood boosting, how much help it is . . .

“I recommend to all public who like to learn about blood boosting and blood packing.”

Even when it is called doping, as the International Olympic Committee’s medical commission refers to the practice, Borysewicz isn’t impressed negatively.

“What is the doping? Doping is everything that is synthetic and helps performance. For this definition, Vitamin C is doping.”

Actually, Borysewicz said, even those who don’t have blood transfusions before their events may need one after.

“I saw anemic riders a lot,” he said. “After the season you have to check. It’s almost close to anemic, almost 80%, 90%. Big guys. Because they work incredibly hard are close to anemic. On the border. Four and a half million red corpuscles and they’re supposed to have six million. That’s 25% difference.”

So even if a test is developed that will reveal blood doping, and Borysewicz remains skeptical that one will be, then, he asks, how will the testers be able to tell good blood transfusions from the bad ones?

“And what is the morale when sometimes athlete is almost anemic and doctor tell him it’s necessary for him, blood transfusion?”

But the coach drew a sharp distinction between athletes accepting blood transfusions and taking drugs. He said he strongly favored mandatory drug testing for athletes.

“Testing, for me that’s a proper decision,” he said. “I push so hard in U.S. Cycling Federation for testing all national races. Because that’s just not fair when race is for big money and big prestige, there’s not drug testing. First of all, it’s dangerous, and second it’s not fair.”

Borysewicz said that although he doubts that he will remain as the team coach, he will stay in American cycling in some way. “I’m going to be in cycling, because my blood is cycling blood,” he said. “I’ve been a long time in this business. I like cycling too much to quit.”