‘I wanted to crawl under a rock and die’
Famous NZ singlet blackened, reports Bevan Hurley.
The shame of blackening the reputation of the famous Kiwi track and field singlet still haunts former Olympic runner Liza Hunter-Galvan. Many New Zealand athletes have spoken publicly about the impact of drugs in sport as Russia awaits confirmation that its entire Olympic team will be booted out of the Rio Games. But few know that impact first-hand like Hunter-Galvan does. Hunter-Galvan is still saying sorry for the mistake she made seven years ago. Feeling under-appreciated by the New Zealand Olympic Committee, who labelled her 35th place at the 2008 Beijing Olympics ‘‘not good enough’’, and struggling to overcome injuries from a car accident that nearly killed her daughter, Galvan-Hunter says she had a moment of weakness. The double-Olympian crept into the bathroom of her home in San Antonio, Texas late one night and injected herself with the banned performance-enhancing drug, EPO. Now, she says banning Russia outright would be too harsh. ‘‘If this is all to do with ‘fairness’ and ‘clean sport’ then how can it be acceptable that innocent athletes are banned?’’ She insisted the international sporting community’s ‘‘war on drugs’’ is working. ‘‘Look at all the massive scandals that have blown up. I think that this stuff will keep coming.’’ When she was caught taking banned substances, that shame had her questioning – for a fleeting moment – her will to live. ‘‘I wanted to crawl under a rock and die,’’ she says. ‘‘I went into a depressed state, got skin rashes, hair loss, became withdrawn and ate way too much chocolate. ‘‘I hurt myself, it was never my intention to hurt or destroy anyone or to harm New Zealand in any way.’’ Hunter-Galvan says she wants to apologise ‘‘profusely to anyone who may have felt disappointed or let down’’. ‘‘Eventually I was able to scrap, scramble and crawl out from under that rock.’’ She is still listed as No. 916 on the New Zealand Olympics roll of honour, and says she wasn’t trying to hurt anyone else, but accepts it tainted the famous black singlet of Lovelock, Snell and Walker. She was quickly ostracised from the
New Zealand athletics community.
‘‘So many in New Zealand were quick to abandon me, call me names and sling abuse out into the universe. I became a target for keyboard warriors and cyber bullies.’’
However, Hunter-Galvan gained backing from athletics greats Sir Peter Snell and Lorraine Moller.
‘‘Their compassion had me in awe, they listened, accepted, understood and supported me. I felt like they were family.’’
Her excuses do not wash with Drugfree Sport New Zealand.
Testing and investigation programme director Jude Ellis said: ‘‘We can sympathise with athletes who unintentionally dope either through stupidity or ignorance. But really we have very little sympathy for those who dope intentionally, especially high-performance athletes who should know better.’’
The long list of drug-tainted athletes to compete at Olympic or Commonwealth Games contains only four New Zealanders: Galvan-Hunter, weightlifter Shane Judson, banned for steroid abuse in 1998, and pole vaulter Denis Petushinskiy, who had his 1998 Commonwealth Games silver medal stripped after failing a drugs test.
Petushinskiy was fast-tracked into the New Zealand system just before the Games, and promptly returned to Russia. Speaking from his home in Irkutsk, he says he was suspended and asked to provide more evidence.
‘‘I decided then to finish with the sport and start a new life.’’
He now works in the forestry industry and coaches aspiring pole vaulters.
Despite being part of the Russian athletic system, he acknowledges the need for change.
‘‘Of course this is a very bad situation in Russia. Sport requires systemic change in Russia, and probably not just a sport. I hope that this case will be a lesson for the Russian sports.’’
Since completing her two-year ban, Hunter-Galvan has returned to New Zealand regularly to compete in marathons, winning the Christchurch race for the sixth time in June, aged 46.
She still faces ‘‘self-righteous’’ criticism but is no longer bothered.
‘‘At this point in my life I can honestly say that I don’t care what anyone says or thinks about me.’’
Asked what she would say to young athletes, she has this warning: ‘‘Don’t succumb to the pressure to over-perform. Accept your failures, limitations and disappointments as part of being a human being.’’
She believes the drugs problem in professional team sports could be enormous.