Skip to main content

Pregnancy doping - the context

For those of you coming to the story about pregnancy doping late, and wondering what on earth those translations I published this morning are all about, some context - 

The Observer published a history of cheating in sport on the 15th November that featured allegations of pregnancy doping in the USSR gymnastics team at the 1968 Olympics. The allegations were pivotal to their story, although they could have chosen a different example to make their point. I have now published three articles on RRG about this - the first an opinion piece with reference to sources refuting the allegation, and this morning translations of two Russian language reports from 1998 and 2001, including a Vladimir Golubev interview with Karasyova in which she describes the whole story as a 'monstrous' lie.  The chronology has become clearer, and a few confusions been cleared up.

I wanted these pieces to go on the record in the English language. 

I have written to the Observer readers' editor twice about this, on the grounds of accuracy, requesting a prominent clarification in view of this archival evidence that the story was bogus.  I do think that they should correct their story, don't you?

Here are the links to the stories published on this blog, in case anyone wants to follow how things have developed.  The articles include all the links and sources you will need.

http://rewritingrussiangymnastics.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/fact-or-fiction-press-gymnastics-and.html

http://rewritingrussiangymnastics.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/normal-0-false-false-false-en-us-zh-cn.html

http://rewritingrussiangymnastics.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/is-monstrous-lie-pregnancy-doping-olga.html

Comments

  1. Did you hear about Russia not being apart of 2916 Olympics?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. So far, the ban is only of their athletes (ie field and track).

      Delete
    2. Really? So its not of like gymnastics or any other sports?

      Delete
    3. No.
      However, there is a second part of the report due to be published on 4th January. More sports, and more countries will be implicated.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

WAG FX EF QUAL RUSSIAN CHAMPS 2026

Russian Championship 2026 — Women’s Artistic Gymnastics Event: Floor Exercise Venue: Central Sports Palace, Kaluga, Kaluga Region Dates: 28 June – 6 July 2026 Report generated: 1 July 2026 at 14:44 --- Final Results Place No. Athlete Region Difficulty (D) Execution (E) Penalty (Pen) Total Qualification 1 234 Lyudmila Arkadyevna Roshchina Krasnodar Krai 5.700 8.000 0.00 13.700 Q 1 221 Anna Dmitrievna Kalmykova Moscow 5.700 8.000 0.00 13.700 Q 3 240 Elizaveta Vladimirovna Us Krasnodar Krai 5.500 7.333 0.00 12.833 Q 4 205 Aleksandra Ivanovna Anufrieva Smolensk Region 5.100 7.700 0.00 12.800 Q 5 245 Kristina Konstantinovna Shavlovalova Moscow 5.100 7.533 0.00 12.633 Q 6 207 Varvara Viktorovna Belova Vladimir Region 5.500 7.066 0.00 12.566 Q 7 244 Elena Yuryevna Chursina Moscow 4.500 7.933 0.00 12.433 Q 8 230 Zlata Sergeyevna Osokina Leningrad...

The State of Gymnastics - 'Soviet' or 'American' style?

Lioudmilla Tourischeva, 1972 Olympic All Around champion in artistic gymnastics, was held up as an example of the ideal Soviet citizen.  Here she coaches one of the Soviet Union's leading gymnasts from the 1980 Olympics, Natalia Shaposhnikova The Soviet Union had a genius for lifting sport beyond the textbook, injecting the aesthetic where previously only goals had been in plain view.   This was not only manifest in gymnastics.  Do you remember the ‘Russian Five’, the players who elevated ice hockey to a creative sporting display, mesmerising their opponents and spectators with intricate patterns of play, so rhythmic and entertaining that they could have been set to music?   In gymnastics, a sport where the aesthetic counted as much as the outcome, it was this ability to create spectacle out of competition that resulted in the most extraordinary athletic performances.  The ‘Golden Era’, most commonly understood to cover the years from 1952-1...

Fact or fiction? The press, gymnastics and pregnancy doping

It was a Sunday morning.  I was drinking my coffee and contemplating the day ahead - a workout at the gym, shopping for groceries, an evening reading a book, or catching up on last night's episodes of crime thriller The Bridge .  How nice it was not to have to think about work for a day. Then I saw it - a story about the history of doping in The Observer .  Interesting reading. Of course, cheating is as old as the hills.  It is, unfortunately, human nature for some people to try to gain easy advantage in any kind of competition.  That is why we have laws, rules, ethical guidelines.  People who cheat should face justice and shouldn't complain when they are found out. But the story about pregnancy doping bothered me.  Hadn't that been found to be fictional?  The author began with Olga Kovalenko's allegations made in 1994 - but the rumours had started way back in 1991 with the documentary series More Than A Game .  The practice...

RRG Archive - scroll by date, from 2024 to 2010

Show more