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Ironman Winner Stripped of Title for Blood Doping
Submitted by Rickshaw :: Fri Dec 03, 2004 1:49 pm
Nina Kraft, the 2004 winner of the Ironman Triathlon World Championship, has been disqualified for using performance-enhancing drugs. According to insidetri.com, Kraft admitted to use of the syntehtic compound EPO after a routine test for the banned substance came back positive. "I screwed up," said Kraft, with a sense for the obvious.
This is the same compound that was at the center of the BALCO scandal this summer. Several US track stars were disqualified, and many others were implicated, including sprinter Marion Jones and baseball great Barry Bonds. With all the publicity surrounding that scandal, athletes should be expecting an extra level of scrutiny. I'm surprised some are still stupid enough to take the risk they won't get caught.
With Kraft's disqualification, second place Natascha Badmann will receive the title. That gives her the impressive record of five Ironman World Championship titles in the past seven years! Even more amazing is that early into this year's marathon leg, Badmann was stopped at the side of the road, hands on her knees, puking her brains out. That she recovered and went on to win should remind the rest of us to never lose hope, no matter how badly the race seems to be going.
