tag:theconversation.com,2011:/es/topics/anti-doping-4576/articlesAnti doping – The Conversation2016-08-24T19:51:13Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/643472016-08-24T19:51:13Z2016-08-24T19:51:13ZAdministrative ineptitude threatens to hobble Kenya’s track and field athletes<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/135303/original/image-20160824-30222-1bjpr5g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Kenyan-born Ruth Jebet, just 19, waves the Bahraini flag after winning gold over Kenyan competitors at the Rio Olympics. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters/Dominic Ebenbichler</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Kenya emerged as the <a href="https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=rio%20olympics%20final%20medals%20table&mie=oly%2C%5B%22%2Fm%2F03tnk7%22%2C1%2C%22m%22%2C1%2Cnull%2Cnull%2Cnull%2Cnull%2Cnull%2Cnull%2Cnull%2Cnull%2Cnull%2Cnull%2Cnull%2Cnull%2Cnull%2Cnull%2Cnull%2C0%5D">top African nation</a> on the Rio Olympics medal table thanks to its track and field team. But the country’s continued international success has masked <a href="http://www.bbc.com/sport/athletics/35551486">serious management lapses</a>. Wycliffe W. Njororai Simiyu explains that these are to blame for the steady exodus of athletes to other countries.</em></p>
<p><strong>What ails track and field management in Kenya?</strong></p>
<p>Track and field as a sport has contributed most to the positive global image of Kenya as a sporting super power. This was quite evident in the World Athletics Championships in 2015 when against all odds, Kenya emerged as the <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-34102562">number one nation</a> ahead of the US, Jamaica, Great Britain, Germany and Russia, among others. </p>
<p>At the Rio Olympics Kenya came second only to the US in track and field medal rankings. In fact, it was only track and field athletes who contributed to Kenya’s medal haul and its 15th place overall on the rankings table.</p>
<p>But this success hides inefficiencies and errors – both of omission and commission – by the administrators who run Kenya’s track and field programmes. </p>
<p>These include:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>a poor leadership structure that sees the same people retain a grip on their positions. This cuts out new and fresh ideas to propel the sport forward;</p></li>
<li><p>a growing prevalence of accusations of corruption in selecting athletes for international assignments; </p></li>
<li><p>a lack of proactive action on <a href="http://www.bbc.com/sport/athletics/35551486">doping control</a> and education. This has seen many athletes failing drug tests or failing to appear for testing; </p></li>
<li><p>the absence of a proper monetary compensation structure for athletes who represent the country in international competitions; </p></li>
<li><p>instability at the secretariat, which is the nerve centre for any successful organisation; and,</p></li>
<li><p>poor management of sponsorship contracts and the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/06/world/africa/nike-under-scrutiny-as-payments-for-kenya-runners-are-drained.html?_r=0">resources</a> meant for developing the sport. There’s also a lack of support for the other organisations that identify, nurture and provide the young talent such as schools, colleges and universities. </p></li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Is Kenya in danger of losing its reputation for talent and hard work?</strong></p>
<p>It is not easy for Kenya to completely lose its reputation as the source of athletic talent. Given the rewards that the emerging athletes earn from their effort, the pipeline of talent will continue. The biggest threat to Kenya’s reputation is the desire to use drugs in an atmosphere of fierce internal competitiveness. The federation has to be extremely diligent in handling doping tests. This must go hand in hand with education.</p>
<p>The consequences of not doing so are severe: Kenya could, in future, find itself suspended from international competitions. This would not be without precedent given Russia’s ongoing <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-olympics-rio-russia-klishina-idUSKCN10O0QV">tribulations</a>. </p>
<p><strong>What should be done to prevent further damage to Kenya’s image?</strong></p>
<p>The good performance at the Rio Olympics has made up for the negative publicity over doping control procedures and the absence of the required law. All efforts should be geared to avoid crossing swords with the world anti-doping agency.</p>
<p><strong>Is poor management partly to blame for the exodus of athletes from Kenya to other countries?</strong></p>
