CodeBlueBlog: CSI: MEDBLOGS...AN ETHIOPIAN WOMAN DIES IN THE FORREST AND NO ONE HEARS

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« CSI: Medblogs.....Sports Agent Changes the Official Story of Alem Techale's Death | Main | Terri Schiavo To Be Executed Because She is Not A Murderer »

CSI: MEDBLOGS...AN ETHIOPIAN WOMAN DIES IN THE FORREST AND NO ONE HEARS

A Man, A Plan, A Plot: What Price Running Glory?

Kenya's world 5,000 meters champion Eliud Kipchoge is running around telling the world that he and other Kenyans have "plotted" out a "Master Plan" to defeat Ethiopia's multiple world cross country champion Kenenisa Bekele.

Said Kipchoge:

"We have a master plan to beat him. We have enough personnel and ammunition to execute the master plan and France will be his Waterloo"

The allusions to war and execution are not unintentional analogical trivialities. In case you didn't know, success at running means riches beyond dreams for the Kenyans and Ethiopians. Although we, in the West, maintain simple illusions about these African runners based on our fanciful notions of their origins; reality is indeed different. These are world class athletes, involved in cut-throat competition...for money and fame. They spend half the year travelling the globe, have powerful agents and they are known to indulge in the trappings of success...like most everyone else:

At a cross-country meet in Eldoret this past November, four former Kenyan stars arrived in separate Mercedes-Benz sedans, all with curtained windows, each driven by a chauffeur. Two-time Boston Marathon champion Moses Tanui has built himself a mansion so large that acquaintances wonder if he sleeps in a different bedroom each night of the month.

What's it worth to African women? Well, Kenyan Catherine Ndereba set the marathon world record in Chicago in October of 2001, and on that single day she earned $75,000 for the victory, $100,000 for breaking the world record and a 2001 Volkswagen Jetta worth $26,125. She also received an appearance fee for simply participating, an undisclosed sum that is certainly six figures.

The average annual income in Kenya is $360.

The Death of Alem Techale

The stakes could not have been higher this year, especially for the 18 year-old Ethiopian female middle distance runner, Alem Techale. Techale won young, scoring a surprising victory 18 months ago in the world youth 1500m title. Since then, Alem got a Dutch agent, a world famous boyfriend/fiancee (the aforementioned Ethiopian star Kenenisa Bekele) and the burden of early success , which a string of injuries had so far prevented her from repeating.

It is important to remember that we are not talking about innocent country natives jogging barefoot through the forests of Africa, propelled by the glorious instincts of running. These are serious women with a serious purpose: Take advantage of their athletic talents to become successful.

Women runners from Africa have the same problems as women in other sports (and life) everywhere as this account of female Kenyan runners attests to:

Many Kenyan girls aren't prepared to stand up to overbearing agents, fend off sexual advances from male athletes and coaches, or protect their winnings from relatives who feel entitled to a share.

It's impossible to know how many promising careers have been derailed by such problems; the situation isn't discussed openly. It is clear, however, that many of Kenya's talented girls never advance beyond the junior level.

Given these revisions of common perception we need to again think over the situation of Alem's death:

On January 4th 2005, Techale was alone with fiancee Bekele -- on a training run in the hilly forrests outside Addis Ababa -- when she reportedly collapsed and died. She was quickly buried the next day without an autopsy. There was no significant investigation of her death and there have been no explanations for its occurrence, as I have written about in multiple previous posts.

The Headline Fallacy

Without a murmur, the world accepts the presumption that Alem Techale simply died a sudden death from a cardiac cause, despite the complete improbability of that event, as I have detailed previously.

This is a phenomenon of selective attention. When young athletes die it makes headline news, and a "cardiac" cause is almost always associated with the death. This notoriety taints recall and causes a statistical indifference which buffers the normal impulses of inquiry against the rarity of the occurrence. This is why no one even BLINKED when many media outlets reported that Techale had a 'heart attack", an idea which -- in the context of an 18 year old super athlete -- is patently absurd.

However, we must all remember, importantly, that all notions and studies of sudden cardiac death in athletes are formed after careful analysis of the data, including the post mortem exam. Therefore, without the data, as in this case, it would be criminal to assume sudden cardiac death.

Selective attention is alloyed into pig iron with antiquated preconceptions of these African athletes being beyond scandal or immune from the same temptations other athletes face. The perception of the Ethiopian runners as some manner of bumpkins, or free bucolic spirits running barefoot thorough the mountains and just 'doin what comes naturally creates preconceptions that deter serious evaluation of just what has happened here.

