This list contains the most controversial world-renowned athletes who take steroids. Find out who was exposed and caught doping. In this article, we will tell you about the most famous athletes in whose career there have been doping scandals. Although the use of anabolic drugs in big sports is no secret to anyone, functionaries are constantly fighting against doping.
Ben Johnson
Perhaps, it was the disqualification of this gifted sprinter that had the greatest reaction in the sports world and for this reason we will start with him. Ben Johnson is a native of Jamaica, and he was born in 1961. At the age of fifteen, he and his family moved to Canada. While studying at the university, Ben met Charlie Francis, and this determined his future destiny. Francis convinced the future star to start competing for the Canadian national athletics team.
The first serious success came to him at the age of twenty, when Ben was able to twice ascend to the second step of the podium at the Commonwealth Games in Australia. It took Johnson two years for another success on the world stage, and in 1984 he took third place at the Olympic Games. Only Carl Lewis (he will become the hero of this article) and Sam Graddy were able to get ahead of him on the treadmill.
The very next year Johnson manages to become famous after defeating Carl Lewis. At the same time, the Canadian sprinter was able to "run out" for the first time in ten seconds. In 1987, Ben sets a new world record. The scandal with the athlete erupted after his victory at the 1988 Olympic Games, in which he became the winner.
For the use of stanozolol, he was deprived of the gold of the Olympics and the previous world championship, and also received a disqualification for several years. At the time, few people knew about stanazolol, and Johnson was the first to be disqualified for its use.
After the end of the period of ineligibility, the athlete made an attempt to return to the big sport, but it was unsuccessful. In addition, he was again convicted of using prohibited means and this time he was disqualified for life.
Carl Lewis
Carl Lewis is, without exaggeration, one of the most outstanding athletes. He managed to win nine Olympic Games and eight world championships. In addition, he is currently the only athlete who was able to win four Olympics in a row in one sport discipline - long jump.
We talked about his main rival Ben Johnson a little higher. These athletes competed not only on the treadmill, but also outside it. They constantly put forward various accusations against each other, including the use of prohibited substances.
And the athlete's problems with doping all began in the same 1988. However, sports officials told Lewis that illegal substances had entered his body along with the medication he was taking for colds. As a result, the athlete was forgiven and was able to become the winner of several more important tournaments. But then he was convicted three times of using phenylpropanylamine, pseudoephedrine and ephedrine.
Lewis himself is sure that these substances did not help him win the Olympics and world championships. However, we will never be able to find out exactly whether his statements correspond to reality.
Egor Titov
Let's move on to domestic athletes who were also caught using illegal drugs. Perhaps we should start with one of the best midfielders in the history of Russian football - Yegor Titov.
Titov spent his best sports years defending the colors of Spartak Moscow. Together with his club, he repeatedly became the champion of Russia and won the Cup of the country. In the national team, Yegor played 41 matches and scored seven goals.
Titov got into the structure of the Moscow club at the age of 16 and after three years he was firmly entrenched in the main team of the "red-whites". In 2008, there was a serious conflict between the player and the head coach of the club and Titov moved to Khimki near Moscow. True, he did not stay here for long, and after that a series of transitions followed, as a result Titov ended his career. As for the doping scandal, it happened in 2004, when traces of bromantane were found in the player's body. It happened just during the preparation of the Russian national team for the upcoming European Championship, and Titov was disqualified for a period of one year.
By and large, under normal circumstances, the scandal would not have had serious consequences, because Yegor was already a popular player by this time, and his career could not be in danger. But all this happened before the European championship, which is one of the largest tournaments in football. By the way, the majority of domestic specialists and football fans are sure that it was because of Yegor's absence that the national team failed this important tournament.
Denis Galimzyanov
The scandal around Denis Galimzyanov has become one of the most serious in the history of cycling. This athlete has achieved a large number of victories at the stages of the World Cup in road cycling.
Almost all of his successes are associated with the Russian team "Team Katusha". The first participation of an athlete in one of the main cycling races of the Vuelta happened in 2010. Denis's results were very good, because he was able to enter the top ten in five stages, which is very difficult to do. The most significant success of the athlete was his victory in the Paris-Brussels race, which is the oldest of all currently existing. Thanks to this, he became the captain of the Russian national team and got a chance to take part in the World Championship. However, a great disappointment awaited him here. There was a technical hitch during the race and Denis lost precious time, finishing only eleventh.
The scandal occurred in 2012, when traces of drugs containing erythropoietin were found in Denis's blood. Their main purpose is to increase endurance. As a result, the athlete was disqualified for 2 years.
Frank Luc
It's time to talk about winter sports, and more specifically, about biathlon. It should be admitted that the German biathlete recognized the fact that he used turinabol in preparation for the competition. However, let's start from the very beginning.
In the world biathlon, Luke is a famous person. He has a large number of victories at the World Cup stages and world championships. He also won the Olympic Games five times.
Note that Frank's career is full of not only ups, but also there were a lot of downs in it. After successful seasons, the athlete had failures. And the doping scandal erupted in 2004, when Luke had already completed his biathlon career.
He admitted without pressure from the press or sports officials that he used turinabol when he was part of the GDR national team.
Antonio Pettigrew
And again, back to athletics. American athlete Antonio Pettigrew was born in 1968. From an early age he was associated with sports and already at the age of 23 he was a very famous athlete. On account of his victories at world championships and the Olympics. Unfortunately, he was unable to avoid a major doping scandal.
In 2008, a court hearing was held in the case of his former mentor, and Antonio admitted that, on the instructions of his coach, he used exogenous growth hormone and erythropoietin. Sports functionaries could not ignore this statement and deprived the athlete of all his titles that he won after 1997.
This event put an end to his career and Antonia began to engage in coaching, leading a team at one of the US universities. But in 2010, he was found dead in his private car. During the police investigation, the most popular version was suicide. It is difficult to say how the investigation ended, since no information about it appeared in the press.
Eric Morales
We will conclude our short review with a story about the famous boxer Eric Moralis. We admit that the history of the scandal involving this athlete may not be the loudest in the world of boxing, but Morales is a very famous person.
The Mexican boxer started playing sports at an early age, and his father was his first trainer. When Eric began to participate in tournaments among amateurs, the experts quickly discerned a star in him. This is confirmed by his results. Morales has lost only six of his 114 fights during his career. In doing so, he won several significant titles.
The scandal involving Morales erupted in 2012 after his fight with Garcia. Traces of banned fat burners were found in the athlete's body and Morales was disqualified for two years. Although it must be admitted that this scandal occurred already at the end of Morales' career and he, having started using prohibited substances, did not risk much.
See about the use of doping in sports in this video:
