In reports last week ZDF created doping conspiracy theories about American Olympians. The athletes were not directly accused of doping, but weird questions were being asked.
The summary of the report called “Zum Ziel hin schneller: Gedopt?” (“Strong finish: Doped?”) reads like this:
Die US-Schwimmer bei Olympia begeistern durch ihre sportlichen Leistungen. Auch Leichtathleten werden immer öfter „zum Ziel hin schneller“. Für Kritiker ist das ein klarer Hinweis auf Doping.
Die US swimmers enthuse at the Olympics by their athletic achievements. The track and field athletes get faster towards the end of the race, too. For critics this is a clear indication for doping.
The athletes mentioned to make this point are Michael Phelps, Dara Torres, Muna Lee and Allison Felix. All American.
Of course, you may call this objective reporting, but I`d rather call it spreading unproven innuendoes. And this is putting things very nicely.
Oh by the way, have you seen the strong finish of German Olympian Britta Steffen when she actually beat the American swimmer Dara Torres in the 50-metre freestyle? That was a strong finish indeed!
But I am not going to apply ZDF logic to this. I only know that although I am patriotic and saddened to see that Germany is only fifth in golden medal ranking, in this particular race I would have liked seeing Dara Torres win. I think she is awesome to swim such a race being 41 years old. Congratulations to both medal winners!