Dr Fuentes

[Danny Jarman]

Doctor Eufemiano Fuentes (born 1955) is a Spanish sports doctor, well known for being implicated in the Operación Puerto doping case.

Biography

Fuentes was once an athlete. He then became the team doctor of Team ONCE, Amaya and the Kelme. The former Kelme rider Jesús Manzano accused Fuentes of being involved with doping. Fuentes retired as the team doctor of the Kelme team in 2005. At that time he had been the doctor of the Kelme team for 16 months. He announced that he was retiring from involvement with professional cycling, citing health and family reasons as well as a desire to investigate retinoblastoma cancer in the Instituto del Cáncer de Canarias.[SUP][1][/SUP]

Fuentes was arrested by the Guardia Civil on May 22, 2006 together with four others: the manager of the Liberty Seguros team Manolo Saiz, José Luis Merino a haematologist at an analytical laboratory in Madrid, Alberto León, a professional mountain biker, and José Ignacio Labarta, who was at that time the assistant sports director of Comunidad Valenciana.[SUP][2][/SUP]

In Fuentes' clinic in Madrid, 186 blood bags were found belonging to professional athletes and marked with coded names, besides EPO, steroids, and growth hormone.[SUP][3][/SUP]

The scandal that grew from the arrests implicated well-known road racing cyclists and include former Tour de France favourites Jan Ullrich, Ivan Basso, Francisco Mancebo, Michele Scarponi, José Enrique Gutierrez Cataluña, Roberto Heras, Dario Pieri and large parts of the Comunitat Valenciana and former Liberty Seguros cycling squads. Alberto Contador was also a suspect, but was later cleared of any involvement by the Spanish courts and world cycling's governing body, the UCI. Fuentes continually denied having performed illegal operations and also said that he did not work exclusively with cyclists but had other athletes as clients such as footballers.[SUP][4][/SUP]

However in December 2010, he is quoted saying: "If I would talk, the Spanish football team would be stripped of the 2010 World Cup".[SUP][5][/SUP]

In a further doping scandal, in 2010, Fuentes was arrested by Spanish police as part of Operación Galgo (Operation Greyhound). In a series of simultaneous raids across five provinces on 9 December, Spanish police seized a large quantity of anabolic steroids, hormones and EPO, as well as laboratory equipment for blood transfusions. According to Público newspaper, Eufemiano Fuentes and his sister Yolanda were the leaders of the alleged plot. Also arrested were the athlete Marta Dominguez, who was released on bail after having been charged with the trafficking and distribution of doping substances, and Alberto Leon, in whose fridge anti-doping police found several bags of blood. Leon was found dead shortly after, the result of an apparent suicide.[SUP][6][/SUP]

In January 2013, the Operacion Puerto trial went underway, and Fuentes offered to reveal the names of all the athletes he helped doping. The judge, Julia Santamaria, told him that he was not under obligations to name any other athletes others than the cyclists implicated. Fuentes stated that he supplied athletes in other sports with drugs and said: "I could identify all the samples [of blood]. If you give me a list I could tell you who corresponds to each code on the [blood] packs."[SUP][7][/SUP]

Spain lacking anti-doping laws, Fuentes was charged with "endangering public health".[SUP][8][/SUP]

His main defense consisted in saying that the blood transfusions were conducted safely and were healthy for the athletes.[SUP][9][/SUP]

This point of view was highly contested, notably by former clients and cyclists Jesus Manzano and Jorg Jaksche, who claimed that the blood transfusions were performed in dangerous conditions and put their health at risk.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eufemiano_Fuentes

[Danny Jarman]

Spani[size=12]sh doctor Eufemiano Fuentes told he does not have reveal athletes he treated in doping inquiry
[/SIZE]
The judge in the Operation Puerto doping case said on Wednesday that she would not force the alleged Spanish blood doping mastermind Eufemiano Fuentes to name the footballers, cyclists, athletes and boxers he had worked with despite a demand from the Italian Olympic Committee, which is represented at the trial, that he do so.

The judge, Julia Santamaria, refused to insist that Fuentes unblock the codes attached to the 200 blood bags uncovered during raids on his premises in 2006, following the legal protocol that was established before the trial that it would be limited to cyclists only. She has also ruled that data from Fuentes's computers is inadmissible to protect the privacy of those he worked with.

The adherence to the ruling, which keeps the trial from enveloping elite levels of Spanish sport, has frustrated the World Anti-Doping Agency, as well as sporting rivals who were hoping for evidence of wrongdoing by other athletes, particularly in football.

