The Last Gold -- Movie Review

"I was being cheated. The thing was, no one else saw it"

Shirley Babashoff

Let me start by saying -- rent this movie from itunes and watch it. I loved it.

This documentary is the story of the 1976 US Women's Swim Team at the Montreal Olympics. It features Shirley Babashoff who many at that time felt was capable of winning 5 gold medals and become the female Mark Spitz. Or for those of you who don't remember who Mark Spitz is, the female Michael Phelps.

I don't want to give too much of the story away but Babashoff failed to accomplish that and it was because of the systematic doping of East German swimmers.

The greater theme of the movie, though, is when the world seems unwilling to recognize the obvious. The rise of the East German women swimmers was incredible and for anyone really studying the rise impossible to accomplish without chemical assistance. But when Babashoff complained at the Olympics or looked sullen on the medal stand the press labeled her "surly Shirley."

History, though, proved she was correct. East German sports scientists cheated Babashoff out of medals. Sadder yet are the stories of the East German athletes now in their 50's if still alive who lost their youth and some their health for the glory of their country.

This documentary is a particularly timely given the sports world's struggles with performance enhancing substances. How much is the media responsible for the rise in the use of performance enhancing substances? Which leads to Babashoff's quote that led off this post. The media  -- same as in 1976 -- seems to create heroes and heroines but -- with a few notable exceptions -- is unwilling to closely scrutinize performance.

Watch The Last Gold. Like all good sports movies, it's got a bit of Hoosiers in it but I don't want to give it away!