Lasse Viren

[Don Wassall]

I just read an old Sports Illustrated article from 1977 about Lasse Viren by someone named Kenny Moore. It's quite long and interesting, but written from the usual perspective of smug superiority that's almost always the case with White liberal writers. Moore writes about Finland, Finns and Viren as if they are something strange, exotic and inscrutable, from their language to their mostly introverted ways.

Viren was shy and uncomfortable with media attention. He won the gold medal in both the 5,000 and 10,000 meters in Munich in '72, and then followed that up by becoming the first man to successfully repeat in both races in Montreal in '76. This great accomplishment set off accusations by the media that Viren must have been "blood doping," something he was forced to deny over and over even though there was never any direct or indirect evidence that he was.

Certainly there's nothing remotely close to evidence presented in this lengthy SI article from '77, even though the topic is brought up time and again throughout it. This is the summary of the blood doping accusations from the article: "In Moscow in 1980 Lasse Viren will run yet again and may well win twice more. But the circumstances of Viren's career and character -- his many poor races in non-Olympic competition, his carefully kept privacy, his mildly sarcastic way with curious reporters -- have evoked a storm of accusations. It is said that his medals were won with the help of 'blood doping,' a misleading term for an experimental technique whereby some of an athlete's blood is withdrawn and the oxygen-carrying hemoglobin extracted and stored. . ."

Other than "his many poor races in non-Olympic competition," the rest of it is completely irrelevant. So he is very private and has a mildly sarcastic way with reporters -- oh the horror of it, he must be a cheater of some kind!!

Do any of you veterans who have been following track a long time have any input on Viren and the blood doping accusations that hounded him? It comes across to me as the typical smear job of a successful White athlete, being accused of cheating because he's so dominant while over the years so many black sprinters and runners, and others like Serena Williams and Tiger Woods and various boxers, quite possibly seemed to be cheaters of various kinds to put it mildly yet always got a pass and still do.

 

[white lightning]

I've followed athletics since I was a kid. I agree with you Don that it's just another attack on whites in general for
being the best while not being the shade that the liberals love. The anti white bias has always been there in sports
or at least for the last century. Yes I've seen the same things said about how guys like Jesse Owens couldn't be beat
which again were lies from the media. It's gone on for far too long.

As far as Lasse Viren I've never agreed with any of the nay sayers. The guy just had ice in his veins and ran his best when it mattered!
Take a look at this video. This was a man that everyone should look up to. I have the utmost respect for Viren. Incredible on & off the track!

 

[jacknyc]

I've also followed T&F for a long time, and although I wasn't really interested in distance running, I do remember Lasse Viren's Olympic victories. I remember that both times, it was a surprise. He wasn't the favorite.
The allegations of blood doping were very strong and persistent. In fact, all these years later, I sort of assumed that the allegations were true. But as you said, the allegations have never been proven.
Also, this 'blood doping' (transfusions) - the "removal of a pint of the runner's blood, then the return of that same blood perhaps two weeks later. In that time his body has compensated for its absence. The runner now has an extra pint of blood in his system. The extra pint provides extra stamina." - was not illegal at the time.
I think not only the press, but some of the competing athletes, believed that Viren had 'cheated' in this way.
I'm sure we'll never know. But again, it wasn't illegal, so Viren would keep his medals regardless.

p.s. there are a lot of discussions about this online, if you care to look into it further.
p.p.s. Kenny Moore was a former distance runner, who became a feature writer of track articles for SI and others.

Kenny Moore, Olympian and Masterful Writer on Running, Dies at 78

He finished fourth in the marathon at the 1972 Olympics, and his writing on great runners was unparalleled.

www.runnersworld.com

 

[jphoss]

The thing about jesse owen’s and the 1936 olympics that the media conveniently ignores is that Germany won 101 medals, by far #1, while the us finished a distant second with 57

 

[sport historian]

The key to the slant of this SI story on Lasse Viren is that Kenny Moore was a friend of Steve Prefontaine, who was a White American distance runner of the early 70s. Prefontaine was killed in 1975 in a traffic accident and had been training to beat Viren in 1976.

Steve Prefontaine was highly (he was a voluble self-promoter) publicized, had a cover story in SI, but flopped in the 1972 Olympics. Moore wrote the screenplay for Without Limits (1998), a biopic of Prefontaine that partly due to no promotion did no box office. A main plot point was Prefontaine training to beat Viren in 1976 but his death prevented a rematch.

