Canadians athletes still love track despite cheaters
In the midst of a doping crisis that threatens her sport, Nicole Sifuentes finds herself reflecting on a conversation she had with Irish hurdler Derval O’Rourke prior to the 2012 London Olympics.
A three-time Olympian, O’Rourke told the young Winnipegger about the multitude of cheaters she’d faced over the years. On the verge of her first Olympics, Sifuentes wondered out loud how anyone could come to grips with that reality.
“She said that in any line of work you’re in, there always will be dishonest people,” recalls Sifuentes, who failed to defend her world indoor championship bronze medal Friday after losing a shoe in the 1,500-metre heats at the Oregon Convention Center. “It’s not like you leave track and field, and you’re in a new career where everyone plays fair.”
She’s right. In the business world, people will lie about their co-workers, raid the till and apply for jobs with false resumes. Duplicity is not limited to those who run in circles for a living.
But as it turns out, Sifuentes might have raced in the dirtiest event in Olympic history. Six of the women in the final have been caught or are under suspicion for cheating.
Gold medallist Asli Cakir Alptekin, of Turkey, was stripped of her gold medal last summer and is serving an eight-year ban. Her countrywoman, silver medallist Gamze Bulut, is under investigation after the IAAF found abnormalities in her blood samples from 2011, 2012 and 2013.
Hilary Stellingwerff, of Sarnia, Ont, made the London semifinal — failing to advance to the final of that race by one agonizing spot. Sifuentes was 10th in her heat.
“At the time, I was pretty confident the gold and silver medallist were cheating, but I didn’t have an understanding of the extent of it,” Sifuentes said.
In truth, there’s no way for anyone to run away from the drug story here in Portland. The entire Russian team is absent due to an International Association of Athletic Federation ban for what the World Anti-Doping Agency calls state-sponsored cheating. Ukrainian Nataliya Lupu, the former European indoor champion in the 800 metres, pulled out at the last second after testing positive for the banned heart medication Meldonium.
Sticking close to the script of tennis pro Maria Sharapova, Lupu told reporters she took the medication for 15 years due to irregularities with her cardiogram.
“We’re not going to return to trust overnight,” IAAF president Sebastian Coe told reporters in advance of the opening ceremonies here in track-mad Portland. “It is not a straight forward equation. You don’t stick $10 in the slot machine and suddenly trust emerges in the tray.”
In the meantime, Coe and his IAAF counterparts pray the action in Portland will return the focus to the (hopefully clean) athletes. On Thursday night, France’s Renaud Lavillenie — a natural showman — did his part by setting a new world indoor record of 6.02 metres in the pole vault.
Gabriela Stafford is only 20, and she raced in Friday’s 1,500-metre heats here at the world indoor championships. The University of Toronto product is keenly aware of what went down in her distance in London.
“It’s funny, because I’m not tainted by the sport yet — not jaded,” she said. “I’ll talk about certain performances, and the older athletes on the team say, ‘That’s not legit.’ I’m like, ‘Really?’ ” Yes, really. “I still have faith in the sport,” she said. “Seeing dopers get caught is really encouraging to me. People are always going to find ways to cheat. You just have to be faster than them.”