Olympic doping scandal

July 7, 2006 11:39 AM

Help me find interesting articles, books, interviews about American steroid scandals in the Olympic Games.

I'm currently obsessed with this topic. All the easy avenues (wikipedia, surface google-searching the subject) have been well-traveled-- I am looking for some more in-depth explorations on the ethics of Olympic doping by Americans. (I'm more interested in the Olympics than, say, the Tour De France scandal.)

Very interested in the Wade Exum involvement, especially, but mostly about all the different players involved, from the USOC to Carl Lewis to smaller, less-well known angles of this issue. Like how it's sometimes hard to tell the difference between cold medicine and steroid use, sometimes, and what the ramifications are on an athlete's career once they've been accused of doping.

Does anyone have any good written media suggestions on this subject?

posted by np312 to Media & Arts (2 answers total)

This Malcolm Gladwell article references this book, which describes the events leading up to Ben Johnson's (a Canadian) forfeiture of his 100-meter gold medal at the 1988 Olympics. According to Gladwell, 'Going into the Seoul Olympics, then, Johnson was a walking pharmacy. But--and this is the great irony of his case--none of the drugs that were part of his formal pharmaceutical protocol resulted in his failed drug test.'
posted by driveler at 12:02 PM on July 7, 2006

np, I'm sorry I don't have good suggestions of written material. You'd really want to talk to my father; he was the president of USA Track and Field for four years, and worked on the olympic doping committee (where everyone would appeal their positive tests). I'll ask him if he can suggest any books (he's ill and his memory is poor as a consequence.).
posted by filmgeek at 12:53 PM on July 7, 2006