Kenny Moore also had a role in Personal Best (1982), which the critics loved due to the lesbian romance between Mariel Hemingway and Patrice Donnelly's characters. Donnelly was a White female sprinter in the 70s.

Moore becomes Hemingway's boyfriend toward the end, even has a nude scene.

 

[Don Wassall]

Interesting replies. Looking at my old SI now, I see there's a "Letter from the Publisher" in the front about Moore, who they said had written close to 50 articles for them. I vaguely remember him now, and of course Prefontaine, who was the rare White athlete who was really liked by the media, especially so after his tragic death. Moore and Prefontaine were "free spirits," not a rarity among White athletes in the '70s as we've discussed before, so that goes a long way in explaining the hostility to Viren.

Great video posted by White Lightning. Of his fall, his coach is quoted as saying, "Normally [Viren] doesn't like to talk about sport or training. He's doing it so much he doesn't need to dwell on it. He's wary and reserved until he gets to know you. You should run with him, take a sauna with him. He'll loosen up. But you will always have a sense of something hidden in Lasse's mind, something you can never see. He is sensitive. He will be an indulgent father. But he is also hard. When he tries something, he tries to the ultimate. When he fell in Munich, his only reaction was to get up. No second thoughts, no fear. Mohammed Gammoudi, who went down with him, stayed there too long. He lost hope. Lasse Viren doesn't lose hope."

 

[jacknyc]

Another reason that there was so much suspicion around Viren, was the performance of other Finns at the Games.
Pekka Vasala, another relatively unknown Finn, won the 1500m at the Munich Olympics, over much better known athletes like Kip Keino, Rod Dixon, Mike Boit, Brendan Foster. He had never won an international medal before, and never did again.
Meanwhile Tapio Kantanen took bronze in the 3000m steeplechase. He, also, never achieved anything else in the sport.

So Finnish runners, very surprisingly, dominated the distance events at the Munich Olympics, coming out of nowhere (relatively), and returning there afterwards. That brought suspicion on all the Finnish runners, and especially Viren since he was the most successful.

 

[white lightning]

Another reason that there was so much suspicion around Viren, was the performance of other Finns at the Games.
Pekka Vasala, another relatively unknown Finn, won the 1500m at the Munich Olympics, over much better known athletes like Kip Keino, Rod Dixon, Mike Boit, Brendan Foster. He had never won an international medal before, and never did again.
Meanwhile Tapio Kantanen took bronze in the 3000m steeplechase. He, also, never achieved anything else in the sport.

So Finnish runners, very surprisingly, dominated the distance events at the Munich Olympics, coming out of nowhere (relatively), and returning there afterwards. That brought suspicion on all the Finnish runners, and especially Viren since he was the most successful.

Yet when we see the same domination by a very small country like Jamaica no one says a word. Such a double standard. Whites have
always been looked down on by the liberal establishment which has grown in power over the countless decades. Even when we thought
we lived in a beautiful white nation the powers that shouldn't be were devising schemes to destroy everything that is white & beautiful.

 

[jacknyc]

Very true about Jamaica. A country of 3 million people dominating the sport for years.
But no one questions it. In fact, there aren't even any whispers about Jamaica.
I tried to point this out once on the T&FN message board, but no one would even consider my argument.

 

[white is right]

I just read an old Sports Illustrated article from 1977 about Lasse Viren by someone named Kenny Moore. It's quite long and interesting, but written from the usual perspective of smug superiority that's almost always the case with White liberal writers. Moore writes about Finland, Finns and Viren as if they are something strange, exotic and inscrutable, from their language to their mostly introverted ways.

Viren was shy and uncomfortable with media attention. He won the gold medal in both the 5,000 and 10,000 meters in Munich in '72, and then followed that up by becoming the first man to successfully repeat in both races in Montreal in '76. This great accomplishment set off accusations by the media that Viren must have been "blood doping," something he was forced to deny over and over even though there was never any direct or indirect evidence that he was.

Certainly there's nothing remotely close to evidence presented in this lengthy SI article from '77, even though the topic is brought up time and again throughout it. This is the summary of the blood doping accusations from the article: "In Moscow in 1980 Lasse Viren will run yet again and may well win twice more. But the circumstances of Viren's career and character -- his many poor races in non-Olympic competition, his carefully kept privacy, his mildly sarcastic way with curious reporters -- have evoked a storm of accusations. It is said that his medals were won with the help of 'blood doping,' a misleading term for an experimental technique whereby some of an athlete's blood is withdrawn and the oxygen-carrying hemoglobin extracted and stored. . ."

