Lasse Virén: blood doping or not?

Did Finnish police officer Lasse Virén use blood doping during the 1972 and 1976 Olympic Games or not? He himself attributed his success to drinking reindeer milk daily. Many doubt this and view him as one of the first athletes to have resorted to blood doping.

Lasse Virén

Lasse Virén, born on July 22, 1949, in Finland and a police officer by profession, began participating in running races occasionally as a fifteen-year-old. At the 1972 and 1976 Summer Olympics, he won a gold medal in both the 5000 and 10.000 meters on both occasions. The Finn's success also sparked rumors. Some believed that reindeer blood must have been the key to his success, while others spoke of blood doping. However, there has never been any proof. He himself has always denied it. In any case, it was no problem for the Finnish Post Office to include Lasse Virén on a sheet of Finnish sports heroes in 1995. We also see Lasse Virén in action on a nice maximum card.

Flying Finns

Fellow blogger Cees Janssen already wrote an article about this in 2007. Flying Finns where Lasse Virén can be seen on a postcard made of thin plywood. The nice thing is that I got this from Cees. Cees, thanks again, and as you can see: I'm doing something with it!

Blood doping

In blood doping, one's own blood is administered just before a competition. This blood is usually drawn several weeks prior to administration. During this period, the body has produced new blood. Subsequently administering the previously drawn blood increases the oxygen transport capacity of the blood, enabling better performance. Essentially, this has the same effect as EPO.

EPO

One of the sports where EPO is used is cycling. The 1998 Tour de France therefore remains in memory forever. On the one hand because this Tour started in Ireland for the first time in history, but especially because of the major doping scandal. The entire Festina team was withdrawn from the race by the Tour organizers because a large quantity of doping was found in the car of masseur Willy Voet. Furthermore, Cees Priem, team manager of the Dutch TVM team, was among those taken into custody by the French authorities, after which the TVM riders abandoned the race.

Anti-doping

Sport should be about fair play and equal opportunities for everyone. Therefore, someone who uses doping is not being honest. Moreover, they are not right in the head, because they are endangering their own health. I was pleased with the Chinese issue of a postcard regarding the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, with the text: Anti-Doping.