Swimming fits the doping scandal profile

If you are old enough and have been around the Olympic swimming community long enough, the swimsuit swooning sounds familiar. Once before, in the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal, when world records evaporated and 11 of a possible 13 gold medals were gobbled up by the East German women’s swimming team, the athletes from that country pointed to their suits.

It was the Lycra, they said.

Faster. Racier. Cutting edge.

And it was also one of the biggest red herrings in the history of the Olympic Games – the 1970s version of the juiced baseball and nothing more than a technological justification to cover up the systematic East German doping.

So when Gary Hall Jr. looks at the 42 world records broken since February – 38 of them achieved by an athlete wearing Speedo’s new LZR Racer swimsuit – you’ll have to excuse his skepticism. His father and uncle swam in the 1976 Games, and they’ve heard the “it must be the suit” explanation before.

“Clearly we know now it wasn’t the suit that was causing all these world records to be broken (in 1976). It was copious amounts of steroids,” Hall said at the U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials in July. “Can the suit technology distract from another issue? I think it’s pretty convenient for those indulging in another issue.”

That other issue is doping, and Hall has been banging this drum for so long you can almost feel the swimming community reaching for its collective earplugs when he opens his mouth. But in an Olympic sport that has been largely scandal-free in the United States, Hall appears to be asking time-appropriate questions.

With more money lining the pockets of the sport’s stars, and a decade which has fueled a dramatic rise in Olympic swimming popularity in the U.S., there may not be a better time to talk about doping. Where it concerns elite Summer Games status, swimming has arrived. Whether fame and fortune sway the athletes striving to maintain that throne is anyone’s guess.

“I have mixed feelings about (the prosperity),” Hall said. “Back when I was making $1,200 a month as a ‘professional’ swimmer – and that was it – I always argued that more money should come into the sport and always was an advocate of professionalizing the sport. Now that I see this happening – in foreign countries and even here in the United States – an athlete has the opportunity to make millions and millions of dollars, (and) the incentive to cut corners I think is much greater. Money has presented a new problem.

“Doping in the sport could potentially make us yearn for those good old days where $1,200 a month was the plight of the swimmer – and not the decision to have to take performance-enhancing drugs to compete with some of the world’s best.”

NOT SO SQUEAKY CLEAN

Bob Bowman was being pressed for a difficult answer.

So do you disagree with Gary Hall Jr. when he says it is “foolish” to think that doping doesn’t exist in swimming?

Bowman, who has coached Michael Phelps to his meteoric rise, clearly didn’t want any part of the issue.

“I really respect Gary and everything he’s done,” Bowman said, taking a break from the U.S. Olympic swim team’s practices at Stanford University in July. “He has a right to voice his opinion. I’m glad he speaks out if he feels he needs to.”

And with that, Bowman flashed a sly smile, pleased with his generic, vacuum-packed answer.

Bowman’s dance around the doping issue isn’t unusual. Unless it is ranting about the East German programs of the 1970s and 1980s, or sniping about the sudden success of some Chinese swimmers in the 1990s, banned substances are rarely a topic at the forefront of U.S. swimming. Instead, the sport has spent much of this decade celebrating its coming of age in both training and technology, not to mention hailing the arrival of Phelps – an almost messianic figure who will likely become in Bejing the most decorated athlete in the history of all Olympians.

USA Swimming executive director Chuck Wielgus is still prone to saying, “We’re a sport that has to overachieve to get recognition.” But on the other hand, USA Swimming head coach Mark Schubert has an easier time than ever admitting “we’re moving into a lot of new and prosperous territory.”

So how does an issue like doping resonate in the discussion of all of the success? To most, it’s a drag on the party atmosphere – unless you are still listening to Hall, who has repeatedly raised his concerns, both on his website and in a gaggle of sessions with the media. But his vigor has been rarely matched.

Most take Bowman’s approach, giving a respectful nod to Hall and his opinions and leaving it at that.

“Some people don’t like that he’s outspoken, even if he has the best interests of the sport in mind,” said Peter Vanderkaay, who will swim in four events for the U.S. in Beijing. “It all depends on who is doing the listening.

“I think a lot of people tune him out. Me personally? I’m glad a guy like Gary is out there. I want a clean sport. If he wasn’t talking about doping, I don’t know how much we’d hear about it.”

Given the once squeaky-clean record of the U.S. swim program, the answer likely would have been rarely. Of course, that was before Jessica Hardy tested positive for the banned stimulant Clenbuterol while swimming at last month’s Olympic trials.

Hardy took three drug tests while at the trials, and in one of them, her A and B samples both came back positive for the stimulant. The results stunned a historically clean program and prompted Hardy to withdraw from the games on Friday “in the best interests of the team.”

The revelation involving Hardy killed assertions that doping wasn’t an issue with the U.S. team – like those of two-time gold medalist Mel Stewart, who declared at the trials, “I’ve been on deck all year and I think the Americans are clean.” And it undoubtedly disappointed Schubert, who 12 days before Hardy’s test gushed that the U.S. “had one Olympian that tested positive in the ’80s” and did not have “any positive tests since then.”

Not that Hardy is alone. The run-up to Beijing has been pocked with doping suspensions in swimming.

In November, Brazilian swimmer Rebeca Gusmao tested positive for testosterone and was given a two-year ban from the sport. In May, top Chinese backstroker Ouyang Kunpeng tested positive for the same drug as Hardy. The result was a lifetime ban handed down from the Chinese program for Kunpeng and his coach. And finally, three days before Hardy’s positive in late July, the Israeli Olympic program removed swimmer Max Jaben after he tested positive for the anabolic steroid Boldenone.

