Ota Zaremba, 1980 Olympic weightlifting champion who spoke out about doping, dies at 68

Ota Zaremba, who won a weightlifting gold medal at the 1980 Moscow Olympics before admitting to using performance-enhancing drugs under a secret program run by the totalitarian regime in the former Czechoslovakia, has died. He was 68.

The Czech Weightlifting Federation said Zaremba died on Friday (January 23, 2026). No cause of death was given.

“He was one of the absolute legends of Czechoslovak weightlifting and will forever remain part of its history,” the federation said in a statement.

Zaremba had several health problems during and after his career. He set several world records before retiring prematurely in 1987.

In 2006, then 49-year-old Zaremba told The Associated Press his health was “ruined” by steroids, which he and hundreds of other athletes in Czechoslovakia were routinely given during the 1970s and 1980s.

At the time, unable to work and surviving on a disability of just over $300 a month, he sold his gold medal and decided to speak out.

Jaroslav Nekola, then chairman of the Czech Anti-Doping Committee, told The AP it was estimated about 400 top athletes in a dozen selected sports — including track and field, skiing, swimming, canoeing, cycling, wrestling and weightlifting — participated in the doping program.

They signed an agreement to join a program of “specialised care” modelled after the doping regimens in the former East Germany and Soviet Union and given the green light by communist authorities. Those who refused faced the risk of being dropped from national teams.

“In our sport, coach (Emil) Brzoska told us we would have to take performance-enhancing drugs … otherwise we wouldn’t be allowed to prepare for the Olympics,” Zaremba said. He said he used the steroids administered to him by the coach from 1979 to 1984.

Zaremba was paying the price. He needed strong painkillers to combat severe aches in his knees, spine and other parts of his body.

“In the morning, it takes me much longer to get out of bed than my 81-year-old mother, who is recovering from a stroke,” Zaremba said in 2006.

Struggling financially, he sold his gold medal for some $2,700. He had won the medal in the 100-kg event at the Moscow Games that the United States and some other countries boycotted after Soviet troops invaded Afghanistan.

He blamed doping for making him sterile — and breaking up his marriage. “If we had been able to have a child, I wouldn’t have been divorced,” he said.

Zaremba still said he believed doping helped him “have a chance” to win against other athletes from other countries who were also using drugs.

“I took the anabolic steroids as well as the others did and I beat them all,” he said. “That means I was the best.”