At the time of 2006 drugs raids it was not illegal in Spain to take drugs, but was rather an issue for the sporting bodies. Fuentes had allegedly told a prison informant when he was arrested as part of a second raid that he had information that could strip Spain of its World Cup and Uefa championship.

Fuentes, 57, has given evidence he worked with scores of cyclists, but also with other sportsmen and women on an individual basis all of whom were given a secret code."It could be a cyclist in a cycling team, a footballer in a football team, an athlete, a boxer," he has said. But yesterday he went further, claiming: "I could identify all the samples. If you give me a list I could tell you who corresponds to each code on the packs."

But Judge Santamaria refused to press Fuentes directly, noting: "The request will not be made expressly."

The lawyer for the Italian doping authority CONI, Ignacio Martínez Arroyo, immediately asked the judge to request Fuentes to identify the list. The judge once again refused, but accepted the protestations from the lawyers in the room and briefly adjourned the trial for 10 minutes.

Arroyo said: "Fuentes himself proposes to give the names and the judge refuses to ask. This is incredible."

The only name that Fuentes revealed was that of the president of the Spanish association of cyclists, Jose Javier Gomez. Gómez has recently been appointed to a Spanish government Sports Council involved with the youth sports association.

Gómez said his involvement with Fuentes had nothing to do with doping. "It is well known that I was part of the Kelme team from 1996 to 2002," Gómez, a former rider, said. "Fuentes had a contract as the team doctor."

While he had been obliged to see Fuentes while he was in the team, Gómez denied having taken part in any activities banned by anti-doping rules. "Throughout my career I have always been publicly opposed to doping and have proposed anti-doping schemes to improve the fight against this damaging element in our sport."

Fuentes has denied doping athletes and claims he instead extracted and reinjected blood to athletes to treat anaemia or blood that was too thick.
He also denied knowledge of high levels of the banned blood oxygen booster EPO which were found in eight of 92 plasma bags uncovered during the 2006 drugs raid at his premises. "No product was ever added to the blood except legally established preservatives," Fuentes said.

"Such a small quantity [of EPO] can have no other explanation than that it was the remnants of a previous treatment."

Other EPO found in his home was treatment for his daughter, who had cancer.

Fuentes, his sister Yolande, as well as Manolo Saiz, a former ONCE and Liberty Seguros team sports director; and Vicente Belda and Ignacio Labarta, both associated with the former Kelme team have been charged with breaking public health laws and face up to two years jail if it is proven they exposed the cyclists to a health risk. They all deny the charges.

The trial was adjourned until Friday when the judge may rule if the blood bags can be handed over to Wada for DNA and further drug analysis. They all strongly deny the charges.

Meanwhile Frank Schleck, 32, will miss the 2013 Tour de France because a one-year backdated drugs ban expires two weeks after the Tour finishes. Schleck, who rides for Radio*Shack, tested positive for a diuretic Xipamid in the Tour de France last year.

He has denied knowingly taking a banned substance.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersp...quiry.html

[Danny Jarman]

Cycling's 'Doping Doctor' Eufemiano Fuentes says he worked with 'football, boxing, tennis and athletics'

The Spanish doctor accused of masterminding one of sport's most notorious doping scandals admitted in court on Tuesday that his client list included athletes from "all kinds" of sports.

Dr Eufemiano Fuentes, 57, told the Madrid court he worked on a private basis with athletes outside of cycling, the sport which was heavily implicated in the Operation Puerto investigation by Spanish police.

"I worked with cyclists but also footballers, boxers, tennis players and athletes," said Fuentes, whose case has taken seven years to reach court. But Fuentes told the court he was helping athletes deal with anaemia issues rather than performance-enhancing doping and at one stage said the EPO hormone-boosting supplement police found when they raided his premises in 2006 was part of his daughter's cancer treatment.

The first to be called to the stand, Fuentes detailed the procedures he administered to athletes but insisted they posed no risk to their health.

He and four others are accused of involvement in the widespread doping of professional cyclists but are charged with breaking public-health laws rather than incitement to doping, which was not a crime in Spain until late 2006.

The judge yesterday ruled that data found by police, and suspected to prove his links to sportsmen outside of cycling, is not admissible because of breaches of privacy.

Police raids on premises linked to Fuentes in May 2006 saw the seizure of some 200 bags of tampered blood labelled with a complex system of codes and a virtual pharmacy of performance-enhancing substances including EPO, human-growth hormone, steroids and testosterone.

The Worldwide Anti-Doping Agency is demanding access to the blood bags so it can carry out DNA testing in an effort to trace the athletes involved. The court has given it three days to make a formal request.

