Lindsey Vonn has been under suspicion of performance enhancing drug use since it was discovered that she has spent time with Dr. Bernd Pansold, a doctor who gave performance enhancing drugs to German athletes in the 70s and 80s and served prison time in Germany for doing so.
Bernd is now a doctor for Red Bull (seems strange, right?). Lindsey Vonn’s biggest sponsor is Red Bull. See the connection? Outside Magazine’s Gordy Megroz does, too and called up Red Bull to learn more about the connection between performance enhancing drugs and alpine ski racing:
***
“Lindsey Vonn & the Vast Doping Potential in Ski Racing“ – by Gordy Megroz for Outside Magazine
A few weeks ago, the New York Daily News ran a story that made a very tenuous connection between Olympic ski racer Lindsey Vonn and Bernd Pansold, a doctor who was part of a program that surreptitiously administered steroids to East German athletes in the 1970s and 1980s. Pansold is now a doctor for Red Bull, Vonn’s biggest sponsor, and works to help improve the athletic performance of several athletes that the Austrian beverage and media company endorses. The story pointed out that Vonn’s interactions with Pansold were limited—that they’d exchanged “hellos”—and that Vonn had never failed a drug test. So when I finished reading, I felt strongly that the story hadn’t shown any real evidence that Vonn had ever taken performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs). But it did make me wonder: Are PEDs a problem among elite alpine ski racers? – Gordy Megroz/Outside Magazine
When I contacted the International Ski Federation (FIS), ski racing’s governing body, they told me that urine samples are used the majority of the time to test athletes for illegal substances, and that blood tests are only used at the World Championship and during the off-season. Here’s the problem with that: urine tests pick up on substances like EPO, while blood tests detect doping agents like human growth hormone (hGH), a substance that stimulates muscle growth. – Gordy Megroz/Outside Magazine
At the Council of Fashion Designers of America Awards last night in New York City, agents from the International Olympic Committee—yet another agency that monitors blood doping—asked a dolled up Lindsey Vonn to walk to a nearby bathroom and submit to a test. Of course, it was only a urine test. – Gordy Megroz/Outside Magazine
***
Read the full Outside Magazine Article here: Lindsey Vonn Drugs
Read New York Daily Times article about Vonn & Dr. Pansold: Vonn, Pansold, Red Bull, Drugs
The craziest part of this article is when Gordy Megroz calls Red Bull and asks them about all this. Red Bull claims that none of their 600 athletes has ever been supspected of using doping. Which is untrue as two of their players on the New York Red Bulls have tested positive and been suspended for androstatriendione and boldenone metabolites being found in their blood. This article is a very good read.
Red Bull is associated with many ‘sports’, events, stunts, and tricks that are not regulated, that have no rules or standards whatsoever. Those ‘athletes’ are free to hurt themselves quickly or slowly.
Tiger must be turning her into a bad girl…
Why would Red Bull hire Pansold in the first place? Seems like a mistake and opens the door for these kind of questions. There are so many respected dr’s out there that the only assumption I can make is yes, doping is going down here. If I were one of these athletes, I would not want to be associated, at all, with Dr. Pansold. Lindsey has a lot to lose here just by being associated with him. I guess the money talks though but it makes you wonder just WTF Red Bull is thinking…..
Hard to rule anything out after lance. There are clearly ways