Gold medal winner: I took steroids

Press, 26 June 1989, Page 1

Gold medal winner: I took steroids

By KEVIN TUTTY and BARRY CLARKE Graham May, who won the super-heavyweight gold medal in the weight-lifting, competition at the 1974 Commonwealth Games in Christchurch admitted last evening that he had taken steroids in the three years leading up to the Games.

May provided one of the enduring memories of New Zealand sport when he blacked out after hoisting 187 kg over his head on the way to winning the gold medal. His admission that he had taken steroids to boost his performance was made on Television New Zealand’s “Frontline” programme last evening. Murray Cheater, the holder of the New Zealand hammer throw record, admitted on the same programme that he had taken steroids. May was part of .a successful New Zealand weight-lifting team in 1974. Six other, lifters won medals, including Bruce Cameron, of Auckland, who is now the chairman of the New Zealand Olympic and Commonwealth Games Association’s selection panel. He won a bronze medal in the lightweight division. May said on the television programme that he made the disclosure because he felt the gold medal he won was tarnished. May was not available for further comment last evening. He was returning to Christchurch from Timaru. Mr Cameron said from Auckland last evening he was not aware May had used steriods at the time. “He trained in Christchurch. I trained in Auckland. Whatever

training they did in Christchurch was up to them,” he said. “Graham never discussed steroids with me at any stage. No one told me of the situation. I knew he used to drink gallons of milk.”

Sir Ronald Scott, who was the chairman of the organising committee of the 1974 Games, said it was a matter for weight-lifting administrators whether May should return his gold medal. The committee had no authority to request that the medal be returned. “It is not for me to tell

Graham May whether he should return the medal or not. Whether he surrenders it or not is his decision. "Graham May has to be admired for having the courage to make an admission like that,” said Sir Ronald. “He shouldn’t be persecuted. It would be hard to rewrite the record book now. “I was sitting in the front row when he dropped that bar. I’ve always said that was the most moving experience I had at the Games. I had to move, otherwise the weights would have ended up in my lap.” Sir Ronald said he found the television programme interesting from another viewpoint. He is the chairman of the Hillary Commission, which is funding a survey by the Royal Society into drug use in sport. The results of the extensive survey should be released before the Commonwealth Games which start in Auckland next January. “There is no question there is a problem with drug use. But the problem is coping with the problem, and getting a handle on the size of it,” said Sir Ronald. “I am sure our champion netball side has no involvement in drugs, and I am sure that what Gary Whetton said on television, that All Blacks are not involved in drug taking, is true.”

Dr David Gerrard, a member of the Olympic and Commonwealth Games selection panel, a doctor to the New Zealand team at the Seoul Olympics last year, and a Commonwealth Games swimming gold medallist in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1966, said he found the programme revealing. “There was a suggestion that sports administrators were covering up the use of drugs in sport. I stoutly deny that. If I ask an athlete if they are taking drugs, of course they are going to say no."

Dr Gerrard said the revelations were opportune because they come at a time when the Olympic Association was about to introduce a random drug-testing programme leading up to the Commonwealth Games in Auckland. “If athletes know we have a flying squad that could visit them at any time to take tests, it will be a deterrent to drug taking,” he said.

i “Contrary to what was suggested on the television programme, not everyone in New Zealand sport is using drugs.

“I think the time has come for some of our better-known sports people, such as John Walker, Susan Devoy, lan Fergusson and Buck Shelford, to offer a urine sample for testing to show that they aren’t taking

drugs,” Dr Gerrard said. Both Dr Gerrard and Sir Ronald said they saw little benefit from New Zealand instigating a commission of inquiry into drugs in sport. “I think a commission would become a retrospective witchhunt and would be a waste of already limited resources." said Dr Gerrard. Sir Ronald said there was an advantage in waiting to see what decisions came from the Canadian inquiry into drugs in sport which had just concluded in Toronto. “If we had an inquiry, could we do something we are not already doing to get drugs out of sport?" Mr Cameron said it would be difficult for New Zealand athletes selected for the Auckland games to get through stringent drug testing. "New Zealand is taking a pretty positive response to the whole steroid thing. Four hundred of our athletes will be randomly tested over the next seven months.”

He did not see the programme and would not be drawn on whether he was disappointed in May for using steroids. “Things surprise me all the time. It was a long time ago. I guess it’s the personal things some people do,” Mr Cameron said.

“Graham has always taken a very high moral ground. Maybe that’s why after all these years he’s come out and said it. It’s his personal choice.”