Coachinginterview

HOW AN ABUSIVE COACH FORCED A 16-YEAR-OLD INTO USING EPO | RDMN CLIPS

with RDMN Clips

9:25·5 September 2023

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KEY TAKEAWAYS

Geneviève Jeanson, a former double world champion, was coerced into EPO use at age 16 (1998) by an abusive coach who used an anaemia diagnosis as the medical entry-point. The abuse and the doping became entangled from the start.
The "golden cage" trap: Jeanson couldn't report either the doping or the abuse because doing so would mean career-ending sanctions and financial collapse for the teammates and sponsors depending on her results.
24/7 paranoia is the lived reality. Jeanson studied cars in her street to spot unfamiliar vehicles, avoided her front door when something looked different, lost the capacity for normal presence.
Anti-doping agencies and federations have no structural mechanism to protect victims of sport abuse who are also coerced into doping — confess one, you confess both. The structural gap sustains the silence.
"One small injection actually makes you a criminal." The doping rule applies absolutely; the coercion context doesn't change that legally — which is why abused athletes rationally stay silent.

TOPICS

CYCLING COACHING

This episode explores one of the most harrowing doping stories in cycling—a 16-year-old athlete coerced into EPO use by an abusive coach who exploited her anemia diagnosis as justification. The conversation examines how abuse, blackmail, and career threats created an inescapable trap that made it impossible for her to report either the doping or the abuse without destroying everything she'd built.

Key Takeaways

Abuse victims in sports often can't come forward about exploitation because reporting it would simultaneously expose doping—creating a psychological prison where athletes feel they have no legal recourse
The paranoia accompanying doping use is all-consuming and extends to every relationship; athletes become isolated from teammates and friends, unable to maintain normal social connections due to fear of discovery
When a coach combines emotional/physical abuse with doping directives, athletes lose autonomy over their own bodies and careers—the 'choice' to use banned substances becomes coercive rather than voluntary
The Festina affair (1998) and widespread knowledge that 'everyone is doing it' created false reassurance that normalized doping among those in the know, making it seem like an acceptable solution to performance problems
Young athletes' entire identity and sense of belonging becomes tied to their sport, making threats to that career (or threats of coach suicide) devastatingly effective forms of control
Using EPO as 'treatment' for anemia masked the real issue: abuse and exploitation were being medicalized to justify prohibited substance use

Expert Quotes

"I was kind of trapped—I was in that prison that was a golden cage prison and I didn't understand how to get out of it"

"I felt like I went to the dark side of sport and that I was getting to a point in sport that I never thought I would be and that was not interesting to me"

"You think 24 hours a day, even when you sleep, and you hear a noise and you're like, is it a tester coming to my door? That's the only thing you think about, and you miss so much stuff in your life"

CLAIMS FROM THIS EPISODE

Each tagged with the strength of evidence behind it.

ANECDOTE
Geneviève Jeanson, former Canadian world champion cyclist (UCI Road and Time Trial Junior World Championships, 1999), was coerced into EPO use beginning at age 16 in 1998 — with her coach using a clinical anaemia diagnosis as the entry point.
Source: Geneviève Jeanson, interviewed on the Roadman Cycling podcast
EXPERT
Jeanson's "golden cage" framework: athletes coerced into doping cannot easily report the abuse because reporting it simultaneously confesses doping — which under WADA strict liability ends the career and collapses the financial structure around the rider.
Source: Geneviève Jeanson, Roadman Cycling podcast
ANECDOTE
Jeanson describes 24/7 paranoia as the lived reality of doping under threat: studying cars in her street, avoiding her front door when an unfamiliar vehicle appeared, focused attention on whether every noise meant anti-doping testers had arrived.
Source: Geneviève Jeanson, Roadman Cycling podcast
OPINION
Anti-doping agencies and sport federations currently lack a formal mechanism to protect athletes who are simultaneously victims of abuse and coerced into doping — a structural gap that effectively sustains the silence around such cases.
Source: Geneviève Jeanson, Roadman Cycling podcast

