Dangsina, Indonesia's first female dope tester

Dangsina, Indonesia's first female dope tester

By Arif Suryobuwono

JAKARTA (JP): Only a privileged few have the authority to
watch champion athletes urinate and, when necessary, examine
their genitals.

One of the few is Dangsina Moeloek, the first Indonesian woman
ever to specialize in testing athletes for doping.

"Sometimes I have to squat in order to observe carefully
whether the urine is coming out as it should," said Dangsina, who
began her study of doping at the first Asian course on sports
medicine in India in 1979.

Before their urine is taken, athletes must be totally naked in
the doping control room. They are not allowed to bring anything
into the room and must not touch their genitals while urinating.

This ruling was announced at a medical symposium in Olympia,
Greece, in 1993.

"Back home from Greece, I applied the ruling to the 1993
National Games," she added.

"So far none of the athletes whose urine I have tested has
acted suspicious though I personally dislike the behavior of some
female Russian athletes who, while waiting to urinate, rubbed
their menses over their thighs," she said.

The chance to see the private parts of champions was, of
course, not what motivated the 50-year-old Dangsina to specialize
in the control of doping.

"I am a doctor," said Dangsina, a 1971 medical graduate of the
University of Indonesia, "so, seeing a male or female organ is
something very common to me. Sometimes it is even boring, but
it's part of my job."

Catch a thief

Her motivation is the excitement of "assuming the role of a
policeman who is trying to catch a thief," she said.

Dangsina was the first Indonesian to realize that top West
Javanese swimmer Catherine Surya, who scooped seven gold and two
silver medals at the 1993 National Games, had flunked her drug
test sent to the Beijing doping control center.

"I saw on the console how the curve made a very sharp rise
(leptocurvic). Had Catherine tested negative, the curve would
have been a normal one (platycurvic)," said the secretary of the
University of Indonesia's sports medicine program.

Minister of Investment Sanyoto Sastrowardoyo, who is also the
chairman of the Indonesian Swimming Association, found the result
hard to believe.

"He asked me to conduct a test of Catherine's B sample. I told
him I was afraid it wouldn't be necessary because all five A
samples I took from her (in five different events) tested
positive," she said.

An urine sample is split into two, the A and B samples, and a
positive result is only announced after the B test confirms the
finding of the A sample.

Catherine's urine was sampled more than once as she took part
in more than one swimming event. Catherine was later suspended
for two years.

"Regrettably, this case was only partially investigated. We
never knew who was really behind it," Dangsina revealed.

The drug laboratory in Beijing is one of the two laboratories
in Asia accredited by the International Olympic Committee. The
other is in Tokyo.

"We use the Beijing laboratory because the testing fee is
cheaper. In 1993 it charged US$150 per sample. Normally the fee
is 300 Swiss francs (US$200) a sample," said Dangsina.

Dangsina must commute to Beijing almost every year with bags
of urine in her luggage. She must personally bring the urine
samples to Beijing because courier companies do not accept
biological matters.

The 1993 National Games were the first games in which all
sports were tested. Before, only athletes from drug-prone sports,
like cycling and weight lifting, had samples taken.

At the 1993 Games, however, the Indonesian Target Shooting and
Hunting Association, chaired by Minister of Defense and Security
Edi Sudrajat, succeeded in excluding its athletes from the doping
test.

"They said they were not ready. Isn't that strange? I reported
their refusal to the games director and secretary-general, but
their reason was accepted," said the woman who presented a paper
on doping in Indonesia at the 1994 world congress of sports
medicine in Athens.

The minister's refusal was confirmed by Hario Tilarso who,
with Dangsina, made up the games' doping control committee. The
Indonesian Shooting Association was unavailable for comment.

Authority

"It was upsetting," said Dangsina, who had her way of
arresting the possible thief blocked. The unmarried lady then
realized where her authority stopped. She is supposed to demand
athletes, not their sports bodies, to get totally naked in front
of her.

The increasing use of performance-enhancing drugs among
athletes implies that doping-control specialists would be in
demand.

Dangsinga anticipated this and has worked at many sporting
events in Indonesia, including the 38th World Archery
Championships last August. She took 70 urine samples at the meet.

"During the 1993 Thomas and Uber Cup championships, I had to
wait for hours until Hariyanto Arbi urinated at 3 a.m. It was the
longest wait I have ever had," she said.

Dangsina was one of the nine sports medicine specialists
recognized by the Indonesian Medical Association in 1990. Of the
nine, only she and Hario Tilarso were employed at Indonesian
championships.

Despite the limited number of specialists, Dangsina's salary
expectations are seldom met.

"I am often underpaid. I often have to work long hours. But
they never take that into account," she said.

"Perhaps they think the job is only taking athletes' urine.
Menial. But that's it. As a doping control specialist in
Indonesia you cannot, and perhaps shouldn't, expect more,"
Dangsinga concluded.