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Of Gold and Drugs September 4, 1972 
MUNICH, West Germany-To
nobodyís surprise, Mark Spitz
won his seventh gold medal of the
Olympics tonight with a seventh worldrecord
swimming performance. But the
luster of Spitzís final race and subsequent
world-record victories by
Mike Burton, Melissa Belote and
Karen Moe were tarnished by the
stunning disqualification of an
asthmatic American swimming
gold medalist on drugging charges.The 22-year-old Spitz, in what may have been his final race before he retires to pursue a career in dentistry, swam the butterfly leg in the 400-meter medley relay. The Californian turned a tight team duel with East Germany into a two body-length lead for Jerry Heidenreich on the anchor free-style leg, as the Americans clocked 3 minutes 48.16 seconds. The victory in the concluding race of the swimming competition gave Spitz four individual golds [100 and 200-free-style and 100 and 200 butterfly] and three relay titles- an achievement unequaled by a single athlete in one Olympics. But even as Spitz and his teammates received a standing ovation from the capacity crowd of 10,000, some members of the American team were in tears over the disqualification of Rick DeMont, a 16-year-old high school senior from San Rafael, Calif. DeMont, who won the 400- meter free-style earlier in the competition, was dropped from the finals of the 1,500 minutes before the race tonight because his doping test had turned up positive following the 400. Kenneth Treadway, manager of the menís team, said that DeMont regularly takes a prescription known as Malax, which contains an ephedrine. DeMont listed the special medication on his Olympic forms during final processing in the United States, but American team doctors apparently did not clear the prescription with the medical committee of the International Olympic Committee. "Heís been taking that medication since he was a little boy," said Mrs. Betty DeMont, who tried to comfort her tearful son when he was informed of the disqualification at poolside. According to the drug control manual of the I.O.C. medical committee, ephedrine is included among a group of drugs or related amphetamines that can affect an athleteís performance. "They have a particular point of attack in the vegetative nervous system, in addition to their central stimulating effect and the resulting elimination of fatigue," the manual, printed earlier this summer, states on the reason for the ban. "These drugs, as well as some of different pharmaceutical nature, which act similarly such as ephedrine . . . increase the fonicity of the sympathetic nerves which must be active in any great exertion." The decision to disqualify DeMont was made after a recheck of his urinalysis today, and a second meeting of the I.O.C. Medical Committee. His first urinalysis after the 400 had proved positive. The committee granted DeMont an opportunity to explain the situation earlier today, but ruled that he was to be disqualified from the 1,500. "The question of whether he will have to return his medal will be submitted to the I.O.C. Executive Committee," Prince Alexandre de Merode, chairman of the Medical Committee, said. The tests proved positive 12 parts in a million -a trace one doctor here described as an "infinitesmal amount." Mark Spitz retired from swimming after the Games, becoming a poster boy and making commercials for Schick and Speedo. He later had a successful career in real estate. Rick DeMont had to return his gold medal. Later the assistant head swim coach at the University of Arizona, he has continually asked for it back, only to be denied. |
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 Associated Press
Mark Spitz displaying the five swimming gold medals he had by Aug. 31 at
the Munich Games. Within the next five days he won a sixth and a seventh-
the most ever, regardless of sport, in a single Olympics.
Runners Up
1951: Maureen (Little Mo) Connolly, 16, of San Diego, became an American tennis sensation by winning the United States womenís nationals at Forest Hills, N.Y., in three sets over Shirley Fry of Akron, Ohio. Connolly won three straight U.S. titles (see Sept. 7) and, in 1953, the first Grand Slam by a woman, but her career was cut short by a horse-riding accident. 1993: Jim Abbott of the Yankees, the former University of Michigan star and United States baseball Olympian who was born without a right hand, pitched a 40 no-hitter against the visiting Cleveland Indians. He got Carlos Baerga to ground out to shortstop Randy Velarde for the final out. 1976: Billy Haughton, driving the 3-year-old trotter Steve Lobell, won the Hambletonian Classic, trottingís crown jewel, in an exhausting fourth-heat raceoff in scorching weather at the Du Quoin State Fairgrounds in Illinois. The horse collapsed in his stable after going into shock but was later revived. The Hambletonian now has a three-heat limit. |
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