Making Waves. Chris Epting

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       by Donna de Varona

      Shirley Babashoff was a true victim of a time in sports when those responsible for competitive swimming were either naive or chose to turn a blind eye to the entourage of cheats invading the pool decks and playing fields of international sport.

      Shirley competed during the darkest years of sports—a time when the Eastern Bloc countries, especially East Germany, created an elaborate sports system that force-fed performance-enhancing drugs to its elite athletes.

      The World Anti-Doping Agency and the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency weren’t established until after the Sydney Olympics in 2000. Sadly, the absence of extensive testing, both in and out of competition, during Shirley’s active years and beyond left the sporting world vulnerable to those determined to cheat.

      In 1973, I covered the first-ever FINA World Swimming Championships in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, for ABC. Contrary to how countries traditionally emerge as sports rivals, the East German women’s team came out of nowhere to dominate the competition. What we witnessed was the emergence of a sinister sports machine that threatened to undermine all that is sacred in sports. The East German women were used as experimental guinea pigs in an effort to showcase a communist system using sports for political gain.

      Caught up in this collision course of fanatical Cold War gamesmanship were the innocents. Shirley was one of them. Before the 1976 Montreal Olympics, she had become America’s golden girl. The media burdened her with the expectation of equaling Mark Spitz’s seven-gold-medal haul during the 1972 Munich Games. This was unfair and set Shirley and her teammates up for failure, especially given the East Germans’ steroid-infused performance.

      As someone who covered those Games for ABC, I could only hint at what was going on behind the scenes. With no extensive drug testing, I could not accuse the East Germans outright of cheating. It was painful to witness the international press eager to beat up on our women’s team—especially Shirley, because she did not win any individual gold medals. It was frustrating to watch what little support both the U.S. swimming and USOC executives provided to our brave athletes when they finally began to point fingers at the East German team as the Montreal swimming events drew to a close.

      The cost of these leaders’ inaction cannot be measured on any level; their failure to protect the sport created generations of cheats both outside and inside the U.S. It also allowed the East German government to continue to abuse its own athletes, many of whom suffered lifetimes of depression, guilt, and health problems. Even after it was proven that the East Germans used performance-enhancing drugs, neither FINA (the international governing body for swimming) nor the IOC provided any sort of remedy for those whose Olympic medals were stolen from them.

      Until recently, Shirley spent a lifetime disconnected from a sport and community she once trusted and loved. She was always reluctant to bask in the spotlight, preferring to let her performances speak for her. I can only imagine how differently her life would have unfolded if she had competed on a level playing field.

      I’m grateful Shirley is finally telling her story. It is a cautionary tale, and one every athlete, coach, administrator, and parent should read.

       Introduction