HUGHES OPENS UP
Olympian admits to failed drug test.
Maybe, just maybe, the powers that be at Cycling Canada thought they were doing Clara Hughes a favour when they told her to keep quiet about a doping infraction at the 1994 world cycling championships.
Maybe the decision allowed Hughes the opportunity to move on with her life and become one of the most respected Canadian athletes of her generation as a six-time Olympic medallist in cycling and speedskating.
But maybe the positive test for the stimulant ephedrine hung over her head all these years. Maybe she lived in fear of it all coming out — of some intrepid soul mining the UCI database and finding the name of the only person on Earth to have won multiple medals at both the Summer and Winter Olympics.
If secrets make people sick, Hughes carried around a whopper for 21 years and an unfathomable amount of miles on bike and blade. She hauled that burden onto the Olympic podium twice in cycling (both bronze) and four times in speedskating (one gold, one silver and two bronze.)
On Sunday, the Vancouver Games flagbearer shocked the sports world by admitting she tested positive for the banned substance ephedrine in 1994.
The 42-year-old made the stunning revelation on CBC’s The National in advance of Tuesday’s release of her memoir Open Heart, Open Mind.
“I do know that I didn’t cheat,” she told the CBC. “I can look anyone in the eye, and I can look myself in the eye and know that is my truth.”
The 1994 positive test came after Hughes came in a disappointing fourth place in the time trial after finishing first in the event all year long.
A few months after the world championships, Pierre Hutsebaut, Canada’s national team director, called to break the news.
“I didn’t know what ephedrine was,” she said. ”I asked him what it was and he said, ‘It’s a stimulant and it’s found in cough medicine. Did you take any cough medicine or cold medication?’ And I hadn’t …
“You can’t take anything that’s going to help you get over a cold or a lung infection or pain medication. You can’t take that as an athlete.”
Ephedrine gives competitors in endurance sports an advantage as it causes the blood vessels to constrict and the bronchial passages to widen.
Hughes said she has no idea how the ephedrine got in her sample, although she knows some will no doubt scoff at that explanation.
She quietly served a threemonth suspension during the off-season and said she was advised to keep her mouth shut.
Behind her trademark high- wattage smile, Hughes stayed mum until Sunday.
“There’s a big risk,” she said, about going public. “This is not something I have to talk about. This could have been a secret to my grave, but I just felt that I couldn’t not.
“People are going to judge me over this. There are people that are going to say that everything I did, I cheated. And I can’t control that.”