tag:theconversation.com,2011:/es/topics/doping-3213/articlesDoping – The Conversation2024-03-27T23:27:01Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2267352024-03-27T23:27:01Z2024-03-27T23:27:01ZProtection racket or fair medical model? Why the AFL’s illicit drugs policy is a necessary duty of care<p>Earlier this week, independent <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-03-27/afl-melbourne-demons-illicit-drug-tests-wilkie/103637056">MP Andrew Wilkie</a> accused the AFL of conducting “off the books” illicit drug testing to identify players using substances of abuse, then inappropriately withdrawing them from matches under false pretences. </p>
<p>His comments created a media storm, largely because he inferred a nefarious cover-up.</p>
<p>However, Wilkie may not understand how and why Australian sports are pressured into taking a responsibility for protecting athletes, which the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and Sports Integrity Australia (SIA) fail to do in regards to illicit drugs. </p>
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<h2>What is WADA’s position on illicit drugs?</h2>
<p>Australia is a signatory to the <a href="https://www.drugs.com/wada/">WADA Code</a>, which monitors performance integrity in respect of doping. This includes substances banned at all times, such as <a href="https://www.wada-ama.org/sites/default/files/resources/files/td2018eaas_final_eng.pdf">anabolic steroids</a> and <a href="https://www.wada-ama.org/en/resources/lab-documents/td2022epo#resource-download">EPO</a>, as well as substances banned only in competition, notably cannabis, heroin, ecstasy, and cocaine. </p>
<p>The latter are deemed <a href="https://www.usada.org/spirit-of-sport/education/substances-of-abuse/">“substances of abuse”</a> and are associated with so-called recreational use in society. </p>
<p>Scientists do not consider these to be performance-enhancing – if anything they compromise <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.2165/00007256-200333060-00001">exercise</a> and <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/105687199390052G?via%3Dihub">endurance</a>.</p>
<p>However, according to WADA, these drugs contravene two pillars (<a href="https://www.wada-ama.org/sites/default/files/resources/files/2021_wada_code.pdf">Section 4.3</a>) of the anti-doping code: they are understood to be a “threat to athletes’ health” and their use contrary to the “spirit of sport”.</p>
<p>Despite this position, WADA, and by extension SIA, does not monitor substances of abuse outside of competition; it is only interested in their use on match day.</p>
<p>Indeed, WADA’s unwillingness to test for illicit substances out of competition (which it could do from the same urine sample that tests for performance-enhancing drugs) means sports are left to manage the risk of athletes engaging with substances of abuse and testing positive on match day.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">The AFL’s illicit drugs policy has come under fire in recent days.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Why does the AFL have an illicit drug policy?</h2>
<p>Since 2005, the AFL has operated an illicit drug policy with a core goal of monitoring substance abuse behaviour to <a href="https://www.news.com.au/sport/afl/the-afl-has-been-conducting-its-own-drug-tests-since-2005-and-will-continue-to-keep-results-secret/news-story/db7ff426b7964ca9022af79d47e549ff">minimise the risk</a> of WADA’s match-day violations. </p>
<p>To do so, it pays a drug testing company to act on its behalf and report back to the league, which then communicates with club doctors.</p>
<p>It is a medical model where drug addiction personnel work with players to try to <a href="https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/46/13/943.short">change substance abuse behaviours</a>. </p>
<p>With three “strikes”, the emphasis is on rehabilitation rather than punishment, though a player with a second or third strike will be <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-03-28/afl-illicit-drug-policy-doping/103640388">named publicly, fined, and miss games.
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<p>The illicit drug policy is made possible because the <a href="https://www.aflplayers.com.au/news-feed/stories/why-the-illicit-drugs-policy-works-pavlich">AFL Players Association</a> – like their equivalents in the NRL, cricket, and so on – have voluntarily consented to the process, provided it is driven by a medical model that protects players’ privacy up to the second strike, at which point there are consequences for repeat misconduct.</p>
<p>However, the confidential, medical nature of the illicit drug policy has triggered many critics, who are eager to learn which athletes have a substance abuse problem, especially when such information can be used to trigger media eyeballs or political capital.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/venture-capitalists-are-backing-a-steroid-olympics-to-find-out-what-happens-when-athletes-are-doped-to-the-gills-222869">Venture capitalists are backing a 'steroid Olympics' to find out what happens when athletes are doped to the gills</a>
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<h2>Is the AFL’s illicit drugs policy working?</h2>
<p>Has the illicit drug policy helped athletes with substance abuse issues avoid the risk of positive tests on match day? </p>
<p>All we have to work with are raw numbers. There are some 800 players in the AFL men’s competition. In recent years, <a href="https://www.afl.com.au/news/148975/ex-pie-opens-up-on-drug-ban-family-tragedy-and-mental-health-battle">Sam Murray</a> (Collingwood, 2018), <a href="https://www.afl.com.au/news/391113/former-saint-slapped-with-two-year-ban-for-doping-violation">Sam Gilbert</a> (St Kilda, 2020) and <a href="https://www.afl.com.au/news/1054976/melbourne-demons-forward-joel-smith-tests-positive-to-cocaine-after-home-and-away-game">Joel Smith</a> (Melbourne, 2023) have been served with anti-doping violations for the presence of cocaine on match day. </p>
<p>Murray was given a four-year ban, but after appealing that the drug was not intended for match day, the penalty was reduced to 18 months. </p>
<p>Gilbert was not on the Saints’ playing list at the time of the infringement, but copped a two-year ban to end his career. Murray never played in the AFL again. Smith’s case is yet to be heard.</p>
<h2>Can the AFL’s illicit drugs policy be improved?</h2>
<p>A review into the policy is already been under way, but it seems unlikely the underlying foundation – a <a href="https://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/a-medical-model-of-care-how-the-aflsupplied-drug-tests-work/news-story/03142c32180155b14451f911b0ed5737">medical model</a> – will change. </p>
<p>Just as importantly, the AFL’s role in working with drug testers to identify players at risk – and suspend them from play when it’s believed they could contravene anti-doping rules – is bound to continue.</p>
<p>However, the mechanism by which players are withdrawn from games might be finessed. </p>
<p>Athletes are unavailable for various reasons such as injury, illness, or personal circumstances. </p>
<p>The Wilkie speech to parliament suggested “faking” of injuries by players to “<a href="https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/afl-2024-bombshell-drug-test-claims-andrew-wilkie-speech-in-parliament-melbourne-demons-drug-problems-latest-news-updates-zeeshan-arain/news-story/dc41b18aadbf40681f85dd3e0895fce2">keep coaches in the dark</a>” about why a player was unavailable for selection.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.news.com.au/sport/afl/the-afl-has-been-conducting-its-own-drug-tests-since-2005-and-will-continue-to-keep-results-secret/news-story/db7ff426b7964ca9022af79d47e549ff">AFL Doctors Association (AFLDA)</a> disputed that claim, reiterating its commitment to truth and confidentiality in medical practice. </p>
<p>However, that still begs the question of what a player says to a coach about their inability to be available for selection. The AFLDA notes patients have the liberty to ask doctors to share information about their status and treatment with coaches, but without player permission, confidentiality remains.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-went-wrong-in-peter-bols-doping-case-a-sport-integrity-expert-explains-202957">What went wrong in Peter Bol's doping case? A sport integrity expert explains</a>
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<h2>A broader issue than just sport</h2>
<p>According to a <a href="https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/illicit-use-of-drugs/cocaine-ndshs">2023 federal government report</a>, nearly three million Australians over the age of 14 years admitted to being lifetime users of cocaine, this making the country the <a href="https://www.news.com.au/national/australia-the-highest-per-capita-cocaine-user-in-the-world/news-story/c91869d4e2b2adeef266917d82f705e0">highest per capita user of the drug</a> in the world. </p>
<p>Given athletes are part of this culture of substance abuse, it is no wonder that the AFL, and other Australian sports, are trying, even if inelegantly, to manage the risk of WADA punishments from match-day violations.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/226735/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Daryl Adair does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The confidential, medical nature of the AFL’s illicit drug policy has triggered critics – is the policy working, and how can it be improved?Daryl Adair, Associate Professor of Sport Management, University of Technology SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2093492023-07-11T13:47:33Z2023-07-11T13:47:33ZThe Enhanced Games: letting athletes use drugs could lead to worse problems than cheating<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536308/original/file-20230707-23-64vtgj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=39%2C26%2C4342%2C2890&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Pro-doping games could lead to athletes being coerced into drug-taking. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/close-muscular-man-injecting-himself-steroids-402261172">luckyraccoon/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>What would sport be like if performance-enhancing drugs were allowed? How fast could the fastest athletes run? How high could they jump? How heavy could they lift? The Enhanced Games seeks to answer these questions by removing all restrictions on doping.</p>
<p>In lifting the ban on performance-enhancing drugs, the Enhanced Games challenges a core tenet of modern sports ethics – that sport <a href="https://www.wada-ama.org/en/who-we-are">should be doping-free</a>. </p>
<p>When the first Enhanced Games takes place in December 2024, athletes in its five categories of competition – track and field, swimming, weightlifting, gymnastics, and combat sports – will be allowed to ingest whatever substance they wish to improve their performance. </p>
<p>There will be no tests, no bans, no limits. For some, including the games’ founder Aron D’Souza, the Enhanced Games is the next step in sport’s evolution, but for others, it is a moral stain on the sporting landscape. </p>
<p>Advocates of “enhanced sport” contend that permitting athletes to use whatever drugs they choose will allow sport to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2023/jun/24/australian-entrepreneur-plots-enhanced-games-for-drug-taking-athletes">test the limits of human potential</a>, to respect athletes’ bodily autonomy, and to escape the unending cycle of cheating scandals generated by a failing anti-doping system.</p>
<p>However, it is far from clear that enhanced sport will open new horizons of sports performance, support athlete autonomy, or promote fair competition. </p>
<h2>Peak performance?</h2>
<p>Anti-doping rules limit the substances that athletes can use to reach peak performance. <a href="https://bpspubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1038/bjp.2008.165">Anabolic steroids</a> can help weightlifters to lift heavier and <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2657498/">erythropoietin</a> can help distance runners to run faster. So the prohibition of these substances appears to place a ceiling on the pursuit of sporting achievement.</p>
<p>Athletic excellence is not, however, reducible to outcomes. </p>
<p>A sprinter who runs with a tailwind, a <a href="https://time.com/3822577/rosie-ruiz-history/">marathon runner who rides the subway</a>, or a high jumper who uses a trampoline are not better placed to explore the limits of human potential in their respective sports. </p>
<p>In each case, an extraneous aid (that is, the tailwind, subway and trampoline) assists the athlete to reach the desired outcome more efficiently but without demonstrating any further athletic skill or ability. These supposed “enhancements” obscure rather than <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781003189466-38/doping-sport-john-william-devine">cultivate athletic excellence</a>. </p>
<p>The use of performance-enhancing drugs may, in a range of cases, more closely resemble running with a tailwind than mastering <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/othersports/article-3470075/Justin-Gatlin-breaks-Usain-Bolt-s-100m-record-9-45-second-dash-Japanese-television-wouldn-t-count.html">a new athletic skill</a>. </p>
<p>In evaluating any sports performance, the outcome cannot be detached from the means of its achievement. More work needs to be done by philosophers and sport scientists to determine when, if ever, drug-assisted performance truly extends the limits of human performance, as envisaged by the organisers of the Enhanced Games.</p>
<p>Furthermore, sports are designed to test a specific cluster of skills and capacities, including physical, psychological, tactical and technical abilities. Performance-enhancing drugs elevate the importance of certain physical attributes, such as strength and stamina. </p>
<p>Lifting the ban on drugs would alter the nature of sports by increasing the significance of this sub-set of physical attributes at the expense of other <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00948705.2022.2059489">physical attributes</a>, such as coordination and agility, as well as non-physical attributes such as strategic skill, mental resilience, and technical proficiency.</p>
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<p>A second argument advanced by advocates of the Enhanced Games is that lifting the ban affords athletes more extensive control over their bodies. “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2023/jun/30/the-enhanced-games-a-drugs-olympics-where-cheaters-can-prosper">My body, my choice</a>,” as D’Souza, puts it. Allowing athletes to use whatever substances they wish better respects their autonomy – so the argument goes.</p>
<p>However, lifting the doping ban would allow – perhaps even incentivise – athletes to ingest dangerous or untested drugs. Supporters of enhanced sport suggest that this presents no moral concern, provided that athletes <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2023/jun/30/the-enhanced-games-a-drugs-olympics-where-cheaters-can-prosper">give free and informed consent</a>. </p>
<p>Even charitably assuming that such consent eliminates any moral concern, the removal of the ban will expose unwilling and uninformed athletes to pressure from coaches, parents, sponsors and governments to use dangerous and experimental drugs that could pose a serious risk to their health. Lifting the ban on doping invites the proliferation of coerced doping.</p>
<h2>Time to abandon a failed system?</h2>
<p>The Enhanced Games may find reluctant support from those who oppose the use of performance-enhancing drugs in principle but have become disillusioned by the failure in practice of the World Anti-Doping Agency and national anti-doping agencies to contain the problem. </p>
<p>If sport is replete with cheating by doping and attempts to address this problem impose burdensome <a href="https://www.wada-ama.org/en/athletes-support-personnel/provide-whereabouts#:%7E:text=RTP%20athletes%20may%20submit%20their,simple%2C%20smart%20and%20fast%20manner">bureaucratic</a> and <a href="https://www.wada-ama.org/en/testing-and-investigations">testing</a> obligations on athletes, perhaps the best solution is to lift the ban, both to close off this avenue for cheating and to remove the burdens of anti-doping on athletes.</p>
<p>However, lifting the doping ban would grant further competitive advantage to athletes who represent economic superpowers such as the US and China. These governments could invest huge sums into drug research and development for the benefit of their athletes. They could provide expert medical supervision, not available to athletes from less wealthy states, to ensure that drugs are used in ways that minimise harm and maximise their effect. </p>
<p>In a sporting world in which inequality of opportunity is already rampant, the removal of the doping ban would only deepen an existing moral failing.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/olympics/2022/02/11/russia-olympics-doping-scandal/">Recent doping scandals</a> and persistent rumours that doping remains prevalent among elite athletes provide reason for pessimism about the prospect of doping-free sport, but lifting the ban is not the answer. Doping is a problem that needs to be managed, not side-stepped. Competitions that allow it will increase the risk to athletes’ health, render competition even more unfair and threaten to undermine the fundamental purpose of sport.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/209349/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John William Devine does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Will allowing doping open new horizons of sports performance?John William Devine, Senior Lecturer in Ethics, Department of Sport and Exercise Sciences, Swansea UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2029572023-03-31T11:22:30Z2023-03-31T11:22:30ZWhat went wrong in Peter Bol’s doping case? A sport integrity expert explains<p>Lawyers for Australian 800-metre star Peter Bol say allegations the runner engaged in doping <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/sport/athletics/catastrophic-blunder-independent-testing-reveals-peter-bol-did-not-use-epo-20230328-p5cvre.html">should be dropped</a> after two independent labs found no evidence he used a banned substance.</p>
<p>Bol has always strongly denied the allegations.</p>
<p>So what went wrong?</p>
<h2>How we got here</h2>
<p>Bol is a national champion, Commonwealth Games silver medallist, and finished fourth at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. </p>
<p>He was provisionally suspended from the sport in January 2023 after testing suggested he was using a banned substance called “synthetic EPO”.</p>
<p>EPO stands for erythropoietin, which occurs naturally in the body. It’s secreted in the kidney, and stimulates red blood cell production in bone marrow.</p>
<p>Synthetic EPO (or rEPO) is made in a lab, and is known to enhance athletic performance. It was most famously <a href="https://www.usada.org/wp-content/uploads/ReasonedDecision.pdf">abused by disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong</a>.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/lance-armstrong-charged-with-blood-doping-and-epo-use-so-how-do-they-work-7666">Lance Armstrong charged with 'blood doping' and EPO-use ... so how do they work? </a>
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<p>On October 11 2022, Bol provided an out-of-competition urine sample which was analysed for a range of prohibited substances, including synthetic EPO.</p>
<p>The timing is important. While athletes seeking to cheat commonly use prohibited substances in the off-season to increase their training load, Bol <a href="https://7news.com.au/sport/thats-when-i-knew-peter-bol-reveals-unseen-side-of-positive-drug-test-in-exclusive-interview-with-7news-spotlight-c-9926503">suggested</a> this date is outside of the time when an athlete could benefit from taking synthetic EPO (roughly <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7213874/">a three-month window</a>).</p>
<p>On January 10 2023, Bol was <a href="https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/sport/athletics/for-peter-bol-the-damage-that-has-been-done-cannot-be-fully-undone-20230216-p5ckye.html">advised</a> his A-sample from October 2022 had returned a positive result for synthetic EPO, and was provisionally suspended.</p>
<p>Bol was also told that another previous sample that had been analysed for EPO, collected at some time in 2021, had returned an <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/sport/athletics/bol-says-his-provisional-suspension-has-been-lifted-20230214-p5cke3.html">uncertain result</a>.</p>
<p>Bol’s team believes this is evidence the athlete may have <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2023/feb/15/peter-bol-what-does-an-atypical-doping-test-result-mean-for-the-australian-athlete">naturally occurring high levels of EPO</a>, which may have been wrongly interpreted as synthetic EPO.</p>
<p>Bol requested the B-sample from 2022 be analysed.</p>
<p>On February 14 2023, Sport Integrity Australia <a href="https://www.sportintegrity.gov.au/sites/default/files/SIA%20-%20Media%20Statement%20-Statement%20on%20the%20Peter%20Bol%20matter.pdf">found</a> the B-sample returned an atypical result (not positive or negative, but an indication further investigation is required).</p>
<p>Bol’s provisional suspension was lifted, but Sport Integrity Australia said the investigation “remains ongoing”.</p>
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<h2>Natural vs synthetic EPO</h2>
<p>An athlete is unable to take whatever is left of their original urine sample to have it retested by another lab.</p>
<p>Athletes can, however, be provided with the data, photographs and detailed documentation of the procedure followed by the lab, known as the “lab pack”. The athlete then needs to find an expert to translate the complex documentation.</p>
<p>Two independent labs analysed Bol’s lab pack.</p>
<p>One was David Chen, Professor of Chemistry at the University of British Columbia, and the other was a group of four experts from Norway.</p>
<p>Both assert there was <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/sport/athletics/it-wasn-t-racism-it-was-incompetence-peter-bol-on-botched-doping-case-20230329-p5cwew.html">no evidence</a> of synthetic EPO in Bol’s sample.</p>
<p>The Norwegian group <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/sport/athletics/it-wasn-t-racism-it-was-incompetence-peter-bol-on-botched-doping-case-20230329-p5cwew.html">found</a> “a large amount of natural EPO” in Bol’s sample, and hypothesised his atypical result may be due to high naturally occurring levels of EPO. </p>
<p>In <a href="https://7news.com.au/sport/thats-when-i-knew-peter-bol-reveals-unseen-side-of-positive-drug-test-in-exclusive-interview-with-7news-spotlight-c-9926503">an interview with Channel 7</a> in early March, Bol speculated it could be a Sudanese gift: </p>
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<p>It’s in our genetics, of course. We’re fitter, we’re faster, we’re more resilient because of how much we’ve been through and gone through. It’s our genetics, it’s who we are. We can get back in shape pretty fast; [it] doesn’t mean we’re cheating. It’s how we’re born.</p>
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<p>While there have been <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23095132/">studies</a> on the effect of ethnicity in patients receiving synthetic EPO treatment, it’s not known whether there are ethnic variations in EPO production among elite athletes.</p>
<p>There are different ways of manufacturing synthetic EPO, and the source materials vary too. So identifying variations in what’s within the “normal” range and what’s synthetic EPO becomes increasingly difficult.</p>
<p>Synthetic EPO is also made by legitimate manufacturers, as it’s used to help some patients with <a href="http://ndl.ethernet.edu.et/bitstream/123456789/5179/1/281.pdf">chronic anaemia</a> (who don’t have enough healthy red blood cells).</p>
<p>Research suggests even legitimate products can <a href="https://academic.oup.com/ndt/article/22/10/2749/1832304">vary significantly</a>, let alone what’s produced on the black market.</p>
<p>The different methods of manufacturing synthetic EPO appear to be causing issues with identifying synthetic EPO, and in interpreting the results of analyses.</p>
<p>It’s possible, then, that naturally occurring EPO could (incorrectly) appear as though it’s a variation of one of the synthetic EPO products.</p>
<h2>A ‘catastrophic blunder’?</h2>
<p>Bol’s legal team, <a href="https://www.watoday.com.au/sport/athletics/catastrophic-blunder-independent-testing-reveals-peter-bol-did-not-use-epo-20230328-p5cvre.html">in a letter</a> to Sport Integrity Australia, said “inexperience and incompetence at the Australian Sports Drug Testing Laboratory (ASDTL) led to an incorrect determination”, accusing Sport Integrity Australia of making a “catastrophic blunder”.</p>
<p>David Chen, from the University of British Columbia, suggested the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA) method for testing for synthetic EPO needs to be amended, including for the amount of urine used in the analysis. Under WADA’s <a href="https://www.wada-ama.org/sites/default/files/resources/files/2021_wada_code.pdf">rules</a>, it is possible to challenge the validity of the tests. </p>
<p>Quoted in the letter, Chen <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/sport/athletics/catastrophic-blunder-independent-testing-reveals-peter-bol-did-not-use-epo-20230328-p5cvre.html">said</a> all tests performed for Bol used 15ml of urine, but that “an experienced lab person should have understood that this was the upper limit”.</p>
<p>While this means the lab followed WADA guidelines, Chen’s concern is that “for many athletes, this amount is too high”.</p>
<p>What’s not explained in the letter, in what is publicly available at least, is why 15ml of urine is too much for “many athletes”.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/snubbing-chinese-swimmer-sun-yang-ignores-the-flaws-in-the-anti-doping-system-120895">Snubbing Chinese swimmer Sun Yang ignores the flaws in the anti-doping system</a>
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<p>Technically, the investigation into Bol could be closed on the basis the B-sample didn’t confirm the A-sample, so the evidence may be insufficient to comfortably establish a doping violation. </p>
<p>However, Sport Integrity Australia will undoubtedly be as keen as Bol and his team to get to the bottom of this. </p>
<p>It’s important for all athletes, and for trust in the anti-doping system, that the validity of the EPO test and the interpretation of the analysis can be transparently relied on.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/202957/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Catherine Ordway was an employee of the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA) between 2006 and 2008. </span></em></p>It’s important for all athletes, and for trust in the anti-doping system, that the validity of the EPO test and the interpretation of the analysis can be transparently relied on.Catherine Ordway, Associate Professor Sport Management and Sport Integrity Lead, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1988692023-02-14T20:15:28Z2023-02-14T20:15:28ZAbuse in Canadian sports highlights gender and racial inequities<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509262/original/file-20230209-20-2yzmak.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=3%2C37%2C2492%2C1624&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Despite calls for action, the Canadian government has been slow to address allegations of sexual abuse in sporting bodies. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/abuse-in-canadian-sports-highlights-gender-and-racial-inequities" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Sport in Canada is at a crossroads. The ongoing scandal with <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/9222057/hockey-canada-sex-abuse-scandals-poll/">Hockey Canada</a> highlights the need to take broader societal action to create a safer sport culture. The crisis in sport is rooted in issues of power and control that remain unchecked. There is also a lack of awareness at the least, and neglect or complicity at the worst.</p>
<p>In 2022, it came to light that Hockey Canada <a href="https://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/article/report-hockey-canada-had-second-fund-for-handling-sexual-assault-claims/">used internal funds</a> to settle sexual assault allegations. <a href="https://www.sportsnet.ca/juniors/article/court-filling-provides-more-details-in-alleged-hockey-canada-sexual-assault/">Criticism</a> of how Hockey Canada handled allegations of abuse have prompted an overhaul of the governing body’s leadership, and highlighted the sport system’s failure to foster a safe culture.</p>
<p>This situation demonstrated some of the most insidious aspects of abuse in sport. But Hockey Canada is not alone in the reckoning about ongoing abuse cultures in sport. </p>
<p>Across <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/sports/shattered-trust-canada-safe-sport-funding-crisis-1.6716783">Canadian sport</a> there are more stories surfacing about abuse and maltreatment. In the past few months alone, hundreds of athletes have come forward to publicly report issues of physical, sexual and psychological abuse, including more than <a href="https://www.globalathlete.org/our-word/500-canadian-gymnasts-concerns-about-a-toxic-abusive-sport-culture-continue-to-be-ignored">500 current and retired gymnasts</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509529/original/file-20230210-409-t5ggs0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A Hockey Canada logo is shown on the jersey of a player carrying a hockey stick." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509529/original/file-20230210-409-t5ggs0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509529/original/file-20230210-409-t5ggs0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509529/original/file-20230210-409-t5ggs0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509529/original/file-20230210-409-t5ggs0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509529/original/file-20230210-409-t5ggs0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=561&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509529/original/file-20230210-409-t5ggs0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=561&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509529/original/file-20230210-409-t5ggs0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=561&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">In 2022, allegations of sexual misconduct and misuse of funds led to the resignation of Hockey Canada’s board.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh</span></span>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/abuse-is-widely-accepted-as-part-of-organized-sports-culture-but-it-should-not-be-tolerated-194164">Abuse is widely accepted as part of organized sports culture but it should not be tolerated</a>
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<p>Yet the government refuses to launch a national inquiry. Rather, it has referred the issue to Parliament’s <a href="https://www.ourcommons.ca/Committees/en/FEWO">Status of Women Committee</a>. The implication is that abuse and maltreatment are only a women’s issue. </p>
