Carl Swenson
Two-time Olympian and professional mountain bike racer Carl Swenson is a part-time Winter Park resident.
Every year there seems to be a cross country skier or bike racer among the best in the world who gets caught in some sort of doping scandal. Unfortunately, it’s just a part of my world as an athlete that I have to deal with.
Tyler Hamilton, the Olympic gold medalist in cycling, is the one getting all the headlines right now, but there were a couple of cross country skiers on the World Cup tour last winter that affected me more directly. Probably the worst incident involved a Belarusian athlete who was not allowed to compete at the World Championships after leaving his fanny pack in the doping office with human growth hormones still in it. The officials couldn’t ban him from competition because the drugs didn’t show in his test, but they were able to send him out of the country for illegal possession.
The reality, I believe, is that we’re going to see more athletes in our sports getting caught for this sort of thing. Not because more people are using performance-enhancing drugs, but because the testing agencies have finally developed testing for things like human growth hormone. Officials hadn’t been able to test for them in the past, but now they can.
Unfortunately, I think there will always be people doping. But it’s important to understand that not everyone is doing it.
That’s what the dopers think, and how they justify doing it. It’s a rationalization for cheating. They convince themselves that everyone is cheating, but it’s really not that way. I believe most of the people I’m competing against are clean.
But sports are like anything else – business, academics, you name it. Where there is money involved and the stakes are high, there are always going to be people cheating. But I think things are finally on the right track now that most countries have well-funded independent organizations going after athletes with unannounced testing.
For instance, I’m tested four to six times a year outside of competition when someone just shows up and my door and asks for a sample. It doesn’t bother me, because I don’t want to compete in a sport where I have to dope to be competitive. Anytime a doper gets caught is good news to a clean athlete.
