Zbigniew "Bishop" Dolegiewicz (July 8, 1953 – October 29, 2008) was a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

professional

track and field Track and field (or athletics in British English) is a sport that includes Competition#Sports, athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name used in North America is derived from where the sport takes place, a ru ...

athlete and coach who specialized in the

shot put The shot put is a track-and-field event involving "putting" (throwing) a heavy spherical Ball (sports), ball—the ''shot''—as far as possible. For men, the sport has been a part of the Olympic Games, modern Olympics since their 1896 Summer Olym ...

and the

discus throw The discus throw (), also known as disc throw, is a track and field sport in which the participant athlete throws an oblate spheroid weight (object), weight called a discus in an attempt to mark a further distance than other competitors. It is a ...

. A tall and muscular athlete, he won

All-America The All-America designation is an annual honor bestowed on outstanding athletes in the United States who are considered to be among the best athletes in their respective sport. Individuals receiving this distinction are typically added to an Al ...

n honours while at the

University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 students as of fall 2 ...

and was the 1975 World University champion in the shot put. A

silver medal A silver medal, in sports and other similar areas involving competition, is a medal made of, or plated with, silver awarded to the second-place finisher, or runner-up, of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, ...

at the 1975 Pan American Games was followed by his first Olympic appearance at the

1976 Summer Olympics The 1976 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Montreal 1976 (), were an international multi-sport event held from July 17 to August 1, 1976, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Montreal ...

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

. He won a

Commonwealth Games The Commonwealth Games is a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations, which consists mostly, but not exclusively, of territories of the former British Empire. The event was first held in 1930 ...

bronze on home turf in 1978 and also set a Canadian record of 20.83 m in the shot put that year. He won a second Pan American medal in 1979 and began competing in the

World's Strongest Man The World's Strongest Man is an international strongman competition held every year. Organized by American event management company IMG, a subsidiary of Endeavor, it is broadcast in the US during summers and in the UK around the end of Decemb ...

competition, highlighted by a fourth-place finish in 1980. He represented Canada at the first World Championships in Athletics in 1983, competing in the qualifying stage, and finished eleventh in the shot put final at the 1984 Olympic Games in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

– the best finish by a Canadian at the time. He retired in 1985 and moved into coaching, training throwers at the

University of Saskatchewan The University of Saskatchewan (U of S, or USask) is a Universities in Canada, Canadian public university, public research university, founded on March 19, 1907, and located on the east side of the South Saskatchewan River in Saskatoon, Saskatch ...

and Southern Utah University. A steroid user during much of his career, Dolegiewicz testified at the Dubin Inquiry in 1989, revealing that he had taken and distributed Dianabol. He sold the drug to Charlie Francis in 1981, who acquired it for his trainee Ben Johnson (the athlete whose failed test sparked the inquiry). Dolegiewicz also stated that he believed steroid use was so widespread in the throwing events that he could not name an individual who had not taken the drug. The comments to the governmental commission resulted in the loss of his Canadian shot record and his dismissal from his post at the University of Saskatchewan. He died in 2008 at the age of 55.

Career

College and early years

Originally from

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

, he began studying at the

in 1972 and ranked sixth in the shot put at the NCAA Men's Outdoor Track and Field Championship the next year.Janofsky, Michael (1989-06-27)
Canadian Shot-Putter Tells of Steroid Role
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

''. Retrieved on 2010-09-14. Muscular in build and standing at six foot six inches tall (1.98 m),Starkman, Randy (2008-10-31)
Shot putter admitted his steroid use
''The Star''. Retrieved 2010-09-14. he improved to fourth place at the following year's competition. During his time competing for the college's Texas Longhorns athletic team he earned

n honours three times: outdoors in 1973–1974, and indoors in 1974. He began competing internationally in 1975 and won a

gold medal A gold medal is a medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture. Since the eighteenth century, gold medals have b ...

at the 1975 World University Championships in Athletics before gaining a

at the

Pan American Games The Pan American Games, known as the Pan Am Games, is a continental multi-sport event in the Americas. It features thousands of athletes participating in competitions to win different summer sports. It is held among athletes from nations of th ...

.Pan American Games
GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 2010-09-14. In addition to this, he took national level honours with a win in the discus at the Canadian Athletics Championships.
GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 2010-09-14.

Olympics and World Strongman

After winning the event at the 1976 French Athletics Championships, he was selected in the discus for the Canadian Olympic team for the

1976 Montreal Olympics The 1976 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Montreal 1976 (), were an international multi-sport event held from July 17 to August 1, 1976, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Montreal w ...

. However, he fouled three times and ended his first major competition without a mark to his name. He won back-to-back national shot put titles in 1976–1977, but a year later he finished behind fellow Canadian Bruno Pauletto at both the Canadian championships and the

1978 Commonwealth Games The 1978 Commonwealth Games were held in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, from 3 to 12 August, two years after the 1976 Summer Olympics was held in Montreal, Quebec. They were boycotted by Nigeria, in protest at New Zealand's sporting contacts with a ...

Edmonton Edmonton is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Alberta. It is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Central Alberta ...

