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Jeanson admits to doping
Former world champion Genevieve Jeanson admitted to doping during her careerin an interview with Radio-Canada’s news magazine "Enquête"on Thursday.
In the first of a two-part interview, Jeanson spoke candidly about usingEPO from the age of 16, a decision she says was the result of pressureby her former coach and husband Andre Aubut. Aubut denied the charge, accordingto the program’s producers.
Jeanson, who now lives in Phoenix, Arizona, took a defiant attitudeduring much of the questioning, although she broke into tears once whentalking about lying to her fans.
Below is a summary of the interview, translated with the assistanceof Adam Klevinas:
Last night, on Enquête, a Radio-Canada television magazine,Jeanson told journalist Alain Gravel that she used EPO at races such asthe Montreal World Cup on Mont-Royal, a race she won four times in hercareer, and prior to the 2003 World Championships in Hamilton.
For the majority of the interview, Jeanson adamantly denied using thedrug or taking transfusions, arguing that her career success was basedsolely on training, vitamins and the use of a hypoxic tent nearly 300 daysper year.
It was only near the end of Thursday’s program, after a series of interviewswith Gravel, that Jeanson finally admitted to using the banned performance-enhancingdrug.
The admission underscores old allegations that EPO was responsiblefor spiking her hematocrit level to 56 percent - well over the 47 percentlimit allowed for female cyclists - prior to the 2003 World Cycling Championships in Hamilton. Because of the elevated level, she was excluded from the race. For more detail: http://www.velonews.com/race/int/articles/5104.0.html
For a cyclist who took EPO her entire career, Jeanson only officiallyfailed one doping test, at the Tour de ‘Toona in 2005. During her interview,she explained that by stopping EPO five days before an event, a positivetest could easily be avoided. Up until now, Jeanson has always maintained thatthe result at the Tour de 'Toona was a false positive and not the result of having used performance-enhancing drugs.
Jeanson was given a second “positive” after missinga post-race test at Flèche Wallonne in 2004. As a result, Jeanson waseligible for a life-time ban, although the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency eventually agreed to a two-year suspension after she dropped plans for an appeal. She has not returned to competition, despite the expiration of that penalty.
Jeanson says her first experience with EPO came in 2003, with a doseadministered by Dr. Maurice Duquette. After that world championship incident, Duquette admitted to having given Jeanson just one dose of EPO, but was later forced to retract his statement after Jeanson's lawyers threatened to sue.
Jeanson admitted that she knew exactly what she was taking and knewthat EPO was both risky and ethically wrong, but said she felt trappedby a desire not to disappoint anyone, especially her coach, AndréAubut. The hardest part, she said, was lying to the people who believedin her.
According to Jeanson, Aubut told her that taking EPO was the "only way"she would ever win, something Jeanson still believes is necessary in thesport of professional cycling.
Aubut's version of the story, much like Jeanson's, has changed overtime. At first he admitted to having told Jeanson to take EPO, but thenrecanted, saying it was a decision they made together. By the end, however, Aubut claimed he didn't even know Jeanson was using EPO and thought her high hematocrit levels were simply the result of the hypoxic tent she'd slept in nearly year round.
Married last year for just six months as a business arrangement for the restaurant they own together in Phoenix (Jeanson has since sold therestaurant), the nature of Jeanson and Aubut's relationship was often thesubject of speculation. Jeanson's father said that he refused to watch his daughter train under Aubut’s tutelage, fearing he would see her being treated badly.
Although Jeanson said she was responsible for telling Aubut to push her as hard as possible in training, she claimed that Aubut eventually became violent and aggressive in the way he spoke to her. Her performances were never good enough. Jeanson said she was driven to win races, “just to shut him up.”
Former Rona teammate Amy Moore recounted an incident in which Aubutpicked up Jeanson's dinner plate and threw it across the room after beingdissatisfied with the way Jeanson was eating. Moore also explained thatwhen she looked at Jeanson, she didn't see the young, blonde athlete, butrather only saw Aubut, a clear testament to the control and manipulationhe had over her.
Another teammate, Manon Jutras, said that it was just part of Aubut'spersonality, that he just wanted to win and it was in his blood. She saidhe was like a passionate hockey coach behind the bench. However, Jutras'account stands in contrast to the stories of Aubut throwing a race radioat Jeanson after a competition and an unconfirmed claim that he once physicallyhit her.
The program hinted, but never directly claimed, that Aubut was responsiblefor administering the drug or forcing Jeanson to use EPO. His role in herlife, though briefly touched upon in the interview, remains foggy. WhileJeanson explained her method of stopping the drug five days before competitionto avoid getting caught, questions still surround how she passed a large number of doping tests in her career.
Program producers promise to address those questions in next week'sepisode of Enquête.