<p>There have been calls for an independent inquiry into safe sport from <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/sports/scholars-against-abuse-jan23-1.6722975">scholars</a>, <a href="https://www.therecord.com/ts/news/canada/2022/11/21/gymnastics-is-rotting-former-canadian-athletes-call-for-nationwide-inquiry-into-abuse.html">athletes</a>, the
former Canadian Federal <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/2165828675504">Sport Minister</a> and the <a href="https://www.cces.ca/news/cces-board-directors-calls-public-inquiry-toxic-sport-culture">Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport (CCES)</a>. </p>
<p>A large majority of the cases of abuse and maltreatment are coming from the stories of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/08862605211045096">young women</a>, yet the government appears to be ignoring those testimonials.</p>
<p>If we compare this situation to past events in Canada, we see some glaring differences deeply rooted in the gender and racial inequalities in this country. </p>
<h2>The Dubin Inquiry</h2>
<p><a href="https://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2014/bcp-pco/CP32-56-1990-1-eng.pdf">The 1989 Dubin Inquiry</a> involved a Canadian government investigation into the use of performance enhancing drugs and banned practices. It was launched after Canadian sprinter <a href="https://olympic.ca/team-canada/ben-johnson/">Ben Johnson</a>, who had won the 100m sprint final at the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games, was disqualified for failing a drug test. </p>
<p>The Dubin Inquiry changed the landscape of drug testing in Canada and led to the development of CCES. The events that led to the Dubin Inquiry involved far fewer athletes in comparison to the current scandals. Yet, they prompted a Royal Commission of Inquiry.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508744/original/file-20230207-27-ev9vrm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man on a running track wearing a red vest and shorts raises his arm." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508744/original/file-20230207-27-ev9vrm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508744/original/file-20230207-27-ev9vrm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=933&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508744/original/file-20230207-27-ev9vrm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=933&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508744/original/file-20230207-27-ev9vrm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=933&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508744/original/file-20230207-27-ev9vrm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1172&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508744/original/file-20230207-27-ev9vrm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1172&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508744/original/file-20230207-27-ev9vrm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1172&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson at the 1988 Seoul Olympics. Johnson subsequently tested positive for the banned steroid stanozolol and was stripped of his gold medal.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Fred Chartrand</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>What is notable is the individual athlete at the heart of the inquiry. The international and national shame from the actions of one Black man prompted the federal government to launch a national inquiry. By all accounts, Johnson was villainized for his doping, actions that were rampant on the <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2012/07/23/sport/olympics-2012-ben-johnson-seoul-1988-dirtiest-race/index.html">international athletics</a> scene at the time.</p>
<p>When Johnson was winning, he was hailed as a great Canadian gold medalist, but when he was disgraced by doping, <a href="https://torontoist.com/2012/08/historicist-fastest-man-alive/">he was stripped of his Canadian identity</a>.</p>
<p>Some felt that Johnson (and many other athletes) were used as <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/world/2016/09/25/ben-johnson-was-fast-justice-was-faster.html">pawns by the major players</a>, including the federal government. Someone needed to take the blame for the “<a href="https://www.upi.com/Archives/1989/10/03/Sports-faces-worldwide-moral-crisis/3204623390400/">moral crisis in sport</a>,” and no one was better placed to do so than an athlete.</p>
<h2>Today’s moral crisis in sport</h2>
<p>In Canadian sport’s current moral crisis, the majority of the victims are young women who have suffered in silence for years. <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fspor.2021.657624">Abuse in sport</a> can be perpetrated at all levels against anyone of any age. However, research has demonstrated that it is more prevalent for <a href="https://www.humanium.org/en/exploitation-of-children-in-sport-a-widespread-and-unchecked-problem/">young women</a> with male coaches in positions of power. </p>
<p>Coaching remains dominated by men. The Coaching Association of Canada reported that only <a href="https://womenandsport.ca/resources/tools/gender-equity-in-coaching/">34 per cent of coaches are women while 66 per cent are men</a>. This means that most young girls are coached by men in positions of power. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.globalathlete.org/">Global Athlete</a>, an organization that campaigns for athletes’ rights, has been helping to mobilize thousands of athletes across 15 sports to call on the Canadian government to address the crisis of abuse.</p>
<p>Government actions to date have been to launch the House of Common’s Standing Committee on the Status of Women study into physical and emotional abuse in sport, and to create <a href="https://sportintegritycommissioner.ca/">Canada’s first Office of the Sport Integrity Commissioner (OSIC)</a>. </p>
<p>Both approaches are a far cry from an independent inquiry. Essentially, the government is investigating itself and allowing sport organizations to be self-regulating — clearly an approach that has not been working.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508716/original/file-20230207-29-himdd7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man wearing a suit speaking into microphones." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508716/original/file-20230207-29-himdd7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508716/original/file-20230207-29-himdd7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508716/original/file-20230207-29-himdd7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508716/original/file-20230207-29-himdd7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508716/original/file-20230207-29-himdd7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508716/original/file-20230207-29-himdd7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508716/original/file-20230207-29-himdd7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">There have been calls for Gymnastics Canada CEO Ian Moss to resign following the organization’s handling of misconduct allegations.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Mark Spowart</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Gymnastics Canada</h2>
<p>In January 2023, MPs questioned <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/gymnastics-canada-resignation-moss-1.6731050">Gymnastics Canada CEO, Ian Moss</a>, about the organizations handling of athlete complaints against a high level male coach. Moss’s responses to their failure to investigate highlight the organizations inability to self-regulate and unwillingness to be accountable for the <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/sports/amateur-sports-coaches-sexual-offences-minors-1.5006609">history of abuse in their sport</a>. </p>
<p>The recent <a href="https://www.mclarenglobalsportsolutions.com/pdf/Gymnastics-Report-Jan-22-2023.pdf">McLaren report</a> was an attempt by Gymnastics Canada to understand the situation in the sport. The report offers detailed accounts of abuse and maltreatment from those who remain in the gymnastics community. But it failed to engage survivors forced out of the system and missed the mark on a trauma-informed approach. </p>
<p>It’s yet another example of failing to engage in a proper athlete-centred, survivor-informed, independent inquiry that would hold the organization accountable for its culture of abuse. </p>
<p>While some have argued that a <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-instead-of-another-judicial-inquiry-we-should-use-restorative-justice/">restorative justice</a> approach is needed for culture change, such an approach will not hold organizations and individuals accountable for their role in silencing victims and failing to protect young athletes. </p>
<p>Initiating a national inquiry will send a message to every child, youth and elite athlete — particularly young women — that they are worthy of protection. Prevention is imperative and athletes must no longer be forced into silence. The outcome of a national inquiry could set a benchmark for the rest of the world, just as the Dubin Inquiry did with doping.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/198869/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Laura Misener receives funding from Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Angela Schneider does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The lack of government action in response to allegations of sexual abuse in Canadian sport contrasts with the response to previous scandals and highlights the racial and gender inequalities at play.Laura Misener, Professor & Director, School of Kinesiology, Western UniversityAngela Schneider, Director, The International Centre for Olympic Studies, Western UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1943932022-12-05T14:57:17Z2022-12-05T14:57:17ZShould sports cheats be prosecuted? When violence in the ring or on the field becomes criminal<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/497213/original/file-20221124-12-i6i0cu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=301%2C184%2C6159%2C2802&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/box-professional-match-on-dark-background-1702868416">Andrey Burmakin / Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Professional boxing is no stranger to controversy. The <a href="https://www.bmj.com/content/335/7618/469.1#:%7E:text=The%20BMA%20has%20been%20campaigning,olds%20as%20a%20first%20step.&text=And%20the%20argument%20that%20the,%E2%80%9Cbetter%E2%80%9D%20themselves%20is%20patronising">British Medical Association</a>, the trade union for doctors in the UK, has called for years for the sport to be banned due to its damaging effects. It has a <a href="https://sk.sagepub.com/reference/sportsmedicine/n76.xml">higher potential</a> for injury than any other contact sport.</p>
<p>Boxing encourages participants to knock out their opponent. Such conduct often involves the deliberate infliction of grievous bodily harm. Outside of the ring, this conduct could land you with a prison sentence. When boxers break the rules of a contest, there is also the potential for criminal charges.</p>
<p>Infamously, US boxer Luis Resto spent time in prison <a href="https://www.nysportsday.com/2022/08/15/the-fight-that-still-haunts-luis-resto/">for assault</a> after replacing the padding in his gloves with plaster before a 1983 fight. This seems like an obvious case for prosecution, but the line is not always so clear. Now, a doping scandal has raised the question: how does the law decide when sports violence or misdemeanours become criminal?</p>
<p>In October, welterweight contender Conor Benn failed two drug tests ahead of his highly anticipated bout with Chris Eubank Jr. A fighter failing a doping test is nothing new. But this information was revealed in a tabloid days before the fight, suggesting that without the exposé, the bout would have gone ahead. </p>
<p>Benn has <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/oct/26/conor-benn-relinquishes-boxing-licence-with-allegations-of-misconduct-upheld">maintained his innocence</a>, but voluntarily relinquished his boxing licence in the weeks following the tests. This sidestepped a full misconduct hearing, in a move that <a href="https://boxing-social.com/news/dan-rafael-slams-conor-benns-team/">some queried</a>. </p>
<p>In response, boxer and commentator Spike O'Sullivan has called for steroid users to be charged with <a href="https://www.irishexaminer.com/sport-columnists/arid-40978646.html">attempted murder</a>. But in cases of sporting foul play, it’s not always obvious when the criminal courts should intervene.</p>
<h2>Sports cheat or violent criminal</h2>
<p>Luis Resto’s case was clear cut. The victim, Billy Collins Jr, did not consent to the specific risks associated with fighting an opponent with “loaded gloves” just by taking part in the boxing match. </p>
<p>When it comes to other forms of cheating, the legal response has been murkier. </p>
<p>One example is the 2004 case <a href="https://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Crim/2004/3246.html">R v Barnes</a>, where a footballer appealed his conviction for grievous bodily harm inflicted on an opponent during a match. He performed a hard and high sliding tackle but maintained that the injury to his opponent’s leg was accidental.</p>
<p>The court of appeal overturned the conviction, reasoning that by taking part in a legitimate sport, someone effectively consents to the risk of injury, insofar as it is incidental to the game. This provides a potential defence for the accused, even if they broke the sport’s rules (for example, by fouling another player). </p>
<p>What remains unclear is what behaviour (including cheating) is actually incidental to “legitimate sport” – an important factor that depends on context.</p>
<p>Courts have intervened when competitors have engaged in “off the ball” violence. Footballer Eric Cantona was convicted of assaulting a fan during a match by leaping into the crowd and executing a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/from-the-archive-blog/2015/jan/25/eric-cantona-kung-fu-kick-20-1995-archive#:%7E:text=In%20a%20packed%20court%20room,granted%20bail%20pending%20an%20appeal.">“kung-fu kick”</a> in 1995. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A football referee in a light blue jersey holds up a red card during a match" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/497348/original/file-20221125-16-rbczh9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/497348/original/file-20221125-16-rbczh9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497348/original/file-20221125-16-rbczh9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497348/original/file-20221125-16-rbczh9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497348/original/file-20221125-16-rbczh9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497348/original/file-20221125-16-rbczh9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497348/original/file-20221125-16-rbczh9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Courts have said that playing a sport means consenting to possible injury – even if it breaks the rules of the game.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/kyiv-ukraine-december-6-2016-referee-532120480">Review News / Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Barnes case was concerned with tackles and foul play during a game, rather than preemptive cheating to maximise one’s potential to inflict serious injury ahead of a contest. Luis Resto’s gloves would fall under the latter category, but performance-enhancing drugs are a grey area. Neither the UK courts nor parliament have paid close attention to the boundaries of the consent defence in such circumstances.</p>
<p>Interestingly, in the now hypothetical case of Benn and Eubank Jr, <a href="https://metro.co.uk/2022/10/05/chris-eubank-jr-accuses-conor-benn-of-lying-as-drug-test-drama-takes-new-twist-17510268/">it was reported</a> that Eubank Jr was happy to proceed with the contest despite his opponent’s positive test: “I’ve prepared, I have done my job and now it is in the hands of the promoters, the governing bodies to make this fight happen. All I can do is be ready.” In such dangerous circumstances, it is questionable whether any prior consent could provide a defence to a subsequent charge of serious violence. </p>
<h2>Why is boxing legal, anyway?</h2>
<p>Legally, boxing rests on shakier foundations than other sports. Boxing originally appears to have been regarded as lawful not through any application of principle, or by reference to the legal rules applying to other sports. Rather, it appeared to 19th-century judges to be tamer than the bare-knuckle prizefights they were keen to <a href="https://www.lawcom.gov.uk/app/uploads/2016/08/No.134-Criminal-Law-Consent-and-Offences-Against-the-Person-A-Consultation-Paper.pdf">outlaw</a>. This exceptional category of legally permissible violence has endured only because of its popularity – no government has (yet) seen fit to ban it. </p>
<p>Professional and amateur boxing are also regulated. Bouts have referees, padded gloves, weight classes and other rules to mitigate medical risks to participants. The courts have found that, due to these factors, consensual boxing would be a “legitimate sport”, exempt from the ordinary operation of criminal laws prohibiting <a href="https://swarb.co.uk/regina-v-coney-qbd-18-mar-1882/">serious violence</a>.</p>
<p>Unlicensed forms of boxing, such as <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0038026119829762">white collar</a> contests and resurgent <a href="https://theculturetrip.com/europe/united-kingdom/england/london/articles/the-rise-of-bare-knuckle-boxing-in-london/">bare-knuckle boxing</a> are not so clearly exempt. The position of other combat sports such as Thai boxing and mixed martial arts is also uncertain. These are subject to varying degrees of regulation, and the senior courts in England and Wales have simply not yet had the opportunity to <a href="https://www.cps.gov.uk/publication/agreement-handling-incidents-falling-under-both-criminal-football-regulatory">definitively rule</a> on their lawfulness.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/194393/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joe Purshouse does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>When cheating in sport leads to injury, it’s not always clear when the courts should intervene.Joe Purshouse, Senior Lecturer in Criminal Law and Justice, University of SheffieldLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1877072022-08-05T15:28:53Z2022-08-05T15:28:53ZAthletics: Kenyans are running for other countries, but that’s not why medals are fewer<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477448/original/file-20220803-13-icqt53.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Kenyan-born Lonah Chemtai Salpeter won marathon bronze for Israel at the 2022 World Athletics Championships.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Carmen Mandato/Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The 2022 <a href="https://worldathletics.org/competitions/world-athletics-championships/oregon22">World Athletics Championships</a> ended in relative disappointment for Kenya, which continued its decline in the overall medal standings. Since the 2005 championships in Helsinki, when Kenya ranked ninth with only seven medals, the team has been exceptionally consistent. It has ranked in the <a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/results/world-athletics-championships">top three</a> in all subsequent competitions.</p>
<p>This year Kenya won 10 medals (two gold, five silver and three bronze), placing it <a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/Competitions/world-athletics-championships/world-athletics-championships-oregon-2022-7137279/medaltable">fourth</a> behind hosts the US, Ethiopia and Jamaica. Some countries might toast such an outcome. But not one that ranked first in 2015 with <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-34102562">16 medals</a> and second with 11 medals in both 2017 and 2019. </p>
<p>Reaching this peak took a long time. At the 1987 championships Kenya managed only fifth with three medals. Subsequent championships saw Kenya improve to fourth in 1991, 1993 and 1997 before dramatically falling to 13th in 1999. Other years such as 2003 in Paris and 2005 marked some of the worst performances by Kenya. The fourth place finish in 2022 is a brutal reminder that it is easy to sink lower unless drastic corrective measures are taken. </p>
<p>What’s behind the decline? Firstly, poor local team selection due to a number of athletes committing to a punishing international running schedule. And an increase in doping-related <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20220716-two-runners-suspended-for-doping-offences-ruled-out-of-world-championships">suspensions</a> of top Kenyan runners. Plus other countries have become more competitive in the Kenya-dominated long-distance races. Uganda is rising, as is a revamped Ethiopia. There’s also a significant increase in East African runners who have changed national allegiance from Ethiopia, Somalia, South Sudan and from Kenya. </p>
<p>Some observers may focus on the <a href="https://twitter.com/NationAfrica/status/1393836112951619585">growing migration</a> of athletics talent from Kenya as the <a href="https://www.fairplanet.org/story/money-before-country-kenyan-athletes-changing-the-nation/">biggest problem</a>. World Athletics’ <a href="https://worldathletics.org/news/press-release/transfer-allegiance-council-meeting-russia">liberal provisions</a> for change of national allegiance for sporting reasons has brought about large-scale migration of talents from Kenya and other countries.</p>
<p>According to my <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/271423844_Distance_running_in_Kenya_Athletics_labour_migration_and_its_consequences">research</a> athletes leave their countries of birth to take advantage of better prospects for training facilities, competition, jobs and economic empowerment. </p>
<p>It’s my view that like many Kenyan professionals who work abroad and remit huge portions of their earnings back to Kenya in the form of investments, welfare support and gifts, runners should be embraced in a similar manner. They are professionals who are doing their best to elevate their economic well-being and that of their families. </p>
<p>The challenge rests with Kenya to invest in local athletes so that they can establish themselves economically without having to move abroad to do so. </p>
<h2>Home and away</h2>
<p>There’s a <a href="https://comparativemigrationstudies.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s40878-017-0054-2">long history</a> of sportsmen and women leaving home for a new country. A study on Olympic participation from 1948 to 2012 concluded that most teams have become more ethnically diverse. Olympic migration is a reflection of global <a href="https://comparativemigrationstudies.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s40878-017-0054-2">migration patterns</a> and not a <a href="https://comparativemigrationstudies.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s40878-017-0054-2">novel phenomenon</a>.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-fighting-spirit-of-young-african-footballers-who-migrate-overseas-175965">The fighting spirit of young African footballers who migrate overseas</a>
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<p>Firstly, the careers for athletes are <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/22/sports/kenyan-runners.html">short</a> and they must seek opportunities to generate as much financial compensation as possible to take care of their future and those of their family members. </p>
<p>Secondly, some move on marital grounds to run for the homeland of their spouses. Running for the country of a spouse provides opportunities for permanent settlement to also raise a family.</p>
<p>The countries that have been key recipients of Kenyan runners include the US, Bahrain, Qatar, Belgium, Netherlands, France, Turkey and, as witnessed at the 2022 championships, Israel and Kazakhstan <a href="https://www.the-star.co.ke/sports/athletics/2022-07-22-concern-as-more-kenyan-athletes-switch-allegiance/">among others</a>. Western countries such as the US, Netherlands and France are attractive, given their high standard of living and the opportunities for citizens to establish themselves. </p>
<p>Some countries, especially in the Middle East and Asia, have a dire shortage of running talent. They are attractive for athletes who want to access international competitions to promote themselves and be paid for representing their new nations. </p>
<h2>Spoilt for choice</h2>
<p>There’s another reason I believe Kenyans don’t need to see talent migration as the biggest challenge to its medal prospects: Kenya is not short of talent. It taps young athletes from its vibrant inter-school competitions every year. The first hurdle these new entrants face is international competition rules which restrict entries to three and sometimes four athletes from a country. Qualifying for international competitions is a nightmare for many new runners. </p>
<p>Moving to a country where competition among athletes is lower offers access to major races. For many Kenyan-born athletes, representing Middle East countries, or any other, comes with the advantage of continuing altitude training back home in Kenya. Some of these athletes are dual citizens and don’t necessarily renounce Kenya as their home nation.</p>
<p>An athlete such as <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/sports/2022-07-18/ty-article/.premium/marathon-runner-chemtai-salpeter-snags-world-championship-bronze-in-israeli-first/00000182-11f9-d11c-a1da-5dff40050000">Lonah Chemtai Salpeter</a> was not even a recognisable runner in Kenya before moving abroad as a domestic worker. Running for fun and fitness catapulted her into stardom and Israel’s national limelight. </p>
<p>Kenya has a sufficient running pool for runners like Salpeter to represent other countries and still sustain its status as a global powerhouse in athletics. </p>
<h2>Eyes on the prize</h2>
<p>It is <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-tokyo-2020-tested-kenyas-running-dominance-and-revealed-future-threats-166126">true</a> that Kenya is increasingly facing stiff opposition from other countries. Some of these countries have benefited from athletes who have migrated from East Africa, including Kenya, Ethiopia, Somali and Southern Sudan.</p>
<p>The 2022 World Championships further strengthened my thesis that migrant runners from other East African countries pose a serious threat to Kenya’s future medal prospects. Somali-born athletes and those with ancestry in South Sudan, who <a href="https://www.brusselstimes.com/257066/bashir-abdi-wins-bronze-medal-for-marathon-at-world-championships">won medals</a> this year, have added to the competitiveness of middle and distance events.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-precarious-fate-of-african-footballers-in-europe-after-their-game-ends-153510">The precarious fate of African footballers in Europe after their game ends</a>
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<p>Other emerging challengers such as Uganda – whose distance running athletes have consistently <a href="https://www.rfi.fr/en/sports/20220717-cheptegei-defends-world-title-andersen-bags-third-us-gold">won medals</a> in 10,000 metres and 5,000 metres at the last two world championships and the last Olympic Games – present even a more ominous challenge. </p>
<p>The answer to this emerging competition is twofold. Better investment in training and preparation of athletes for international competitions is needed. Secondly, Kenya needs to diversify its athletics pool to embrace field events and sprints apart from distance running, which is becoming increasingly competitive. Kenyan athletes, Ferdinand Omanyala and Julius Yego, have shown that yes, it is possible to win in sprints and in field events.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/187707/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Wycliffe W. Njororai Simiyu does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The decline in Kenyan medals at the world championships is due to increased competition and a lack of investment at home.Wycliffe W. Njororai Simiyu, Professor, Health and Kinesiology, University of Texas at TylerLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1774322022-02-18T14:27:42Z2022-02-18T14:27:42ZWould adding a minimum age limit for the Olympic Games protect youth athletes from doping?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/447224/original/file-20220218-23-5sbbkw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=32%2C21%2C7284%2C4848&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Fifteen-year-old Russian skater Kamila Valieva reacts after her routine in the women's free skate program during the 2022 Winter Olympics. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://olympics.com/beijing-2022/olympic-games/en/results/figure-skating/athlete-profile-n1057109-kamila-valieva.htm">Kamila Valieva</a> isn’t the first young athlete accused of doping at the Olympics, and she surely won’t be the last unless we start taking the special circumstances of youth athletes seriously.</p>
<p>Concerns about youth doping were amplified at the 2022 Olympic Winter Games in Beijing <a href="https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1119022/beijing-2022-figure-skating-medal-delay">following the news</a> that Valieva, a 15-year-old Russian figure skater, had tested positive for the banned substance <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/sports/olympics/winter/figure-skating/trimetazidine-banned-drug-olympics-russian-skater-explainer-1.6346402">trimetazidine</a>. The delayed news of her positive test raised many questions, including whether it is time to <a href="https://www.si.com/olympics/2022/02/17/olympics-figure-skating-age-minimums">add minimum age limits </a>to Olympic participation.</p>
<p>Age limits at the Olympics are set by each International Federations (IF) — the international sports bodies that govern individual sports — and not by the International Olympic Committee. Specifically, Rule 42 of the <a href="https://olympics.com/ioc/olympic-charter">Olympic Charter</a> states: “There may be no age limit for competitors in the Olympic Games other than as prescribed in the competition rules of an IF as approved by the IOC Executive Board.” </p>
<p>Just like the IOC does for <a href="https://stillmed.olympics.com/media/Documents/News/2021/11/IOC-Framework-Fairness-Inclusion-Non-discrimination-2021.pdf?_ga=2.186940843.2055494824.1637591902-700636348.1626889064">sex testing</a>, eligibility rules for age are deferred to the IFs. Some IFs have decided that age matters, and imposed minimum age restrictions for Olympic participation — others have not. These range from 13 for fencing and 14 for taekwondo and bobsled, to 17 for wrestling, cycling and weightlifting, and 20 for the marathon. </p>
<h2>How young is too young?</h2>
<p>Many people believe Valieva is too young to have doped <a href="https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/russian-doping-isnt-the-only-problem-in-figure-skating/">without adult involvement</a>. But there is no “too young” to commit a doping offense. For example, a 12-year-old Polish boy tested positive for nikethamide and received a <a href="https://jalopnik.com/this-tween-polish-kart-driver-got-busted-for-doping-5787326">two-year ban</a> from the Federation Internationale de L'Automobile. His lawyer argued he should not be sanctioned because he was too young to compete at the <a href="https://olympics.com/ioc/youth-olympic-games">Youth Olympic Games</a> (YOG). Despite his age, and the banned substance being traced to an energy bar, the <a href="https://www.tas-cas.org/en/index.html">Court of Arbitration for Sport</a> only reduced his ban by six months, noting he was not too young for the anti-doping rules to apply. </p>
