Larry Olubamiwo Interview: 'Athletes dope for money. My goal was to make a living'

Good on him for telling it like it is.

 

Was going to post about this. Interesting read. Think he’s speaking more truth than falsehood tbh.

 

A good read thanks for linking. Don’t want to come across as a know it all but I’ve been saying for ages that this is the case. Best way to view sport and boxing especially is to just assume everyone is on drugs and then you don’t feel the disappointment when someone tests positive on a test.

His point about legalising testosterone is interesting. I think it is reasonable because people and natural athletes have different levels of testosterone naturally, so allowing them to take it exogenously would actually make it a level playing field. Growth hormone, no. Quality pharmaceutical grade GH is ridiculously expensive and would not lead to a level playing field because only the top boxers would have access to it.

Also the bit about UKAD losing his drugs is suspect as hell. UKAD is a farcical organisation and I don’t think they genuinely want to catch the top athletes. I wouldn’t be surprised if they supplied Larry’s drugs to athletes.

 

They probably sent Larry's pills to Dillian Whyte. "Please accept this complimentary gift" in light of the whole dianabol misunderstanding.

 

It's a given that doping in boxing (and most other sports) is far more widespread than the number of positive tests suggest. The lack of frequency and effectiveness of testing, combined with the haphazard penalties mean that the risks of doping are low. Conversely, the potential rewards are high as boxing purses increase exponentially at the top of the pyramid.

Like a lot of sports, boxing seems to rely on omerta culture to keep it under wraps. Doping in boxing doesn't seem to be particularly sophisticated or well-organised like has happened in other sports. The sport does nothing to encourage whistle-blowers or inspire confidence that any claims would be properly investigated.

Similar to Dwain Chambers, there's a curious mix of refreshing honesty and self-justification. I don't like how Larry uses pseudo-science to brush off the ethical concerns, but I guess it's difficult to reconcile otherwise.

The final paragraph is interesting. I reached that point a while ago with sports, where if you accept that doping is widespread, there are fewer concerns about individuals doping. For example, in 1988 Ben Johnson was the big bad, a comic book villain doped up to the eyeballs cheating his way to victory over hard working athletes. With the benefit of knowing that nearly everyone else in the final was doping, the performance regains some of its lustre.

 

I've known for a few years now that it's rife.

It is a combination of, if you have too much money your unlikely to be caught or banned (as per what Larry said).

Second part is a combination of athletes using team/personal doctors to prescribe treatments. It's very hard to see what doctors are or have prescribed due to patient & medical confidentiality.

Cycling for instance is terrible for it.

Then theres numerous documentaries and well written pieces on the internet, it's not then hard to draw conclusions that most of the elite athletes are doping one way or another, whether illegally, exploiting grey areas or using substances that are not yet banned.

 

In that race in Seoul there was already suspicion over Lewis and Christie for that matter. Lewis was the biggest star in track and field competing for the country with the biggest audience and most expensive tv rights. Johnson was Canadian and relatively unpopular. I think it likely Lewis was almost untouchable back then.

 

There’s legalising test, then there’s Larry O who had about 9 substances in his veins lol

 

Great article thanks for the link

 

Larry also offers insight on PEDs in boxing in this.

PED use is widespread at the highest level. The reason for taking it is if everyone else is on it, and you aren’t. Then you are at an automatic disadvantage all other things being equal.

This content is protected

 

It still annoys me mightily that it was proven, and admitted by Lewis eventually, that he was just as doped up as Johnson just using less detectable drugs at that time. Johnson might have been less popular and a bit dumb but I have always hated Lewis with a passion for his hypocrisy and "holier than thou" attitude when he was supported by state sponsored (or at least athletic association endorsed) doping.

 

Definitely recommend The Dirtiest Race in History (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13168106-the-dirtiest-race-in-history) if you haven't read it. The majority of the athletes in the race have either failed a test or been heavily implicated in doping. Christie tested positive for stimulants in the final, but the disciplinary hearing by a narrow margin accepted his claim that it was taken inadvertently through ginseng tea.

Lewis tested positive for stimulants at the US trials, but the US Olympic committee overturned it.

Interestingly, Lewis was never universally popular in the US, and didn't quite connect with the public for a variety of reasons. He was more popular in Europe though, and he probably was untouchable and considered above suspicion.

The media had a big role in how doping issues were presented back then, as public awareness was low and there were limited ways for a layperson to research deeper. The UK media were behind Christie at that point, and the narrative was of a guy who almost got screwed over by Johnny Foreigner by drinking some dodgy Asian tea. People genuinely believed that dopers would look like the Incredible Hulk, have yellow eyes and have visible needle marks in their arms.

Regardless, Johnson's performance was incredible. It would be nearly 20 years before Powell and Gatlin (who both served drugs bans) were able to get below his record. Johnson has a point that his ability and hard work gets overlooked, when other athletes had access to the same drugs and weren't able to get close to him.

Likewise, Lewis was a phenomenal athlete and clutch performer. In 1996, he was coming off years of injuries and finished last in the 100m US trials and 3rd in the long jump. He probably had one good performance left in him, and managed to produce it in the Olympic Long Jump final and win a 4th gold.

When you accept that doping is widespread and look past the hypocrisy, you can again start to appreciate what these guys did.

 

I can remember Ron Pickering (I think, this is of course ages ago) who used to castigate the cheating foreigners but had Christie on a pedestal. Before every race there'd be allusions made about athlete x or y, but little said about what our plucky Brits may have been ingesting.

Arguably our commentary to this day remains depressingly jingoistic. I'd sooner have less flag waving and more objective analysis, but that won't drive ratings.