The case implicated 58 named cyclists and after being shelved by an investigating judge twice was reopened amid mounting pressure from anti-doping agencies. In what promises to be a blow for the defence, the judge granted a request by Wada to add cyclist Tyler Hamilton to the witness list.

The former team-mate of Lance Armstrong described Fuentes as a "one-man Wal-Mart" of doping in The Secret Race, the explosive autobiography in which he exposed illegal performance-enhancing practices while with the US Postal Service team and then with two European teams.

In court yesterday, Fuentes detailed his work with sportsmen describing how they came to him for "medical advice, physical and medical tests to ensure their health would not be at risk". Insisting that he worked in a private capacity with individual sportsmen and not teams, he and his business partner - Dr José Luis Merino Batres - extracted blood and stored it for transfusion at a later date to help maintain adequate blood viscosity levels.

"In some moments sportsmen could have very viscous blood, so we removed some and froze it to be used if needed at a later date," he said. "If the athlete later suffered a low haematocrit level or anaemia, we returned the blood for health reasons."

But Fuentes, who said the majority of his clients by 2006 were cyclists, insisted that he "never carried out such procedures during competition" and only during training or after a race to boost their health.

He admitted that on some occasions the treatments were carried out in hotel rooms near his offices "to preserve the privacy of clients".
The trial is focusing on the process of the extraction and transfusions as well as the storing of the blood in order to prove whether any health infractions took place.

The court heard details of the complicated coding process used by Fuentes and Merino - who was to be a co-defendant but was last week granted a temporary stay because he is suffering Alzheimer's disease.

More revelations are expected with the testimony from dozens of professional cyclists who will be called as witnesses during the two-month trial.

Jesus Manzano, a former cyclist and the whistleblower who first alerted authorities to Fuentes alleged role in the doping network, is one of the plaintiffs in the case and is due to take the stand next month.

In a pre-trial media interview he revealed he had seen several footballer clients of Fuentes visit the clinic including "a footballer who plays in the Spanish national team" and "two Brazilian players in the Spanish league" but declined to name them.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersp...etics.html

[Danny Jarman]

The Curious Case of Rafael Nadal


Regular followers of this blog will be familiar with much of the material in this post, which I am creating to use as a reference, documenting some the absurd drama of Rafael Nadal, as he battles dubious injuries and follows these up with amazing performances and a near Grand Slam. It is no secret that the opinion of this blog is that Nadal is benefiting from the use of performance enhancing drugs. This post will serve as a review of some the evidence, speculation and rumors over the past few years related to Nadal and doping. Please let me know of any omissions or errors. Sincerely, THASP

Many have suspected Nadal over the years for the simple reason that he came on the scene and quickly established himself as the biggest, strongest and fastest, but paradoxically, also a player with amazing stamina. His doctor describes him as "a very special athlete, with abnormal amounts of energy and explosiveness. He mixes the explosive pace of a 200-meter runner with the resistance of a marathon runner." Many find his doctor's assessment of this as natural, especially in an athlete who rarely lifts weights by his own admission, to be a little too fantastical. This includes some sportswriters, who began to take notice of Nadal's suspiciously muscular frame and propensity to phantom injuries allowing him to miss lesser tournaments (often a sign of an athlete who is doping and cycles to prepare primarily for bigger competitions) at least as early as '06, when Pete Bodo discussed the possibility in Jan '06, effectively accusing him of exaggerating an injury and suggesting the possibility that he and other players might be skipping doping tests (something that was confirmed by this blog a few years later).

Later in 2006, the Spanish doping scandal known as Operacion Puerto uncovered widespread blood doping, spearheaded by a Spanish doctor, Eufemio Fuentes. Initially, this was assumed only to involve cyclists. However, a French newspaper stated that athletes in other sports were also on the list of athletes receiving Fuentes' services, including some top Spanish soccer players and Rafael Nadal.

Nadal, of course, denied any involvement, and Spanish sports authorities denied any non-cyclists were involved (something proven to be a lie now that Operation Galgo [Greyhound] has opened up). To this day, the full list of atheletes' names connected to Operacion Puerto has been sealed by a Spanish judge, which is consistent with the Spanish attitude towards doping spanning back at least to the Barcelona Olympics in 1992 and continuing on to the present.

Rumors of Nadal using steroids heated up again with Nadal's impressive 2008, culminating in his epic victory over Federer at Wimbledon. This victory raised at least a few eyebrows, not the least of which was ESPN sportscaster skip Bayless, who suggested that steroids might have played a role.

Nadal went on to a victory at the Olympics that year, before succumbing to Murray at the U.S. Open and his game went downhill from there, eventually ending with a "knee injury" described as "tendonitis" and withdrawing (to boos) after losing the first set to Nikolay Davydenko at the Paribas Masters, followed by a withdrawal from Davis Cup at year's end.

