Pierre Dumas - Olympic Games

Olympic Games

The chairman of the Dutch cycling federation, Piet van Dijk, said of the Rome Olympics that
"dope - whole cartloads - used in royal quantities."

Dumas led the International Sports Medicine Federation (ISMF) to press the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) for drug-testing at the 100 km team time-trial at the 1964 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo. Danish cyclist Knut Jensen had crashed and died at the 1960 Summer Olympic Games in Rome whilst competing in the 100 km. Wlodzimierc Golebiewski, organiser of the Peace Race and vice-president of the International Amateur Cycling Federation, said: "This young man had taken a large overdose of drugs, which had been the cause of his death. As a result of this accident, the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) became the first to bring in doping controls.

The International Olympic Committee took its first action in Moscow, when in June 1962 it studied a report by Carvallo Pini and Ferreira Santos, who had asked it to consider the problem. The French association of physical education had formed the first anti-doping committee in 1959 and prompted the ISMF to act internationally. The ISMF held a symposium and from it came the call to the UCI for tests at the Tokyo Games.

Teams were frisked at the start but only innocent substances found. Urine was taken from Dutch, Italian, Swedish, Argentine, Russian and French riders but nothing found. They were carried out by four officials from the UCI and by the French sports minister, the mountaineer Maurice Herzog. Riders were checked for signs of injections, which 13 had, and were asked what they had taken, who had supplied them and who had conducted or authorised the treatment.