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Doctor in Cycling Probe Denies Giving Performance-Enhancing Drugs to Athletes

Posted on: Thursday, 6 July 2006, 12:00 CDT

By MAR ROMAN

MADRID, Spain (AP) - The doctor at the centre of a major doping probe denied administering any performance-enhancing drugs to athletes during his 28-year career as a sports physician.

"I haven't drugged anyone," Eufemiano Fuentes told radio station Cadena SER late Wednesday. "Having access to medicines considered as drugs does not mean that these are meant for using on athletes.

"I haven't killed anyone and I don't consider myself a criminal."

Fuentes, who said Tuesday he'd also treated athletes in soccer, tennis and track and field, said the banned endurance-booster EPO that police found was for a member of his family.

"They found EPO but only enough to treat a single person - I had bought it for a relative," he said.

Five people - including Fuentes and Dr. Jose Merino Batres - were arrested and charged in May when police seized drugs and frozen blood at a Madrid clinic. The samples were thought to have been prepared for performance-enhancing transfusions.

Spanish cycling teams Liberty Seguros - which later changed its name to Astana-Wurth - and Comunidad Valenciana have been implicated.

Fuentes and Merino are charged with crimes against public health. Both deny any wrongdoing.

A Civil Guard police report on the investigation names more than 50 cyclists. Some of whom - including favourites Jan Ullrich, Ivan Basso and Francisco Mancebo - were forced to withdraw before last Saturday's start of the Tour de France.

Fuentes said there has been a selective leaking of names, adding that he didn't know all of those mentioned in the media. He refused to give any names, citing confidentiality as a doctor.

Athletes allegedly went to the clinic to have blood extracted for doping or to collect performance-enhancing drugs. Nearly 100 bags of frozen blood and equipment for treating blood were found in a Madrid clinic, along with documents on doping procedures performed on cyclists.

Fuentes said his aim has always been to protect professional athletes.

"Top-level competition demands effort that overflow the body's physiology," Fuentes said. "It's a risky job. I'm a doctor and what I'm interested in is protecting the health of my patients, and I've never done the contrary. That has been my priority."

Source: Canadian Press

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