December 27, 2007 (Tenerife, Canary Islands) – The Spanish doctor at the centre of the 2006 Puerto Affair does not see himself as a villain, but rather as a future Nobel Prize nominee reports AFP citing an interview with the German weekly Stern. Dr. Eufemiano Fuentes sharply criticizes the “circus” of high level athletic competitions where the health of athletes is a secondary consideration. The doctor singles out cycling, claiming that the body of a professional cyclist is not made to endure three weeks of constant top level endurance (i.e. Tour de France or similar stage races).

Fuentes, 52, also reveals that he went through a depression in 2006 after Spanish authorities raided his Madrid clinic as part of the Puerto investigation. He has long maintained that doping can be therapeutic medicine. His remarks suggest that, once public opinion comes around to his way of thinking, he might receive the Nobel Prize in 20 years time. “Either that or they will kill me.”

Some 60 professional cyclists have been implicated as “patients” of Fuentes, most notably Italy’s Ivan Basso (winner of the Giro d’Italia in 2006) and Germany’s Jan Ullrich (winner of the 1997 TdF). According to another interview with the doctor published in late 2006 by Le Monde, Fuentes claims that the published list of his “patients” includes cyclists whom he has never seen while other cyclists he has “treated” do not appear on the list. He also mentions that he saw athletes in other sports: 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 stage races in cycling. What is dangerous for the health of athletes is the super-charged calendar of competitions and the criminal racing trajectories that high level cyclists must face…for the benefit of the public spectacle.”