OMAHA — Swimming has been devoid of major doping scandals for 10 years, but America’s fastest swimmer in history says that doesn’t mean the sport is clean. Gary Hall Jr., the two-time defending Olympic gold medalist in the 50-meter freestyle, said Sunday he believes there is more doping in swimming than ever before.
“I don’t have any positive tests to back it up but, yeah, that’s my gut feeling,” Hall said during a news conference on the first day of the U.S. Olympic Trials. “It’s my gut feeling that more doping is present today.”
This year, 42 world records have fallen. Much of the credit has gone to Speedo’s LZR Racer suit, which has helped produce 38 of them. Hall, seeking his fourth Olympic team, says he thinks the swimsuit’s hype has masked other factors.
He pointed to the East German women who broke many world records and won 11 gold medals in the 1976 Olympics at Montreal. When the Berlin Wall fell and the East Germans’ swimming files became public, it was learned they were heavily taking steroids, and many of the women had become sterile.
“They said it was the suit,” Hall said. “They called it the skinsuit, and it was a nylon that didn’t have the hip-hugger flap that went over the women’s hips — the modesty panel — and all the direction was on the suit. Clearly we know now that it wasn’t the suit causing all these world records to be broken. It was copious amounts of steroids. Can a suit, technology, distract from another issue? I think it’s pretty convenient for those indulging in the other issue.”
Comments anger Van Dyken
Hall said the absence of positive drug tests should mean little. He said athletes who dope have always been ahead of the curve.
“Marion Jones never tested positive,” Hall said. “If she hadn’t come forth and said something, she wouldn’t be facing jail time. In the same year, Amy Van Dyken, who was on the exact same BALCO list as Marion Jones, is inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame and the United States Olympic Committee Hall of Fame, and Marion Jones goes to jail. And the only difference was that Marion Jones admitted it.”
Van Dyken, a Cherry Creek High School graduate who won six Olympic gold medals, including four in the 1996 Games at Atlanta, actually was only on the list to testify in the grand jury’s BALCO drug case that exposed many dopers. She was never targeted.
Contacted later, Van Dyken said: “Gary always makes outrageous comments, and for some reason I’m the one in his crosshairs this time. What he has said is slanderous, it’s out-rageous and unfounded. Everything I’ve worked for in my swimming career I did through hard work for my country. I earned every medal I ever won. Being mentioned in his comments is upsetting, especially from a fellow swimmer and former teammate. Gary’s comments are again slanderous and completely uncalled for.”
Hall, 33, who trains out of Miami Beach, Fla., was asked what other evidence he has seen besides many world records falling in one year.
“I train with an international group of swimmers, and all of them have stories and a few of them have offers,” he said. “I’m not at liberty to say. It’s not my story. But you’re attacked. Unfortunately, we rely on an inadequate doping system and doping agencies for proof. And we live in a society where people are innocent until proven guilty, and the key word is proven.”
“Incentive to cut corners”
Hall was critical of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, which he believes is not keeping up with new drugs entering the market that are becoming regularly available.
“You have Vitamin C at this end,” he said. “You have designer drugs, BALCO stuff, at this end and you’ve got an $18 billion-a-year industry with vitamins and supplements where major companies are working around the clock to come up with the next great performance-enhancing drug.”
Hall, who races the 50 on Friday and Saturday at the Qwest Center, says he is not bitter even though his personal best is still 21.76 seconds, set in the 2000 Olympic Trials, and Australia’s Eamon Sullivan has broken the world record three times in six weeks, topping at 21.28 on March 28.
“I’m not talking from sour grapes, and I try not to let any emotion play on this,” he said. “I’m thinking of the future of the sport.”
Outspoken his entire career, Hall has been a huge advocate of swimmers receiving more money. With swimmers making decent livings, he said a new problem has arisen.
“When an athlete has an opportunity to make millions and millions of dollars, the incentive to cut corners is much greater,” he said. “I’m not sure I want to take back what I said entirely, but this new problem of doping in the sport could potentially make us yearn for those good old days.”
John Henderson: 303-954-1299 or jhenderson@denverpost.com