<p>Certainly, and the greatest obstacle is poor administration. Poor and potentially embarrassing administrative lapses were evident before and during the Rio Olympics:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>two track and field officials were expelled from the Games over claims of <a href="http://news.sky.com/story/second-kenyan-official-expelled-from-olympics-over-drug-scandal-10532420">doping</a>; </p></li>
<li><p>an administrative <a href="https://tuko.co.ke/154467-drama-jkia-julius-yegos-ticket-rio-olympics-goes-missing.html">lapse</a> saw the world javelin champion without an air ticket to the Games – where he eventually won a silver medal; </p></li>
<li><p>a sprinter with dual citizenship was <a href="http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/mobile/article/2000212654/how-noc-k-bungled-entry-bids-for-sprint-star-and-high-jumper">almost disqualified</a> for initially being accredited using a US passport rather than a Kenyan one, and; </p></li>
<li><p>part of the official <a href="http://www.nation.co.ke/news/The-scandal-of-Kenya-s-Rio-Olympics/1056-3343980-kvao27z/">kit went missing</a> and athletes had to do with the bare minimum. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>All these lapses and the shenanigans that occur during team selection for international competitions are quite <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/nov/23/athletes-storm-athletics-kenya-protest">frustrating</a>, especially for up and coming athletes. </p>
<p>The principal avenue for a young athlete to make a breakthrough is by winning selection to the national team or getting a ticket to an international meeting. When these opportunities are <a href="http://www.nation.co.ke/sports/athletics/Why-athletes-are-switching-allegiance/1100-3348520-15bp7myz/">uncertain</a>, some athletes have turned to looking for <a href="http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/sports/article/2000212161/over-30-athletics-exports-return-to-haunt-kenya-in-rio-olympics">alternative nations</a> desperate for the global recognition sports champions bring.</p>
<p>The other push factor for Kenyan athletes is the sheer number of talented runners jostling for limited opportunities at home. Rules restrict the number of entrants to compete for a nation at most international events, normally to a maximum of three. Such restrictions offer only the best a guarantee of making it into the team. </p>
<p>These factors have contributed to some athletes choosing to run for other countries. </p>
<p><strong>What are some of the other factors attracting Kenyan athletes away from the country?</strong></p>
<p>I discuss these other factors in detail in <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14927713.2012.729787">my research</a>. Certainly, the countries they move to offer better <a href="http://www.nation.co.ke/sports/athletics/Why-athletes-are-switching-allegiance/1100-3348520-15bp7myz/">monetary compensation</a>. These include Bahrain, Qatar, the US, France and the Netherlands. For athletes, whose work-life span is very short, generous compensations outweigh any risks of moving abroad.</p>
<p>Also the right to dual citizenship allows an athlete to run for another country and still have access to all the privileges of being a Kenyan citizen. Most runners who end up in the Middle East do it for <a href="http://deadspin.com/if-youre-a-small-rich-country-you-can-buy-an-olympic-1785302021">short-term monetary benefit</a>.</p>
<p>But those who seek opportunities in Western countries such as the US, France, and the Netherlands do it for <a href="http://www.usatf.org/athlete-bios/bernard-lagat.aspx">longer term goals</a> such as uplifting their families. </p>
<p>Other benefits, attractive especially for young athletes, include the ease with which they are selected to run in global competitions. This translates to guaranteed monetary rewards. Many get more freedom to choose where to train and live. They therefore end up running for a foreign country but continue to live, train and invest in Kenya.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/64347/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>Kenya’s international success in track and field hides management inefficiencies and corruption that have frustrated athletes and fed a pipeline of runners willing to ditch the national flagWycliffe W. Njororai Simiyu, Professor, Health and Kinesiology, University of Texas at TylerLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/634422016-08-10T00:34:57Z2016-08-10T00:34:57ZWhen doping wasn’t considered cheating<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/133412/original/image-20160808-18037-byecsw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Jim Thorpe and Ben Johnson were both banned from the Olympics. But if each had played at different points in history, they would have been allowed to compete. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Nick Lehr/The Conversation</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Trying to gain an advantage over your opponent is as old as sport itself. But what’s considered fair and unfair is often up for debate. </p>
