Alysia Montaño suspected cheaters cost her an Olympic medal. Now she has proof, and she wants that medal and others they “stole” from her.
An American 800-meter runner from Southern California, Montaño finished fifth at the 2012 London Olympics behind two Russian medalists who were implicated last year in a massive scandal that revealed a long-standing, state-supported doping program. She also finished fourth twice at world championships (2011 and 2013) behind one of those Russians, Mariya Savinova.
Sixteen years after the inception of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), which was supposed to reverse the scourge of performance-enhancing drugs in Olympic sports, the system still has deep flaws. For Montaño, it’s painful and personal to see cheaters exploit the holes in the system. Cheaters cost her three medals and likely hundreds of thousands of dollars.
“Sixteen years ago I was a hopeful Olympian, and naive,” Montaño said at a recent U.S. Olympic media event, eyes tearing up when the subject was raised. “The essence of sport is supposed to be about self-betterment. It’s supposed to be about seeing what you can pull out of yourself. I have an 18-month-old daughter who I want to love sport, to see what sports is about. It’s supposed to be about inspirational moments. It’s supposed to be about realizing ‘amazing exists.’
“The thing dopers take away from us is the idea of amazing. That’s really important to me, especially as a mother. I’m very passionate about it.”
If the international track and field federation (IAAF) were to strip the disgraced Russians of their ill-gotten medals — as WADA has recommended the IAAF do — Montaño could get what she deserved although she was deprived of receiving the medals on an awards podium with national anthems playing. But the IAAF also stands accused of corruption and bribe-taking, charges which came out of WADA’s investigation into the Russian track federation after German television documentaries revealed the Russians’ secrets.
“I want those medals,” Montaño said. “Those are my medals. I deserve those medals. Do I have faith that I’m going to get those? I’m human. I continue to have faith. I think that’s what keeps me going.”
“It’s a red flag”
Montaño was pretty sure the Russians who beat her were dopers. In elite track and field, improvements produced by honest hard work come in fractions of seconds. Big improvements arouse suspicion.
“You can’t say anything about it because it’s just suspicion,” Montaño said. “Being in the sport, you know. When you see not fractions of a second, you see huge increments, it’s a red flag. Everybody that pays attention to the sport, if you didn’t see it, you were trying not to see it.”
WADA was created in 2000 in the aftermath of a Tour de France doping scandal. The idea was that anti-doping testing for Olympic sports around the world should be taken away from official bodies that had inherent conflicts of interest and given to independent testing organizations. One of them is the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, created that same year.
But WADA never had a direct role in testing. It would “monitor” and “observe” national anti-doping agencies and the international sports federations such as the IAAF to make sure they were testing. Sixteen years later, many countries have weak anti-doping agencies — or none at all.
That leaves much of the testing to international sports federations which continue to have conflict-of-interest issues. Why, many wonder, would the IAAF attempt to catch its biggest stars if they are cheating? American track and field athletes, who are tested regularly out of competition, have no way of knowing how often their counterparts from Jamaica or Kenya get tested, for instance.
Critics say WADA’s role should be expanded now to include testing because some federations and national anti-doping agencies aren’t doing the job.
“Certainly WADA can’t just observe,” said Travis Tygart, the chief executive of USADA in Colorado Springs. “They have to hold us all accountable to the rules we’ve agreed to, the WADA code. In countries or sports where they are falling short of the rules, WADA has to immediately go in and remedy the situation so that clean athletes will have hope that they can win on the global playing field. That’s WADA’s job.”
The International Olympic Committee recognizes the system isn’t working, and IOC president Thomas Bach wants to do something about it.
“Thomas Bach is strongly advocating that testing be taken over by WADA on a global basis so that individual country testing is improved and that all the athletes are competing on a level playing field,” said Larry Probst, the U.S. Olympic Committee chairman and an IOC member. “He’s driving this hard. People were shocked when they first heard the idea, but it’s gaining momentum.”
WADA president Sir Craig Reedie is studying it “intensely,” Probst said.
“It’s a very expensive proposition,” Probst said. “But I think it’s the right direction. I think that’s ultimately where we’ll end up.”
USADA’s website documents how often U.S. athletes are tested out of competition and lists them by name, but no one knows if Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt gets tested outside of major meets. The international swimming federation (FINA) recently announced it would begin listing the athletes it tests. The IAAF doesn’t do that, leaving American athletes to wonder if counterparts in other countries ever get tested out of competition.
Worldwide accountability
After Savinova beat Montaño at the 2011 world championships, Montaño consoled herself with the belief that Savinova surely would be caught doping before the 2012 Olympics. Instead, her cheating wasn’t revealed until 2015. As a result of the WADA probe, Russian track and field athletes have been banned from international competition and may not be reinstated in time for the Rio Olympics this summer.
WADA recommended a lifetime ban for Savinova and the other Russian 800-meter runner, Ekaterina Poistogova.
“When that news came out, I went through a million emotions,” Montaño said. “I went through a little depression period. I was on fire for two weeks like, ‘I’m going to prove clean athletes can do this.’ Then I was like, ‘Does nobody else care? Am I the only one? Has my whole career been a farce?’ “
That’s why some want WADA to take a more active role.
“It can’t be just reactive to good investigative journalism, it has to be proactive,” Tygart said. “We want them to hold us accountable to make sure we’re doing everything the WADA code requires. And as they hold us accountable, we’re expecting them to hold Russia accountable and France accountable. That’s their obligation. Clean athletes are expecting that. It’s unfair to clean athletes for anything less to happen.”
Montaño ran at the 2014 U.S. championships while 34 weeks pregnant, and seven weeks later her daughter was born. She wants her daughter to grow up believing in the power of sport to inspire, in a world where she can trust results are legitimately earned.
Montaño knows some wonder why anyone would watch track and field because of its ongoing scandals.
“Absolutely valid question,” Montaño said. “My purpose is to be as vocal as possible and be a voice for clean athletes to give faith to people that clean athletes can win out. There are a lot of us, and I hope that more clean athletes would feel confident in speaking loudly about it. Unfair is a word I don’t even want to use. Life isn’t fair. The truth is, it’s unjust. It isn’t right.”
John Meyer: jmeyer@denverpost.com or @johnmeyer
Cheated of glory
American 800-meter runner Alysia Montaño has been cheated out of medals three times by Russians who have since been implicated in the scandal involving Russian track and field. An investigation by the World Anti-Doping Agency suspended the Russian track federation, effectively suspending all Russian track and field athletes. WADA also recommended lifetime bans against the Russians who beat Montaño, Mariya Savinova and Ekaterina Poistogova. Those races:
2011 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
Gold: Savinova, 1:55.87
Silver: Caster Semenya, South Africa, 1:56.35
Bronze: Janeth Jepkosgei, Kenya, 1:57.42
Fourth: Montaño, 1:57.48
2012 OLYMPICS
Gold: Savinova, 1:56.19
Silver: Semenya, 1:57.23
Bronze: Poistogova, 1:57.53
Fifth: Montaño, 1:57.93
2013 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
Gold: Eunice Jepkoech, Kenya, 1:57.38
Silver: Savinova, 1:57.80
Bronze: Brenda Martinez, USA, 1:57.91
Fourth: Montaño, 1:57.95
