December 9, 2006 – An interview with Dr. Fuentes, who is at the centre of the ongoing Operacion Puerto doping scandal and allegedly had 58 top cyclists as his “patients”, appeared on Thursday in Le Monde.

Fuentes claims that the published list of his “patients” includes cyclists whom he has never seen while other names of cyclists he has “treated” do not appear on the list. He also mentions that he saw athletes in other domains: tennis, soccer, handball, boxing, etc. (whose names have apparently not be made public). Fuentes speculates that sports other than cycling have a “powerful legal machinery” to defend their interests.

Fuentes began working with the Spanish Athletics Federation in the 1980s. He confirmed to have been sent to former communist countries, reputed for their sports doping, “to learn about the methods to help Spanish athletes obtain their best output.” Fuentes has extensive contacts within Spanish soccer teams and served as the team doctor of the Las Palmas soccer team in 2002. When asked by Le Monde if he had worked with Real Madrid (David Beckham’s team) and FC Barcelona, Fuentes replied:

“I can’t answer (that question). I have received death threats. I was told that, if I revealed certain things, that either me or my family could have serious problems. They threatened me three times. I don’t want to be threatened a fourth time.”

When asked about his alleged implication in the doping scandal, Fuentes was clear:

“I have not committed any crime against public health. In 29 years of professional practice, none of my patients had the slightest health problem. I try to protect the health of athletes. It’s high calibre sports that are dangerous. In my doctoral thesis, I quantified the muscular damage caused by a staged cycling event. What is dangerous for the health of athletes is the super-charged calendar of competitions and the criminal (racing) trajectories (high level cyclists must face)…for the benefit of the (public) spectacle.”

“High level professional sports represent the only profession in the world where it is seen in a bad light if (an athlete takes medication to help him). If an athlete puts his health in danger by practicing his profession, I react like a doctor (should). If the medication used to protect the athlete is on the list of (banned) doping products, this is a secondary (consideration.)”

Fuentes used the example of hematocrit (the percentage of whole blood composed of red blood cells), saying that an athlete can safely support a level of it over 50%. He suggests that attacking the Alps with a hematocrit level of only 31% can be dangerous.
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