<p>At the <a href="https://olympics.com/ioc/news/singapore-2010">inaugural YOG</a>, two 17-year-old wrestlers <a href="https://nationalpost.com/sports/two-17-year-old-youth-olympics-wrestlers-fail-drug-tests">failed doping tests</a> and were required to forfeit their participation certificates and any medals won. Both were suspended from the sport for two years, and their names were entered into the <a href="http://www.fila-wrestling.com/images/documents/anti-dopage/101209_list_of_sanctioned_wrestlers.pdf">public doping registry</a> of the IF (now known as <a href="https://uww.org/">United World Wresting</a>), despite their legal status as minors.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A girl in a gymnastics leotard with her arms raised. She has a gold medal around her neck and she is smiling." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/447214/original/file-20220218-13-u9q52k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/447214/original/file-20220218-13-u9q52k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447214/original/file-20220218-13-u9q52k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447214/original/file-20220218-13-u9q52k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447214/original/file-20220218-13-u9q52k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447214/original/file-20220218-13-u9q52k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447214/original/file-20220218-13-u9q52k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Andreea Răducan was the original gold-medal winner of the women’s all-around gymnastics competition at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. She was stripped of it after testing positive for a banned substance that came from an over-the-counter cold medicine.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Amy Sancetta, File)</span></span>
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<p>Two more examples illustrate that age does not protect an athlete from the consequences of doping at the Olympics. At the 1972 Summer Games, 16-year-old swimmer <a href="https://www.swimmingworldmagazine.com/news/swimming-world-presents-a-gross-injustice-how-rick-demont-lost-his-1972-olympic-gold-days-after-winning-it/">Rick DeMont of the United States</a> lost his gold medal in the 400-metre freestyle when he tested positive for ephedrine. All involved in the case understood that the ephedrine was part of his prescription asthma medication. His team physician failed to disclose the athlete’s required use of the medication, yet the <a href="https://utpress.utexas.edu/books/hundru">disqualification stood</a>. </p>
<p>Sixteen-year-old <a href="https://olympics.fandom.com/wiki/Andreea_R%C4%83ducan">Romanian gymnast Andreea Răducan</a> was in the same boat at the Sydney 2000 Olympics, when a cold tablet given to her by her team physician contained a banned substance. <a href="https://olympics.com/en/news/former-ioc-president-jacques-rogge-passes-away">Jacques Rogge</a>, who was appointed president of the IOC a year later, acknowledged to reporters the <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/olympics2000/gymnastics/944362.stm">injustice of the situation</a>: “This is one of the worst experiences I have had in my Olympic life.” </p>
<p>The Olympic movement has long held the position that doping rules are firm. What’s different now is the increased awareness of <a href="https://theconversation.com/simone-biles-and-naomi-osaka-put-the-focus-on-the-importance-of-mental-performance-for-olympic-athletes-165219">athlete mental health</a>, the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/02640414.2019.1643648">role of the entourage</a> and the <a href="https://sportforlife.ca/portfolio-view/long-term-development-in-sport-and-physical-activity-3-0/">risks associated with overtraining and specialization</a> at a young age. The range of reactions to Valieva’s saga, from <a href="https://www.si.com/olympics/2022/02/15/tara-lipinski-criticizes-ioc-kamila-valieva-failed-drug-test-beijing-olympics">Tara Lipinski’s</a> outrage to <a href="https://nationalpost.com/sports/olympics/olympics-figure-skating-katarina-witt-backs-valieva-blames-the-russians-entourage">Katarina Witt’s</a> compassion, highlights the need to consider different models of youth participation. </p>
<h2>Age limits for athletes: yay or nay?</h2>
<p>Banning young athletes from the Olympics would mean we miss <a href="https://digital.la84.org/digital/collection/p17103coll10/id/13688/rec/2">spectacular performances</a> like Chinese diver Fu Mingxia’s gold in the 10-metre platform diving at the Barcelona 1992 Olympics at age 13, and Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci’s perfect 10 at the 1976 Montreal Olympics at age 14. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Girl in a leotard jumping with her arms and legs out behind her" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/447210/original/file-20220218-15-e2kws1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/447210/original/file-20220218-15-e2kws1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447210/original/file-20220218-15-e2kws1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447210/original/file-20220218-15-e2kws1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447210/original/file-20220218-15-e2kws1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447210/original/file-20220218-15-e2kws1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447210/original/file-20220218-15-e2kws1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Nadia Comaneci dismounts from the uneven parallel bars to score a perfect 10.00 in the women’s gymnastics competition at the 1976 Summer Olympic Games in Montreal.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Suzanne Vlamis)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But considering all we know about overtraining, exploitation and abuse in sport, that might not be a bad thing. </p>
<p>Protection-based age limits are <a href="https://repository.library.georgetown.edu/handle/10822/948450">unlikely to be effective</a>. Youth who are ineligible to compete at the Olympics can still <a href="https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/hrlc/documents/publications/hrlcommentary2007/childrensrightsinsport.pdf">train the same number of hours</a> as their older, eligible competitors. </p>
<p>Solutions must recognize that child athletes are the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2005-0085">most vulnerable population affected by doping </a>and, legally, have not developed the capacity to make rational, independent decisions. As the history and philosophy of childhood literature establishes, the <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2020/entries/childhood/">division between childhood and adulthood</a>, and the time in between, is hard to categorize and is culturally conditioned. </p>
<p>The inclusion of a <a href="https://www.wada-ama.org/sites/default/files/resources/files/2021_wada_code.pdf">protected persons</a> category in the 2021 update to the <a href="https://www.wada-ama.org/en/what-we-do/world-anti-doping-code">World Anti-Doping Code</a> is a step forward.</p>
<p>WADA now acknowledges protected persons as athletes who are under 16 years (or under 18 if the athlete is not part of a registered testing pool or has not competed at international events) or are otherwise not legally competent. The code states that mandatory public disclosure is not required when a protected person commits an anti-doping rule violation, but it does not go so far as to prohibit media reporting on the athlete. What this means in practice is unclear.</p>
<p>Many questions remain about why Valieva was permitted to continue competing, and more debate about what we owe “protected people” is needed.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/177432/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarah Teetzel does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Banning young athletes from the Olympics would mean we miss their spectacular performances, but considering all we know about overtraining, exploitation and abuse in sport, that might be OK.Sarah Teetzel, Associate Professor of Kinesiology and Recreation Management, University of ManitobaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1638812021-07-19T20:11:04Z2021-07-19T20:11:04ZDoping has become inevitable at the Olympics. And who wins gold in Tokyo might not be certain until 2031<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411785/original/file-20210719-25-z03tw0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=287%2C1010%2C3635%2C2256&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Razvan Martin of Romania was stripped of his bronze medal after testing positive for drugs eight years after the 2012 London Olympics.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Hassan Ammar/AP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Another Olympics is upon us, inexorable even in the face of COVID. With it comes the inevitable, salacious speculation around doping scandals.</p>
<p>There have been doping scandals at every Olympics in my lifetime and a few before, reaching back to the middle of the 20th century. Now, because of the lag between new drugs coming into sport and the development of reliable drug tests, there’s a 10-year retrospective testing window. This leaves the question of exactly who wins what an open question for a decade.</p>
<p>With the testing window used for the 2012 London Olympics now closed (it used to be eight years), we only now have a final account of both medals and doping at those games. </p>
<p>According to Olympics historian Bill Mallon, <a href="https://twitter.com/bambam1729/status/1331690225953869824">more than 140 athletes</a> were banned or disqualified, including 42 medallists (13 of which were gold). Nearly half <a href="https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1097290/london-2012-record-doping-cases">were caught</a> using retrospective testing. </p>
<p>Because doping has become so much a part of the Olympics, one wonders whether the inevitable doping scandals in Tokyo will be as earth-shattering as they once were, or whether the public will merely shrug. </p>
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<h2>How many positive tests come back every year</h2>
<p>The anti-doping industry has become a lot better at what it does since the establishment of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) in 2000 and the introduction of the <a href="https://www.wada-ama.org/en/what-we-do/the-code">World Anti-Doping Code</a> (WADC) in 2001. Revisions to the WADC came into force in 2009, 2015 and 2021.</p>
<p>WADA has invested <a href="https://www.wada-ama.org/en/what-we-do/science-medical/research">US$83 million</a> (A$112 million) in developing more advanced drug-testing capabilities since 2001, and US$3.6 million (A$4.8 million) on <a href="https://www.wada-ama.org/en/social-science-research">doping prevention research</a> since 2005. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-drug-cheats-are-still-being-caught-seven-years-after-the-2012-london-olympics-121123">Why drug cheats are still being caught seven years after the 2012 London Olympics</a>
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<p>With the Tokyo Games expected to cost an official <a href="https://apnews.com/article/tokyo-coronavirus-pandemic-2020-tokyo-olympics-japan-olympic-games-3c46bce81928865d9aae0832b5ddd9e3">US$15.4 billion</a> (A$20.8 billion) to stage (with audits suggesting the true figure is at least US$25 billion or A$33.8 billion), however, the amount of money WADA has spent on research since 2001 seems modest. </p>
<p>Despite this investment, the rate of positive tests has remained fairly stable. </p>
<p>The most recent figures <a href="https://www.wada-ama.org/en/resources/laboratories/anti-doping-testing-figures-report">released by WADA in 2019</a> showed the proportion of “adverse analytical findings” (the technical term for positive drug tests) relative to the total number of tests conducted wobbling between 0.97% (2019) and 1.32% (2016). </p>
<p>Athletes and their support teams know the drug-testing game well. They can use the lag between a new performance-enhancing drug being developed, that drug being prohibited and a reliable test being developed to their advantage. It’s just one factor coaches and other support personnel take into account when <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Managing-Drugs-in-Sport/Mazanov/p/book/9781138595187">managing how their athletes use different drugs</a>. </p>
<p>Unless there is a complete game-changer in anti-doping efforts — like a fundamental shift in drug-testing technology — we can reasonably expect an Olympic year to result in the same level of “adverse analytical findings” as any other year. </p>
<p>That means athletes will most likely be caught doping in Tokyo. Just how many — or how long it will take — remains to be seen. With the retrospective testing window, the final medal and doping tallies will only be known in the second half of 2031. </p>
<h2>How sport has become more punitive</h2>
<p>While drug testing has become more sophisticated, most of the changes to the World Anti-Doping Code since 2001 have actually been to bolster penalties for acts indirectly related to the taking of performance-enhancing drugs (what are known as “non-analytical” rule violations). </p>
<p>There are only two anti-doping violations in the code directly related to drugs being found in an athlete’s body. </p>
<p>By comparison, there are now nine others that deal with indirect violations. These include not being where you said you would be three times for out-of-competition drug tests, associating with someone under sanction for violating an anti-doping rule, and discouraging someone from reporting potential violations to authorities.</p>
<p>In many cases, these types of violations have seen athletes and support personnel vilified and stigmatised as “drug cheats” despite no direct evidence they have ever used a prohibited substance or method. </p>
<p>Last year, for instance, the US sprinter Christian Coleman was given a two-year ban after missing three out-of-competition drug tests in a year. The Court of Arbitration for Sport reduced the ban to 18 months, noting it <a href="https://olympics.nbcsports.com/2021/04/16/christian-coleman-ban-suspension-appeal/">believed</a> Coleman did not dope and did not avoid being tested. Nonetheless, he will still miss the Tokyo Olympics as a “drug cheat”. </p>
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<p>All of these rules have made life much harder for athletes, but their impact appears to be fairly minimal in reducing interest in performance-enhancing drugs. </p>
<p>According to the most <a href="https://www.wada-ama.org/en/resources/general-anti-doping-information/anti-doping-rule-violations-adrvs-report">recent report by WADA</a> (which gives data only up to 2018), only 283 athletes were sanctioned for “non-analytical” rule violations that year, compared to 2,771 athletes for violations directly related to ingesting drugs. </p>
<h2>Learning to live with doping?</h2>
<p>The obvious question is whether we just have to live with a certain amount of doping in sport. Given the last time an Olympics was without a doping controversy was the middle of the 20th century, it would seem so. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411789/original/file-20210719-21-28u5y6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411789/original/file-20210719-21-28u5y6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=840&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411789/original/file-20210719-21-28u5y6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=840&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411789/original/file-20210719-21-28u5y6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=840&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411789/original/file-20210719-21-28u5y6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1056&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411789/original/file-20210719-21-28u5y6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1056&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411789/original/file-20210719-21-28u5y6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1056&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Russia’s Tatyana Lebedeva was stripped of her two silver medals from the 2008 Beijing Olympics ten years later.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">David J. Phillip/AP</span></span>
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<p>That does not mean we should stop protecting the integrity of sport. Rather, it is a recognition that anti-doping is just one part of this effort.</p>
<p>As an international leader in anti-doping measures, Australia established <a href="https://www.sportintegrity.gov.au/about-us/who-we-are">Sport Integrity Australia</a> last year to replace the standalone Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority. This move explicitly recognises that doping is part of a much bigger picture that includes match fixing and abuse of athletes. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/banned-from-the-olympics-for-a-bad-burrito-anti-doping-efforts-shouldnt-start-from-a-position-of-guilt-163890">Banned from the Olympics for a bad burrito? Anti-doping efforts shouldn't start from a position of guilt</a>
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<p>The greater scandal is perhaps that so little money is invested in anti-doping and sport integrity. Sport Integrity Australia is budgeted to cost Australian taxpayers A$27.4 million (US$20.2 million) in <a href="https://www.transparency.gov.au/sites/default/files/budget-2020-21-health-portfolio-budget-statements.pdf">2020-21</a>, compared to the eye-watering amount of money that goes through Australian sport and recreation every year (<a href="https://www.statista.com/topics/5330/sport-industry-in-australia/">A$19.7 billion or US$14.5 billion for 2019</a>). </p>
<p>So, it remains to be seen exactly how much attention the inevitable doping scandals at the Tokyo Games will attract. My main worry is doping scandals have become business-as-usual, one-day dramas in the sporting spectacle that is the Olympics, and little else. As such, I suspect every positive COVID test will generate far more interest than a positive drug test in Tokyo.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/163881/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jason Mazanov has received funding from the Australian Anti-Doping Research Programme and the World Anti-Doping Agency Social Science Research Grants programme in the past. Jason also reviews anti-doping social science research grant applications for a number of international agencies. </span></em></p>Anti-doping efforts are not stopping cheating in sport. Unless there’s a game changer in technology, we might just have to live with a certain amount of doping in the Olympics.Jason Mazanov, Adjunct Senior Lecturer, School of Business, UNSW-Canberra, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1638902021-07-19T20:10:49Z2021-07-19T20:10:49ZBanned from the Olympics for a bad burrito? Anti-doping efforts shouldn’t start from a position of guilt<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411801/original/file-20210719-27-1sxbdoo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=423%2C62%2C2988%2C2451&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Shelby Houlihan blames a pork burrito for her positive drug test that cost her a chance to compete in Tokyo.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Charlie Neibergall/AP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>It’s been a tough year for doping control officers trying to access athletes before the COVID-disrupted Tokyo Olympics. Testing numbers dropped <a href="https://www.wada-ama.org/en/media/news/2021-06/wada-announces-further-rise-in-global-testing-figures-in-lead-up-to-tokyo-2020">dramatically</a> due to COVID restrictions, although the testing organisations claim to be operating at normal levels now. </p>
<p>Thrown into this mix are a number of suspected doping cases arising from increasingly sophisticated laboratory analysis methods that are detecting lower and lower levels of prohibited substances. </p>
<p>Rather than being evidence an athlete intentionally used a performance-enhancing substance to cheat, however, these results are more likely to be the result of contaminated foods, supplements or medicines. </p>
<p>Even more concerning is the evidence presented this week by German journalist Hajo Seppelt and the ARD documentary team in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DM1lzGUJJN8">Doping Top Secret: GUILTY</a>, which showed how athletes can potentially be sabotaged through casual contact.</p>
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<p>All of this begs the question whether anti-doping bodies could achieve a better balance using an <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Restoring-Trust-in-Sport-Corruption-Cases-and-Solutions/Ordway/p/book/9780367473068">“ethics of care” approach</a>, which seeks to support “clean” athletes rather than automatically assuming guilt. </p>
<p>One suggestion we advocate is referring extremely low-level positive cases, which likely result from contamination, to an independent body. This body could then determine whether there had been an attempt to cheat, rather than placing the onus on athletes to prove their innocence.</p>
<h2>‘Eating pork can lead to a false positive’</h2>
<p>Last month, Shelby Houlihan, the American record holder in both the 1,500 and 5,000 metre track events, announced on <a href="https://www.instagram.com/shelbo800/?hl=en">Instagram</a> that the Court of Arbitration (CAS) had upheld a four-year suspension for testing positive for the anabolic steroid nandrolone.</p>
<p>The court rejected her assertion that the positive test in December could have been caused by eating a pork burrito hours before providing her urine sample. The finding denied her a chance to qualify for the Tokyo Games. </p>
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<p>In <a href="https://www.sportresolutions.com/news/view/world-athletics-v-james-kibet">February</a>, Kenyan long distance runner James Kibet was also banned by the Athletics Integrity Unit for four years after testing positive for nandrolone and anabolic steroids. He <a href="https://www.athleticsintegrity.org/downloads/pdfs/disciplinary-process/en/210129-World-Athletics-v-James-Kibet-Decision.pdf">claimed</a> he had ingested pork fat from a Kenyan farmer who admitted feeding his animals supplements. </p>
<p>In contrast, the American long jumper, Jarrion Lawson, had his four-year ban for ingesting the banned anabolic steroid trenbolone <a href="https://www.tas-cas.org/fileadmin/user_upload/CAS_Media_Release_6313.pdf">overturned</a> last March when he argued his positive test was probably caused by eating tainted beef at a restaurant.</p>
<p>Similarly, the Badminton World Federation doping hearing panel accepted it was highly likely that contaminated meat in Thailand was the cause of <a href="https://extranet.bwfbadminton.com/docs/document-system/81/210/382/BWF%2520v%2520%2520Ms%2520Ratchanok%2520Intanon%2520_%2520BWF%2520ID%252035642%2520_%2520Reasoned%2520Deision.pdf">Ratchanok Intanon</a>’s positive drug test in 2019.</p>
<p>While it is important to take the facts of each case on their merits, the application of the rules and athlete punishments in these circumstances can appear to be frustratingly inconsistent.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-shayna-jack-is-likely-to-successfully-defend-her-doping-ban-appeal-but-still-wont-be-at-the-tokyo-olympics-162427">Why Shayna Jack is likely to successfully defend her doping ban appeal — but still won't be at the Tokyo Olympics</a>
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<h2>Burden on athletes to prove innocence</h2>
<p>Although farming with steroids and hormones is illegal in most countries, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has been <a href="https://www.wada-ama.org/en/media/news/2011-11/athletes-must-show-caution-due-to-contaminated-meat-0">warning</a> athletes about the risk of contaminated meat, especially from China and Mexico, for more than a decade. </p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.wada-ama.org/en/resources/science-medicine/excretion-of-19-nor-steroids-from-consumption-of-pork-meat-and-offal">2015 WADA study</a> also highlighted the risks of steroids found in pork. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/doping-has-become-inevitable-at-the-olympics-and-who-wins-gold-in-tokyo-might-not-be-certain-until-2031-163881">Doping has become inevitable at the Olympics. And who wins gold in Tokyo might not be certain until 2031</a>
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<p>At the same time, <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/dta.2735">WADA laboratories</a> are increasingly detecting minuscule traces of prohibited substances. What a laboratory cannot tell from a sample is whether a positive result is from inadvertent contamination (from meat, for example) or is evidence of the tail end of a sophisticated micro-dosing regimen designed to cheat the system.</p>
<p>Much like a police alcohol breathalyser, athletes returning a “positive” test begin from a position of strict liability. The burden falls to them to prove the source of the prohibited substance. </p>
<p>Even when the amount of the substance could have had no performance benefit, athletes must salvage their reputation and careers through a proverbial “hunt for the needle in the haystack” to determine the origin of the contamination. </p>
<p>This can be extremely challenging for athletes to prove. As the case of Australian swimmer <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-shayna-jack-is-likely-to-successfully-defend-her-doping-ban-appeal-but-still-wont-be-at-the-tokyo-olympics-162427">Shayna Jack</a> demonstrates, the appeals processes, media hype and social media trolling take their toll. Jack <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-07-16/new-documentary-questions-fairness-of-sport-anti-doping-system/100298812">warned</a> anti-doping authorities that “one day someone’s not going to get through it”.</p>
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<h2>New reforms don’t fix all the problems</h2>
<p>Cases like these raise questions about the effectiveness of current anti-doping policies. </p>
<p>Recognising the challenge, the <a href="https://www.wada-ama.org/sites/default/files/resources/files/2021_code.pdf">latest WADA Code</a> still leaves the burden on the athlete to prove their innocence, but allows for the standard four-year ban to be reduced to a reprimand. </p>
<p>WADA has raised the <a href="https://www.wada-ama.org/sites/default/files/item_6_1_3_attach_1_recommendations_mrls_diuretics_growthpromoters_final.pdf">reporting threshold</a> used by laboratories to determine a potential breach of the WADA Code. This would presumably reduce the number of cases from non-intentional contamination from meats or medicines.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/russian-olympic-doping-saga-shows-need-for-a-radically-different-approach-90850">Russian Olympic doping saga shows need for a radically different approach</a>
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<p>From the start of June, WADA also <a href="https://www.wada-ama.org/en/media/news/2021-06/wada-publishes-stakeholder-notices-regarding-potential-contamination-cases">requires</a> laboratories to conduct additional investigations for positive tests resulting from a limited range of prohibited substances. What is not clear is whether all laboratories have the capacity to conduct these investigations, hence our call for an independent investigative body to assist. </p>
<p>However, former WADA Director-General <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-sport-doping-idUSKCN1RS1DO">David Howman</a> says these changes do not go far enough. He supports forensic testing methods, such as hair and saliva testing, being used in anti-doping cases. (These might also provide additional evidence of long-term drug use instead of contamination.) </p>
<p>There are numerous heartbreaking examples of athletes who do not have the financial means, access to independent legal advice or sophisticated scientific knowledge to prove their innocence. Most are still suspended after a positive test, leaving them vulnerable to media speculation as they fight their corner. </p>
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<h2>A new ‘ethics of care’ approach</h2>
<p>While the first rule of cheating is deny, deny, deny, the vast majority of athletes are not cheats. Nonetheless, they can easily and inadvertently be tripped up by the rigidity of the anti-doping rules. </p>
<p>It is not by accident that many of the athletes who have fallen foul of the system also come from the most <a href="https://www.routledge.com/The-World-Anti-Doping-Code-Fit-for-Purpose/Dasgupta/p/book/9780367729561">disadvantaged countries</a>. </p>
<p>Rather than starting from a position of “guilt”, is it time for an athlete-centric, “ethics of care” approach? </p>
<p>Cases of extremely low levels of prohibited substances could be referred to an independent third party for investigation, rather than putting that financial burden and inevitable stress onto the athlete.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/banned-from-the-tokyo-olympics-for-pot-let-the-athletes-decide-what-drugs-should-be-allowed-163619">Banned from the Tokyo Olympics for pot? Let the athletes decide what drugs should be allowed</a>
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<p>International sports federations already fund arms-length testing programs through bodies such as the <a href="https://ita.sport/">International Testing Agency (ITA)</a>. If all low-level positive cases were automatically referred to an independent review body, the focus could be on determining whether actual cheating took place — not a mere breach of the rules and arbitrary thresholds. </p>
<p>Would this give greater comfort to the arm-chair sport viewer AND restore athletes’ trust in the anti-doping system? Quite possibly.</p>
<p>Athletes are not the enemy. It is timely to recognise the central role of the athlete within the anti-doping system.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/163890/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Athletes are not the enemy. Cases of extremely low levels of prohibited substances could be referred to a third party for investigation, rather than putting the burden on the athlete.Catherine Ordway, Assistant Professor Sport Management and Sport Integrity Lead, University of CanberraMichele Verroken, Senior Lecturer, Law School, De Montfort UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1636192021-07-06T15:54:10Z2021-07-06T15:54:10ZBanned from the Tokyo Olympics for pot? Let the athletes decide what drugs should be allowed<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/409767/original/file-20210705-35826-125fa4y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=26%2C26%2C4428%2C2851&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Sha'Carri Richardson celebrates during the U.S. Olympic Track and Field trials on June 18. Shortly after the trials, Richardson was suspended for a month for testing positive for marijuana – a ban that will keep her from competing at the Tokyo Olympics.
