Editor: My name is Marty Hall and I started coaching the U.S. cross-country team in 1968 and was in that position until 1978, then came to Canada in 1982 to run the national team program until 1992 in the same position as Ivan (Babikov) who is running the team right now.
So, I have a pretty good idea of what he is talking about and what he doesn’t know.
In 1988, when Ivan was just a little toddler, I was Canada’s Olympic team coach and made comments after the first two events, one men’s and one ladies, that insinuated the Russians were doping. I can tell you all hell broke loose (check your history on that).
But, let’s go back to the ‘70s when I first started to have these thoughts. The results at the 1974 FIS world championships were out of proportion to what they should have been, just as in Calgary and then again in Sochi.
It always seemed the Communist countries (Soviet Union and the DDR, East Germany) came to the front in numbers that were not normal under the best of conditions for them. I had contacts with a couple of the ski supplier technicians, one of them being a Czech, who were constantly talking about doping going on in the Eastern Block – yes Ivan, the Cold War goes on.
Maybe not in the western sport minds, but definitely behind old Iron Curtain countries’ minds and actions for the past 50 years.
How soon everyone forgets the Dubin inquiry in Canada in 1988, when Ben Johnson was not tested at the Olympic trials and left Canada to get caught doping in Korea at the summer Olympics. Yes, the country was to find out that Charle Frances’ track team had multiple dopers on that team. I think it cost close to $4 million to pull off the inquiry.
Wake up sport world, if little old Canada was doing it, what about the Russians and all their buddies?
When WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) was formed by liberal thinkers of the IOC, they forgot to do one thing; when caught doping or associated with doping the penalty was two years – too lenient.
It should be a lifetime ban if caught – no compromises. They would be done in sport, as they should be, but still have the rest of their lives to live – hopefully in shame.
I’ve written quite a bit here and isn’t it interesting that not once have I mentioned the clean athletes, those people who did it by the rules, screwed out of their rightful medals and, in some cases, quite a bit of money. I would say there are hundreds of these champions that have to wonder what should have been.
I told people in the ‘80s in Canada there was doping in our sport, but I was not given the time of day. I’m just hoping they can get it right this time, as some of those people are still in the sport system in Canada; of course at very high levels.
Thank you for this chance to tell my side of the story.
Marty Hall,
Durham, New Hampshire
