Topic: News:Failed doping appeals rule two lifters out of Melbourne

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

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Weight On His Shoulders
By Mike O'Connor  

He won gold at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne but believes that because the sport at Olympic level is riddled with illegal drug-taking, he has no chance of a podium finish in Beijing.

At 23, Ben Turner says he is finished as a weightlifter despite devoting the past six years of his young life to this punishing sport.

He is short at 167cm and broad with a powerful neck and muscled forearms which bulge in his T-shirt as we sit at the kitchen table in the family home at Carina, on Brisbane's southside, where he lives and ponders his future.

"I was 16 when I first started weightlifting but I'd always loved sport," he says.

"I started playing Aussie rules when I was seven and cricket when I was eight and union and rugby league when I was 10.

"I was playing rugby union, rugby league, cricket and Aussie rules all at the same time at one point.

"It was fairly hectic and then weightlifting took over.

"You can't really do anything else when you're doing weightlifting because it requires so much recovery time. I narrowly missed out on the 2002 Commonwealth Games team.

"I tried to build up for the 2004 Olympics but we only got to send one man because we stuffed up our qualifying."

I wonder how you can manage to do that but decide to let it pass.

"I went to school at Iona College at Wynnum and I'm working down there at the moment doing some strengthening work with the rugby players," he continues.

When asked his ambition, his answer surprises me.

"All I've ever wanted to do is be an airline pilot. It's all I've wanted since I was 10 years old," he says.

"I'm trying to work out the best way to set something up along those lines.

"I'd give all the sport away today to get into a course to do that and I've made some inquiries but the financial constraints are pretty harsh."

Turner looks trim and solid, but says he has put on 6kg since winning his gold meal in the 69kg category at the Games.

"I had to drop 5kg for the last event in Melbourne but I've gone up to 75kg at the moment because I'm relaxing," he says.

I ask if lifting weights endlessly in training sessions becomes tedious and he attempts to remedy my ignorance by reciting the list of exercises he performs.

"There's the snatch, power snatch, snatch from hand, snatch from knees, snatch off the blocks, clean, power clean, lift jerk, jerk off reach, jerk off block, clean from hang, power clean from hang, off the blocks – there's a lot of variations.

"The week is comprised of different exercises and it gets fairly technical.

"I guess we're like swimmers who must get tired of going up and down the pool. It's repetitive but that's what training for sport is like."

His success over the past years has taken him all over Australia and to New Zealand, Kiribati, Nuie, Fiji, Tonga, US, Mexico, Canada, Czech Republic and Poland.

It is a success, however, that has been soured by the drug-taking which he says is commonplace among non-Australian competitors.

"One thing pushing me out of the sport is that I've got no chance of winning an Olympic medal in weightlifting. It's such a drug-ridden sport, particularly in Europe and China and all those Asian countries, so you've just got no chance," he says.

"Our drug-testing in Australia is so stringent that we can't take a thing. We have to check everything we put in our mouths and there are even people out there who will try and spike you with drugs but, on the world stage, it disadvantages us so much.

"It's open slather for them but we can't touch the stuff. What we lift and what they lift in the same bodyweight categories is ridiculous. At 69kg (bodyweight), my best total was 299kg and the world record is 357kg. That's another 58kg. It's just ridiculous that anyone at 69kg can lift that much (without taking drugs).

"They test them at Olympic level but they come off their drugs in time or do whatever they do to get away with it. There's no way they can lift that much drug-free. It's been like that for ages in weight lifting. There's nothing you can do about it but it makes it very hard for us to get anywhere on the world stage."

He offers a level playing field suggestion unlikely to be taken up by Olympic officials.

"The only fair way would be for them to say: 'Just go for it. Take whatever you want. Don't worry about drug-testing'."

Drugs, however, are not the only problem Turner cites as blighting his chosen following.

"The sport is in financial ruin and I'm owed a bit of money in prior Commonwealth Games funding. I'm thinking of switching to track cycling. I think it's a good time to leave, to go on a good note," he says.

Six years of rigorous training, pushing his body to its limit, also has taken its toll.

"I've got knee injuries as well. I've had knee troubles for a year now. It's been so painful over the last year and I could really do some long-term damage if I keep trying to do this. Your knees, joints, elbows, shoulders and hips take a lot of pounding, although I don't have any problems with my wrists or shoulders," he says.

"I just don't want to be a cripple by the time I'm 40. You can snap your knee, dislocate it, you could do anything."

Turner is a serious, intense young man but he smiles when he recounts his team's Melbourne performance.

"We beat the men's swimming team," he says. "They got one gold meal and we got four. It was an awesome experience".

While he was spending six years training to represent his country, his peers went on to university and have now launched careers, but Turner has no regrets.

I make the obvious point that six years is a big chunk out of a 23-year lifetime but he says he is satisfied with the choices he has made.

"You make a sacrifice but I achieved what I wanted out of it because in Australian weight lifting terms, there's no higher achievement than a Commonwealth Games gold because we have no chance at Olympic level," he says.

Turner's dedication and determination have delivered him his triumph but it seems that the big challenges still lie ahead.

Photo by Jeff Camden

[Pete_Stewart]

Very nice article but it basically points out what most people feel already that the top lifters are on gear and that doping in Weightlifting is rife.

[Gabriel Grinstead]

Very nice article but it basically points out what most people feel already that the top lifters are on gear and that doping in Weightlifting is rife.

That is certainly how I feel about it. No more than other sport though.