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Use of EPO threatens fairness in sports



Eric Strabel

Hup!" Impossible. "Hup!" How could anyone have caught up to me so quickly, he wondered. "Hup!" Impossible or not, Eric Strabel finally jumped out of the ski tracks, making way for a breathtakingly fast Norwegian skier.

Strabel immediately regained his focus and charged up the remainder of the hill. By the next marker, three more skiers passed the American star.

As the race continued, Strabel learned that his split times were nearly equal to those of his U.S. teammates. If this were a race in North America, Strabel would be in third place. But this was not North America; it was the World Junior Cross-Country Ski Championships in Slovakia. The United State's mediocrity was embarrassingly obvious.

After finishing the 10K race, Eric lay down on the snow near his warm-ups, exhausted. Neither Strabel nor any of his teammates placed in the top 50.

The scene remains unchanging year after year. The European community jokes about it. Why do Americans excel in most sports but find little international success in cross-country skiing?

"It's training," Strabel said simply. "From the time they are very young, Europeans train and race for very long periods of time."

Recent studies, however, indicate that U.S. skiers are as strong as their European counterparts. In theory, this equal strength should reveal itself in international racing wins.

Strabel said, "Americans have brute strength. European skiers don't look like much, but man do they sail! They are incredibly efficient."

Is that the whole story? Are Americans simply woefully under trained? Many international skiers, including Strabel, would say no. Behind European training feats lingers a stench of cheating. The suspect: EPO, or erythropoietin.

A synthetic form of red blood cells, EPO was originally created to raise iron levels on anemic patients. When injected into a healthy individual before an endurance race, the product can increase an athlete's overall performance by 10 percent -- the difference between first and 50th place in a World Cup ski race. U.S. skiers lag behind World Cup winners by 6-10 percent.

The human body naturally produces EPO in the form of red blood cells. Because red blood cells carry oxygen, extra EPO means increased oxygen to the lungs. The endurance athlete, therefore, receives a significant, automatic increase in his maximum oxygen intake when he injects extra EPO.

The results of EPO are not all good, however. According to Dr. Paul Carnohan of Arroyo Grande, Calif., EPO clogs the blood stream with too many extra blood cells, turning the liquid blood into a sludge-like substance.

"There is a significant danger of dehydration," Dr. Carnohan said. "The smallest increase in heat and the blood will clot, causing a heart attack or stroke."

The archives of The Washington Post reveal that in the late 1980s, preliminary EPO testing resulted in the deaths of more than a dozen Belgium and Dutch bicyclists. Running Times reported that some marathon runners refuse to race in temperatures above 85 F, implying the athletes fear blood clots induced by EPO use.

The 1998 Tour de France crack-down on drugs and EPO resulted in the withdrawal or disqualification of eight cycling teams. Mario Pantini, the defending champion in the Tour di Italia, withdrew for "medical reasons." The truth is that Pantini had an abnormally high red blood cell count.

With aspirations and hopes of wearing an Olympic gold medal of his own, Strabel welcomes EPO testing. Strabel went through one required blood test. Unfortunately, Strabel said, EPO users have little to fear; the most accurate test is a simple reading of a racer's percentage of hemoglobin.

"I have a 15-16 percent level of hemoglobin. The level for disqualification, or definitively proving that there was EPO use, is 18.5 percent," Strabel said. "This means that me, or someone with my hemoglobin count, could take EPO, benefit significantly from it, and never have the hemoglobin count rise above the 18.5 percentile." Knowing that cheaters can take EPO year round and forsake it just before competitions and be tested as clean bothers Strabel.

"Let's do whatever it takes," he said. "The governing athletic bodies need to crack down. This means taking random blood tests year round, surprising them and getting an accurate picture of what's really going on."

Strabel wants a challenge when racing against the world's finest. Strabel understands the mental rigors of training hundreds of hours per year. Most of all, he knows fairness.

Strabel dreams of a drug-free, EPO-free World Cup circuit, a race circuit where those who train and race the hardest win -- not those loaded with "synthetic sludge."