While none of these swimmers were considered superstars in the sport, their doping issues did little to douse Hall’s contention that drugs likely are a more prominent issue in swimming than most will admit. And even before Hardy tested positive, the U.S. hadn’t escaped at least some suspicion this decade.

In the fall of 2003, six-time Olympic gold medalist Amy Van Dyken was identified as a client of Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (BALCO), which triggered the most massive doping investigation in sports history – the same BALCO lab that supplied shamed track star Marion Jones with steroids and other drugs.

Van Dyken testified before a grand jury about BALCO but never was targeted in the government’s investigation. She since has denied any wrongdoing and never has been implicated in a doping scandal. But that didn’t stop Hall from calling out Van Dyken during the Olympic trials in July.

“She’s inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame and the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame, and Marion Jones goes to jail,” Hall said. “The only difference was that Marion Jones admitted it. But they were both on the same list.”

Beyond Van Dyken, swimmer Dara Torres was dogged by doping rumors in her last Olympic foray in 2000. Those rumors were part of the reason she signed up for an aggressive USADA pilot program formerly called “Project Believe.” The 41-year-old Torres said she hopes to have an “open book” policy when it comes to her drug testing at the Beijing Games, and she expects to be aggressively picked over by WADA drug scientists this month.

“I need to prove that a 40-year-old is doing this clean and doing it the right way, and now if anyone questions me, there is nothing else I can do,” Torres said. “I have given myself out there. I have done blood tests, urine tests, anything that they want to test I have agreed to do.

“Unfortunately, there have been athletes who have sat there in the past and looked everyone in the eyes and said, ‘I am not taking drugs.’ Now they are in jail or indicted or whatever, and you are now guilty until proven innocent. That’s why I stepped up and asked to be tested. I could sit here and say I am not doping, but I have to prove it now and that’s why I have done this.”

MORE MONEY, MORE PROBLEMS

In the end, the cycle typically comes down to money.

In simplistic terms, the more an Olympic sport rises in acclaim, the more money flows into its coffers, and the richer the endorsements become for its athletes. The more highly compensated the athletes become, the more incentive there is to gain a competitive edge. And for the unscrupulous athlete, the need for that edge can create a financial opportunity for the doping expert.

As always, lagging behind are the anti-doping agencies pushing for budget increases in order to keep up with nefarious drug scientists.

“What other sports have shown is that the more money you put into a sport, the more somebody might have to lose, and the more someone might start swimming for money,” U.S. backstroker Aaron Peirsol said.

Added Torres’ coach, Michael Lohberg, “I don’t think we will ever have a clean sport. The testers can only find what they are looking for, and there will always be people in this world for whatever reason – money, fame – will always find ways to cheat and be ahead of everyone else. I’ve coached for over 30 years, and we live with this all the time.”

It has become undeniable that the financial rewards in the sport have matured a great deal over the last four years. In fact, for its individual athletes, swimming hasn’t seen a more lucrative four-year period than the one between the 2004 Games in Athens and those coming up in Beijing.

While Bowman looks at Phelps and says his prodigy has “revolutionized our sport in terms of attention,” that’s not the only thing Phelps has altered. He also has elevated swimming onto a new business landscape. The unquestioned supernova among a smaller constellation of stars, Phelps reportedly earns more than $5 million per year, largely due to deals with Speedo, Omega, PowerBar, AT&T and a lucrative $1 million-per-year contract with Hong Kong-based electronics firm Matsunichi.

But he isn’t alone. An agent in the swimming community expects at least three other Americans – Ryan Lochte, Torres and Katie Hoff – to earn much more than $1 million this year. Hoff and Lochte already are in the midst of 10-year, seven-figure deals with Speedo and, like Phelps, have multiple endorsements. Torres has her own deals with Toyota and Speedo and was drawing $25,000 per speaking engagement before her miraculous run to Beijing.

The money isn’t strictly reserved for consistent superstars, either. Cullen Jones, who qualified for Beijing in the 4x100-meter freestyle relay but missed the cut in his signature 50-meter free sprint, reportedly signed a seven-year, $2 million contract with Nike in 2006 – a deal that highlighted the cash also available to potential stars.

“That’s the financial windfall of top-level swimming,” the agent said of the lucrative endorsement deals. “It has grown by leaps and bounds. With the momentum of Phelps, it should continue to grow like that – as long as the sport can maintain its shine. The worst thing imaginable would be to have something like Marion Jones happen in swimming.”

And maybe that’s the point a veteran swimmer like Hall has been trying to make with all of his doping talk. After years of getting by month to month and drawing lukewarm attention outside of Olympic years, swimmers finally have found a sustained flourish in their sport.

But for all the advances in pool technology and swimsuits and training, it is the ability to sustain an honest reputation that matters most in Olympic sports. Almost any swimmer will admit that. Undoubtedly, the 42 world records broken since February (nearly twice the average than a typical Olympic year) is a sexy statistic. But it has to be believable as well.

“I don’t cringe when Gary talks about doping in the sport,” said Schubert, the USA Swimming head coach. “I respect what Gary is saying. We would be naive to say there is no doping in the sport. … I don’t look at what has happened since the BALCO era as an overhang, either. I look at it as a spotlight. I look at it as a healthy thing.

“The discussion about it, the revelations that have come out, the fact that there is more testing in other sports outside of Olympic sports – it’s not just an Olympics issue, it’s a sports issue.”

With that in mind, Schubert and his team are poised to take the stage at Beijing’s National Aquatics Center as the marquee attraction for the United States. But after decades of stretching to grasp ultimate prosperity, it will be piety that secures swimming’s Olympic throne.