Other than "his many poor races in non-Olympic competition," the rest of it is completely irrelevant. So he is very private and has a mildly sarcastic way with reporters -- oh the horror of it, he must be a cheater of some kind!!

Do any of you veterans who have been following track a long time have any input on Viren and the blood doping accusations that hounded him? It comes across to me as the typical smear job of a successful White athlete, being accused of cheating because he's so dominant while over the years so many black sprinters and runners, and others like Serena Williams and Tiger Woods and various boxers, quite possibly seemed to be cheaters of various kinds to put it mildly yet always got a pass and still do.

There were rumors and it extended to Scandinavian cross country skiers too. Supposedly scientists figured out how to blood dope in Sweden and athletes from Sweden and Finland doped but this wasn't illegal at the time as only steroids were banned by the IAAF/IOC and in this era nobody but fools were caught for steroids.

As for meet results there were only 2 meets of any significance for an athlete back then the Olympics and the continental championships for the athletes. The European circuit was strictly for training for these championships as the shamateur era was only in affect near the end of Viren's run as a championship level athlete so the incentive to place high at these meets wasn't that high.

 

[manto]

Another reason that there was so much suspicion around Viren, was the performance of other Finns at the Games.
Pekka Vasala, another relatively unknown Finn, won the 1500m at the Munich Olympics, over much better known athletes like Kip Keino, Rod Dixon, Mike Boit, Brendan Foster. He had never won an international medal before, and never did again.
Meanwhile Tapio Kantanen took bronze in the 3000m steeplechase. He, also, never achieved anything else in the sport.

So Finnish runners, very surprisingly, dominated the distance events at the Munich Olympics, coming out of nowhere (relatively), and returning there afterwards. That brought suspicion on all the Finnish runners, and especially Viren since he was the most successful.

Most of the Finns compete mostly in races in Helsinki, Stockholm and Oslo and you can research their races/records at World Athletics. I'll highlight some if you care: Vasala was great the whole year in 1972 ran 3:36.8 in Turku placed 1st, ran 3:38.3 in Oslo placed 1st then Germany Olympics 3:36.33 placed 1st. He ran the Mile in July '72 in Stockholm 3:57.2 placed 2nd then he won (3) 800 races in Helsinki in the 1:44 range and won another 800 in Rieti Italy in Sept in 1:46. Viren broke the world record July '72 in 13:19 and still had it going into the Olympics and was the favorite, he had lots of wins in Europe not gonna list all of them. Tapio Kantanen had 7 races in 1972 in the steeplechase and won 5 and placed 2nd twice he also at the time had 13:42 time in the 5K. Juha Väätäinen won the 5K and 10K in the '71 European championship but injured leading up to the Olympics. Not sure if you really care but their records are on the World Athletics web so these rumors or as you say suspicions are just rumors spread by Pre fans and I'm sure Viren's trainer Arthur Lydiard will also educate you. Maybe Sebastian Coe, Frank Shorter, Bill Rodgers opinions might help also. Thanks.

 

[manto]

I've also followed T&F for a long time, and although I wasn't really interested in distance running, I do remember Lasse Viren's Olympic victories. I remember that both times, it was a surprise. He wasn't the favorite.
The allegations of blood doping were very strong and persistent. In fact, all these years later, I sort of assumed that the allegations were true. But as you said, the allegations have never been proven.
Also, this 'blood doping' (transfusions) - the "removal of a pint of the runner's blood, then the return of that same blood perhaps two weeks later. In that time his body has compensated for its absence. The runner now has an extra pint of blood in his system. The extra pint provides extra stamina." - was not illegal at the time.
I think not only the press, but some of the competing athletes, believed that Viren had 'cheated' in this way.
I'm sure we'll never know. But again, it wasn't illegal, so Viren would keep his medals regardless.

p.s. there are a lot of discussions about this online, if you care to look into it further.
p.p.s. Kenny Moore was a former distance runner, who became a feature writer of track articles for SI and others.

Kenny Moore, Olympian and Masterful Writer on Running, Dies at 78

He finished fourth in the marathon at the 1972 Olympics, and his writing on great runners was unparalleled.

www.runnersworld.com

Again Viren was the world record holder going into the Olympics and was the favorite so what are you talking about and why?. Allegations by whom and what evidence do they have? nothing but rumors from Pre fans. What runners questioned Viren and did they talk to Bill Rodgers and Frank Shorter about it? after +50 years not a shred of evidence from any doctor, trainer, teammate, hospital so why do these Pre fans carry on?.