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<p>The <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/01/sports/olympics/shacarri-richardson-suspended-marijuana.html">recent suspension</a> of American sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson, who was supposed to be heading to the Tokyo Olympic Games, for testing positive for marijuana has once again raised questions about what drugs should be banned from sports.</p>
<p>Richardson’s suspension is seen by many as an absurd case — namely, the idea of marijuana enhancing the performance in the 100-metre sprint. But as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/jul/04/shacarri-richardsons-suspension-joe-biden-news">President Joe Biden</a> noted: “The rules are the rules.” And <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/olympics/sha-carri-richardson-ban-marijuana-olympics-tokyo-b1877118.html">Richardson herself has admitted</a> being responsible for her actions.</p>
<p>But why is a recreational drug like marijuana on the banned substances list in the first place? And should we be reviewing this list because they seem like “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/02/opinion/shacarri-richardson-drug-test-marijuana.html">such ridiculous and cruel standards</a>”?</p>
<p>There are some with more extreme views on doping. They take a position that could be called pharmaceutical libertarianism — <a href="https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/38/6/666">just stop this silly testing game</a>, which costs a great deal of money that could be wisely spent elsewhere in the world of sport.</p>
<h2>Some PEDs are minor</h2>
<p>Certainly, <a href="https://www.wada-ama.org/sites/default/files/resources/files/2021list_en.pd">many of the hundreds of banned substances</a> are really minor when it comes to performance enhancement. But there are also some, <a href="https://www.elsevier.com/books/gene-doping-in-sports/schneider/978-0-12-017651-9">like the potential use of gene doping</a>, that make taking steroids look like eating Smarties.</p>
<p>The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) came into being in 1999, shortly after the famous <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/sports/1998-tour-de-france-champion-used-banned-blood-booster-1.1327074#:%7E:text=The%201998%20Tour%20de%20France,being%20ejected%20from%20the%20Tour">1998 Tour de France Festina scandal</a> when civil authorities stepped in for the first time to lay charges for doping.</p>
<p>At the time the first banned list was created, I was director for ethics and education at WADA and I attended some of those early meetings of the agency. There was no question the United States was not going to sign on the <a href="https://www.wada-ama.org/en/what-we-do/the-code">World Anti-Doping Code</a> (WADC) unless marijuana was on the banned list. At that time, Gen. Barry McCaffrey, the director of the U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy, wanted the code to deal with recreational drugs too, which were part of his office’s mandate. </p>
<p>Caffeine was also on the banned list at the time because of pressure from South American representatives, who didn’t have the money to run an educational campaign to combat an abuse problem in the region. They wanted WADA to deal with the issue instead. Caffeine was eventually <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2003-09-24/caffeine-removed-from-banned-drug-list/1483236">taken off the list</a>, but not before some athletes <a href="https://theolympians.co/2016/12/17/the-good-ol-days-of-doping-in-sports-dqed-for-beer-and-caffeine/">lost their medals</a> for its use.</p>
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<img alt="A sectioned-off room with white walls, a sliding door, and a urinal." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/409770/original/file-20210705-126293-44y73f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/409770/original/file-20210705-126293-44y73f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409770/original/file-20210705-126293-44y73f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409770/original/file-20210705-126293-44y73f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409770/original/file-20210705-126293-44y73f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409770/original/file-20210705-126293-44y73f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409770/original/file-20210705-126293-44y73f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The processing room of the Doping Control Station at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Village.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There have been political interests involved, and also potential conflicts of interest, because the more things there are to test for, the more money the accredited labs can make from those tests (which can <a href="https://pubs.rsna.org/doi/abs/10.1148/radiol.2301021122?journalCode=radiology">cost more than $1,000</a> per test).</p>
<h2>The criteria for banned substances</h2>
<p>The written <a href="https://www.wada-ama.org/en/questions-answers/prohibited-list-qa">criteria for the banned list</a> in the WADC, of which two must be met for a substance to be banned, are: harm, performance enhancement, or violation of the spirit of sport.</p>
<p>Critics argue that the doping control process has become too expensive, unmanageable and the criteria too vague and ambiguous.</p>
<p>But, of course, when the Russians were <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/09/sports/russia-doping-ban.html">caught cheating</a> at the Olympic Games, many were outraged, and rightly so. WADA had to go from relying primarily on analytic lab expertise to a kind of covert espionage intelligence gathering to catch this level of national systemic doping. This wasn’t a rogue athlete like Lance Armstrong. This was state-supported cheating. </p>
<p>So what’s the way forward? I think the answer lies, as always, with the athletes themselves.</p>
<p>In intense international competitions like the Olympics, with all kinds of necessary risks, athletes already pay a very high price to compete, and for the additonal high risks of certain kinds of doping (especially <a href="https://www.elsevier.com/books/gene-doping-in-sports/schneider/978-0-12-017651-9">gene doping</a>, which can be far more performance enhancing and deadly than anything else on the banned list) athlete collectives have supported the bans. At the dozens of WADA meetings I attended, athletes wanted it banned.</p>
<p>Pharmaceutical libertarianism is not what athletes want, for very good reasons. But that does not mean that we do not need to review, and significantly reduce, the banned list.</p>
<p>An athlete-driven list is needed. It’s the athletes who take the risks and pay the price. They should decide what is on it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/163619/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Angela Schneider received funding from WADA at its inception over twenty years ago. </span></em></p>In the wake of debate about cannabis, performance-enhancing drugs and the Olympic Games, athlete-driven doping legislation is the way forward.Angela Schneider, Director, The International Centre for Olympic Studies, Western UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1211232019-08-05T02:56:04Z2019-08-05T02:56:04ZWhy drug cheats are still being caught seven years after the 2012 London Olympics<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/286849/original/file-20190805-117861-mfbc00.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Uzbek wrestler Artur Taymazov (centre) was recently stripped of his gold medal from the 2012 Olympics due to retrospective drug testing. He also lost his gold from the 2008 Olympics for doping.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dimitris Panagos/AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>When two swimmers <a href="https://theconversation.com/swimmer-protests-at-the-world-championships-renew-calls-for-urgent-anti-doping-reforms-120848">refused to acknowledge victories</a> by Chinese swimmer Sun Yang at the last month’s world swimming championships, the very public protests riveted the swimming world and cast a spotlight (again) on suspected doping in sport.</p>
<p>But in the midst of the drama, a separate, failed drug test was slightly overshadowed. Uzbek wrestler Artur Taymazov became the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/sport/olympics/49092020">60th athlete</a> – and seventh gold medallist – to retrospectively test positive for doping from samples taken at the 2012 London Olympics. </p>
<p>In addition to the nine athletes caught doping during the games themselves, that brings the <a href="https://www.olympic.org/-/media/Document%20Library/OlympicOrg/IOC/Who-We-Are/Commissions/Disciplinary-Commission/2019/Antidoping-factsheet-retests-23-07-2019.pdf">total number of disqualified athletes from London to 69</a> – more than triple the number caught doping at the 2004 Athens Olympics. </p>
<h2>When did retrospective testing begin?</h2>
<p>That athletes from the 2012 Olympics are still being caught cheating might come as surprise. But the World Anti-Doping Code (<a href="https://www.wada-ama.org/en/resources/the-code/world-anti-doping-code">WADC 2015</a>) provides for a 10-year window following a competition to test athletes’ samples for a possible doping violation. This is known as retrospective testing. </p>
<p>Under the old regime, authorities had eight years to test samples. This means that samples from the 2012 London Olympics <a href="https://www.olympic.org/news/ioc-sanctions-one-athlete-for-failing-anti-doping-tests-at-london-2012-3">can be tested until 2020</a>.</p>
<p>The WADC’s limitation period first came to prominence in 2010, with the release of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/22/books/review/Tanenhaus-t.html">Andre Agassi’s autobiography, Open</a>. In it, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2009/oct/28/andre-agassi-wada-doping">the tennis star admitted</a> to taking a banned drug, crystal methamphetamine, in 1997. He also revealed he avoided suspension by the tennis authorities, who, in confidence, accepted his plea that the positive test had resulted from a drink spiked by one of his entourage, known as “Slim”.</p>
<p>The then-head of WADA, John Fahey, wrote to the tennis authorities for an explanation of “Slim’s spiked soda”, but further investigation was <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2009/oct/28/andre-agassi-wada-doping">barred because the WADC’s statute of limitations</a> had long since expired.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/russian-olympic-doping-saga-shows-need-for-a-radically-different-approach-90850">Russian Olympic doping saga shows need for a radically different approach</a>
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</em>
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<p>In another prominent case in 2012, the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) <a href="http://cyclinginvestigation.usada.org/">argued</a> it should be able to expunge all of cyclist Lance Armstrong’s competitive results from 1998 onwards – including all seven of his Tour de France victories. This was due to evidence that Armstrong’s cycling team had run </p>
<blockquote>
<p>the most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen.</p>
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<p>USADA acknowledged this would be in breach of the WADC’s statute of limitations, but justified the move on the grounds that Armstrong had fraudulently concealed his doping for many years. The International Cycling Union <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/23/sports/cycling/armstrong-stripped-of-his-7-tour-de-france-titles.html">did not challenge</a> USADA’s interpretation of the time limitation rule and Armstrong’s results were subsequently erased. </p>
<p>Due to the level of doping in the sport at the time, no retrospective champion was declared for the seven Tours between <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cycling-armstrong/no-winner-for-1999-2005-tours-says-uci-idUSBRE89P0S620121026">1999-2005</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/286858/original/file-20190805-117871-10qa5eu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/286858/original/file-20190805-117871-10qa5eu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/286858/original/file-20190805-117871-10qa5eu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/286858/original/file-20190805-117871-10qa5eu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/286858/original/file-20190805-117871-10qa5eu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/286858/original/file-20190805-117871-10qa5eu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/286858/original/file-20190805-117871-10qa5eu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">US cyclist Lance Armstrong was retrospectively stripped of his seven Tour de France titles despite the fact the statute of limitations had expired.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Olivier Hoslet/EPA</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>How many athletes have been caught?</h2>
<p>The reason the 10-year window exists is because drug testing has failed to keep pace with cheating. There is a lag period between WADA both becoming aware of a new performance-enhancing substance that it needs to prohibit and developing a test that can, with scientific accuracy, detect it.</p>
<p>Put simply, the 10-year limitation period allows anti-doping authorities to retrospectively test samples of athletes after new methods allow them to do so, thus acting as a deterrent against doping in the future.</p>
<p>In 2017, WADA testing figures revealed that of the 322,050 samples taken in and out of competitions that year, only 1.43% led to an <a href="https://www.wada-ama.org/en/media/news/2018-07/wada-publishes-2017-testing-figures-report">adverse analytical finding</a>. But <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2017/aug/29/sport-doping-study-revealing-wider-usage-published-after-scandalous-delay">some research</a> indicates the prevalence of doping among athletes may be much higher than that.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-science-of-doping-and-how-cheating-athletes-pass-drug-tests-45602">The science of doping and how cheating athletes pass drug tests</a>
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</em>
</p>
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<p>The hit rate of retrospective testing in the Olympics has increased in recent years. The International Olympic Committee <a href="https://www.olympic.org/news/ioc-sanctions-one-athlete-for-failing-anti-doping-tests-at-london-2012-3">began storing samples</a> and allowing retrospective testing from the Athens Olympics in 2004. <a href="https://www.olympic.org/-/media/Document%20Library/OlympicOrg/IOC/Who-We-Are/Commissions/Disciplinary-Commission/2019/Antidoping-factsheet-retests-23-07-2019.pdf">Five athletes</a> were caught retrospectively from those games, followed by 65 from the 2008 Beijing Olympics and now 60 (and counting) from London. </p>
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<p><iframe id="b2rNJ" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/b2rNJ/2/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
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<p>And in theory, USADA’s interpretation in the Armstrong decision – which was supported by rulings in the Court of Arbitration for Sport - leaves open the possibility that the statute of limitations for drugs violations could be extended even beyond ten years. </p>
<p>In theory, this could allow the International Olympic Committee to revisit the results from the Olympics of the 1970s and 1980s, where there is documented evidence – <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jan/03/stasi-files-east-germany-archivists-losing-hope-solving-worlds-biggest-puzzle">from Stasi files</a>, for example – that countries such as East Germany engaged in a state-sponsored doping program to achieve sporting success.</p>
<p>Interestingly, one of the first former Australian Olympians to support Horton in his protest last month at the world swimming championships was <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/sport/swimming/taking-a-stance-or-overstepping-20190723-p52a14.html">Raelene Boyle</a>, who has long claimed she was denied two gold medals at the 1972 Olympics by East German athletes suspected of doping.</p>
<h2>Limitations of retrospective testing</h2>
<p>Although more cheats are being caught, this doesn’t mean the system of retrospective testing is working perfectly. </p>
<p>For starters, a decade-late public declaration that an athlete was the rightful winner of a championship offers some recompense, but the denial of immediate glory often has severe financial and even <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/01/sports/olympics/shirley-babashoff-swimming-montreal-olympics-medals.html">health consequences</a>. </p>
<p>Moreover, having to correct the result of races held years previously may be adding to a growing <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-argue-about-doping-in-sport-43600">public indifference</a> to doping in sport. The <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/early-lead/wp/2017/10/26/olympic-weightlifting-class-notorious-for-positive-doping-tests-may-get-chopped/?utm_term=.fda76e8a8d5d">men’s 94-kilogram weightlifting event</a> from the 2012 Olympics shows just how little confidence remains in certain sports: all three medallists were disqualified for doping, as were the fourth-, sixth- and seventh-place finishers.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"847750628247879681"}"></div></p>
<p>Finally, there is one strange quirk within WADA’s system of retrospective testing. If, for example, <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-08-02/shayna-jack-vows-to-clear-name-doping-swimmer-ligandrol-asada/11376924">Australian swimmer Shanya Jack</a> loses her appeal following her positive test for ligandrol, then her samples, <a href="https://www.independent.ie/au/sport/other-sports/athletics/ewan-mackenna-the-curious-case-of-sprinter-steven-colvert-the-positive-test-the-destroyed-sample-and-the-lurking-questions-37723196.html">as with all proven cases</a>, will be destroyed.</p>
<p>This is a questionable, unnecessary practice. Although the scientific integrity of the anti-doping testing regime has greatly improved thanks to WADA, the system still has flaws. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/more-olympic-drug-testing-than-ever-but-why-do-we-bother-7993">More Olympic drug testing than ever, but why do we bother?</a>
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<p>Former Liverpool FC player Mamadou Sakho, for instance, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2019/jul/24/crystal-palace-mamadou-sakho-sues-wada-for-13m-over-drugs-test-error-liverpool">is suing WADA</a> for an alleged drug-test blunder. And Chinese swimmer Sun Yang was permitted to compete at last month’s world swimming championships <a href="https://theconversation.com/snubbing-chinese-swimmer-sun-yang-ignores-the-flaws-in-the-anti-doping-system-120895">after a tribunal ruled in his favour</a> over another questionable testing procedure. </p>
<p>WADA protocol could easily be changed to mandate that all samples be maintained for ten years to allow athletes who have been punished for a positive test to later challenge that sanction, with the aid of advancing technology. </p>
<p>The strength of any justice system lies not only in how often it closes cases against athletes rightly accused of doping, but how open it is to giving athletes the opportunity to the show that, on occasion, the system got it wrong.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/121123/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jack Anderson disclosure_lightbox.blurb.statement_shares </span></em></p>Retrospective drug testing is meant to help deter doping in sport, but will the public become indifferent to drug taking as more and more cheaters are caught?Jack Anderson, Professor of Sports Law, Melbourne Law School, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1210972019-07-29T02:38:05Z2019-07-29T02:38:05ZWhat is Ligandrol, the drug swimmer Shayna Jack had in her system?<p>Australian freestyle swimmer Shayna Jack tested positive to the <a href="https://www.wada-ama.org/en/resources/science-medicine/prohibited-list-documents">banned substance</a> Ligandrol in <a href="https://theconversation.com/drafts/121097/edit#">late June</a>, before competing at the <a href="http://www.fina.org/event/18th-fina-world-championships">world swimming championships</a> in South Korea this month. </p>
<p>Jack said she <a href="https://7news.com.au/sport/swimming/shayna-jack-issues-new-statement-over-failed-drug-test-c-370056">did not knowingly take Ligandrol</a> but noted it could be found in contaminated supplements. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/B0abPFnAmwW","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<p>Ligandrol can help repair and build muscles. While it has been studied as a treatment for cancer and other conditions where patients experience muscle weakness and wastage, it is banned for use by professional athletes. </p>
<p>So how long has this drug been around, and how does it work?</p>
<h2>History of Ligandrol</h2>
<p>Ligandrol, which is also known by the development codes LGD-4033 and VK5211 and the name Anabolicum, was initially developed by the company <a href="https://www.ligand.com/">Ligand Pharmaceuticals</a> in the United States. It was <a href="https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/19/a8/9e/13c920a3dad32f/WO2009082437A2.pdf">patented in 2009</a>. </p>
<p>The results of the first human clinical trial were published in 2013, where taking <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4111291/">Ligandrol was found to increase muscle mass</a> without also putting on fat.</p>
<p>The drug rights have since been licensed to the company <a href="https://www.vikingtherapeutics.com/">Viking Therapeutics</a>. In 2018, it completed a clinical trial which examined <a href="http://ir.vikingtherapeutics.com/2018-10-01-Viking-Therapeutics-Presents-Results-from-Phase-2-Study-of-VK5211-in-Patients-Recovering-from-Hip-Fracture-in-Plenary-Oral-Presentation-at-ASBMR-2018-Annual-Meeting">Ligandrol for people aged over 65 who were recovering from a hip fracture</a>. The results showed patients who took Ligandrol significantly increased their muscle mass and could walk further than patients not on the drug.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-is-doping-wrong-anyway-63057">Why is doping wrong anyway?</a>
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</em>
</p>
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<p>The drug has also been examined for <a href="https://reader.elsevier.com/reader/sd/pii/S2050052118301100?token=DE618D928D8A7ECDEDBA37D3BB4BBB726AFD01C434FC7DE90430B108A4883C4E0EBE70D6B84A52B46128CE84B2FB4DE6">other conditions</a>, including as a possible treatment for cancer-related weight loss, enlarged prostates, for patients who have a diminished function of testes and ovaries, and as a potential cure for breast cancer.</p>
<p>Ligandrol is still considered an experimental drug, and as such, is not approved for sale by the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA).</p>
<h2>How Ligandrol works</h2>
<p>Ligandrol is taken orally as a tablet at doses between 0.5 and 2 milligrams. </p>
<p>The drug is what pharmacists call a <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30503797">selective androgen receptor modulator</a> (SARM). These drugs bind at specific sites on skeletal muscles. There, they initiate a cascade of processes which change the expression of different genes in the DNA of muscle cells. The end effect is an increase in the repair and growth of muscle.</p>
<p>This means Ligandrol works in a similar way to testosterone and anabolic steroids, although SARMs typically have fewer side effects. The typical side effects of anabolic steriods can include short-term aggression and violence, acne, and sleeping difficulties, and long-term effects such as damage to the liver and kidneys, depression, and high blood pressure.</p>
<p>In contrast, in clinical trials of patients taking Ligandrol, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4111291/">the rate of side effects was similar to those in the placebo group</a> and included headache and dry mouth. While clinical trial participants on Ligandrol did have a higher rate of throat infections, it was concluded this was not due to the drug.</p>
<p>Ligandrol <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/dta.2512">can be detected for up to 21 days</a> in the urine of those who take it.</p>
<h2>In the news</h2>
<p>Because Ligandrol can potentially be used to gain an advantage in competitive sports, the <a href="https://www.wada-ama.org/">World Anti-Doping Agency</a> (WADA) placed the drug on its <a href="https://www.wada-ama.org/en/resources/science-medicine/prohibited-list-documents">prohibited list</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/snubbing-chinese-swimmer-sun-yang-ignores-the-flaws-in-the-anti-doping-system-120895">Snubbing Chinese swimmer Sun Yang ignores the flaws in the anti-doping system</a>
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<p>Shayna Jack’s hypothesis that it must have entered her system through contaminated supplements is not without merit. The TGA regularly bans the import of supposedly natural supplements for <a href="https://www.tga.gov.au/overseas-weight-loss-products">weight loss</a>, <a href="https://www.tga.gov.au/alert/liangzern-dietary-supplements">erectile dysfunction</a>, and body building because they contain prescription-only medicines. </p>
<p>While there have been no instances of body building protein or sports supplements being adulterated with Ligandrol, there are reports of some <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1541-4337.12173">dietary supplements being spiked with anabolic steroids</a> and similar drugs.</p>
<p>For safety and security, athletes should only use supplements from reputable brands bought from reliable stores in their home country. The risk of accidentally taking a banned substance is significant if an athlete buys supplements online.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/121097/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Associate Professor Wheate is a Fellow and Chartered Chemist of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute and a member of the Australasian Pharmaceutical Science Association.</span></em></p>Ligandrol is used to help repair and build mass and is banned for use by professional athletes because it can give a competitive advantage.Nial Wheate, Associate Professor | Program Director, Undergraduate Pharmacy, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1208952019-07-25T06:23:46Z2019-07-25T06:23:46ZSnubbing Chinese swimmer Sun Yang ignores the flaws in the anti-doping system<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/285660/original/file-20190725-136728-10xrzt0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Australian swimmer Mack Horton (left) has long criticised his rival, Sun Yang (centre), and called him a 'drug cheat' during the 2016 Olympics.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Patrick B. Kraemer/EPA</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="http://www.fina.org/event/18th-fina-world-championships">world swimming championships</a> currently taking place in South Korea have been attracting global attention not so much for the performances in the pool as the protests over alleged doping taking place on the podium. </p>