In 2009, the ITF finally signed on with WADA and it was expected that players would now be subject to stricter testing, including more unannounced out-of-competition tests (by most accounts, testing had been quite lax up to that point, as this blog has documented). No one complained more loudly about this than Rafael Nadal. Nonetheless, Nadal performed well on the court and also seemed to have no particular difficulty with his knees on his way to an Australian Open victory over Federer that had many wondering again about doping, especially because the victory came on the heels of an exhausting five set, five hour semifinal match with Fernando Verdasco, that most observers felt would be too difficult to overcome so soon before the final.

His performance began to dip in the next few tournaments, with Nadal showing more of the usual sportsmanship, calling a trainer during a loss to Murray and again citing knee problems, once again without limping. This time the problem was diagnosed as a "strained ligament". In other words, a completely separate knee problem from the "tendonitis" he cited at the end of 2008, as Nadal was quick to point out to the press. Nadal then skipped the Barclay tournament to "recover".

In any case, whatever treatment he received was amazingly effective, as a few weeks later he was back on the court beating Janko Tipsarivic in a Davis Cup match, then winning Indian Wells. A loss in Miami to Juan Del Potro, was followed by Nadal waltzing through the clay court season leading up to the French Open by winning Monte Carlo, Barcelona and Rome, before being upset by Federer in Madrid and then being shocked by Soderling at the French Open. Shortly before the French Open, presumably while home in Mallorca on May 18th, Nadal was given an out of competition drug test according to ITF records (these records do not tell whether a player tested positive or negative).

While he doesn't refer to his own test, Nadal openly complains about drug testing in tennis while he is at the French Open ten days later (enough time for him to be made aware of the result). He boldly suggests that he might miss his next drug test and one might wonder whether something about that drug test distracted him during the French Open. As usual, though, Nadal cites knee problems (harking back to tendonitis) and thus effectively chalks up his French Open loss to bad knees, watering down any glory for Soderling. He then withdraws from the Queen's Club event. It is also worth noting that in the same rant in which he complains about drug testing, he appears to invent an absurd defense for Richard Gasquet's positive cocaine test, offering hypothetically that someone could get a positive test like that just from kissing a girl at a party who had used cocaine. Amazingly, Gasquet runs with it and goes on to successfully use this absurd defense to end his suspension.

Around this time, rumors were swirling that Nadal had failed a drug test and was not going to be able to participate in Wimbledon (these rumors continue to this day). During the same time period, as promised, Nadal missed his drug test scheduled for June 14th. Thus, despite all his complaining, Nadal only received one out of competition drug test in all of 2009 according to ITF statistics (It should be noted that the ITF accidentally released their drug testing document before erasing the incidents of players missing tests and this blog was able to make a copy before it was removed from their website that is available here . It should also be noted that several other players missed tests, including the Williams sisters right before their impressive performance at Wimbledon and Roger Federer).

Apparently one out-of-competition drug test during an entire year, in exchange for tens of millions of dollars in prize and endorsement money was more than Nadal could endure.

Shortly after skipping the test, we were treated to the spectacle of Nadal entering an exhibition tournament (where there would be no drug testing and presumably no restrictions for a suspended player if he was indeed silently suspended). After the usual histrionic grunts and grimaces in a loss to Stanislaus Wawrinka, Nadal informed the world that his "tendonitis" would force him out of defending his Wimbledon title in 2009.

By this point, non-astute sportscasters, who had naively provided accolades throughout these so-called injuries, either holding him up for his courage in completing the match or for his graciousness in defeat after withdrawing, were now saying that Nadal's "knee problems" were taking a toll on him and his career might be coming to a close. A month later, Nadal was "bravely" back on the court, competing reasonably well, although not spectacularly, but was thumped twice by Juan Del Potro, first at the Rogers Cup, then in the semifinals of the U.S. Open. This time, he courageously admitted that he was battling an "abdominal injury."

He finished off the year with a drubbing in the World Tour Finals, in which he didn't win a match, adding more naïve speculation that his career was coming to a close due to "injuries".

