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The former national team doctor has taken the blame for giving Therese Johaug the drug that led to the 18-month suspension. In a new interview, try to explain the mistake.
There is little news in Sports Norway as in this decade that has received more publicity or that has shocked more than the Johaug case.
On October 13, 2016, news came that Therese Johaug, one of Norway’s largest country profiles, had tested positive for the banned substance clostebol.
At a press conference at the Ullevaal stadium, the ski star claimed his innocence and explained that he had unknowingly ingested the drug through a cream he had received to treat a sore lip.
The then national team doctor Fredrik S. Bendiksen attended the same press conference and took the blame for Johaug using the drug. He explained that it was he who had given Johaug the medicine.
The Norwegian ski star was eventually sentenced to 18 months’ suspension in the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
Bendiksen resigned as doctor for the national team with immediate effect even before a verdict was rendered. Since then, the doctor has been silent, despite great pressure from the media in the time that followed.
– became too much
Now, more than four years later, Bendiksen has appeared in an interview with Tidsskriftet, the member magazine of the Norwegian Medical Association.
He still has strong memories of the day when all of Norway learned that Johaug had been arrested for doping and that he was one of the reasons things had gone wrong.
– It was absolutely awful. And surreal. The feeling that this is not happening to me, but you understand that it is, says Bendiksen to Tidsskriftet.
Also read: Johaug has no doubts after seeing Bjørgen in training
The doctor still takes the blame for what happened, but tries to explain how it could have gone so wrong, that he ended up giving Johaug the drug Trofordermin while they were on a hill in northern Italy.
He says that high work pressure was a key factor.
– If your work pressure is too great over time and the requirements consistently exceed what you can reasonably meet, then my claim is that you increase the risk of mistakes. That is the only causal link I can see now, four years later. I had gone through an extremely extreme work period with very high demands, as well as an illness in the family that caught my attention. It was just too much, Bendiksen explains.
The doctor says that some of the checkpoints they normally attack did not do so at the time.
Also read: FIS document reveals new details on cross-country doping scandal
Panic attack
The case received enormous attention in Scandinavia.
Bendiksen admits that he underestimated what was expected.
Already when he returned home to Hamar after the press conference at Ullevaal Stadium four years ago, Bendiksen panicked and had a strong physical reaction.
– I was not prepared for what came next, he says.
Also read: This is how Northug reacted to Iversen’s moving tears
In the time that followed, she experienced enormous media pressure and found it difficult to leave the house without looking over her shoulder the entire time.
Today, however, things are much better with Bendiksen.
At the same time, he says in the interview that he also has nothing bad to say about his former employer. He explains that he is in regular contact with the management of the Norwegian Ski Federation, which describes them as “very affectionate”.
Also read: Iversen Strikes Back Critics: – Incorrect Development
Therese Johaug is also doing much better than four years ago. Johaug missed both the World Cup and the Olympics as a result of the exclusion he received, but has thrown himself onto the track in force after his return.
In 2019, Johaug took home three individual golds at the World Cup in Seefeld. Last season she won the World Cup excellently and is again a big favorite ahead of the next world championship in Oberstdorf later this winter.
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