, where Dolegiewicz took the

bronze medal A bronze medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of bronze awarded to the third-place finisher of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc. The outright winner receives ...

with a throw of 18.45 m.Commonwealth Games Medalists - Athletics - Men
GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 2010-09-14. That year he achieved his personal best throw in the shot, tossing the metal ball a distance of 20.83 m – a Canadian record. Between 1976 and 1983, only he and Pauletto won the honour, with the pair dominating the Canadian national scene. Dolegiewicz regained his national shot put title in 1979 with a championship record throw of 20.23 m and finished ahead of Pauletto to take the silver medal at the

1979 Pan American Games The 1979 Pan American Games, officially the VIII Pan American Games () and commonly known as San Juan 1979, were a multi-sport event governed by the Panam Sports Organization (PASO), and were held in San Juan, Puerto Rico, from July 1 to Jul ...

. He also represented the

Americas The Americas, sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North America and South America.''Webster's New World College Dictionary'', 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio. When viewed as a sing ...

team at the 1979 IAAF World Cup, where he finished in fifth place. In the next season he did not take part in the

1980 Summer Olympics The 1980 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XXII Olympiad () and officially branded as Moscow 1980 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 19 July to 3 August 1980 in Moscow, Soviet Union, in present-day Russ ...

, but instead competed at the 1980 World's Strongest Man competition. He gained 56 points in the strength events and finished in fourth, one place behind fellow thrower-cum- strongman Geoff Capes. He returned at the 1981 World's Strongest Man, but managed only tenth place on that occasion. On the athletics circuit that year he won a silver at the 1981 Pacific Conference Games, as well as another national title and fifth place at the 1981 IAAF World Cup.

Personal records

* Weight over bar – over (1980 World's Strongest Man) (Former World Record) Dolegiewicz had begun to covertly use and sell anabolic steroids over this period. In mid-1981 he sold 500 tablets of Dianabol to track coach Charlie Francis, marking the beginning of sprinter Ben Johnson's drug use. The 1982 season saw him win his last national title in the shot put, but he also managed to win his first international medal in the discus that year, taking the bronze at the 1982 Commonwealth Games behind Bradley Cooper of the Bahamas and Rob Gray (Canada's number one in the event). The inaugural World Championships in Athletics was held in 1983 and Dolegiewicz was in attendance for Canada. However, neither he nor his compatriot Bruno Pauletto progressed past the qualification stage. Dolegiewicz also saw the opportunity to sell Dianabol at the international competition, and he brought along several hundred tablets of the drug on the trip to

Helsinki Helsinki () is the Capital city, capital and most populous List of cities and towns in Finland, city in Finland. It is on the shore of the Gulf of Finland and is the seat of southern Finland's Uusimaa region. About people live in the municipali ...

. He also began supplying Mike Spiritosa, another Canadian thrower, with drugs over the period. He gave his best Olympic performance at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, where he ranked eleventh in the shot put final of the competition. This was Canada's best ranking in the men's Olympic shot put until 2008. Dolegiewicz retired from the sport in 1985, feeling that it was inundated with drug users. With active competition behind him, he became a coach and took up a position at the

, later moving to Southern Utah University. Around this period he married a fellow throws athlete, Gale Zaphiropoulos who competed internationally for the United States, but the two later were divorced.

Role in Dubin Inquiry

The failed drug test of Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson at the

1988 Seoul Olympics The 1988 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIV Olympiad () and officially branded as Seoul 1988 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 17 September to 2 October 1988 in Seoul, South Korea. 159 nations were repres ...

sparked a national outcry and an investigation was launched into drug use within the sport – the Dubin Inquiry. Dolegiewicz testified as part of the governmental review. He admitted to distributing drugs and also his own personal usage, which spanned over a decade. Speaking before the commission, he estimated that half of the throwers at college level used steroids and said that among his peers on the global stage he "would be hard-pressed to find the name of an individual who hasn't used steroids". His revelations cost him both his coaching role at the University of Saskatchewan and his Canadian shot put record. Among his statements, he also said that he looked upon his past steroid use with regret, noting that he had suffered mentally and physically as a direct result. While still working as a coach, he had used these experiences in order to warn the next generation of athletes of the dangers of drug use: "I give people the examples of individuals that I have known that have gotten sick from the use of steroids and I try to come across and give the kids the message, 'Look, you're going to pay the price at some point in time. He began to have circulatory and heart problems and on October 29, 2008, he died in his sleep at the age of 55. He was survived by his wife Anna Dolegiewicz – a former student of his – as well as his parents and a brother.In memorial - Zbigniew Bishop Dolegiewicz
. Team 75 Plus. Retrieved on 2010-09-14.

References

External links

* * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Dolegiewicz, Bishop 1953 births 2008 deaths Track and field athletes from Toronto Canadian male discus throwers Canadian male shot putters Athletes (track and field) at the 1976 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 1984 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 1982 Commonwealth Games Athletes (track and field) at the 1978 Commonwealth Games Athletes (track and field) at the 1979 Pan American Games Athletes (track and field) at the 1975 Pan American Games Commonwealth Games bronze medallists for Canada Pan American Games silver medalists for Canada Pan American Games silver medalists in athletics (track and field) Texas Longhorns men's track and field athletes Southern Utah University faculty Academic staff of the University of Saskatchewan Canadian people of Polish descent Canadian strength athletes Canadian sportspeople in doping cases Doping cases in athletics Universiade medalists in athletics (track and field) World Athletics Championships athletes for Canada FISU World University Games gold medalists for Canada Olympic track and field athletes for Canada Medalists at the 1975 Summer Universiade Medalists at the 1975 Pan American Games Medalists at the 1979 Pan American Games Medallists at the 1978 Commonwealth Games Medallists at the 1982 Commonwealth Games Canadian Track and Field Championships winners 20th-century Canadian sportsmen Commonwealth Games bronze medallists in athletics