It is difficult to fully evaluate Nadal's 2009 without knowing whether the rumor of a positive drug test is true. It also is not clear whether he would have been able to receive PRP treatments with a Therapeutic Use Exemption, which might explain why he would be so clear in stating that his "injury" against Murray was a strained ligament, rather than tendonitis, which would allow a separate round of treatments. In any case, this brings us to the farcical year of 2010…

Nadal played well in the warm-ups leading up to the 2010 Australian Open, but begins to fade there. He gets down 2 sets and is losing the third in the quarterfinals with Andy Murray, before showing more courage and sportsmanship and withdrawing from the match. The diagnosis again being knee problems, with his doctors prescribing a whopping 2 weeks rest. Nadal also adds some drama and sportsmanship in March in a loss to Andy Roddick at the Sony Ericsson in Miami, at one point slapping at his knees and reportedly saying in Spanish, "I can't! The knee... The knee!", only later to fist pump on one leg in no apparent discomfort. At some point shortly after this, Nadal begins receiving "PRP" treatments (Platelet Rich Plasma therapy) for his knee "tendonitis." PRP treatment involves removing blood and "enriching" it so that it is in a highly-concentrated platelet form. Platelets are a part of the blood that contains numerous growth factors and are involved in healing, so the theory behind it is more rapid healing. Whether such a procedure has any real effect is the subject of much debate.

More importantly, though, it is controversial for use with athletes due to the potential doping effects of the growth factors, which include IGF-1, a high potency muscle building growth factor. In 2010, PRP was allowed by declaration (no TUE was needed) for joints, so the treatments could be delivered only for joints and tendons, but not intramuscularly without a TUE. One of the leading proponents of PRP therapy, who pushed strongly for removing any ban of its use with professional athletes, was a Dr. Mikel Sanchez, who just happens to be the doctor who performed the procedure on Nadal.

Dr. Sanchez has written numerous articles, studies and case reports related to the benefits of PRP. These studies have received some criticism for the "lack of details concerning methodology, outcomes, and follow-up."

In fact, other independent researchers find PRP little more effective than an injection of saltwater (It might also be worth noting that Dr. Sanchez has a strong financial interest in this "technology," as he admits here: "As you probable are aware, we have been working with plasma rich in growth factors (PRGF®), the pioneer in autologous technologies, for more than a decade. Our first publication dates back to 2003 and PRGF® is one of the products, if not the product, that has been characterized more extensively in the literature, both clinically and biologically." It might also be noted that Dr. Sanchez was personally involved in getting this special treatment approved for Rafael Nadal, as he discusses in the same blog posting: "PRPs cannot be used in muscle injuries, but its use in tendinopathies is allowed after completing a TUE (Therapeutic Use Exemption) document. In fact, some representatives of the spanish anti-doping agency and the spanish olympic committee visited Dr. Eduardo Anitua´s research center in Vitoria, and granted us permission to use this treatment in this particular athlete [Nada]").

Over the past year, it has come out that this procedure is often used to mask doping. For example, recent revelations from the ongoing Spanish doping investigation known as Operation Galgo (Greyhound), show that the doctors involved were instructing athletes to fake joint injuries so that steroids could be injected intra-articularly.

Hopefully, more details will come out as Operation Galgo (Greyhound) continues. In the United States, PRP and doping were also linked when a Canadian doctor, Tony Galea, who performed the procedure on Tiger Woods, Dara Torres and many unnamed NBA players, was caught smuggling growth hormone into the country, presumably to "augment" the treatment in at least some of the athletes in question. Dr. Galea is also still under investigation.

From what can be gathered in press reports, it appears Nadal received PRP treatment at least 3 times in 2010. One of the treatments was during the clay court season, right after Monte Carlo. Nadal claimed he only received a treatment at that time in his left knee, but "didn't have time" to get one in his right knee. This, of course, is puzzling, since one might wonder why it would take longer to treat two knees at the same time and why he would simply leave one knee untreated. One possible explanation is that Nadal needed an excuse to get multiple PRP treatments, assuming the treatments were directly or indirectly providing some performance enhancement. That way, he can get double the treatments by alternating each knee (Dr. Sanchez insists that, "In our opinion a chronic tendinopathy must be treated with two or three consecutive infiltrations.")
.

"I'm a little bit scared about the knee,' Nadal said, and this time, he meant the right one."

To hammer his point home, Nadal presented another theatrical display of good sportsmanship and drama in a match against Philipp Petzschner (no stranger to dodging drug tests himself ). Nadal won, 6-4, 4-6, 6-7 (5), 6-2, 6-3, but, much to the dismay of Petzschner (who later said that he thought Nadal looked like he could have run for 3 more sets), Nadal called for the trainer on numerous occasions and received quite a bit of illegal coaching from his coach/uncle, making sure that everyone knew that he had another knee problem.

Apparently, his fears were unfounded, as he went on to win Wimbledon, and was now fully set up to receive his next "treatment" before The U.S. Open, skipping Davis Cup to make sure that he was in "good health".