<p>In cricket, there’s “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sledging_(cricket)">sledging</a>,” which is when fielders verbally abuse batsmen in order to break their concentration. Baseball pitchers will use any number of substances, from Vaseline to pine tar, to get a better a grip on the ball, while football coaches will attempt to decipher their opponents’ calls on the opposing sidelines. </p>
<p>But, above all else, it’s doping that commands our attention, inciting moral outrage and international condemnation. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2017/dec/05/russian-olympic-committee-banned-winter-games-doping">Russia’s state-sponsored doping program</a> is only the latest scandal, with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-42999126">banning 47 Russian athletes and coaches</a> from participating in the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics.</p>
<p>We tend to think of doping as the utmost assault on fair play. But sporting authorities of the past – who had no qualms about enforcing lifetime bans for other infractions – might have actually found our current angst over doping puzzling. At the same time, sports fans today would likely be confused by 19th-century efforts to exclude the poor from participating with the claim that it was the only way to ensure a level playing field. </p>
<p>It goes to show that as time passes, so do notions of what’s fair.</p>
<h2>Honoring the gods</h2>
<p>The ancient Olympics of Greece were staged in honor of the god Zeus. But despite the religious underpinnings, winning had little to do with modern ideas of fairness: Athletes could, within reason, attempt to win by any means necessary. </p>
<p>They were allowed to use technological aides, such as <a href="http://ancientolympics.arts.kuleuven.be/eng/TC003EN.html">halters</a> (handheld weights that would enable long jumpers to achieve greater distances), and employ sometimes-deadly violence in the <a href="http://ancientolympics.arts.kuleuven.be/eng/TC007cEN.html">pankration</a>, a mix of wrestling and boxing where anything went (save for eye-gouging). </p>
<p>Greek athletes were also allowed to consume a variety of <a href="https://library.la84.org/SportsLibrary/ISS/ISS2401/ISS2401e.pdf">performance enhancing drugs</a> (PEDs). Like the Egyptians before them, the Greeks made the connection between testes and strength. Athletes consumed animal testicles and hearts, alongside other herbal potions and hallucinogens. </p>
<p>It was, therefore, only those who dishonored Zeus by bribing opponents to fix contests <a href="https://theconversation.com/since-ancient-greece-the-olympics-and-bribery-have-gone-hand-in-hand-62476">who were punished severely</a>, with those caught having their crimes immortalized in stone plinths <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zanes_of_Olympia">called Zanes</a> at Olympia.</p>
<h2>Ensuring fair … betting?</h2>
<p>In the 18th century, playing by the rules and fair play were closely associated with gambling – the lens through which both the upper and lower classes watched, played and discussed sports. </p>
<p>Whether it was pedestrianism (an early form of long-distance walking), boxing, horse racing or cricket, aristocrats would wager huge sums on the outcome of what were termed “challenges.” Some of sport’s earliest rules were, therefore, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Social-History-English-Cricket-Classics/dp/1781311765">designed to ensure fairness for those placing bets</a>, rather than those competing. </p>
<p>Everything changed once the Industrial Revolution began blurring previously impenetrable class distinctions. While <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/victorians/middle_classes_01.shtml">the middle class vastly expanded</a>, many social climbers possessed little of the status security enjoyed by their aristocratic predecessors. Anxious about their place within the social (and sporting) hierarchy, they increasingly strove to avoid any contact with their social inferiors.</p>
<p>Essentially, they wanted to rid sport of the lower classes – and the traditional excesses of gambling and drinking – to make it the realm of the elites.</p>
<p>Their ability to do so relied heavily on a new sporting culture called amateurism, <a href="http://www.gymnica.upol.cz/pdfs/gym/2006/02/10.pdf">which reinvented Classical notions</a> of sportsmanship in order to argue that playing sports for any reason other than for “love” was in some way immoral. </p>
<h2>The hypocrisy of amateurism</h2>
<p>At the same time, modern sporting leagues created opportunities for talented working-class athletes to supplement their incomes. Upper-class sportsmen didn’t need to make money from playing sports, so they utilized their financial advantage to further amateurism as a way to keep the working-class athlete in his place.</p>
