On the eve of 40th anniversary year of the boycotted Moscow Olympics, legendary coach Bill Sweetenham believes Australia’s Michelle Ford should stand as a triple Olympic gold medallist from 1980.
Olympic gold: Michelle Ford, 800m freestyle in Moscow. Photo Courtesy: ABC (Supplied)
Ford won Australia’s only individual gold medal in the pool when she crushed the East Germans in one of the sport’s greatest performances in the 800m freestyle in a Games where the Australians were virtually smuggled out of the country under a cover of darkness. (The other Australian gold went to the Australian men’s 4x100m medley relay of Mark Tonelli, Mark Kerry, Peter Evans and Neil Brooks).
Reigning world record holder and world champion in both the 400 and 800 metres freestyle Tracey Wickham chose to join the boycott along with team captain Mark Morgan – a decision Wickham admits she regrets to this day.
Ford went on to win the Olympic gold – but also finished with a close up bronze medal behind two East Germans in the 200m butterfly and fourth in the 400m freestyle – also behind three East Germans.
Sweetenham is currently writing his memoirs and will reveal all in a chapter on Ford and believes the IOC should move to right the wrongs of four decades ago.
“Michelle deserves to be a triple Olympic gold medallist – there is now no doubt about that – we all know now that the East Germans were involving in Systematic State doping,” said Sweetenham.
“Every swimmer ahead of her in the 200m butterfly and 400m freestyle were from East Germany and Michelle had to race swimmers who we all suspected at the time were involved in doping and we now know that was the case.
“Michelle’s performance to beat those girls in the 800m was nothing short of remarkable and should receive even greater recognition – and she has lived with the fact that everyone of those girls who beat her were doped.”
Ford herself has revealed how she felt, to respected ABC journalist Tracey Holmes on The Ticket Podcast, saying: “When we went to Moscow, and the boycott issue was ripe, the country was split … we had to sneak out of the country, we had other things on our mind than the East German girls.
“However, I still ask myself today how I stood up there and won a medal against this doping machine that has now been proven, and I must say, at the time we didn’t know the extent to which that was happening.
“That probably acted in my favour, psychologically, in that I could stand up on the blocks next to them.
“But every day, I am just so satisfied that I won and showed people you can win against doping.”
The Ticket also asked Ford whether she thought her own performances had been called into question privately, given they beat those who were widely thought to be doped.
Ford said the idea of her doping was non-existent.
“I was 18 at the time and Australia was so backward in sport,” she said.
Sweetenham’s call follows further revelations on The Ticket that saw both Ford and 1984 Los Angeles Olympic heptathlon gold medallist Glynis Nunn snubbed from the Sydney Olympic opening ceremony Torch Relay that featured an Olympic medallist for every Olympics from 1948 to 2000 — with the glaring omission of the boycotted games of Moscow 1980 and Los Angeles 1984.
Flamed in glory. Cathy Freeman, Sydney 2000, Photo Courtesy: ABC (Supplied).
The women in the torch relay featured:
- Raelene Boyle — athletics 1968, 1972, 1976, three silver medals
- Betty Cuthbert — athletics 1956, 1960, 1964, four gold medals
- Dawn Fraser — swimming 1956, 1960, 1964, four gold and four silver medals
- Shirley (Strickland) De La Hunty — athletics 1948, 1952, 1956, three gold, one silver & three bronze medals
- Shane Gould — swimming 1972, three gold, one silver, one bronze medal
- Debbie Flintoff King — athletics 1984, 1988, one gold medal
- Catherine Freeman — athletics 1996, 2000, one gold, one silver medal
Dawn Frasr, Cathy Freeman and Debbie Flintoff-King. Photo Courtesy: ABC (Supplied)
The ABC website in promoting The Ticket, wrote: “I…when 2019 becomes 2020, and the 20th anniversary celebrations for the Sydney Olympics are rolled out, neither Nunn nor Ford will have much to cheer about.
“To this day they say, “it hurts” and “it was embarrassing”, not just to be missing from a celebration watched by billions, but because they weren’t even asked.
Both gold medallists told The Ticket they had never been given a valid reason for their exclusion, although Ford said she was once told she “was too close” given she was employed by the organising committee to work with the attaches of each visiting nation.
Ford told Holmes said she had no idea it was going to happen.
“I was at the Opening Ceremony in Sydney watching this parade of women’s gold medallists transpire and I was very shocked to see that I didn’t get a call-up,” Ford said.
“It hurts when you are sitting there in the stands watching it and wondering what happened.”
Those sitting nearby turned to ask why she was in the stands and not on the track.
“I felt embarrassed … it was very hard to talk.”
Ford said she did ask Olympic organisers about her omission.
“Well, yeah, because I was in the Olympic arena at that time. It was really tough because I was sort of involved, but not involved, and so I did have an opportunity to ask and they replied I was ‘too close’,” she said.
“I couldn’t understand that.”
When contacted by the ABC, AOC president John Coates said it was simply a logistical constraint determined by the ceremony production team.
“The idea to make it a celebration of women was Michael’s (Knight, the Olympic minister), then we jointly selected each of the athletes including Cathy [Freeman] to light the cauldron.”
“We were limited in how many we could select.”
The Moscow and LA Olympics were highly political, with both games affected by Cold-War-era boycotts.
It was also a time when doping was spoken about as a serious threat to world sport, with major concerns surrounding athletes from East Germany and rumblings over athletes from the US.
“We had two coaches coaching our whole team, whom we didn’t even know.
“When we went to Moscow, and the boycott issue was ripe, the country was split … we had to sneak out of the country, we had other things on our mind than the East German girls.
“However, I still ask myself today how I stood up there and won a medal against this doping machine that has now been proven, and I must say, at the time we didn’t know the extent to which that was happening.
“That probably acted in my favour, psychologically, in that I could stand up on the blocks next to them.
“But every day, I am just so satisfied that I won and showed people you can win against doping.”
Ford said athletes had been asking for lifetime bans since she was a competitor.
“After the Moscow Games, when the Olympic movement was on its knees, really on its knees — I mean its future was questionable — there was an Olympic Congress in 1981 in Baden Baden [in Germany] to which I was invited,” Ford said.
“Because of the boycott, we talked about doping and how we wanted a lifetime ban for athletes.
“But today, I look back and say, ‘You know, it’s not only the athletes, it’s the entourage, it’s the people around the athletes, it’s the administration, it’s the doctors, it’s the coaches, even the parents have to have some responsibility in this and it’s not only the athletes that should have this sanction against them’.”
READ THE FULL CONTENT OF The Ticket Podcast here:
Two women were missing from an iconic Sydney Olympics moment, and they still don’t know why
Love the article about Australian swimmers. I also think the 1976 Olympic swimmers deserve to get the rightful golds as there is proof of East Germany s cheating. In fact some of the East German swimmers have offered to give up their medals to find closure and put a spotlight on how the government Manipulate so many women athletes.
I recommend watching the documentary The Kast Gold.
Best
Donna de Varona Olympic swimming champion
Founding member of WADA
Quite so, Donna… There’s 1988, too. The evidence has long been in the public domain – and nothing has been done about it, petitions to FINA from Swimming World, SwimVortex, coaches and athletes have been ignored… no response at all. The IOC has a “Take The Podium” program running … to grant podium ceremonies to those denied by athletes who subsequently were proven to have fallen foul of the WADA Code/Doping rules… that process is worth little if it ignores the very faults of history that have left sport grappling yet with cheating and deception. A happy and healthy 2020 and decade ahead to you, Donna.