Filmmaker and journalist Jill Yesko is a former cyclist who represented the United States in the 1983 World University Games and competed in the Olympic Trials. She is one of only a handful of women documentary filmmakers who specialize in sports.
Jill's documentary Tainted Blood: The Untold Story of the 1984 Olympic Blood Doping Scandal uncovers the biggest doping scandal in U.S. Olympic history. Tainted Blood was recently screened in Spain at the International Cycling Film Festival and has been shown around the U.S. in theaters, at academic conferences and at private screenings. In 2018 the film will screen at two international Olympic conferences. Tainted Blood currently streams on Amazon.
In addition to film making, Jill's writing has appeared in Women's Sports & Fitness, Shape, Fitness Swimmer, and numerous other magazines. Jill is the author of the acclaimed crime fiction novels and has been profiled in O, the Oprah magazine.
www.taintedbloodfilm.com- Trailer for Tainted Blood: The Untold Story of the 1984 Olympic Blood Doping Scandal
Before Lance Armstrong's doping allegations, the 1984 U.S. Olympic Cycling Team blood doped their way to a record nine medals at the Los Angeles Olympics.
After the Games, a scandal erupted. Had the cyclists done something wrong? According to the cyclists and their coach, they did nothing wrong. According to the U.S. Olympic Committee the coaches manipulated the athletes into a form of doping that could have jeopardized their medals.
How far would you go for a gold medal? Would you infuse another person's blood in your veins? Would you do something that was ethically suspect but technically illegal?
Using never seen footage and interviews Tainted Blood: The Untold Story of the 1984 Olympic blood doping scandal tells the story of how and why the athlete doped. Were the athletes mere puppets of their coaches? Did the coaches worry that infusing other people's blood into their athletes' veins would harm them?
Set against the backdrop of the 1984 summer Olympics where the Russian and Eastern European teams did not compete due to their boycott, Tainted Blood shows you the real story behind the U.S. record number of Olympic cycling medals.