<p>The target of these protests has been the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Sun-Yang">Chinese swimmer Sun Yang</a>. After Sun won his fourth straight world title in the 400-metre freestyle, his arch-rival, Australian Mack Horton, <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-07-21/mack-horton-refuses-to-share-podium-with-sun-yang-after-final/11329842">refused to take the podium</a> to receive his silver medal.</p>
<p>Days later, Britain’s Duncan Scott, who finished third to Sun in the 200-metre freestyle event, also <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-07-23/british-swimmer-duncan-scott-refuses-to-shake-sun-yangs-hand/11340196">snubbed</a> Sun by refusing to take part in the medal winners’ group photo and shake the Chinese swimmer’s hand. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1153666308636127233"}"></div></p>
<p>The protests have again shed light on the problems with the system set up to prevent doping in elite sport. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.smh.com.au/sport/swimming/horton-shouldn-t-have-to-shake-the-hand-of-a-man-he-doesn-t-respect-20190722-p529hw.html">Many have heaped praise</a> on Horton and Scott for protesting the alleged misdeeds of a suspected drug cheat. But it’s important to look at the facts surrounding Sun’s case before vilifying him in such a public way. </p>
<h2>The facts of the case</h2>
<p>It is true that Sun has a dubious history when it comes to drug testing. In 2014, he served a three-month <a href="https://www.swimmingworldmagazine.com/news/sun-yang-doping-case/">suspension</a> after testing positive for the banned stimulant trimetazidine, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-swimming-sun-doping-idUSKCN0J80F120141124">which he said</a> was used to treat a heart condition.</p>
<p>More recently, one of Sun’s security guards <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/23/sports/sun-yang-swimming-doping.html">used a hammer</a> to smash a vial of his blood last year to prevent a doping test on the sample. While this action would certainly raise suspicions, digging deeper into the facts of the case reveals there is much more to the story.</p>
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<p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-is-doping-wrong-anyway-63057">Why is doping wrong anyway?</a>
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<p>To make sense of the controversy, one must understand the anti-doping system and the <a href="https://www.asada.gov.au/anti-doping-programmes/testing">athletes’ rights</a> within the system. Central to an effective anti-doping program is a standard set of procedures designed to protect all athletes from malicious or inappropriate testing processes. </p>
<p>Sun’s sample was collected by three doping control officers, but only one of them had the appropriate accreditation to carry out the test. Acknowledging this fact, a doping tribunal with FINA (the International Swimming Federation) <a href="https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/olympics/read-the-explosive-fina-doping-panel-report-on-sun-yang/news-story/c901280dc9d5dddae3f8e4afb59d4216">concluded earlier this year</a> that </p>
<blockquote>
<p>the blood that was initially collected (and subsequently destroyed) was not collected with proper authorisation and thus was not properly a ‘sample’. </p>
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<p>As a result, the tribunal concluded that the sample collection was “invalid and void”.</p>
<p>In addition, one of the doping control officers breached athlete confidentiality by taking photos and videos of Sun during the collection process. This is an important procedural breach. In accordance with <a href="https://www.wada-ama.org/en/resources/world-anti-doping-program/guidelines-blood-sample-collection">World Anti-Doping Agency</a> (WADA) procedures, an athlete is guaranteed anonymity until a sanction for a doping violation is handed down.</p>
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<p>
<em>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/testimony-vs-testing-anti-doping-is-an-imperfect-science-11345">Testimony vs testing: anti-doping is an imperfect science</a>
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<p>There was also only one male doping control assistant to collect a urine sample, another violation of procedures outline by WADA. The tribunal noted:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Such facts, once established, are a compelling justification for the athlete to refuse to have any further personal and sensitive contact with the DCA [doping control assistant]. </p>
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<p>Ultimately, the FINA doping tribunal determined that the appropriate procedures for collecting Sun’s samples were not followed, <a href="https://www.foxsports.com.au/more-sports/china-swim-king-sun-yang-demands-open-hearing-in-doping-case-report/news-story/7e7c0157b3ac3a8df2e68edc07be367b">clearing the way</a> for him to compete at the world championships.</p>
<h2>A flawed system, but also fair</h2>
<p>This isn’t to say that Sun is without fault. There are procedures that athletes must follow to contest a flawed or faulty sample collection – and smashing a vial of blood is clearly not an appropriate response.</p>
<p>While the world swimming governing body accepted the doping tribunal’s findings, <a href="https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1076713/wada-appeals-decision-not-to-sanction-olympic-champion-sun-to-cas">WADA has appealed</a> the finding to the <a href="https://www.wada-ama.org/en/court-of-arbitration-for-sport">Court of Arbitration for Sport</a> (CAS). If the CAS verifies the procedural problems with the sample collection, it is very likely that Sun will be exonerated. </p>
<p>Sun’s case highlights the flaws in the anti-droping regime, but it’s also important to remember that the <a href="https://www.wada-ama.org/en/resources/the-code/world-anti-doping-code">WADA Code</a> and urine and blood sample procedures are designed to ensure all athletes are treated fairly within a standardised process. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-science-of-doping-and-how-cheating-athletes-pass-drug-tests-45602">The science of doping and how cheating athletes pass drug tests</a>
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</em>
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<p>This system is designed not only to protect the sport from drug cheats, but also to protect athletes from being falsely accused.</p>
<p>Being called a “doping cheat” is one of the worst accusations an athlete can face. So, while Sun is not blameless, his accusers should consider the possibility that it is the anti-doping system that is actually at fault in this case. </p>
<p>Richard Ings, the former Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA) chief, came to Sun’s defence for this reason. Describing himself as “no fan of Sun Yang”, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/23/sports/sun-yang-swimming-doping.html">he nonetheless said</a> </p>
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<p>I do believe that athletes are treading a very treacherous path if they are making allegations against other individuals that they cannot substantiate. </p>
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<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1152940972839325698"}"></div></p>
<p>No matter the sport, be it swimming or any other, the fight against doping will always exist. But only once the doping control process has determined that an athlete has violated the rules can we safely label him or her a “drug cheat”.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/120895/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>G. Gregory Haff does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The protests against Sun Yang at the world championships highlight the problems with the system set up to protect the sport from doping.G. Gregory Haff, Professor of Strength and Conditioning, Edith Cowan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1208482019-07-24T12:59:32Z2019-07-24T12:59:32ZSwimmer protests at the World Championships renew calls for urgent anti-doping reforms<p>When Chinese swimmer Sun Yang recently won his fourth gold medal for the 400 metres freestyle alongside another gold in the 200 metres freestyle at the 2019 World Championships in Gwangju, South Korea, his achievements were overshadowed by fellow competitors who refused to stand on the podium with him.</p>
<p>First Australian silver medallist Mack Horton in the 400 metres and then British bronze medallist <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/av/swimming/49088383">Duncan Scott</a> in the 200 metres freestyle. Horton and Swimming Australia have since been <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/jul/23/mack-horton-reprimanded-by-swimming-world-body-over-sun-snub">officially warned</a> by the <a href="http://www.fina.org/">international swimming federation</a> FINA, for the protest. Both athletes have also been subject to <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-49079846">online abuse</a> and <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/swimming/2019/07/23/duncan-scott-sent-death-threats-refusing-stand-podium-alongside/">death threats</a> for their actions. </p>
<p>This is not the first time Horton has <a href="https://theconversation.com/horton-wins-by-naming-the-elephant-in-the-room-at-rio-olympics-63661">protested against Yang</a>, who was <a href="https://10daily.com.au/news/sport/a190724bpvks/this-is-why-people-are-booing-champion-chinese-swimmer-sun-yang-20190724">previously been suspended</a> by the China Anti-Doping Agency in 2014 – and is under investigation again after Yang’s bodyguard allegedly smashed his <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/23/sports/sun-yang-swimming-doping.html">blood vial sample with a hammer</a> during an out-of-competition doping test at <a href="http://www.china.org.cn/sports/2019-01/28/content_74416396.htm">Yang’s home in China</a>. Yang <a href="https://www.swimmingworldmagazine.com/news/sun-yang-facing-lifetime-ban-after-incident-with-drug-testers/">said</a> the incident happened because he believed the doping control officer was not properly accredited. </p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-07-21/sun-yang-doping-case-more-complicated-than-it-seems/11328364">FINA tribunal</a> has since ruled that, although smashing blood vials is not advisable, Yang did not commit an anti-doping rule violation as the officer was not fully qualified. But the World Anti-Doping Agency has not accepted these findings and is currently appealing the case <a href="https://10daily.com.au/news/sport/a190724bpvks/this-is-why-people-are-booing-champion-chinese-swimmer-sun-yang-20190724">in the Court of Arbitration for Sport</a>.</p>
<p>The incident has renewed suspicions about Yang, who previously served a three month suspension in 2014 for the prohibited substance trimetazidine. This is a stimulant usually used to treat patients suffering from angina. Yang claimed he was unaware the drug had been added to the banned list, and had been using it since 2008 to <a href="https://10daily.com.au/news/sport/a190724bpvks/this-is-why-people-are-booing-champion-chinese-swimmer-sun-yang-20190724">treat heart palpitations</a>.</p>
<h2>Varying testing conditions</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.3aw.com.au/podium-protest-aussie-swimmer-mack-horton-refuses-to-stand-next-accused-cheat-sun-yang/">Horton’s dad has spoken out to explain that</a> the protests from his son and others came from frustration at the perceived lack of consistency internationally in the way athletes are treated when it comes to testing. </p>
<p>This is in part due to the fact that the World Anti-Doping Agency relies on <a href="https://www.wada-ama.org/en/what-we-do/the-code/code-signatories">World Anti-Doping Code signatories</a>, such as international federations and national anti-doping organisations, to implement and enforce the rules. Yet, between signatories there is disparity in the resources available, technical expertise and commitment. This means that athletes in different regions are subject to varying testing conditions.</p>
<p>Research has shown the impact this disparity can have on the views of athletes. A study of <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1441352315000819">645 elite Danish athletes</a>, for example, found that 85% of them believed that “doping control is downgraded [by officials] in certain countries because medals have higher priority”. Almost half of the athletes also believed that “doping control in other countries is sometimes so unprofessional that it is possible to cheat”. </p>
<p>And as the case of Yang and Horton highlights, this difference in anti-doping conditions between nations can lead to a sense of injustice between athletes. It can also impact how athletes feel about testing in rival nations.</p>
<h2>Innocent until proven guilty?</h2>
<p>It appears then that Yang’s high-profile success has made him a symbolic target for frustration at the system. But it also shows how the label of drugs cheat is not easily shaken off. </p>
<p>Indeed, US sprinter Justin Gatlin served two separate bans for doping and was <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/athletics/40842008">booed at the 2017 World Championships</a>. Likewise, some still have suspicions about British cyclist Chris Froome after it was leaked that he had produced an adverse analytical finding, even though he was <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2018/jul/02/chris-froome-cleared-by-uci-in-anti-doping-investigation">later cleared</a> of any wrongdoing. Yang also seems to be subject to the same treatment.</p>
<p>Burden of proof on the prosecutor, and rehabilitation through punishment are characteristics of democratic societies. Yet when it comes to doping, it appears athletes remain chastised by competitors and the public – even after serving bans. Suspicions can even remain in place for those who have been found <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/cycling/tour-de-france-2018-team-sky-thomas-froome-general-classification-punch-fans-video-a8465856.html">not guilty</a>. </p>
<p>Yang served his previous suspension and was found innocent of any wrongdoing by FINA. So in smashing his blood test and questioning the accreditation of the officer, he did not demand anything that is not expected in any other facet of society – that authorities follow correct procedure. </p>
<p>Indeed, every athlete should have the right to be treated according to correct procedure given the severe repercussions of anti-doping rule violations. And Yang’s case highlights the need to reevaluate how we protect those accused of anti-doping violations as well as how to rehabilitate athletes. </p>
<h2>The athlete movement</h2>
<p>There has been pressure on the World Anti-Doping Agency from multiple sportspeople and organisations to increase the input of athletes in anti-doping governance. British Paralympian Ali Jawad, for example, released <a href="https://www.sportsintegrityinitiative.com/rio-2016-silver-medalist-ali-jawad-unveils-athlete-led-proposals-for-logical-and-pragmatic-governance-reform-of-world-anti-doping-agency/">The Alternative</a>, a document setting out his proposal World Anti-Doping Agency governance reforms. </p>
<p>Similarly, <a href="https://athletescan.com/en/governments-athletes-and-anti-doping-organizations-call-reforms-after-emergency-summit-white-house">AthletesCan</a>, the organisation responsible for representing Canadian athletes, the <a href="https://www.ukad.org.uk/news/article/anti-doping-leaders-unite-with-international-athlete-community-in-calling-f">National Anti-Doping Organisations</a> and <a href="https://www.sportsintegrityinitiative.com/statement-by-global-athletes-on-continued-criticism-by-wada-against-the-worlds-athletes-and-other-anti-doping-reformers/">The Reformers</a>, an international collective of politically active athletes, have all released statements demanding greater representation for athletes. </p>
<p>Given then the support Horton has <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/jul/22/mack-horton-accused-of-disrespecting-china-after-protesting-sun-yangs-win">received from other swimmers</a>, such protests exemplify the need for increased athlete representation on the World Anti-Doping executive committee to make decisions on their behalf. </p>
<p>The World Anti-Doping Agency has acknowledged this and said it is willing to <a href="https://www.wada-ama.org/en/media/news/2018-11/wada-foundation-board-approves-wide-ranging-governance-reform">strengthen the athlete voice</a> in decision making. But that this will only happen when athletes can determine a method to nominate a representative that adequately represents the cultural and sporting diversity of athletes under the World Anti-Doping Agency umbrella. Which is clearly quite the task, given the issue is so fraught with geopolitical tensions.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/120848/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Daniel Read does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Why swimmers are protesting against China’s Sun Yang at the World Championships.Daniel Read, PhD Candidate at the Institute for Sport Business, Loughborough UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1123492019-03-18T10:49:24Z2019-03-18T10:49:24ZWhistleblowing: athletes shouldn’t have to choose between their careers and the truth<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/263620/original/file-20190313-123551-1d196bk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Athletes should not feel like they have to choose between their careers or telling the truth about doping in sport. Yet, our <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/329580258_The_process_isn't_a_case_of_report_it_and_stop_Athletes'_lived_experience_of_whistleblowing_on_doping_in_sport">new research</a> shows that this is (too) often the reality for many involved in the sporting world. Telling the truth isn’t always rewarded. Instead, speaking up – whistleblowing – is too often followed by <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2015/nov/15/anti-doping-whistleblowers-iaaf-wada">retribution</a>.</p>
<hr>
<iframe id="noa-web-audio-player" style="border: none" src="https://embed-player.newsoveraudio.com/v4?key=x84olp&id=https://theconversation.com/whistleblowing-athletes-shouldnt-have-to-choose-between-their-careers-and-the-truth-112349&bgColor=F5F5F5&color=D8352A&playColor=D8352A" width="100%" height="110px"></iframe>
<p><em>You can listen to more articles from The Conversation, narrated by Noa, <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/audio-narrated-99682">here</a>.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>Our new research shows that whistleblowing on doping in elite sport can (and does) come at a cost to the whistleblower. As we discovered, for both US and UK doping whistleblowers, coming forward with information requires ongoing personal sacrifice – emotional, financial and relational.</p>
<p>Contrary to common belief, whistleblowing on doping is generally not a simple matter of report and move on. Rather, it is a series of steps – each accompanied by complex decisions – that exist from the moment of witnessing the questionable behaviour to well beyond the act of actually whistleblowing. </p>
<p>We spoke to three people who had reported doping in elite sport to gather insights into their unique whistleblowing experiences. Collectively, their accounts stressed that whistleblowing is a process that is often accompanied by myriad consequences consequences for the whistleblower. </p>
<h2>The difficulties</h2>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/doping-why-some-athletes-are-reluctant-to-speak-out-79862">Previous research</a> shows that athletes are generally hesitant to report doping despite being opposed to personally using banned substances. As an athlete, do you report doping behaviour to protect the integrity of sport, or keep quiet to protect a fellow sportsperson’s career, reputation and well-being?</p>
<p>Most athletes avoid publicly consuming illegal substances or engaging with banned methods. So doping whistleblowers do not necessarily have direct evidence of a specific doping incident. Instead, they are often privy to a series of incidents or events that collectively equate to doping. </p>
<p>The (potential) whistleblower therefore has to connect the dots and determine that the act(s) has indeed broken anti-doping rules. This on its own is challenging, but then add in the possibility that the person actually breaking the doping rules is someone you have a relationship with – and the prospect of whistleblowing becomes that much more complex. </p>
<p>Once doping has been identified, the whistleblower has to determine how and to whom they are going to report doping. Who can they trust with the information? Also, do they want to voluntarily take responsibility for (likely) altering the career trajectory of the athlete who has doped? These are weighty questions – whistleblowing on doping is complicated. Yet, sportspeople are increasingly expected to do it through such channels as the World Anti-Doping Agency’s <a href="https://speakup.wada-ama.org/WebPages/Public/FrontPages/Default.aspx">Speak Up! Platform</a>.</p>
<h2>Support needed</h2>
<p>Our research shows that whistleblowing can and does have life-altering implications for whistleblowers. The emotional burden of knowing that you have potentially ended someone’s athletic career can weigh heavy. At the same time, voluntarily risking such things as your reputation, financial stability and athletic career is a daunting prospect. It’s not surprising then that some athletes are <a href="https://theconversation.com/doping-why-some-athletes-are-reluctant-to-speak-out-79862">reluctant to speak out</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/263621/original/file-20190313-123554-161mhrn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/263621/original/file-20190313-123554-161mhrn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263621/original/file-20190313-123554-161mhrn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263621/original/file-20190313-123554-161mhrn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263621/original/file-20190313-123554-161mhrn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263621/original/file-20190313-123554-161mhrn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263621/original/file-20190313-123554-161mhrn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">It must be easier for athletes to speak out, without fearing reprisals.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It is clear that further support is needed to enable more people to report doping in sport. For this to happen, whistleblowers need practical and emotional support at every step in the whistleblowing journey. Evidence-based whistleblowing policies –- with explicit protections for whistleblowers and clear guidelines on when and how to report – are a key starting point for this and should be implemented and enforced. And while anonymous reporting hotlines like the World Anti-Doping Agency’s Speak Up! platform and accompanying <a href="https://www.wada-ama.org/sites/default/files/whistleblowingprogram_policy_procedure_en.pdf">Whistleblower programme</a> are a huge step in the right direction, research has not kept pace with these advances in policy and practice</p>
<p>Whistleblower education must also be provided, signposting people to available whistleblowing platforms and how to use them – as well as informing them about their rights as whistleblowers. An independent person – such as an ombudsman – to contact for advice and support should also be offered. Providing a sport ombudsman was listed as a “priority recommendation” in the 2017 Duty of Care in Sport <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/610130/Duty_of_Care_Review_-_April_2017__2.pdf">Report</a> regarding the handling of general welfare issues in UK sport. We suggest an ombudsman should be provided to support doping whistleblowers specifically.</p>
<p>The athlete voice is getting <a href="https://www.bbc.com/sport/athletics/47225647">louder</a> – with athletes rallying together and demanding a say in how global sport is run. Yet, it seems the current doping whistleblowing culture is more likely to deter athletes from speaking up than encourage them. But on the positive side, athletes also hold the key to understanding what changes need to be made to shift this culture towards one that empowers whistleblowers to come forward – which will ultimately help to protect the integrity of sport.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/112349/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kelsey Erickson received funding from the World Anti-Doping Agency to conduct this research. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Susan Backhouse received funding from the World Anti-Doping Agency to conduct this research.</span></em></p>Whistleblowing on doping can and does have life-altering implications for athletes – new research.Kelsey Erickson, Research Fellow in Anti-Doping, Leeds Beckett UniversitySusan Backhouse, Director of Research and Professor of Psychology and Behavioural Nutrition, Leeds Beckett UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1102352019-01-25T12:14:02Z2019-01-25T12:14:02ZGym break won’t mean you ‘lose it’ when it comes to muscles<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/254744/original/file-20190121-100267-su9i1p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/download/confirm/754741705?src=QSr6ImydM75vbur3IgZz3g-1-0&size=medium_jpg">Roman Samborskyi/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Our muscles grow as a result of regular exercise and can waste away when not frequently or strenuously used, leading to the popular maxim: “Use it or lose it.” But a <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphys.2018.01887/abstract">new review</a> of what we know about muscles during periods of regular exercise or disuse casts doubt over long-held beliefs about how our muscles grow and adapt.</p>
<p>Skeletal muscle cells (fibres) are the largest cells in the human body and contain thousands of individual nuclei to support their large volume. These nuclei are the control centres of each cell and, as well as housing DNA, coordinate a range of cell activities, including their growth.</p>
<p>Historically, scientists thought that each nucleus regulates a limited cell volume and that the ratio between the nucleus and cell volume was constant, termed a “nuclear domain”. In skeletal muscle, this means that during periods of growth, such as regular weight training, nuclei must be added to the fibre from the stem cell pool located outside the fibre. </p>
<p>In general, this concept appears to hold true. <a href="https://www.physiology.org/doi/full/10.1152/japplphysiol.01215.2007">For example</a>, people who experience the greatest muscle growth after weight training also have the biggest increase in the number of nuclei in their fibres. This increased nuclear content allows muscle fibres to continue to function and grow optimally.</p>
<h2>Muscle memory</h2>
