Festina affair

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The Festina affair was a doping scandal during the 1998 Tour de France .

The biggest doping affair in sporting history up to this point shook the most important cycling race in the world after large amounts of illegal substances were found at Willy Voet , a supervisor of the Festina cycling team with favorites Richard Virusque and Alex Zülle . It was mainly erythropoietin (EPO), a hormone that regulates and stimulates erythropoiesis , i.e. the formation of new erythrocytes (red blood cells). In this way it is possible to transport larger amounts of oxygen in the blood.

Willy Voet , who had kept a detailed record of doping, testified to the public prosecutor's office and in 1999 published his disclosure book “Massacre à la chaine”, which describes 30 years of doping practice.

The public prosecutor's office carried out several raids on the team hotels. The investigation revealed that Festina had practiced doping across the board. This discovery also made clear the ineffectiveness of the doping controls at the time: none of the Festina drivers had tested positive. The team was excluded from the Tour de France after the seventh stage. Also TVM-Farm Frites was excluded. The Spanish teams withdrew from the tour in protest of the investigative methods used by the French authorities.

After initially denying it, Zülle admitted to taking prohibited drugs and was banned for half a year. Virusque, on the other hand, swore his innocence for a long time, until he finally admitted to the court in 2000 that he had also taken prohibited drugs and was then banned for six months. Laurent Dufaux was banned for seven months, Christophe Moreau and Didier Rous for five months. Even Laurent Brochard confessed EPO doping and was banned by the UCI.

The 1998 Tour de France , which was about to be canceled for a long time, was finally won by Marco Pantani , who was then excluded from the Giro d'Italia a year later because of an increased hematocrit value .

The scandal has paid off for Festina as a brand, as they initially remained loyal to their team and in the long term to cycling. While other companies would have ended their involvement with such scandals, Festina used the scandal itself as a supporting marketing measure.

See also

literature

  • Andreas Singler & Gerhard Treutlein: Doping - From Analysis to Prevention. Prevention of deviant behavior in sociological and pedagogical approaches. Aachen: Meyer & Meyer 2010 (2nd edition), Chapter 2: "The reality of the elite sports environment using the example of cycling and the Festinaskandal 1998, pp. 107–156.
  • Willy Voet : Doped. The ex-Festina masseur unpacks. Or: How the tour gets going. Sportverlag Berlin, 1999, ISBN 3-328-00858-6
  • Peter Winnen: When doping was still innocent , NCR Handelsblad, July 3, 1999 on cycling4fans.de
  • Corinna Spiekermann / Malte Losert: Festina and the doping affair 1998 , in: Lars Nuschke / Christian Becker: Quo vadis Radsport? The scandal sport between doping and sponsors. Göttingen: Sierke Verlag 2008, pp. 35–44, ISBN 3-86844-001-1

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Arnd Krüger & Axel Dreyer: Sportmanagement: A topic-related introduction . Munich: Oldenbourg 2004
  2. ↑ Festina has achieved a very high level of international recognition through cycling. PDF

Web links