Nadal then received another PRP treatment prior to the hard courts and went on to win the U.S. Open. Nadal's performance was quite impressive, particularly his serve, which suddenly had gained 10 mph from what it was just weeks before. This was quite surprising to the broadcasters, who brought a sheepish Nadal on the air to explain this amazing transformation in his serve. Nadal chalked it up to a simple change in his grip. This obviously seemed dubious to John McEnroe, who later surmised that Nadal must have been secretly working on this new serve "for years" before unveiling it at the U.S. Open. One might wonder whether McEnroe considered another possible explanation in line with a similar improvement seen in the home run hitting of Barry Bonds, but, if so, he never went there.

As one might predict, his performance drifted for most of the rest of the year, treating us to a bonus "shoulder tendonitis" claim in dodging the Paris Masters in November (just before ironically winning the Stefan Edberg Sportsmanship award), before another speedy healing in time for the World Tour Finals where he lost in the finals to Federer. To cap off 2010, Nadal wins the Laureus "Sportsman of the Year".

2011 is shaping up to be even more farcical for Nadal. His performance in the lead up to the Australian Open was hampered by what he described as a "flu", although without any of the usual symptoms (cough, congestion, fever, sore throat muscle aches, etc.) other than fatigue during matches which might make one wonder whether he was actually lacking some stamina enhancing supplements.
Although he won his early matches in the Australian Open, his performance seemed a bit flat, which he attributed to the lingering "flu." In his quarterfinal match with countryman David Ferrer, we got to see another example of his courageous, Stefan-Edberg-like sportsmanship as he struggled with an apparent hamstring injury, grimacing in pain as he extended his leg and taking trips to the locker room to wrap his left hamstring, while losing in straight sets.

Inexplicably, we are later informed that an exceptionally precise MRI performed by his personal physician indicated an adductor longus "rupture" of his right leg. This, of course, is perplexing, since it was his left hamstring that was apparently injured and this is a right groin muscle. We are also told that they expected this "rupture," supposedly visible on an MRI, will be fully healed in an astonishing 10 days. What makes this more interesting is the fact that intramuscular injections for muscle tears have just this year no longer required a TUE. Anyone that doubted Nadal's incredible capacity for healing from injuries, take note that Nadal was cured in only 8 days from his "rupture," although it again became a hamstring injury, and he resumed training.

While some might question the diagnoses and treatments of Nadal by his personal physician, Dr. Angel Cortorro, and Dr. Sanchez, who performed the PRP, it should be noted that aiding players in doping has now been made against the law in Spain, so they would be risking a lot if they are not on the up. Whatever the truth, it seems likely that another round of PRP, this time intramuscularly, will be given to Nadal as the year unfolds, with more "injuries" between amazing performances.
To be continued…

Ah yes, let's fast forward to Wimbledon, 2011, in which Nadal feigns back to back injuries. The first fake injury occurred in his match with Gilles Muller:

After the match, he said: "I felt the leg was a little bit more tired than usual. I called the trainer for that. Today I'm still feeling it a little bit, but this is not limiting my game. I can play without problems."
He was keen to explain that, despite him touching his knee at times, the problem was a muscular one rather than related to that potentially troublesome joint.

Despite Nadal's inexplicable improvement in his serve over the past year (inexplicable by natural means, that is), he has still not learned the art of faking an injury. It is interesting that he makes sure to tell us again that this fake injury was to his muscle rather than his knee, probably because he wants to get his performance enhancing PRP intramuscularly. If there was any doubt about that, Nadal clarified it for us quickly, claiming that he was going to take some time off in his doping-friendly nation of Spain, on the doping-friendly island of Mallorca, where he planned to take a month off.

That would be enough BS for most dishonest athletes for one tournament, but Nadal decided to double-down and fake yet another injury in his next match with Juan Del Potro. In this case, the hard grass surface led to an apparent heel injury. He can be seen faking a grimace here. In an unusual turn of events, several journalists seemed openly skeptical about this conveniently timed fake injury (which apparently prompted Del Potro to try his hand at faking an injury later in the match). Nadal took the unusual step of getting an MRI for his fake injury, apparently in response to these critics. Lo and behold, the MRI showed no injury (he might have had better luck if he had an MRI done back in Mallorca and read by his own doctor). This marks the first time in the history of sports that an athlete was unable to determine that he was not really injured and needed an MRI to prove to himself that he was not actually injured. If there was still any doubt that Nadal would be back getting himself another PRP treatment, he made sure to let us know:

Rafael Nadal pulled from the Spain at U.S. Davis Cup match in Austin, Tex., following Wimbledon on Monday, slamming event organizers and the Davis Cup scheduling: "I won't be there. The priority is to be healthy and I have to stop. I can't be everywhere. After finishing the first part of the season I need to rest. I need 15 to 20 days to be in good shape for the second half of the season. I should have a check-up on my knees, and see how everything is going with the treatment we did, which is what has allowed me to carry on. The idea is to do what I did in 2010 to arrive the same or even better prepared for the US Open.

