Quebec cyclist should have known better years after the sprinter's Olympic scandal

Henry Aubin

Which is worse ? Geneviève Jeanson's or Ben Johnson's use of performance-enhancing drugs ?

Radio-Canada's revelation last week that Montrealer Jeanson had used drugs to propel her to international glory as a cyclist saddens me more than Johnson's infinitely more publicized experiences. Yet some people far closer than I to the sports world don't even think the Jeanson case is a scandal.

Gazette columnist Jack Todd, who often condemns athletes' drug use, calls Jeanson a "hero" because she "found the courage to tell the truth." Never mind that her admission came only after years of indignant denials and under pressure by a dogged Rad-Can investigative journalist, Alain Gravel.

As well, Le Devoir quotes the head of the Fédération québécoise d'athlétisme, Jean-Paul Baert, as saying that even greater than the courage to confess was the courage to have carried the heavy burden of a lie for so long. By that logic, Barry Bonds might deserve a medal.

Jeanson's drug use is, for me, worse than Johnson's. The case of the Toronto sprinter occurred in the relatively early days of sophisticated drugs. His use of an anabolic steroid in winning an Olympic gold medal occurred in 1988, and the subsequent Dubin Inquiry into the drug phenomenon brought into the open the common usage and inherent problems of drugs.

Johnson, rightly or not, pleaded naiveté. Jeanson, whose career started years later, cannot make such a defence. The earlier case provided a neon-light object lesson in what not to do, and she simply ignored it.

Indeed, EPO - which allows the blood to carry more oxygen - fueled her racing career from the start. The 26-year-old athlete's admission that she used EPO since age 16 has surprised even those fans who had suspected she had used it only the last several years. In 2005, she received a two-year suspension from competition after failing an EPO test in Pennsylvania, but until now she has claimed she had taken no banned substance.

Jeanson's defenders will say that as a teenager she was under the influence of an overbearing and manipulative coach, André Aubut. We'll know more about this on Thursday when Rad-Can's Enquête program delves into Aubut's role.

It's not too early, however, to point out that Ben Johnson started being trained by Charles "The Chemist" Francis, the coach who would introduce him to drugs, at age 15 - the same age that Jeanson started working with Aubut. Johnson has had to shoulder the opprobrium for his actions. Why should Jeanson be different ?

Still, I feel sorry for Jeanson. I remember seeing her years ago ahead of me in the lineup at a west-end supermarket. Fresh-faced, sweaty and wearing cycling garb, she was plainly taking a break in a training ride from her native Lachine. Though her size was waif-like, the determination in her eyes was gigantic. She was making just one purchase - a bottle of juice. She looked like wholesomeness incarnate.

But I feel much sorrier for the victims of her cheating - any "clean" athletes who, if not for her, might have won races and prize money, who might have made the national team and who might have received endorsement contracts.

The ultimate victim of such fraud is, of course, the world of high-level sport itself. The influence of commercial pressures make it hard to have confidence in the integrity of competitions - not just in cycling but all pro sports.

I've tuned out. It sounds ridiculous now, but I used to follow pro sports so closely that the home city of my favourite baseball team actually factored into the decision of where to go to university. But now I'm hardly aware of where that team is in the pennant race. Aside from the CFL, where the players are really only semi-pro, I don't follow any professional sport.

La Presse columnist Pierre Foglia, an avid cycling fan, speculates that PR types have orchestrated Jeanson's confession once Rad-Can showed it was investigating her. The object would be to rehabilitate Jeanson's post-suspension career by presenting her as a heroic victim.

I'll be happy for her if she makes a "clean" comeback. But, please, spare us this spin about courage. The sports world is grotesque enough without casting the pursuit of glory as heroic.

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