KEY QUOTES

“I could not go to my Federation because the doping would have come up and with doping I would have been suspended and at that time I mean I have a team I have a cycling team I am employing girls that are making a good salary so they have a little job they can live their dream also to be professional cyclists I have sponsors and obligation to those sponsors I can't really get another coach because he's going to kill me if I leave or he's going to commit suicide.”
Anonymous Guest (the cyclist) — Former professional cyclist and double world champion (road and time trial, 1999)

“I was studying the cars in the streets I was in just to make sure that I knew each car so if I saw a car that was not there usually I didn't want to go in I didn't want to go into my front door because you know it could be a tester.”
Anonymous Guest (the cyclist) — Former professional cyclist and double world champion (road and time trial, 1999)

“You think 24 hour a day even when you sleep and you hear a noise you're like is it that like a tester that's coming to my door that's the only thing you think about and you miss so much stuff in your life just because you're focused on that it's not worth it.”
Anonymous Guest (the cyclist) — Former professional cyclist and double world champion (road and time trial, 1999)

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT2 SECTIONS

Trapped Between Abuse and Doping

And that's why when we move on to this next chapter of doping that it's it's a difficult pill to swallow I've talked to plenty of athletes on the podcast and they've doped and they regret the decision and they had various motivations for it but this is so connected to the physical mental emotional and sexual torture that you were put through because now it's almost diffic it becomes difficult for you to come forward as a 17 18 year old and talk about any of abuse you suffered because the abuse is so linked now to your EPO usage which ends your cycling career which is all you care about at that point in your life yeah you're absolutely right I could not go to my Federation uh because the the doping would have come up and with doping I would have been suspended and at that time I mean I have a team I have a cycling team I am I'm employing girls that are making a good salary so they have a little job they can live their dream also to be professional cyclists I I have sponsors and obligation to those sponsors I can't really get another coach because he's going to kill me if I leave or he's going to commit suicide and then with another coach uh you know if I don't take the EPO my what are going to be my performances maybe they're gonna you know go down I have no idea of course they would but I have no idea um I couldn't go to the anti-doping agencies because the only thing they would see is is the performance enhancing drug use and I would get banned so I was kind of I I was trapped I was in in that prison that was a golden cage prison and I didn't did not understand how to get out of it so take me back the year is 1998 it's the year before you become the double world champion Road and time trial in 99 you're diagnosed with anemia your coach has gone all in so he needs you to make cash and you've come or your coach has come to this solution that the treatment for your anemia is EPO did you have an awareness what EPO was at the time I did because of the the fesa affair in 1998 um and that's going to sound super cliche but everybody that knew about the doping which was not very many people were like ah everybody is doing it and they have no test for it I I knew it was bad um I didn't like it I felt like I was going into that Rabbit Hole uh that was even more and more you know narrow I was getting into trouble that I could not really deal with I didn't know how to deal with what do you mean by trouble it's a secret that you can't share with anybody you're and and you're you're actually you're a criminal in the world you live in because if you take regular Society if you do something illegal you're a criminal so if I'm living in the World of Sport and I'm taking EPO which is banned I'm a criminal so now I'm the criminal in in the place I live in I'm being abused and I have kind of no way out so and all that at 16y Old um but yeah I knew I knew it was not yeah I I knew it this the moment the EPO went into your arms was that when I look at your story there's there's so many Crossroads and when people think about Crossroads they often think there's a conscious choice at these Crossroads but so many of your Crossroads and not to excuse some of these you know crossing the line because some of these things there is no excuse for but there is circumstances and justifications for it that make one person's decisions different to another and you definitely were working through an extraordinary set of circumstances that I've never heard a comparable story to this before that moment when EPO first went into your veins did that feel like another Crossroads like oh there's a line definitely crossed here it did I felt like I went to the dark side of sport and that I was getting to a point in sport that I never thought I would be and that was not interesting to me uh you know sports for me was always getting the best of my body and you know trying uh trying to have fun doing it um so it felt it felt very dark very dark and very lonely anyone I've talked to on the podcast who's crossed that line they said there's there's a couple of elements to it but one of the most difficult ones to deal with was the extreme paranoia that accompanied it cross the line and it's like looking around and going like I'm going to get caught there's testers coming I'm going to get caught and if people have recalled stories of like Army crawling on the ground on their own apartment because there's a knock on the front door did you have comparable experiences so much I was so paranoid Anthony I was studying the cars in the streets I was in just to make sure that I knew each car so if I saw a car that was not there usually I didn't want to go in I didn't want to go into my front door because you know it could be it could be a tester but then it gets you also paranoid with your friends and your teammates you know you I I was always I I could never live with uh you know in training camps and stuff stuff I could never be in the same apartment as my my teammates because those stupid products were there so I was always stuck with my coach in a different apartment with him without any contacts with their girls except uh you know when we were riding our bikes together so all these experiences before the ride and after the ride and having fun with the girls I didn't but then you think okay do they see it do they know that you know if they come to my house and for dinner are they going to see something different are going to are are they going to look around um and then when you travel I mean you're in a new place you have no idea who can show up you hear a knock on the door at night I mean even if it's your friend you don't want to go answer your door you know you're peeking through the blinds to see it's crazy it becomes so encompassing I mean I was never an addict of recreational drugs but I read many books of a heroin addict and one is uh Keith Richard's biography and he talks about where he was going on tour and always looking for heroin and how he would get it because he couldn't travel with it and that's the only thing he was thinking about how am I going to get the drug well for me it was not that but it you know you think 24 hour a day even when you sleep and you hear a noise you're like [ __ ] is it that like a tester that's coming to my door that's the only thing you think about and you you miss so much stuff in your life just because you're focused on that it's it's not worth it but it's crazy because you're your safe space is cycling it's the one thing where you fit in where you know the etiquette you know what to wear you're the cool kid in cycling and now with a simple injection you've ostracized yourself from the only community that you feel connection to yeah absolutely so um you're still part of the community but it's on the surface you don't really feel like you belong to that community and the the thoughts and the emotions and the paranoia you're experiencing they remind me so much I've had some I love the story of rebirths like no one really likes the story of the person who was good got better got better got better was clean CAU all the way up and then won everything and then retired happy it's not a very interesting story arc it's normally like good huge setback overcame the step back to have Victory and I've had some amazing people on the podcast where they've gone down a road of criminality and they've crossed a line into Gangland and they've come back to make other careers as professional athletes or movie stars but when they recall and tell me about those darkest times when they were involved in heavy criminality it's all the same emotions and paranoia that you're talking about it's the noise on the roof at 1:00 a.m.