The fact is that there is no way this young woman should drop dead while running. And there is no way this mechanism of death should be accepted by the public without an autopsy and an investigation.

Bekele, In the Forest, With The Ice Pick

If we were asked to consider the alternative explanations for Alem Techale's death they would be listed as:

Death as a consequence of using performance enhancing drugs

Death as a consequence of other medications

Murder or accidental death by undetected trauma

In the United States, every detective worth his badge will tell you that if a girlfriend goes away alone with her boyfriend and he brings her back dead, the first ten people on the suspect list are the boyfriend. Yet Bekele goes unquestioned and his sketchy and sometimes contradictory recounting of the event (did he carry her to his car or go get his car...and what car are we talking about?) goes unchallenged.

What was Alem's relationship with Bekele? Were there items of contention between them? Were they still planning to get married? What exactly were their plans? Was there any pressure on Alem to win?

Do we not want these questions answered?

Tonya Harding Couldn't Say It Better

And what about competitors? We easily imagine Techale dying from an impossibly rare cardiac event, so can it be beyond our imagination to posit a competitor's sabotage? As quoted in the beginning of this article, the Kenyan runner, Eliud Kipchoge is intent enough on the stakes to publically declare his bellicose plans to overcome Kenenisa Bekele; and he followed that statement with this rather cold acknowledgement of the tragic demise of Bekele's betrothed:

"Even if I don't win the 12 kms title, we are working on a grand plan to tame Bekele. I am sorry for him and I condole with him after losing his fiancee only this week. But Kenyan athletes have decided that it is time the title returned home," he said.

Is it cold hearted? Or a message to the Ethiopians?

Alem Techale had a Dutch sports agent, Jos Hermans (see my post here), who also happens to be the agent for Kenenisa Bekele, as well as many other African runners. Hermens attended the funeral of Techale and consoled Bekele while at the same time offering contradictory stories to the press concerning Techale's death.

Couldn't Hermens shed some light on these issues?

Shouldn't he be more closely questioned?

Thicker Than Water?

Elite athletes have been toying with blood doping, and now it's biotech replacement, erythropoietin (EPO), for years. EPO was highly implicated in a rash of cycling deaths in young, otherwise healthy athletes and it is the performance-enhancing drug Lance Armstrong stands accused of abusing.

Erythropoietin is a drug that causes an increase in the density of red blood cells. Long distance athletes have been experimenting with EPO for years and multiple deaths in young athletes -- certainly many more deaths than by cardiac malformation -- have implicated EPO use to enhance performance as a causitive agent.

It is not unthinkable that Alem, who had tremendous success at an early age, and had so much at stake, would be spurred to experiment with EPO. She had been injured chronically over the past year, and with her career, fame, and pending marriage to a top runner all in the balance -- who knows whether or not she might use the drug?

Achilles and the Arrow

And what of Alem's injury? She was reported to be suffering from thigh and calf problems as well as chronic achilles tendon injury for which she sought treatment from a Dr. Hans-Wilhelm Mueller-Wohlfahrt. Dr. Wohlfahrt is renown for his association with several world-class athletes as well as his weird homeopathic remedies for musculoskeletal injuries.

Dr. Wolfgang touts an oral enzyme preparation containing many digestive enzymes as a kind of antiinflammatory agent. Press reports also identify Wohlfahrt as administering bizarre injections containing extracts from turkeys and cows.

Did Wolgang give Alem any medications -- homeopathic or otherwise? Did she take them? Did she understand how to take them and how much of the preparations were necessary?

No Rest In Peace

There are many reasons why the death of Alem Techale should not be let to rest in this way. If we don't know how she died, we cannot learn from her death.

Other runners may die unnecessarily from causes that may be further elucidated here. Techale's own relatives could harbor defects that are amenable to repair should they be found to be genetic and inheritable.

Without an adequate investigation, and no data revealed, speculation becomes a valid form of inquiry. I would think that if for no other reason, Kenenisa Bekele and the rest of the Ethiopian runners would want the whole truth known.

Otherwise, speculation will now and forever be centered around Bekele, Wohlfarht, Hermens, and EPO. And the past can haunt, forever, as many public figures have discovered before, and will discover again.

Don't let Alem Techale's death go unexplained.

Posted by Doctor CBB on January 24, 2005 at 02:10 PM | Permalink

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