Once again, this post will be continued after the U.S. Open and whatever shenanigans Nadal pulls between now and then.

http://tennishasasteroidproblem.blogspot...nadal.html

[Danny Jarman]

Le Monde: Fuentes treated Real Madrid and Barca

Documents obtained by Le Monde suggest that Dr Eufemiano Fuentes has had dealings with some major players in the football world

Top football clubs Real Madrid and FC Barcelona used the services of Dr Eufemiano Fuentes, according to a report in
French newspaper Le Monde. Fuentes is at the centre of Operacion Puerto, which up until now has widely been reported as another cycling doping scandal.

However, Dr Fuentes has always maintained that he treated other top sportspeople, such as footballers, tennis players, athletes, handball players and boxers.

"I worked with Spanish first and second division clubs," he said in an interview to the French newspaper. "I worked with several clubs at the same time, sometimes directly with the footballers themselves, sometimes by sharing my knowledge with the teams doctors.

I was the doctor of the Las Palmas team in 2002 during a year when it player in first division... I had an offer from an Italian club but I turned it down.

Death threats

Fuentes was asked directly which football clubs he had worked with. "I can't tell, I have received death threats," he said. "I was told that if I told certain things, my family and myself could have serious problems. I've been threatened three times and it's not going to happen a fourth time.

"There are sports against which you cannot go against, because they have access to very powerful legal means to defend themselves. And it could also cost the current chief of the sport his post."

Outside Puerto

Le Monde interviewed Dr Fuentes at his home in Las Palmas in the Canary Islands. It based another story on two A4 sheets it obtained that were not seized in Operación Puerto. The paper underlined that the Guardia Civil did not search Dr Fuentes' Canary Islands residence - only his apartments in Madrid. And that there were some of his clients that the police did not discover.

The documents, in Dr Fuentes' handwriting, allegedly detail the preparation plans for the two clubs for the 2005-2006 seasons. The plan showed that the main objective of FC Barcelona was the Champions League in May, which it won, as well as having the players peak for the World Cup.

The training programs include circles and 'IG' symbols that correspond to preparation or rest periods. These are the same symbols used by Dr Fuentes in his plans for the Liberty Seguros riders, according to Le Monde. The Spanish Guardia Civil believe that these symbols correspond to anabolic steroids (circle) and Insulin Growth Factor - IGF-1 (IG).

Other symbols are used in the team plans, including a rounded 'e', and a circle with a dot in it. These are supposed to correspond to blood transfusions and the administration of EPO. Some individual players had tailored programs, in case they were injured or tired.

Eufemiano Fuentes did not have a formal relationship with either FC Barcelona or Real Madrid. His plans were allegedly sent via the team doctor or one of the players. Ex-pro Jesus Manzano, who first alerted police to the dealings of Fuentes, said that he saw a Real Madrid player while visiting the doctor. Nevertheless, FC Barcelona did try to hire Dr Fuentes in both 1996 and 2002, but both times he refused.

"I committed no crime"

Fuentes is adamant that in providing his services to athletes, he was fulfilling his role as a doctor. "I have committed no crime against public health," he said. "In 29 years of practicing, none of my clients have ever had a health problem.

"If an athlete endangers his health by practising his discipline, I react first as a doctor. If the medicine used to protect him is on the list of banned substances, it's of secondary importance. Doctors should have the freedom and sufficient autonomy to be able to decide how to manage a particular treatment, regardless of whether it's a drug or not."

Fuentes defended his methods, taking a more liberal view towards doping than various sports governing bodies. "I consider doping as the use or the abuse of a substance or drug by a person who doesn't have the knowledge or experience or the ability to use them… Medicine doesn't kill if it's in the right hands."

"Top level sport is unhealthy," he stated. "When I did my doctoral thesis, I determined the muscular damage done to a cyclist in a stage race. This is what's dangerous for the health of the athletes, the overloaded calendars, the criminal courses designed by the organisers for the benefit of a spectacle."

