Should the IOC redistribute medals to swimmers who lost to doping East Germans in 1976?
Four decades after the East German women's swim team dominated at the 1976 Montreal Olympics, former Canadian Olympians are campaigning for medal redistribution after it was revealed the East Germans were linked to a state-sponsored doping program.
Today, all the tarnished gold medals still belong to the German athletes.
Former Canadian Olympic swimmer Anne Jardin Alexander remembers swimming against the East Germans. She tells The Current's Connie Walker that the Canadian team was very competitive.
"We really believed that we could do it. Our coaches said nothing was holding us back. We were in great form and we were ready to compete," says Alexander.
Her first encounter with the East German swimmers was in the changerooms. Alexander tells Walker that when she heard their voices, she thought they were men.
"I just thought, 'Okay I've got a big job to do because my gosh look how big and powerful they are.'"
"We were very naive back then about competition and cleanliness and all that stuff so, I really didn't think too much about it other than I have a big job ahead of me."
The Canadian swimming team did win two bronze medals at the 1976 Summer Olympics, but Alexander says it was tough not living up to everyone's expectations.
"It's really, really hard to not win when the rest of the country wants you to win and you sometimes come up short."
"I would love for my friends and teammates to receive medals for people that came fourth, fifth or sixth … that would be tremendous for the acknowledgement of it all."
"But it doesn't really change standing up on the block and doing your best at that particular time."
Listen to the full conversation at the top of this post.
This segment was produced by The Current's Howard Goldenthal.