EPO Paranoia and Outro

And they're wondering is someone coming to kill me you're wondering are testers the front door so it's crazy that one small injection actually makes you a criminal if you enjoyed this little clip from the podcast you can check out full episodes of the podcast on any podcast platform Apple Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts also you can click up here for another video that I know you're going to love and don't forget to subscribe to the channel see you next day

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Why did Genevieve Jeanson start using EPO?+

Geneviève Jeanson was coerced into using EPO at age 16 by her coach after being diagnosed with anaemia in 1998. She did not make the decision voluntarily. Her coach used the diagnosis as an entry point to introduce doping, framing it as a medical necessity before it became systematic abuse.

Why do abused athletes not report doping to anti-doping authorities?+

When abuse and doping are intertwined, reporting the abuse means confessing to doping, which carries automatic career-ending sanctions. Geneviève Jeanson explains that anti-doping agencies and sport federations have no mechanism to protect victims in this situation. The athlete faces losing everything, including sponsors and staff who depend on their results, so silence becomes the only rational option.

How did EPO use affect Genevieve Jeanson's daily life as a cyclist?+

Jeanson describes constant paranoia around anti-doping testers, isolation from teammates, and the pressure of knowing her entire support structure depended on her continued performance. She refers to her situation as a golden cage prison, where the financial obligations to sponsors and staff made it impossible to step away even as the abuse continued.