<p>If you spend long enough hanging around gyms, you will no doubt hear anecdotes about someone who has recently started lifting weights again after a few years away and is packing on muscle much faster than the other new gym goers. These tales from the locker room are in fact supported by <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1827108">scientific evidence</a> and recent research suggests that retention of nuclei within muscle fibres may provide the reason why.</p>
<p>According to the nuclear domain theory, nuclei are lost when muscle size decreases, such as during long periods of inactivity, in order to maintain a constant ratio between the nuclear number and cell volume. Over the past decade, though, a series of experiments have found that nuclei are retained when muscle size decreases. These experiments (including this one in <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18317591">mice</a>) have shown that when muscles are immobilised or the nerve supply is blocked, the muscle fibres shrink, but no loss of nuclei occurs.</p>
<p>More recently, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30099751">research</a> in rats found that nuclei gained by muscle after training were maintained during long periods of not training. These nuclei then helped the muscle to regrow more effectively when training was resumed. It seems that muscle has a “memory” that helps explain why people who get back into the gym after some time away from training find it easier to gain muscle compared with newbies. </p>
<p>Although the saying “use it or lose it” is true for muscle size, per se, “use it or lose it until you use it again” is a more accurate – if less catchy – way to put it. </p>
<h2>Implications for doping in sport</h2>
<p>The World Anti-Doping Association bans steroid use because they cause large increases in muscle size which in some sports may be advantageous. Steroids or their byproducts can be detected in urine and blood samples for a short period of time, but the benefits of steroid use on muscle growth may last long after traces in urine and blood have vanished.</p>
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<span class="caption">Doping cheats may never be caught.</span>
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<p>We now know from <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24167222">studies in mice</a> that when muscles grow in response to steroid use, they also gain nuclei, which are retained when muscles have returned to their normal size after steroid withdrawal (muscle memory). When the muscles of these mice are then loaded to mimic weight training, the extra nuclei help muscles grow faster and much bigger than muscles in normal mice. This means that athletes can benefit from using steroids to grow their muscles without the fear of detection, and might do so already.</p>
<p>On the plus side, these recent findings on the biology of muscle adaptation and memory could provide insights on how to combat muscle wasting associated with ageing, disease and prolonged hospitalisation.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/110235/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Neil Martin currently holds funding from the Rank Prize Funds. </span></em></p>And why doping cheats may never be caught.Neil Martin, Lecturer in Cellular & Molecular Biology, Loughborough UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1058332018-11-18T18:50:26Z2018-11-18T18:50:26ZConfiscate their super. If it works for sports stars, it could work for bankers<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/246104/original/file-20181118-44255-2ozh5m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Why not give bankers conditional bonuses, paid out only after they have retired scandal-free?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shuttertock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/banking-royal-commissions-damning-report-things-are-so-bad-that-new-laws-might-not-help-104058">interim report</a> of the Financial Services Royal Commission pulled no punches, reminding us all of just how aghast the public is over (among other things) the <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-04-19/how-dead-people-cand-be-charged-bank-fees/9676846">non-provision of paid financial advice</a>, <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-07-01/banking-royal-commission-hears-the-pain-of-farmers/9924334">invalid farm repossessions</a>, <a href="https://www.theherald.com.au/story/5659887/banking-royal-commission-fighter-facing-eviction-from-home/">wrongful evictions of elderly home owners</a>, and <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/dollarmites-bites-the-scandal-behind-the-commonwealth-bank-s-junior-savings-program-20180517-p4zfyr.html">falsified “Dollarmite” children’s bank accounts</a>.</p>
<p>As unconnected as all these things seem, they all ultimately derive from the same place: misalignments between employee incentives and best practice.</p>
<p>These issues go right to the top, to the perverse incentives contained in executive salary packages to make short-term profits at the expense of long-term sustainability.</p>
<h2>Dud incentives make bankers do dud things</h2>
<p>Blame the individual bankers if you will – some bank boards, covering their own hides, already have – but the executives have simply been doing what dud incentives incentivised them to do.</p>
<p>Replacing dud incentives with proper ones will be essential if the the banks are to regain public trust.</p>
<p>And incentives being considered for sportspeople could show the way.</p>
<h2>Sport is a testbed for incentives</h2>
<p>An idea that I am trialling along with my collaborator Ralph Bayer from the University of Adelaide is a system of “conditional superannuation”.</p>
<p>To make sure that athletes don’t cheat by taking performance-enhancing drugs, competitors would agree to forego a percentage (say, 10%) of their earnings which would be placed into a managed fund, with the termination value handed to them some time in the future (say, eight to ten years after they retire) contingent on having maintained a clean record.</p>
<p>A positive drug test would result in <a href="https://www.afr.com/opinion/right-incentives-may-keep-sports-industry-clean-20150208-138wep">permanent confiscation</a> of all or some of their balance.</p>
<p>We have been testing the idea in a laboratory in which subjects are being asked to take decisions, such as whether or not to dope and how hard to train, in an environment that simulates the real world. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/new-anti-doping-powers-wont-fix-culture-of-drugs-in-sport-15479">New anti-doping powers won't fix culture of drugs in sport</a>
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<p>Our first findings, published in the <a href="https://journals.humankinetics.com/doi/full/10.1123/jsm.2017-0063">Journal of Sports Management</a>, suggest that conditional superannuation is more effective in combating doping than the traditional threat of bans.</p>
<h2>Bank executives are like sports stars</h2>
<p>As with sports stars, bank executives are presented with enormous potential rewards that encourage them to take risks.</p>
<p>True, there are sticks as well as these carrots, but they are misfiring. </p>
<p>What might work better is still more carrots, in the form of conditional superannuation, which can be later withdrawn if the bankers are found to have acted badly.</p>
<p>They ought to welcome it. It’s more money, and we know they are keen on bonuses.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-way-banks-are-organised-makes-it-hard-to-hold-directors-and-executives-criminally-responsible-93638">The way banks are organised makes it hard to hold directors and executives criminally responsible</a>
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<p>The idea could be extended to other related industries in which the royal commission has uncovered signs of grave transgressions, such as mortgage brokering.</p>
<h2>But we would need to test for side-effects</h2>
<p>It would be wise not to rush in (as the banks have done in their scramble to suddenly appear responsive). Conditional superannuation might create fresh perverse incentives we haven’t yet considered.</p>
<p>That’s where experiments come in – lots of them, in laboratories.</p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/speaking-with-andrew-leigh-on-why-we-need-more-randomised-trials-in-policy-and-law-93282">Speaking with: Andrew Leigh on why we need more randomised trials in policy and law</a>
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<p>To do it, and in the spirit of forging greater links between universities and industry, we are in the process of soliciting funding partnerships to help prepare applications for competitive research funding.</p>
<p>Ultimately, with the right partnerships, we are hopeful the right incentives can be developed to ensure bank executives use their generally considerable talents, for “<a href="https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Series/GetSmart">niceness, instead than evil</a>” (with apologies to Maxwell Smart).</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/105833/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Liam Lenten does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Conditional superannuation which can we withdrawn years after bankers retire might be the best way to get them to do the right thing.Liam Lenten, Senior Lecturer, Department of Economics and Finance, La Trobe UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1037382018-10-24T22:49:00Z2018-10-24T22:49:00ZAthletes are rightly concerned about lifting Russia’s doping ban<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/241562/original/file-20181022-105757-was177.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A and B sample bottles from a human urine doping test. The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has set off a controversy by allowing Russia to test its own athletes.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Matt Dunham, File)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The next Olympic Games won’t be held until 2020, but there is no break for the Olympic movement when it comes to doping controversies. The fallout from the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/20/sports/olympics/russia-wada-antidoping-reinstated.html">recent decision</a> by the World Anti-Doping Agency to lift its ban on Russia’s drug testing agency continues to reverberate across the sports world. </p>
<p>Canadian Olympian Beckie Scott, chair of WADA’s athlete committee, says she has been <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/sports/olympics/beckie-scott-says-some-wada-executives-attempted-to-bully-her-1.4860697">bullied by senior officials at the drug-testing body</a> after she publicly criticized the decision that will once again allow Russia to certify its athletes are clean to compete internationally.</p>
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<p>Other athletes were <a href="https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1070716/bach-criticised-by-athletes-after-claiming-critics-of-russian-reinstatement-misinterpreted-wada-decision">quick to back Scott’s concerns</a>, saying they were cut out of the decision-making process and that they have “<a href="https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1070354/wada-athlete-committee-claim-compliance-conditions-for-russia-could-change-again-as-criticise-decision-to-lift-ban">little assurance</a>” Russian authorities will fairly test its own athletes. There have now also been calls for <a href="https://www.bbc.com/sport/45937908">WADA to be investigated</a> over the bullying allegations levelled by Scott. </p>
<h2>Russia banned for two Olympics</h2>
<p>Russia was banned from the 2016 Summer Olympics and the 2018 Winter Olympics (although some Russian were allowed to compete as neutral Olympic athletes) after it was revealed that state-sponsored <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/13/sports/russia-doping-sochi-olympics-2014.html?partner=rss&module=inline">drug cheating among Russian athletes was rampant</a> at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.</p>
<p>The International Olympic Committee has since lifted its ban, provided no more athletes test positive for performance-enhancing drugs. WADA’s ruling is seen as another important step to allowing Russia back into the world of international sports.</p>
<p>These latest controversies have put <a href="https://www.wada-ama.org/en/who-we-are">the spotlight on WADA</a>, which was formed in 1999 as a joint effort by global sport organizations and governments with the lofty goal to eradicate doping from sport. The focus is not just on Olympians — a main impetus to create WADA was a series of drug cheating scandals that rocked the sport of cycling in the 1990s.</p>
<p>Before WADA, there were other attempts to examine drug cheating in sports. After <a href="https://ca.sports.yahoo.com/news/ben-johnson-finally-sees-inconsistent-seoul-test-results-kept-medal-200716713.html">sprinter Ben Johnson tested positive for steroids</a> in 1988 and had to return his gold medal, the Canadian government set up a royal commission to investigate drugs in sports. The <a href="http://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2014/bcp-pco/CP32-56-1990-1-eng.pdf">Dubin Inquiry,</a> as it was known, produced a series of recommendations that made Canada a leader in the anti-doping movement — and, it could be argued, helped lead to the formation of WADA.</p>
<h2>Considerable impact</h2>
<p>In the two decades since its creation, WADA has had considerable impact on doping in sport. Although this is not an easy impact to measure, some have looked at advances in testing methods, athlete feedback and other variables to suggest that things are getting better.</p>
<p>Beckie Scott herself is an example. Scott’s <a href="https://olympic.ca/2003/12/18/court-orders-ioc-to-award-beckie-scott-gold-medal/">cross-country skiing gold medal</a> at the 2002 Olympics was originally a bronze that was upgraded to silver and then gold (more than two years later) after the original Russian medallists were found to have used performance-enhancing drugs.</p>
<p>WADA is headquartered in Montreal and its founding President was Dick Pound, who led the organization from 1999 to 2007. Pound was known for his strong public stand on doping, particularly when it came to cyclist Lance Armstrong and professional sporting leagues.</p>
<p>Many give Pound and WADA much credit for the changing stance of professional sport leagues in North America which now take doping seriously. </p>
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<p>The fight for clean sport is complicated. The pressures — be they financial, ego, political, interpersonal, systemic or cultural — on an athlete (or a coach or a physician or an administrator) to find any edge possible is enormous.</p>
<h2>Legal sanctions not enough</h2>
<p>Over the years, legal sanctions and education programs have not been enough. Nor have promotional efforts. Strong public outreach, strict sanctions and costly penalties have made an impact on athlete behaviour to not dope.</p>
<p>But WADA’s vision of “a world where all athletes can compete in a doping-free sporting environment” remains unachieved. Positive doping tests occur every year and at every major sporting event. There is also ample evidence that cheating continues to go on undetected.</p>
<p>If we draw from what we know about behaviour change in humans, we know that there are three general tools available to organizations and governments to change or maintain behaviours — education, law and marketing. And, for each situation, the mix of these tactics differs and shifts in terms of what works to alter behaviour.</p>
<p>In the case of doping in athletes, the following would characterize these options.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Education: Programs put in place by WADA and its National Anti-Doping Association members (such as the United States Anti-Doping Agency that famously brought down Lance Armstrong) to inform athletes (elite and developing) and their support teams on doping-related issues. These are informational actions to let athletes know about the risks, penalties and consequences of doping behaviour and violations. In many situations, these are very effective. </p></li>
<li><p>Law: The sanctions and penalties put in place by WADA, NADAs, pro sports leagues, events and associations for doping violations. These could range from Armstrong’s lifetime ban to a warning for a first offence of not informing WADA/NADA of your whereabouts for random testing. These have impact, but again are not always effective.</p></li>
<li><p>Marketing: The final tactic is social marketing, which has been effective in changing social behaviours on smoking and drink and driving, where the athlete is “sold” that this is the best course of action. </p></li>
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<h2>Athletes remain skeptical</h2>
<p>Whether these tools will be effective in Russia is yet to be determined.</p>
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<p>Clearly, former athletes like Scott remain skeptical. Those still competing also feel WADA has not stood up for clean athletes. Although some other athletes, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-sport-doping-russia/ioc-athletes-commission-supports-wadas-lifting-of-ban-on-rusada-idUSKCN1M20K1">including the IOC Athlete’s Commission</a>, supported the WADA, most athletes who have gone public on their social media channels are aligned with Scott.</p>
<p>WADA’s decision was made after considering many issues, such as the notion of individual athlete rights (should all Russian athletes be considered dirty?) versus collective athlete rights (is there strong enough evidence that Russian athletes will be tested properly by the Russian doping agency?).</p>
<p>But Beckie Scott and others have made a strong argument — that by paving the way to allow Russia back into the international sports community, WADA has strayed from its core mission.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/103738/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Norm O'Reilly does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The decision by the World Anti-Doping Agency to lift its ban on Russia’s drug testing has set off another controversy about whether there will ever be a level playing field in the world of sports.Norm O'Reilly, Assistant Dean, Professor & Director of the International Institute for Sport Business & Leadership, University of GuelphLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/945692018-04-06T04:37:57Z2018-04-06T04:37:57ZWhat is pentosan polysulphate sodium (PPS) and why are AFL players using it?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/213515/original/file-20180406-125155-4aenhf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Former Carlton player Andrew Walker was reportedly able to resume playing regional football after PPS treatment.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>AFL players are <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/sport/afl/malcolm-blight-warns-on-players-being-used-in-drug-trials/news-story/4c2cea793cfc4cc4f86006e2a22ec393">reportedly being treated</a> with injections of the drug pentosan polysulphate sodium (PPS) for knee and bone pain. </p>
<p>While PPS is approved for use in Australia in oral capsule form to treat bladder inflammation, it is not yet approved as an injection for joint problems. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/sport/afl/malcolm-blight-warns-on-players-being-used-in-drug-trials/news-story/4c2cea793cfc4cc4f86006e2a22ec393">Up to 50 current and former AFL players</a> are reported to have been given PPS over the past few months, under the <a href="http://www.tga.gov.au">Therapeutic Goods Administration’s</a> <a href="https://www.tga.gov.au/form/special-access-scheme">special access scheme</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.globaldro.com/AU/search/ingredient-status/eG1oUGVWWXZnaGJSM2I4UG4xTXo2WEtSK05JdkhMY0M1">PPS is not prohibited</a> by the <a href="https://www.asada.gov.au/">Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA)</a>. The drug is neither an anabolic steroid nor an opioid-based pain reliever so is not considered to enhance performance.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/after-the-essendon-saga-any-reform-to-anti-doping-regimes-must-give-athletes-a-greater-say-53212">After the Essendon saga, any reform to anti-doping regimes must give athletes a greater say</a>
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<h2>Normal use</h2>
<p>Pentosan polysulphate sodium was first developed in 1949 by German researcher W. Benend to treat blood clots.</p>
<p>In Australia, PPS is available only by prescription, under the brand name Elmiron, for the treatment of interstitial cystitis, a type of chronic inflammation of the bladder wall. It is not commonly used, with only <a href="http://www.pbs.gov.au/statistics/asm/2011/australian-statistics-on-medicines-2011.pdf">400 scripts filled nationwide in 2011</a>.</p>
<p>The drug is a semi-synthetic chemical that works by passing through the kidneys into urine, where it is then able to coat the inner walls of the bladder. This prevents microorganisms attaching to the bladder and causing infections. </p>
<p>When taken in capsule form at a dose of 100 mg, the drug is effective after six to eight weeks of treatment.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/213520/original/file-20180406-125158-di7ebi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/213520/original/file-20180406-125158-di7ebi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/213520/original/file-20180406-125158-di7ebi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/213520/original/file-20180406-125158-di7ebi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/213520/original/file-20180406-125158-di7ebi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/213520/original/file-20180406-125158-di7ebi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/213520/original/file-20180406-125158-di7ebi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">PPS is available in Australia with a prescription under the brand name Elmiron.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<p>Because it is also similar to <a href="https://www.ambulance.qld.gov.au/docs/clinical/dtprotocols/DTP_Heparin.pdf">heparin</a>, PPS also works an anti-blood clotting agent by inhibiting the action of an enzyme called <a href="http://www.enamine.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=52">activated factor Xa</a>, which plays a key role in helping blood cells stick together in clotting.</p>
<p>Common <a href="https://www.nps.org.au/medical-info/medicine-finder/elmiron-capsules">side effects of PPS</a> include swelling, headache, dizziness, nausea, indigestion or diarrhoea.</p>
<h2>Other uses</h2>
<p>The Australian pharmaceutical company Paradigm Biopharma is looking to repurpose PPS as a treatment for pain in people with osteoarthritis of the knee and lesions in the subchondral bone – the layer of bone just below the cartilage in joints which acts as a so-called “shock-absorber”.</p>
<p>The company is currently conducting a <a href="https://www.anzctr.org.au/Trial/Registration/TrialReview.aspx?id=373400&isReview=true">randomised, placebo-controlled clinical trial</a> in Australia using an injectable form of the drug. Evidence of the benefit of PPS in osteoarthritis of the knee has been known from an <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24678076">early trial</a> which gave the drug as an intramuscular injection for a month. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/randomised-control-trials-what-makes-them-the-gold-standard-in-medical-research-78913">Randomised control trials: what makes them the gold standard in medical research?</a>
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<p>It’s not clear how PPS reduces joint pain, but Professor Jegan Krishnan, an orthopaedic surgeon at Flinders University, <a href="https://www.arthritiswa.org.au/news/view/a-breakthrough-treatment-for-osteoarthritis-could.html">suggests that the drug has anti-inflammatory effects</a> and seems to address the bone marrow lesions. By controlling the lesions, the drug prevents the pain.</p>
<p>The injectable form of PPS is not registered in Australia, or approved for sale. It can only be used through the TGA’s <a href="https://www.tga.gov.au/special-access-scheme-guidance-health-practitioners-and-sponsors">special access scheme</a>, which grants permission for use of unapproved drugs when other treatment options have been exhausted. </p>
<p>Paradigm Biopharma is not the only company looking to repurpose the drug. Clinical trials are also being conducted overseas by other companies to examine whether PPS is useful as a treatment for <a href="https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/results?cond=&term=pentosan&cntry=&state=&city=&dist=">psychotic disorders and prostate inflammation</a>.</p>
<h2>AFL player treatment</h2>
<p>Arthritis and joint pain are common injuries among elite sports people. These injuries are particularly <a href="http://sportsmedicinecentre.com.au/view/lib/aussie-rules-football-injuries/116">prevalent in Aussie rules players</a> because of the frequent jumping, running and tackling that the players undergo on a weekly basis.</p>
<p>As such, AFL players are one group of sportspeople who are likely to benefit from PPS injections.</p>
<p>PPS is administered as an injection to the players twice a week for a period of six weeks and <a href="http://www.proactiveinvestors.com.au/companies/news/194287/paradigm-biopharmaceuticals-achieves-pain-treatment-win-with-afl-players-194287.html">results have indicated</a> that PPS works well to control their knee pain. All players reportedly experienced significant drops in their pain levels.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/close-case-set-to-present-a-legal-headache-for-the-afl-92418">Close case set to present a legal headache for the AFL</a>
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<p>While these results are promising, any data obtained outside of the clinical trial must be treated with caution. Before routine prescribing of PPS for people with knee pain and bone lesions, the clinical trial must show the drug is safe in its injectable form and that any reduction is pain is at least as good as current treatments.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/94569/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Associate Professor Wheate in the past has received funding from the ACT Cancer Council, Tenovus Scotland, Medical Research Scotland, Scottish Crucible, and the Scottish Universities Life Sciences Alliance. He is Fellow of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute and a member of the Australasian Pharmaceutical Science Association.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Professor Andrew McLachlan receives research funding from NHMRC Centre for Research Excellence in Medicines and Ageing and Project research grants (especially related to low back pain and sciatica). He has also received in-kind research funding from Pfizer and GSK to support research into low back pain clinical trials. </span></em></p>While PPS is approved in oral capsule form to treat bladder inflammation, it is not yet approved as in injection for knee and bone problems. But AFL players have been given special access.Nial Wheate, Associate Professor | Program Director, Undergraduate Pharmacy, University of SydneyAndrew McLachlan, Head of School and Dean of Pharmacy, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/940962018-03-29T01:04:49Z2018-03-29T01:04:49ZCan the cricketers banned for ball tampering ever regain their hero status? It’s happened before<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212535/original/file-20180328-189824-1cte335.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Steve Smith has borne the brunt of the public and media vitriol over Australian cricket's ball-tampering scandal.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/Muzi Ntombela</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Overnight, Cricket Australia handed out its <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/ball-tampering-trio-face-significant-sanctions-lehmann-stays-as-cricket-coach">promised “significant sanctions”</a> for a ball-tampering incident that has engulfed the sport <a href="https://theconversation.com/just-not-cricket-why-ball-tampering-is-cheating-93935">in scandal</a>. Steve Smith and David Warner, the team’s captain and vice-captain, <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-03-28/steve-smith-david-warner-banned-playing-australia/9598648">have been banned</a> for 12 months. Cameron Bancroft, who carried out the failed plot, received a nine-month ban. </p>
