N.Z. Olympians: No drugs

Press, 17 January 1989, Page 4

N.Z. Olympians: No drugs

PA Nelson The Nelson swimmer who competed against the Australian, Judy Joy Davies, at the 1948 London Olympics has denied any sort of drug-taking during her swimming career. “My doctor wouldn’t have even dreamt of doing such a thing,” the once Kiwi backstroke champion, Ngaire Galloway (formerly Lane), told the “Nelson Evening Mail” newspaper. “I have never (as a swimmer) been given anything by a doctor. I’d never heard of such a thing in my life.” Meanwhile Davies, who retired from swimmine to become a snorts iournalist.

“My doctor wouldn’t have even dreamt of doing such a thing,” the once Kiwi backstroke champion, Ngaire Galloway (formerly Lane), told the “Nelson Evening Mail” newspaper. “I have never (as a swimmer) been given anything by a doctor. I’d never heard of such a thing in my life.” Meanwhile Davies, who retired from swimming to become a sports journalist, denied yesterday she made claims about New Zealand female athletes taking drugs at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics. The Australian Associated Press reported that a radio interview transcript showed she in fact referred to her first Olympic Games (Davies first competed in an Olympics in London in 1948) when stating she saw New Zealand “girls” taking banned stimulants.

The sole female member of the Kiwi team at the London Games was Galloway, who spoke to the “Nelson Mail” while on holiday at Lake Rotoiti. She competed against Davies in the 100 m backstroke in 1948.

AAP quoted Davies as saying in an interview broadcast on ABC radio,. “There have been drugs as far as I know in. varying degrees at the Olympics for as long as I

know. “At my first Olympic Games — and we didn’t know what they were — we found girls from another team, actually a section of the New Zealand team, were taking little white pills which turned out to be stimulants, which of course were banned, but we didn’t know what they were.” Davies won a bronze medal at the London Olympics and swam for Australia at Helsinki before retiring. She has covered every Olympics since as a journalist. AAP had reported on Monday that Davies said, “The first time I saw them (drugs) taken was by the New Zealand girls at Helsinki.”

New Zealand’s 1952 Olympic swimming bronze medallist, Jean Hurring (formerly Stewart), said yesterday she was extremely upset and hurt by the allegation. “Back in those days there was no such thing as drugs in sport. “AH we knew was that the harder you trained the better you got.” New Zealand had only one other female competitor, at Helsinki — the long jump gold medallist, Yvette Corlett (formerly Williams). Hurring said she intended contacting her friend Corlett to see what could be done to rectify damage to their reputations.

Davies said yesterday her words had been twisted, an NZPA staff, correspondent John Callan reported from Sydney.

During the week-end interview she was asked if drug-taking was more prevalent now than in the 1950 s and 19605. “I said I didn’t think so. What has happened is that controls and tests have become stricter and more drug-taking has been exposed.

“As far as I can remember there has always been something around that Olympic athletes would take to help them.”

Davies said she recalled that after the London Olympics in 1948, the head of physiology at Sydney University, Professor Frank Cotton told her that a “a little white pill” which she had seen a New Zealand swimmer take at those Games was a mild stimulant, not a relaxant which Davies thought it was. “Somehow, all this has got blown up into something quite different. That pill certainly wasn’t a performance - enhancing drug,” Davies said. “Professor Cotton said he’d tested this pill — I can’t remember its name - and had found that it had no effect on an athlete’s performance. “It certainly didn’t do the swimmer any good — she didn’t even make the final,” Davies said.

Galloway said she did not know of performance-enhancing drugs until about two or three years ago. “Nobody on our team would have been taking any pills at all.”