A SERIOUS CHARGE.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 53, Issue 18, 1 November 1932, Page 6

A SERIOUS CHARGE.

“DOPED” AT LO9 ANGELES. GIRL SWIMMER’S STATEMENT. ' AMSTERDAM, Oct. 17. Miss Marie Braun-Philipsen, Dutch backstroke swimmer, reiterated to-day her statement 'that she had b ee:l ' “doped” before the start of the Olympic Games at Los Angeles. Miss Braun-Philipsen states that her illness at'the Olympiad was not due to an insect-bite, but to an. injection secretly adminstered by some person desirous of eliminating her from the Games. ... IShe was to have been a competitoi in the 100 metres backstroke event m which Elinor Holm (United States), the Zeigfeld Follies Girl, and Bonnie Mealing (Australia) finished first and second respectively. She could not com•pete owing to an illness which was reported to have been due to an insect bite.

“If was very unfair of Miss BraunPhiliipsen to wait till she got back home to make such a charge. There was never a suggestion that she had been deliberately doped,” said Mrs W. Chambers, who chaperoned the Australian. women’s team, commenting in Sydney on the Dutch girl’s statement. “I cannot understand her charge that someone injected poison into her through a hypodermic syringe. 1 can see no motive for such an atrocity. 1 do not think she would have had a chance against Elinor Holm, the winner of that race. lam sure Miss Holm regarded Bonnie Mealing as a more dangerous rival.” , ~ . Mrs Chambers added that Marie Braun-Philipsen had been m hospital for four weeks up to the time the Australian team left Los Angeles.