<p>It was <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/sport/cricket/sandpaper-lies-and-videotape-warner-fingered-by-ca-as-architect-20180328-p4z6sk.html">also revealed</a> it was sandpaper, <a href="http://www.news.com.au/sport/cricket/legends-want-steve-smith-sacked-after-balltampering-scandal/news-story/766365369ad0b6b19d0895f826957c85">and not</a> “yellow tape and the granules from the rough patches of the wicket” as originally claimed, that Bancroft tried to use to alter the ball’s condition in the Test match between South Africa and Australia. </p>
<p>While the International Cricket Council (ICC) initially suspended Smith for only one Test, all three are now banned from international and domestic (professional) cricket in Australia. Smith and Warner have also had their lucrative Indian Premier League contracts <a href="https://twitter.com/plalor/status/978932106947543040">torn up</a>, and some sponsors <a href="http://www.sportingnews.com/au/cricket/news/steve-smith-ball-tampering-weet-bix-australia-south-africa-cricket-australia/cgtiemaofb9r17d4ov6jx54jg">have already distanced themselves</a> from the players and <a href="https://www.asx.com.au/asxpdf/20180329/pdf/43stmx3p8cd32p.pdf">the sport</a>. But these measures fall short of the <a href="https://wwos.nine.com.au/2018/03/26/10/34/ball-tampering-crisis-steve-smith-david-warner-life-ban">lifetime bans</a> some called for.</p>
<p>As captain, Smith has borne the brunt of the public and media vitriol, particularly as he accepted responsibility for what had happened. He may yet be Australian captain again in the future.</p>
<p>But according to Cricket Australia’s investigation, it was Warner who developed the plan and instructed Bancroft – a younger player – to carry it out. Warner also showed a “<a href="https://af.reuters.com/article/africaCricketNews/idAFL8N1RA23T">lack of contrition</a>” and will therefore not be considered for any leadership position in the future.</p>
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<h2>Does the punishment fit the crime?</h2>
<p>Ball tampering is clearly cheating; it breaks the rules and is against the “spirit of cricket”. But while it has been deemed the <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-03-27/cricket-ball-tampering-steve-smith-icc-doping-in-sport/9587716">“moral equivalent of doping”</a>, there is a lack of consistency in how sanctions are dished out to offenders.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/just-not-cricket-why-ball-tampering-is-cheating-93935">Just not cricket: why ball tampering is cheating</a>
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<p>Bans for doping violations are often severe. Players such as Andre Russell have been <a href="http://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/id/18591521/andre-russell-banned-one-year-doping-code-violation">banned for 12 months</a> for failing to record their whereabouts for drug testing. But, historically, ICC bans for ball tampering have been more lenient: Pakistan’s Shahid Afridi <a href="http://www.espncricinfo.com/ausvpak09/content/story/446437.html">received a two-game ban</a> for biting the ball in an attempt to alter its condition. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Pakistan’s Shahid Afridi’s bite-tampering incident.</span></figcaption>
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<p>However, a harder line has been taken for incidents of match-fixing. Three Pakistan players were banned and jailed for a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2011/nov/03/pakistan-spot-fixing-jail-terms">spot-fixing incident</a> in 2010. South Africa’s Herschelle Gibbs <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2000/aug/29/cricket3">received a six-month ban</a> in 2000 for agreeing to fix a match, even though he did not follow through with it.</p>
<p>Lifetime bans are not uncommon in sport generally. Ryan Tandy was <a href="http://www.couriermail.com.au/sport/nrl/nrl-boss-david-gallop-to-ban-ryan-tandy-from-rugby-league-for-life/news-story/5594d6b4ae7b8e3912c963999450faf6?sv=920ec5e27a9c2d22573b03d36fa9cb57">banned for life</a> for attempted spot-fixing in a rugby league game. Lance Armstrong <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/US/lance-armstrong-stripped-tour-de-france-titles-banned/story?id=17535635">was banned</a> from sanctioned Olympic sports for life and had his results voided for his serial doping in cycling. Even figure skating is not immune: Tonya Harding was <a href="https://www.theodysseyonline.com/tonya-harding">similarly banned</a> for hindering the prosecution into a vicious attack on a fellow competitor.</p>
<p>It is difficult to compare sanctions across sports. But, when doing so, the inconsistencies are apparent. Boxer Mike Tyson was <a href="http://bleacherreport.com/articles/762315-boxing-ko-of-the-day-mike-tyson-banned-from-boxing">handed a 15-month ban</a> for biting off part of Evander Holyfield’s ear; footballer Luis Suarez <a href="http://www.bbc.com/sport/football/16186556">received an eight-game ban</a> for racially abusing an opponent; fellow footballer Paul Davis only <a href="http://www.gunnerstown.com/arsenal/2016/10/03/paul-davis-the-highbury-hero-with-the-perfect-left-hook/">served a nine-match ban</a> for punching and breaking an opponent’s jaw.</p>
<p>In light of these punishments, are nine- and 12-month bans for premeditated cheating and lying reasonable and just?</p>
<p>Cricket Australia has been criticised for the time it took to reach a decision. But it’s essential that due diligence is done and facts are gathered before a sentence is handed down. Without this, decisions are made through the pressure of public shaming, and social media get to cast the final vote on the punishment.</p>
<p>If sporting organisations want players to act morally on field, then they too should be guided by moral behaviour in governing the sport. </p>
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<h2>Forgive and forget?</h2>
<p>Society is often keen to forgive top athletes when they transgress. When athletes admit their mistakes and ask forgiveness it is usually granted. </p>
<p>Over time, sports fans also tend to forget athletes’ errors and focus solely on their on-field ability. In cricket, for instance, Don Bradman’s role in disputes over pay as a cricket administrator is <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/cricket/3000015/The-other-side-of-Don-Bradman.html">largely glossed over</a>. Shane Warne’s <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/02/22/1045638544833.html">year-long ban</a> for a doping violation is rarely mentioned.</p>
<p>Drugs cheats <a href="https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/other-sports/dwain-chambers-has-done-his-time-so-court-should-set-him-free-for-olympics-7562314.html">are accepted</a> (and sometimes welcomed) back into sport – some even after <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/justin-gatlin-doping-drugs-100m-champion-scandal-world-champion-usa-a8117561.html">multiple doping offences</a>. </p>
<p>In many sports, athletes’ chequered pasts are ignored in favour of their on-field ability. It is often the actions that come as a result of their behaviour that are judged, and not the infringement itself.</p>
<p>Athletes frequently transgress, but their subsequent redemption is often woven into the narrative around them. Stories around sporting heroes <a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-enough-to-be-a-hero-71631">follow several patterns</a>, but the most recognised is the hero’s journey. The “hero” sets out on a quest but is faced by a crisis or descends into a hellish underworld. They “heroically” overcome these challenges and ultimately return to glory.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/are-you-monomythic-joseph-campbell-and-the-heros-journey-27074">Are you monomythic? Joseph Campbell and the hero's journey</a>
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<p>In this instance, Smith, Warner and Bancroft are in a hell of their own making. If they manage to return, and do so triumphantly, then it is likely they will be forgiven – and some may even forget their role in this sorry affair. Only time will tell whether they will again be considered heroic.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/94096/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>If the Australian cricketers involved in a ball-tampering scandal manage to return to the game, and do so triumphantly, it is likely they will be forgiven – and some may even forget their role in it.Keith Parry, Senior Lecturer in Sport Management, Western Sydney UniversityEmma Kavanagh, Senior Lecturer in Sports Psychology and Coaching Sciences, Bournemouth UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/931062018-03-12T10:58:09Z2018-03-12T10:58:09ZThree radical steps to derail doping in elite sport<p>Elite British cycling outfit Team Sky “crossed an ethical line” by giving medicines to squad members which could be used to enhance performance, according to the <a href="https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201719/cmselect/cmcumeds/366/366.pdf">new UK parliamentary committee report</a> into doping in British cycling and athletics. </p>
<p>Though the report makes clear that the drug use was within <a href="https://www.usada.org/about/world-anti-doping-code/">global anti-doping rules</a>, it devotes much attention to eight-times cycling medallist Bradley Wiggins and several occasions on which he took medicines before major races – he and Team Sky strenuously deny any wrongdoing. </p>
<p>Champion distance runner Mo Farah is also named. The report heavily criticises his doctor, Robin Chakraverty, for not recording the dose size of a restricted substance he injected into the athlete before the London Marathon in 2014 – Farah and Chakraverty insist they were within the rules. The report refers to “acute failures” in both British cycling and athletics around medicine procedures that urgently need addressed. </p>
<p>It amounts to one more doping controversy for elite international sport – barely two weeks after several Russian athletes were <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/winter-olympics/43186278">caught cheating</a> at the Winter Olympics. It threatens to drag cycling even further through the mud, all the worse because British cycling’s apparent anti-doping respectability always seemed central to Team Sky’s success. </p>
<p>The global system for preventing doping is not working properly and needs reform. For defenders and critics alike, here are three radical options:</p>
<h2>1. More of the same, but better</h2>
<p>Currently <a href="https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1048181/anti-doping-claimed-to-cost-sport-300-million-each-year">there are</a> around 300,000 drug tests a year, <a href="https://www.asada.gov.au/about-asada/finance/fees">costing</a> approximately £700-£1,000 each. They <a href="https://www.wada-ama.org/sites/default/files/resources/files/2016_anti-doping_testing_figures.pdf">catch less than</a> 2% of doping, much of it either recreational or innocuous. </p>
<p>It is <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40279-017-0792-1">possible that</a> up to 50% of athletes have doped. We need substantially more funding for more frequent tests to make participants really fear being caught. Obviously this would only address detectable drugs and not substances which tests cannot yet find, but this would be an improvement. </p>
<p>To achieve this, you could pay athletes less money. Rewards vary hugely of course, but for instance the winner of the Tour de France receives €500,000 in prize money – never mind the sponsorship opportunities. Cutting incomes would reduce the incentive to dope and free up cash for more testing. It would also address the problem in cycling, where the richest riders can afford the best doping doctors. </p>
<p>Second, reduce the list of banned substances to priority substances that either have the highest health risk or most potently enhance performance. Keep steroids on the list, for example, but take off cannabis. Third, raise money from sponsors and major event organisers and governments to pay for more testing.</p>
<h2>2. Monitor suppliers</h2>
<p>Despite the limited testing, one paradox with the current system is that it takes an extreme approach to keeping athletes under surveillance. Those on the registered testing pool must tell the authorities where they will be for at least an hour every day. </p>
<p>All athletes can be tested randomly at events, training facilities, their house or on holiday. When they are approached for a test, a drug control officer needs to chaperone them until they are ready to urinate. At that moment, the officer accompanies them to the bathroom to ensure the urine leaves the body and is not swapped for a prepared sample. </p>
<p>This unethical intrusion clearly does not work. Too much time and money is wasted on locating and observing athletes with little or no risk of doping. It makes clean athletes nervous that they have inadvertently used a doping substance, or that there might be a problem with the handling or laboratory processes. </p>
<p>One alternative option might be to spend less time on athletes and more on doctors and coaches. After all, it is very likely that they will be the conduit to doping. The recent history of cycling shows a small coterie of <a href="http://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/latest-news/lance-armstrong-doping-doctor-given-18-month-prison-sentence-323284">doctors</a> whose doping practices could have been stopped if the right systems had been in place. </p>
<p>In a more rigorous system, these personnel would be regularly checked, compelled to undertake anti-doping education, and face career-threatening sanctions if an athlete reported them to the authorities. </p>
<h2>3. Independent scrutiny</h2>
<p>Global anti-doping practices are overseen by the <a href="https://www.wada-ama.org">World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)</a>, but there is no watchdog or auditor to ensure policies are fair, just and properly implemented. Governments could collectively fund such an agency. A key role would be to review anti-doping in all countries and sports to detect and prevent corruption of the testing system. </p>
<p>Perhaps each sport would even have its own agency. If that had been in place for cycling, some of the evidence released by the new UK parliamentary committee report would have been collected and WADA might have had a more hands-on role than it has had. </p>
<p>The new watchdog would also become a forum for whistleblowers and critics with new ideas for anti-doping. It would be independent enough to prevent the sorts of organisational and political conflicts of interest that <a href="http://www.sportsintegrityinitiative.com/tackling-doping-sport-removal-conflicts-interest-central/">have plagued</a> the Olympics, cycling, football and other sports. </p>
<p>Another progressive step would be to support athletes <a href="https://www.balls.ie/newsnow/new-documentary-shines-light-irish-sprinters-controversial-doping-conviction-382087">who appeal</a> against high or unjust sanctions. Currently, it’s a long and expensive process in which they are very unlikely to succeed. This would give them more trust in the system, and make them more likely to proactively support it. </p>
<p>Which of these three options would I choose? I lean towards less surveillance of and more protection for athletes – shifting more of the testing burden to doctors and other support staff. </p>
<p>The risk is that less testing of athletes could lead to more doping, so there may be a balance to be struck. Meanwhile, a global doping watchdog enforcing the kind of standards that British procedures have failed to meet might have meant that athletes like Wiggins and Farah would not have found themselves under suspicion. </p>
<p>We might never be able to achieve “clean sport”. But if we can put core values at the heart of change and accept that incremental progress is better than nothing, options like the ones I’ve laid down might mitigate the current failings.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/93106/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paul Dimeo has previously had funding from the British Academy, Wellcome Trust, Fulbright Commission and WADA, but not related to this article.</span></em></p>Doping controversy around British cycling and athletics is the latest sign that sports authorities need to do something drastic.Paul Dimeo, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Health Sciences and Sport, University of StirlingLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/921032018-02-21T01:37:24Z2018-02-21T01:37:24ZExplainer: the doping case against Russian curler Aleksandr Krushelnitckii<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/207029/original/file-20180219-116327-n173bv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Russian curler Aleksandr Krushelnitckii faces being stripped of his bronze medal from Pyeongchang.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/Javier Etxezarreta</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Thus far at this year’s Winter Olympics, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has brought disciplinary proceedings against <a href="http://www.tas-cas.org/en/index.html">three athletes</a> suspected of doping. One of them is <a href="http://www.tas-cas.org/fileadmin/user_upload/Media_Release_ADD_p2018__English__2.pdf">Aleksandr Krushelnitckii</a>, who won bronze in the mixed curling event. He has <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2018/feb/18/winter-olympics-russian-athlete-reportedly-fails-drugs-test">tested positive for meldonium</a>.</p>
<p>Some have delighted in noting that the strange “broom and stone” sport of curling had been “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/19/sports/olympics/olympic-curling-doping-reaction.html">rocked</a>” by the doping allegation. It has also raised memories of Russian tennis player Maria Sharapova, <a href="https://theconversation.com/centre-court-and-15-love-cas-reduces-sharapova-ban-66747">who was banned</a> for 15 months after testing positive to meldonium in 2016.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/centre-court-and-15-love-cas-reduces-sharapova-ban-66747">Centre court and 15-love: CAS reduces Sharapova ban</a>
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<p>Krushelnitckii is also Russian, though technically competing in Pyeongchang as an Olympic Athlete from Russia (OAR). This is the term the IOC has given to the 160 or so Russian athletes deemed eligible to compete despite <a href="https://theconversation.com/russias-humiliating-ban-from-the-winter-olympics-is-the-right-move-to-protect-integrity-in-sport-88689">the continuing suspension</a> of the Russian Olympic Committee over doping allegations at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/russias-humiliating-ban-from-the-winter-olympics-is-the-right-move-to-protect-integrity-in-sport-88689">Russia's humiliating ban from the Winter Olympics is the right move to protect integrity in sport</a>
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<h2>Krushelnitckii and the ‘sabotage’ defence</h2>
<p>The construction of the case against Krushelnitckii seems straightforward; his routine doping sample has come back positive for meldonium.</p>
<p>Although he left the Olympic Village <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-02-19/russian-curler-leaves-olympic-village-amid-doping-probe/9461116">without comment</a>, it seems his defence will be that a fellow competitor – disgruntled at having not been selected to go to the Olympics – <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2018/feb/19/russian-curler-banished-from-winter-olympics-after-failed-drug-test">spiked or sabotaged his drink</a> with the prohibited substance.</p>
<p>The burden of proof with this defence will be on Krushelnitckii. The “someone spiked my drink” <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2018/feb/20/facts-fiction-drug-tests-japanese-kayakers-winter-games-krushelnitsky">defence</a> is rarely credibly argued in doping cases and even more seldom successful.</p>
<p>In the build-up to the 2016 Rio Olympics, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) appealed a decision by India’s National Anti-Doping Agency that annulled a doping infraction against wrestler <a href="http://www.tas-cas.org/fileadmin/user_upload/Award_16-25_FINAL.pdf">Narsingh Yadav</a>. The Indian body had accepted Yadav’s plea of “sabotage by another”, and the annulment permitted him to be selected to compete in Rio.</p>
<p>But, days before his first bout, WADA appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).</p>
<p>CAS imposed a four-year ban on Yadav. It argued any contention that seeks to undermine the scientific integrity of a positive test needs more than vague, circumstantial assertions by the athlete that persons unknown and at a time unknown had the motive and opportunity to conspire to sabotage the athlete’s sample.</p>
<p>Also, in the Yadav case, the expert scientific witness noted that the prohibited substance in question – a steroid – would not have dissolved fully, and Yadav would likely have noticed sediment in his drink bottle.</p>
<p>Although the Yadav case gives an insight into the difficulties Krushelnitckii’s defence will face, athletes have, on occasion, mounted successful sabotage defences.</p>
<p>The most-celebrated example at CAS was that of Belgian judoka <a href="http://www.espn.com.au/skiing/judo/story/_/id/11175506/charline-van-snick-wins-doping-appeal-loses-medal">Charline Van Snick</a>. She tested positive for cocaine at the 2013 World Championships and faced a two-year ban, but claimed that someone must have sabotaged her drink bottle with the substance.</p>
<p>At CAS, she provided detailed toxicology reports showing she was not a habitual user of the drug. This evidence, combined with the spiked bottle’s testing results, was enough to <a href="http://wadc-commentary.com/vansnick/">clear her of wrongdoing</a>.</p>
<p>The only other example of the “spiking” defence being successful is where the athlete has specific evidence against another person – usually a rival or disaffected member of that athlete’s entourage – who had the motive and access to carry out the act.</p>
<p>A very recent example of this occurred last month. One of Japan’s top sprint canoeists, <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/sport/japanese-kayaker-yasuhiro-suzuki-banned-for-eight-years-for-spiking-rivals-drink-20180109-h0g01f.html">32-year-old Yasuhiro Suzuki</a>, was banned for eight years for spiking a younger rival’s drink with an anabolic steroid. The rivalry between the two had, by all accounts, intensified as their preparations for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics began in earnest.</p>
<h2>The wider context</h2>
<p>Returning to Krushelnitckii, many will probably roll their eyes at his purported defence and dismiss it as just another Russian excuse.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, there is <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/leeigel/2018/02/20/russian-doping-case-in-olympic-curling-isnt-what-it-appears-to-be/#2a5ccbc7423b">something odd</a> about the circumstances. All those on the OAR team would have known they would be subject to enhanced testing in the immediate weeks prior to, and during, the Olympics. </p>
<p>And Krushelnitckii was, it seems, independently tested at the end of January <a href="https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1061644/russian-mixed-doubles-curling-bronze-medallist-reportedly-fails-drugs-test">at a training camp in Japan</a> before his departure to Pyeongchang. The results were negative.</p>
<p>OAR participants would also have been acutely aware that they were part of a <a href="https://olympics.cbc.ca/news/article/oar-doping-violation-may-prevent-country-from-reinstatement-before-closing-ceremony.html">sophisticated political choreography</a> between Russia and the IOC, which it is claimed may even have resulted in athletes <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-02-21/russian-curler-b-sample-tests-positive-meldonium/9468402?section=sport">entering the closing ceremony</a> under the Russian flag and in the national uniform. Krushelnitckii’s positive test now puts <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/winter-olympics-2018/2018/02/19/ioc-should-not-even-think-reinstating-russia-curling-doping/350404002/">pressure on the IOC</a> not to allow this. </p>
<p>And the closing ceremony in Pyeongchang was an opportunity for Russia to draw a line under the past four years of doping allegations, in a year when it hosts another big sporting event – the FIFA World Cup.</p>
<p>A more immediate question is why an athlete might take a substance such as meldonium. It is widely used for treating different heart and vascular diseases and helps improve circulation, particularly in the brain. In terms of its <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/06/14/482010754/what-does-it-take-to-get-a-drug-banned-for-enhancing-athletes-performance">performance-enhancing qualities</a>, it appears it could have a positive effect on an athlete’s stamina and concentration.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/maria-sharapovas-positive-drug-test-what-is-it-and-what-does-it-mean-for-her-55927">Maria Sharapova's positive drug test: what is it and what does it mean for her?</a>
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<p>Although the immediate reaction of many was to <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/winter-olympics-the-big-question-over-curler-s-doping-why">treat doping in curling as a joke</a>, the pressurised nature of an Olympics and the demands it makes on athletes – both physically and mentally – could, presumably, tempt someone to use meldonium.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/92103/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jack Anderson is a member of the Court of Arbitration for Sport.</span></em></p>Athletes have, on occasion, mounted successful defences of sabotage in doping cases.Jack Anderson, Professor of Sports Law, Melbourne Law School, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/908502018-02-07T02:21:51Z2018-02-07T02:21:51ZRussian Olympic doping saga shows need for a radically different approach<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205196/original/file-20180207-58188-1cw5pe8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Certain Russian athletes will be allowed to compete in Pyeongchang under the banner of 'Olympic Athletes from Russia'.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters/Fabrizio Bensch</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Sport, and particularly the International Olympic Committee (IOC), needs a new approach to doping – <a href="http://www.matthewsyed.co.uk/books/">one in which</a> it frankly and independently interrogates what went wrong and uses that analysis to secure the future.</p>