He also argued against the 50% hematocrit limit set by the UCI. "Now, it's healthier to do the Tour de France with a hematocrit of 53% rather than one of 31%. Let a rider attack the Alps with a hematocrit of 31. That is putting his life in danger."

http://ergogenics.org/484.html

[Magda Hassan]

Fuentes, 57, has given evidence he worked with scores of cyclists, but also with other sportsmen and women on an individual basis all of whom were given a secret code."It could be a cyclist in a cycling team, a footballer in a football team, an athlete, a boxer," he has said. But yesterday he went further, claiming: "I could identify all the samples. If you give me a list I could tell you who corresponds to each code on the packs."

But Judge Santamaria refused to press Fuentes directly, noting: "The request will not be made expressly."

The lawyer for the Italian doping authority CONI, Ignacio Martínez Arroyo, immediately asked the judge to request Fuentes to identify the list. The judge once again refused, but accepted the protestations from the lawyers in the room and briefly adjourned the trial for 10 minutes.

Arroyo said: "Fuentes himself proposes to give the names and the judge refuses to ask. This is incredible."

Cough cough, see, she is only protecting the patients' privacy.

Fuentes was asked directly which football clubs he had worked with. "I can't tell, I have received death threats," he said. "I was told that if I told certain things, my family and myself could have serious problems. I've been threatened three times and it's not going to happen a fourth time.

"There are sports against which you cannot go against, because they have access to very powerful legal means to defend themselves. And it could also cost the current chief of the sport his post."

I bet. But they wont go there will they?

[Danny Jarman]

Spanish doping doctor ready to reveal role in major sports

Eufemiano Fuentes will sell sordid details of cheating in high-level football, athletics and the Olympics to highest bidder

The convicted sports-doping doctor Eufemiano Fuentes is threatening to reveal the dirty secrets of the world's major sporting events as he offers to sell his story to newspapers after being convicted on public health charges in Spain for his role in helping top cyclists to cheat.

Fuentes, considered one of international sport's leading dope doctors, has sent out a list of subjects that for a price he is now prepared to talk publicly about. It includes Spanish Champions League football teams, London marathon winners, Olympic medallists and a long list of cyclists he was involved with.

He has also offered to reveal how Tour de France officials failed to detect doping even when they tested those who had been taking performance-enhancing substances.

"How I prepared a team to play in the Champions League," is one category of revelations he is offering, according to an email sent by his lawyers on Friday.

That alone threatens to widen the scandal surrounding his doping activities to football, a sport in which Spain currently leads the world as European champions and World Cup holders.

One witness at his trial in Madrid, the former cyclist Jesus Manzano, said he had seen Spanish and Brazilian soccer players at Fuentes' clinic.
Fuentes is also believed to have worked with Real Sociedad, a first division club who finished second in the Spanish league and played in the Champions League while he was involved with them.

The Spanish doctor, who is expected to appeal against his suspended one year sentence, has previously admitted that his clients included footballers, as well as cyclists, track athletes and boxers though he has largely refused to name them.

Just how much more detail he is now prepared to reveal remains a mystery.

"He has received approaches from several media organisations, offering money," his lawyer Joseé Miguel Lledó explained. "This is a list of subjects he can talk about, but he won't do that until appeals have been lodged later in May."

"My medical relationship with the winners of the Tour of France, the Giro of Italy and the Vuelta of Spain," is a further category of revelations he is offering.

Another is: "My medical relationship with winners of the London marathon... including pre-race treatments." It is not clear who he was talking about, though Spaniard Abel Anton won the race in 1998. Anton is now a senator for the ruling People's party along with Marta Dominguez, a world champion middle distance runner who shook off doping allegations after being arrested in 2010.

Trial evidence showed that Fuentes's dealings with cyclists routinely included blood auto-transfusions to increase red blood counts and the use of EPO and other substances that are now banned.

He also offers to reveal the keys to Spain's eruption on to the Olympic medal table, with its record haul at the 1992 Barcelona Games, described as the result of a mysterious process that he calls going "from tolerance to success". His offer to talk about the Olympic team comes as Spain waits to hear whether Madrid will be chosen to host the 2020 Games.

Fuentes also appears to be preparing to take revenge on those cyclists who gave evidence against him by telling, among other things, how blood transplants were carried out secretly in hotel rooms during major races.

He names Olympic-medal winning US cyclist Tyler Hamilton who has already admitted doping and gave evidence at Fuentes' trial by video link along with the Tour de France winner Jan Ullrich, two-times Italian Giro winner Ivan Basso, Spain's triple Vuelta winner Roberto Heras, who has denied receiving blood transfusions from Fuentes, and German Jörg Jaksche.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2013/may...eal-sports

[David Guyatt]

Sounds to me like he is opening negotiations for blackmail deals with those he helped?

[Magda Hassan]

Sounds to me like he is opening negotiations for blackmail deals with those he helped?

Sounds like business as usual then.