Cycling Doctor Under a Microscope The Wall Street Journal objavio da se vodi istraga Americke anti-doping agencije protiv doktora sportske medicine (Luis Garsija del Moral) koji ima u Valensiji svoju kliniku. Na udaru je prvi Luis Armstrong u cijem timu je bio Moral od '99 do '03 ali i drugi sportisti tj. teniseri koji su saradjivali sa njim (Sara Erani...). Sarin brat tvrdi da je on radio samo neke kardio preglede a da je skorasnji uspeh rezultat velikog rada....
Ako se dokaze da je kriv, bice tesko igracima da objasne zasto je bio u njihovom timu....
In interviews with The Wall Street Journal, four former members of the Postal Service team, including Floyd Landis—who has admitted doping during his cycling career—said that García del Moral aggressively promoted an undercover regimen of banned drugs and medical procedures, allegations reflected in last week's USADA letter. "Numerous riders will testify that Dr. del Moral gave to them, encouraged them to use and/or assisted them in using doping products and/or prohibited methods," said the USADA letter.
García del Moral was hired by the United States Postal Servce team ahead of the 1999 season, after Mr. Armstrong was wrapping up his first season in professional cycling after a bout with testicular cancer. At the time, García del Moral ran a sports medicine clinic in the Spanish city of Valencia, and had become well known among professional athletes in the region for treating injuries, illness and monitoring performance.
One former rider said García del Moral injected him with corticosteroids. Another rider said he didn't want to take performance-enhancing drugs because he feared the health consequences. But one day, the rider said, García del Moral told him, "you're not a real professional if you don't take drugs." The rider said, "That really (angered) me." The rider said he responded, "'Well, you're not really a doctor.'" The physician told The Wall Street Journal over the weekend that he never encouraged any athlete to use drugs.
García del Moral left the Postal team following the 2003 season under circumstances that remain unclear. García del Moral continued to work with athletes at the Instituto de Medicina del Deporte, a Valencia health clinic that specializes in sports injuries and performance-enhancing treatments. Staff members say the center, part of a network that includes several others in Spain, is managed by the regional government and works often with professional athletes, including cyclists, track-and-field athletes, soccer and tennis players, providing advice on nutrition and training regimes and top-class fitness equipment.
Among other sports stars, he said in an interview that he had worked with Sara Errani, an Italian tennis player who on June 8 won the women's doubles title at the French Open and a day later played in the women's single final only to lose to Maria Sharapova.
Before that tournament—in which Errani prevailed against seeds number 14, 10 and 6—she had a 1- 37 record against opponents ranked in the top 15 and a 0–28 record against those ranked in the top 10.
But she certainly didn't attribute her French Open success to García del Moral. In fact, her brother Davide Errani said that besides a routine cardiac exam, she had never been treated by García del Moral. He added that she had earned her success through perseverance and hard work.
Blog na ovu temu.
It may interest the tennis media, the International Tennis Federation, and WADA that Dr. Luis García del Moral was a speaker (see the program) at the Spanish Tennis Federation's 1st Iberoamerican Congress of Tennis Coaches held in 2009 in Valencia, Spain. The Congress was held in conjunction with the ITF's 16th Worldwide Coaches Conference.
The questions are: Has Dr. Luis García del Moral treated any tennis players? If so, how many? And who are they? Is Dr. Luis García del Moral affiliated with any other doctors and/or coaches associated with tennis players?
Update #1 (Thanks, Arf): It appears that Dr. Moral is part of Sara Errani's team (in Spanish).
Update #2 (Again, Arf): He also worked with Dinara Safina (in Spanish)
Update #3: If you read the Sara Errani article above, note that there are two doctors on her team: Luis García del Moral and Ignacio Muñoz.
Update #4: Dr. Luis García del Moral has been serving as a doctor at the TenisVal Tennis Academy since at least 2006. Players (aside from Safina and Errani) to have used the academy include: David Ferrer, Igor Andreev, María Kirilenko, Anabel Medina, and Marat Safin.
Update #5: Dr. Luis García del Moral has issued a statement denying involvement in doping athletes.
Update #6: Another piece of information is that Valencia (where TenisVal is located, and, coincidentally, where the ITF's 2009 coaches conference was held) was the site of a doping bust ("Operacion Grial") by Spanish authorities in 2009.
Update #7: "Operacion Grial" (see above) led to the arrest of doctor Walter Viru for suspicion of running a doping ring. One the athletes implicated and later banned for doping (EPO) was Spanish speed walker Francisco Fernández (an Olympic medalist in 2004). Interestingly, in 2009, and the investigation had made headlines, Fernández denied involvement in doping and also indicated that he would be working with, you guessed it, Dr. Del Moral.
http://tennishasasteroidproblem.blogspot.com/2012/06/dr-luis-garcia-del-moral-and-tennis.html