<p>Mistakes have been made to the extent that doping scandals have dominated the build-up to the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics. This is one of the IOC’s marquee events, and the financial viability of the Olympic “movement” depends on it.</p>
<p>The background to the latest scandal is easily explained. But the lessons that need to be learned are not so simply analysed.</p>
<h2>Background to the saga</h2>
<p>Allegations of a Russian state-sponsored doping conspiracy at the 2014 Sochi Olympics prompted the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) to commission an investigation by Canadian sports lawyer Richard McLaren. His report fed into the IOC’s investigation of the Sochi Olympics and its own disciplinary process. </p>
<p>This all led to the IOC’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/russias-humiliating-ban-from-the-winter-olympics-is-the-right-move-to-protect-integrity-in-sport-88689">decision in December 2017</a> to suspend the Russian Olympic Committee with immediate effect.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/russias-humiliating-ban-from-the-winter-olympics-is-the-right-move-to-protect-integrity-in-sport-88689">Russia's humiliating ban from the Winter Olympics is the right move to protect integrity in sport</a>
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<p>Nevertheless, the IOC <a href="https://www.olympic.org/news/ioc-suspends-russian-noc-and-creates-a-path-for-clean-individual-athletes-to-compete-in-pyeongchang-2018-under-the-olympic-flag">also decided</a> it would still be open to inviting individual Russian athletes to compete in Pyeongchang. But this would be under strict conditions that, if met, would only allow them to participate under a separate designation of “Olympic Athlete from Russia”.</p>
<p>An <a href="https://www.olympic.org/news/reduced-pool-of-russian-athletes-and-officials-who-can-be-considered-for-invitation-to-pyeongchang-2018-determined">IOC panel</a> appointed to oversee this process initially reviewed applications submitted by 500 Russian athletes – 111 were refused almost immediately. It now looks as if 169 Russian athletes <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-olympics-2018-russia-team/russia-will-send-169-athletes-to-olympics-but-not-the-top-ones-official-says-idUSKBN1FE2G7">will compete</a> in Pyeongchang.</p>
<p>The IOC disciplined a separate tranche of 43 Russian athletes. These athletes had to forfeit the medals they won at Sochi and received life bans from future Olympics. But 39 of them appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) and 28 were successful. The court held there was <a href="http://www.tas-cas.org/fileadmin/user_upload/Media_Release__decision_RUS_IOC_.pdf">insufficient evidence</a> to establish they had committed anti-doping infractions.</p>
<p>Although the court’s mandate was to consider the individual appeals and not to determine whether there was systemic doping at Sochi, its decision was a bad defeat for the IOC. </p>
<p>With 169 Russians permitted to go to Pyeongchang by its own review panel plus the 28 cleared by case, it could be said there are now 197 holes in the key pieces of evidence relied upon by the IOC – the McLaren report and that of Russian whistleblower Grigory Rodchenkov.</p>
<p>Also, the Russian press <a href="https://www.rt.com/sport/417596-russia-first-place-olympics/">has interpreted</a> the CAS decision annulling the medal forfeiture as meaning that Russia is reinstated in first place on the unofficial Sochi Olympics medal tally. </p>
<p>Even in the CAS decision to uphold the findings of doping violations against the other 11 Russian athletes, the IOC’s victory was partial. These athletes had their life bans reduced to a ban for the duration of the Pyeongchang Games only.</p>
<p>After the CAS decision, <a href="https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1061029/bach-criticises-cas-and-calls-for-urgent-reforms-after-decision-to-clear-russian-athletes">IOC President Thomas Bach</a> said reform may be needed to the way the court operates – as did WADA vice-president <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/russia-olympic-doping-world-anti-doping-agency-linda-hofstad-helleland/">Linda Hofstad Helleland</a>.</p>
<p>So, sport is now in a politically charged and totally conflicted situation. Its doping prosecutor (WADA) and the executive that governs sports policy globally (the IOC) have both said an inquiry is needed into the workings of sport’s judiciary. And that inquiry has been prompted by a CAS judgment that applied the anti-doping laws WADA and the IOC wrote, but with whose interpretation they now disagree.</p>
<p>The IOC has <a href="https://www.olympic.org/news/request-to-invite-15-athletes-and-coaches-to-pyeongchang-2018-for-the-olympic-athlete-from-russia-group-declined">refused to invite</a> the CAS-cleared athletes to compete in Pyeongchang. It seems to have suggested its rationale is twofold: it still has to get the full reasons for the CAS decision, and it has “additional information” on doping related to those athletes. </p>
<p>But this raises fresh questions about why this supplementary evidence wasn’t supplied to CAS and what exactly are the criteria used – as opposed to the <a href="https://www.olympic.org/news/olympic-athlete-from-russia-oar-invitation-review-panel-discusses-objectives-and-methodology">evidence relied upon</a> by the IOC in deciding whether to invite the athletes.</p>
<p>Some of those athletes are now (re)challenging the IOC and the carousel of Sochi-related appeals at CAS <a href="http://www.tas-cas.org/en/general-information/news-detail/article/32-russian-athletes-file-appeals-at-the-cas-ad-hoc-division.html">continues</a>. It’s unclear if it will stop before the Pyeongchang Olympics begin on Friday.</p>
<h2>What lessons can be learned?</h2>
<p>The International Paralympic Committee <a href="https://www.paralympic.org/russian-paralympic-committee-suspension">comprehensively banned</a> Russia – a move <a href="http://www.tas-cas.org/fileadmin/user_upload/Award_4745_Final.pdf">CAS upheld</a>. The IOC did not do this; it pursued individuals. There are questions over whether it <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-02-04/doping-in-sport-an-illusion-without-sweeping-reforms-jim-walden/9393644">unnecessarily rushed</a> that process (and its lawyers), and whether it had a contingency plan to respond to the worst-case scenario of losing at CAS.</p>
<p>In the long term, questions may well be asked of CAS and whether it has outgrown its current structures to the extent that a permanent, standing court is needed for sport. </p>
<p>More importantly, it must be asked whether the current anti-doping system, which has its origins in responses to the systemic doping of East Germany and others in the 1980s, is designed to pursue and punish instances of institutional or collective or team-mandated doping.</p>
<p>In addition, the system is premised largely on catching individual dopers. Maybe a better way to test the system’s integrity is for entities such as WADA, in conjunction with athlete representative bodies, to continuously and first to ask itself: what if we accuse someone in the wrong? What about a false positive?</p>
<p>If the anti-doping system is scrutinised in this way, it may well prompt uncomfortable questions about the scientific integrity and efficacy of current testing, the resources needed to independently prosecute doping, and the political will to do so. </p>
<p>And yet, if those questions are answered honestly and the necessary checks and balances are put in place, the anti-doping system would be strengthened – and the mistakes of the recent past would be confined to the past.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/90850/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jack Anderson is a member of the Court of Arbitration for Sport. </span></em></p>Doping scandals have dominated the build-up to the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics.Jack Anderson, Professor of Sports Law, Melbourne Law School, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/902152018-02-04T20:37:45Z2018-02-04T20:37:45ZDo the Olympics still matter?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205791/original/file-20180210-51703-1b4owts.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Reid Watts of Canada competes in the first round of the men's luge at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Andy Wong)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>With all the ethical and political problems facing the Olympics, do they still matter?</p>
<p>As someone who proudly wears his Olympic heart on his sleeve — <a href="http://www.sportshall.ca/stories.html?proID=81&catID=all">I competed in the 1964 Games in Tokyo and have been involved in a variety of roles ever since</a> — I get asked that question all the time, especially when another Games approach. And my answer is still in the affirmative.</p>
<p>While circumstances change, and I’d like to think I make a fresh calculation each time, I still believe the Olympics contribute a net benefit to humanity. I’m excited about the forthcoming Winter Olympic and Winter Paralympic Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea.</p>
<p>For those of us who pursue and watch sports, it’s the only forum where the entire world gets to compete on a multi-sport basis. While it’s the polar countries that excel, the Winter Olympics and Paralympics <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/International/winter-olympics-month-athletes-organizers/story?id=52681068">will attract competitors from an estimated 90 national communities</a>, representing more than two-thirds of the world’s population.</p>
<p>In an increasingly privatized sports place, with a hardening monoculture of fewer and fewer sports and competitors, the Olympics provide the greatest range of national and regional accessibility.</p>
<h2>Provides support, visibility</h2>
<p>For Canadians, it’s the primary place where athletes in the rarely publicized but culturally important sports of skiing, skating, luge, skeleton and bobsled have recognized opportunities — and with few exceptions, the only time Canadian women and para-athletes get any significant support and visibility. </p>
<p>If it wasn’t for the Olympics to <a href="https://www.ourcommons.ca/DocumentViewer/en/42-1/CHPC/report-7/">stimulate government investment in women’s and para sports</a> and the worldwide coverage to attract advertisers, women and para-athletes would be even more underfunded and invisible in mainstream sports coverage than they are now.</p>
<p>So for those who believe in an equitable, broadly based and accessible sports system, the Olympics provide a very important incentive —and even legitimization.</p>
<p>It’s also fantastic sport, and gives us a chance to see remarkable athletes from all across Canada go up against the best from other countries, and represent Canada to the world. I’ll be glued to my television.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/204333/original/file-20180131-157470-1w1c2qw.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/204333/original/file-20180131-157470-1w1c2qw.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/204333/original/file-20180131-157470-1w1c2qw.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=715&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204333/original/file-20180131-157470-1w1c2qw.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=715&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204333/original/file-20180131-157470-1w1c2qw.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=715&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204333/original/file-20180131-157470-1w1c2qw.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=898&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204333/original/file-20180131-157470-1w1c2qw.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=898&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204333/original/file-20180131-157470-1w1c2qw.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=898&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Author and former Olympian Bruce Kidd, seen here in a 1963 race in Philadelphia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP</span></span>
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<p>What’s more, the Olympics make a genuine effort to affirm and encourage humanitarian international and intercultural education and exchange — no mean contribution in this increasingly war-torn, nativist and xenophobic world.</p>
<h2>Bringing people together</h2>
<p>In my long experience, this is real and sets the tone for the millions of sporting exchanges between people of widely different backgrounds that occur around the world throughout the year.</p>
<p>The joint North and South Korean team that will <a href="https://www.olympic.org/news/unified-korean-olympic-team-to-march-at-olympic-winter-games-pyeongchang-2018">march and compete together in Pyeongchang</a>, and the <a href="https://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2018/01/15/commentary/world-commentary/kim-jong-un-wanted-korea-talks/">resumption of communication that it has initiated</a>, is just one example where the Olympics and international sport have brought bitterly divided people into the same room for peaceful exchange.</p>
<p>The Olympics contribute significantly to the development of sports around the world, especially among the poorest countries, distributing a big share of its television revenue — US$509 million from 2017-20.</p>
<p>One priority is sport for refugees. The very first <a href="https://www.olympic.org/news/refugee-olympic-team">Refugee Olympic Team</a>, made up of athletes from refugee camps in four different countries, competed in Rio in 2016. Many Olympic athletes, such as Canada’s Rosie MacLennan, have been inspired by their experiences to <a href="http://www.righttoplay.com/moreinfo/newsevents/Pages/newsitem.aspx?articleID=32">contribute to sport for development across the Global South</a>. </p>
<p>To be sure, the Olympics face a host of daunting challenges, including the <a href="http://time.com/4421865/olympics-cost-history/">ginormous costs of staging games</a>, <a href="https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1059288/ioc-establish-task-forces-with-international-partners-to-tackle-corruption-in-sport">corruption in governance</a>, <a href="https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1047571/ioc-adds-human-rights-clause-to-host-city-contract">human rights abuses</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/13/sports/russia-doping-sochi-olympics-2014.html">doping</a>.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/204334/original/file-20180131-157491-1w07cdf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/204334/original/file-20180131-157491-1w07cdf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/204334/original/file-20180131-157491-1w07cdf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=888&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204334/original/file-20180131-157491-1w07cdf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=888&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204334/original/file-20180131-157491-1w07cdf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=888&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204334/original/file-20180131-157491-1w07cdf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1116&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204334/original/file-20180131-157491-1w07cdf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1116&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204334/original/file-20180131-157491-1w07cdf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1116&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Calgary is considering a bid for the 2026 Winter Olympics, which would return the Games to the Prairies city for the first time since 1988. Here figure skater Brian Orser carries the Canadian flag at opening ceremonies of the Winter Olympics in Calgary.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Chiasson)</span></span>
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<p>The issues are so formidable that fewer and fewer cities are interested in hosting them, and in some liberal-democratic countries, voters have turned back bids. It remains to be seen whether Calgary will actually go ahead with plans <a href="http://www.calgary.ca/CSPS/Recreation/Pages/Calgary-2026-Olympic-bid/Olympics-Bid-2026.aspx">to bid for the 2026 Winter Olympics and Paralympics</a>.</p>
<h2>Addressing many challenges</h2>
<p>But I would also say the Olympic leadership is preoccupied with addressing these challenges. One <a href="https://www.olympic.org/olympic-agenda-2020">solution to rising costs</a> is to use existing facilities as much as possible, spread out new facilities, placing them where they are most needed as Toronto did for the 2015 Pan American and Parapan American Games, and reduce seating for spectators, recognizing that most of the world watches on television. The Olympics vigorously tries to prevent and punish doping, as <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/sports/olympics/ioc-russia-doping-1.4432781">the current spat with Russia readily indicates</a>. </p>
<p>While the Olympics have introduced important reforms in recent years, including transparent financial accounting and <a href="http://www.washingtonblade.com/2017/11/14/un-adopts-gay-inclusive-olympics-resolution/">an affirmation against discrimination based on an athlete’s sexual orientation</a>, it’s not easy to introduce and implement progressive change in way that keeps the entire world together.</p>
<p>I am enraged by the Russians’ state-directed doping in Sochi and support Canadian Olympic leaders who call for them to be banned from Pyeongchang. Yet I have European friends who fear Russian isolation and applaud IOC president Thomas Bach’s diplomatic gymnastics to balance sanctions and representation. </p>
<p>A big-tent approach requires a low threshold if you want everyone there. If we only competed with countries that shared our values, we would have very few competitors indeed. But it makes the world of Olympic sports very difficult to govern.</p>
<p>I’m quite happy if people continue to be critical of Olympic practices or blind spots — I’m critical of some of them too — but to give up on the project because the international sports world is not perfect would be really short-sighted. It would also deny Canadians an opportunity to participate in, and contribute to, a humanitarian movement that’s still very important.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/90215/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bruce Kidd is an honorary member of the Canadian Olympic Committee.</span></em></p>The Olympics have been plagued by doping, corruption and political problems. But academic and former Olympian Bruce Kidd says the Olympic Games are still an important humanitarian movement.Bruce Kidd, Vice-President and Principal, University of TorontoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/905602018-01-24T09:53:12Z2018-01-24T09:53:12ZEven a truce between the two Koreas might not save the Winter Olympics<p>North and South Korea have shaken hands on a diplomatic solution that will see the dictatorship send <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/winter-olympics/42759924">22 athletes</a> to this year’s Winter Olympic Games in Pyeongchang. The truce has sparked some <a href="http://time.com/5112104/north-south-korea-olympic-protests-moranbong/">protests</a> but perhaps we can now enjoy this sporting mega-event, safe in the knowledge that the power of sport has drawn people together once again. But it’s not all good news for the Winter Olympics. In fact, the event – rather like a metaphorical ski-jumper – is rapidly heading towards a point of no return.</p>
<p>One issue is that sports mega-events can <a href="http://www.ponarseurasia.org/sites/default/files/policy-memos-pdf/Pepm_288_Makarychev_Sept2013.pdf">fuel nationalist sentiment</a> and military action, as <a href="http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/article/russias-nationalists-other-threat-sochi">Russia’s hosting of the 2014 event perhaps proved</a>. Notwithstanding such potential geopolitical problems, the event is beset by other problems too. </p>
<p>Arguably the most worrying thing is that, due to climate change, some observers are speculating the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is quickly running out of options for <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/01/11/climate/winter-olympics-global-warming.html">venues equipped to host the competition</a>, a problem that European nations are compounding. Over the last few years, Germany, Norway and Poland have held referenda on bidding to host the Winter Olympics. <a href="http://aroundtherings.com/site/A__59144/Title__Referendums-Becoming-New-Olympic-Reality/292/Articles">Local populations all rejected the chance</a>.</p>
<p>The reluctance of an increasing number of nations to bid for the Winter Games is unsurprising. Sports mega-events have become an increasingly expensive proposition, which many countries are unprepared to commit to. The 2014 Games in Sochi set the bar high. The US$51 billion budget made it the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2013/oct/09/sochi-2014-olympics-money-corruption">most expensive Olympics in history</a>. <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/sports/olympics/pyeongchang-games-post-olympics-costs-1.4447984">South Korea’s spending of US$13 billion</a>, although significantly lower, won’t do anything to assuage Western concerns that the Olympics are a costly game best played elsewhere.</p>
<h2>An eastward shift</h2>
<p>Concerns about the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-winter-olympics-and-the-two-koreas-how-sport-diplomacy-could-save-the-world-89769">stand-off between the Koreas</a> were thus as much a result of the Olympics’ shift eastwards as they were anything else. Following Sochi’s Black Sea hosting of the event, the Winter Games head next to Beijing – hardly a city one normally associates with skiing, bobsleighing or thriftiness. </p>
<p>Already, <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/olympics/2015/11/04/china-approves-budget-for-2022-winter-olympics-rail-link/75142128/">China has allocated a budget of US$9 billion</a> just to construct a high-speed rail link to the mountains, let alone fund the development of venues. It is surely no surprise the traditional industrial heartlands of winter sports events are losing their stomach for them, yet it remains to be seen how sustainable the appetite of Asian nations will be for all things Alpine.</p>
<p>Even at the best of times, the Winter Olympics does not have the same kudos or appeal as the summer games or football’s World Cup. Ask yourself the question: what are the names of some of the highest profile athletes who will be competing in South Korea? The Winter Games does not have the equivalent of a Usain Bolt to grab people’s attention and keep the IOC’s cash tills ringing.</p>
<p>Indeed, one wonders how relevant to most people the event is. In attempts to account for the demands of a changing market, new sports such as snowboarding <a href="https://theconversation.com/winter-olympics-embraces-cool-to-fight-off-x-games-threat-23156">have been incorporated into the games</a>. However, since 2014, the social and digital environment has changed dramatically and the number of millennial consumers has risen. All eyes will therefore be on the Olympic Channel, launched in 2016, to ensure one of the IOC’s most important properties remains <a href="https://www.si.com/tech-media/2017/07/16/olympic-channel-launch-team-usa-jim-bell">fit-for-purpose and commercially viable</a>.</p>
<h2>Trust and integrity</h2>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/to-clean-up-the-olympic-brand-the-ioc-must-restore-trust-63305">Recent doping scandals</a> won’t have helped in building trust and engagement among members of the public. Though the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2017/dec/05/russian-olympic-committee-banned-winter-games-doping">banning of Russia’s Olympic team</a> from participating in Pyeongchang should help. Nevertheless, trust and integrity issues remain for the Olympics to contend with, exacerbated by the IOC’s apparent concessions to Russia, notably in allowing its “clean” squad members to compete under the banner of <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/olympics/2017/12/05/russias-winter-olympic-ban-does-not-go-far-enough-even-innocent/">“Olympic Athlete from Russia”</a>.</p>
<h2>Cyber attacks</h2>
<p>Once the world might have seen North Korea and its nuclear ambitions as the biggest threat to the upcoming games. But retaliatory cyber attacks from <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/news-and-comment/fancy-bears-who-are-hacking-group-doping-sport-football-russia-georgia-reedie-bach-a7906376.html">groups such as Russia’s Fancy Bears</a> now appear much more likely at some stage. In fact, hacking of the Winter Olympics by “a nation state adversary that speaks Korean” has already been <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/kevincollier/someones-trying-to-hack-the-south-korean-winter-olympics?utm_term=.hh3l08wmr#.lrRJ6lRDW">identified by McAfee</a>.</p>
<p>Experts are already publicising their lists of which countries will <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2018/01/10/sport/winter-olympics-pyeongchang-2018-virtual-medal-table-russia-banned/index.html">secure the most medals</a>. In the first global sports mega-event since the US elected Donald Trump as president, several countries will be looking to make a big impact. </p>
<p>Trump’s “Make America great again” agenda will demand a strong US performance, while China’s increasingly powerful President Xi will likewise be looking for his country’s athletes to flex their collective muscles in supporting his pursuit of “making China great again”. Even Great Britain, whose government has adopted the moniker “Sport is Great” has set its athletes a target of winning <a href="http://www.cityam.com/278502/great-britain-set-record-medal-target-winter-olympics">an unprecedented five medals</a>. It’s a potentially toxic mix of competing national aspirations.</p>
<p>The Olympics and the World Cup have often been rather contentious affairs. Indeed, South Korea’s last hosting of the Olympics in summer 1988 is believed by many to have been a move designed to <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/1987-07-02/news/mn-1900_1_reforms">legitimise an authoritarian regime</a>. This February, however, promises to be much more intriguing than even that.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/90560/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Simon Chadwick does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A delicate truce between North and South Korea has been reached in the run up to the Winter Olympics. It’s a high profile win for an event which is struggling to remain relevant.Simon Chadwick, Professor of Sports Enterprise, University of SalfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.