What is the golden cage problem in professional cycling doping cases?+

The golden cage refers to the trap elite athletes fall into when their income, team wages, and sponsor contracts all depend on sustained results achieved through doping. Walking away means financial collapse for everyone around them, not just themselves. Geneviève Jeanson uses the term to explain why young athletes coerced into doping cannot simply leave or speak out, even when they want to.

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Key Takeaways

Abuse victims in sports often can't come forward about exploitation because reporting it would simultaneously expose doping—creating a psychological prison where athletes feel they have no legal recourse

The paranoia accompanying doping use is all-consuming and extends to every relationship; athletes become isolated from teammates and friends, unable to maintain normal social connections due to fear of discovery

When a coach combines emotional/physical abuse with doping directives, athletes lose autonomy over their own bodies and careers—the 'choice' to use banned substances becomes coercive rather than voluntary

The Festina affair (1998) and widespread knowledge that 'everyone is doing it' created false reassurance that normalized doping among those in the know, making it seem like an acceptable solution to performance problems

Young athletes' entire identity and sense of belonging becomes tied to their sport, making threats to that career (or threats of coach suicide) devastatingly effective forms of control

Using EPO as 'treatment' for anemia masked the real issue: abuse and exploitation were being medicalized to justify prohibited substance use

Expert Quotes

"I was kind of trapped—I was in that prison that was a golden cage prison and I didn't understand how to get out of it"

"I felt like I went to the dark side of sport and that I was getting to a point in sport that I never thought I would be and that was not interesting to me"

"You think 24 hours a day, even when you sleep, and you hear a noise and you're like, is it a tester coming to my door? That's the only thing you think about, and you miss so much stuff in your life"

KEY QUOTES

“I could not go to my Federation because the doping would have come up and with doping I would have been suspended and at that time I mean I have a team I have a cycling team I am employing girls that are making a good salary so they have a little job they can live their dream also to be professional cyclists I have sponsors and obligation to those sponsors I can't really get another coach because he's going to kill me if I leave or he's going to commit suicide.”
Anonymous Guest (the cyclist) — Former professional cyclist and double world champion (road and time trial, 1999)

“I was studying the cars in the streets I was in just to make sure that I knew each car so if I saw a car that was not there usually I didn't want to go in I didn't want to go into my front door because you know it could be a tester.”
Anonymous Guest (the cyclist) — Former professional cyclist and double world champion (road and time trial, 1999)

“You think 24 hour a day even when you sleep and you hear a noise you're like is it that like a tester that's coming to my door that's the only thing you think about and you miss so much stuff in your life just because you're focused on that it's not worth it.”
Anonymous Guest (the cyclist) — Former professional cyclist and double world champion (road and time trial, 1999)

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Why did Genevieve Jeanson start using EPO?+

Why do abused athletes not report doping to anti-doping authorities?+

How did EPO use affect Genevieve Jeanson's daily life as a cyclist?+

What is the golden cage problem in professional cycling doping cases?+

HOW AN ABUSIVE COACH FORCED A 16-YEAR-OLD INTO USING EPO | RDMN CLIPS

Key Takeaways

Expert Quotes

CLAIMS FROM THIS EPISODE

KEY QUOTES

1.Trapped Between Abuse and Doping

2.EPO Paranoia and Outro

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

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HOW AN ABUSIVE COACH FORCED A 16-YEAR-OLD INTO USING EPO | RDMN CLIPS

Key Takeaways

Expert Quotes

CLAIMS FROM THIS EPISODE

KEY QUOTES

1.Trapped Between Abuse and Doping

2.EPO Paranoia and Outro

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

NEVER MISS AN EPISODE

READ THE GUIDE

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Trapped Between Abuse and Doping

EPO Paranoia and Outro

Trapped Between Abuse and Doping

EPO Paranoia and Outro