<p>Fair play, in the modern sense that everyone competes on a level playing field, did not apply. And by the time a Frenchman named <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Pierre-baron-de-Coubertin">Pierre de Coubertin</a> established the modern Olympics in 1896, the only “pure” athletes were gentlemen who relied on ability alone, played out of love and wouldn’t be tempted to cheat to make more money. Even training <a href="https://archive.org/details/TeamsThatHaveWonTheAssociationCup">was deemed unprincipled</a> by amateur sportsmen such as C.B. Fry.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, manual laborers were often excluded in the name of fairness because they were automatically at a physical advantage (and, after all, no gentleman derived his income from manual labor). As an 1849 article in the British newspaper The Era argued, it “cannot be supposed that a merchant’s clerk, for instance, is physically competent to contest with a machinist or carpenter.” </p>
<p>By today’s standards of fairness, it’s a logical leap. But the twisted rationale behind such rules was applied indiscriminately. </p>
<p>For example, an 1868 article from the Nottinghamshire Guardian described how an athlete called Peters was disqualified from an athletics race “open to all amateurs” simply because of the way he was dressed. Meanwhile, an 1871 article in The Standard reported that organizers of the Amateur Athletic Club’s Bicycle Championship reduced the field of competitors from 20 to three, as they were the only entrants judged to be “gentleman amateurs.” Even in the 1960s, cricket professionals <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Social-History-English-Cricket-Classics/dp/1781311765">were obliged to use separate changing rooms</a>, which could lead to the farcical scene of an amateur captain changing alone, while his professional teammates changed elsewhere. </p>
<p>More serious consequences emerged in athletics where men who had done little more than accept money as teenagers when competing in other sports were ruthlessly banned for life. The most famous case relates to <a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/why-are-jim-thorpes-olympic-records-still-not-recognized-130986336/?no-ist">Jim Thorpe</a>, who had his amateur status, Olympic gold medals and world records (pentathlon and decathlon) stripped away when it was revealed he had previously played two seasons of semi-professional baseball. </p>
<p>But the most tragic example may be that of <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/general/athletics/john-tarrant-sad-shadow-of-the-ghost-runner-still-stalks-the-track-2305959.html">John Tarrant</a>, who became known as the “Ghost Runner.” Like Thorpe before him, Tarrant’s past mistake of accepting £17 (US$22) for a series of teenage boxing bouts in the 1940s denied him amateur status at just 20 years old. Effectively banned for life, Tarrant became infamous for gatecrashing races – entering without permission – and regularly outperforming internationally recognized runners. </p>
<h2>Doping: more about sponsors than sports?</h2>
<p>Distracted by social issues, amateur sporting bodies like the IOC have been slow to deal with the issue of doping. Although it was always frowned upon, it was usually considered a question of individual morality.</p>
<p>The drug-related death of cyclist <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knud_Enemark_Jensen">Knud Enemark Jensen</a> at the 1960 Rome Olympics didn’t change the IOC’s approach. Doping became a serious issue only after sprinter Ben Johnson tested positive for stanozolol at the Seoul Olympics in 1988. Ronald Reagan’s signing of the <a href="http://www.alternet.org/story/18990/reagan's_drug_war_legacy">Anti-Drug Abuse Act</a> that same year also proved decisive. Part of the wider “War on Drugs,” the issue of drugs in sport was no longer a moral question, but a legal one.</p>
<p>This significant change notwithstanding, the authorities – even when confronted with compelling evidence – appear unable to act. Like sprinter Marion Jones, who committed perjury, cyclist Lance Armstrong may face time in jail not because he doped <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2013/feb/06/lance-armstrong-criminal-charges-america">but because he defrauded the sponsors</a>. </p>
<p>It seems that, today, corporate sponsors are the gods that sports exist to please.</p>
<p>Given the righteous treatment of Greek match fixers and the ruthless treatment of working-class athletes in the past, the inability of sporting authorities to ban for life those who knowingly dope, over long periods of time, seems inconsistent. </p>
<p>Sport appears to have lost its true meaning as an enjoyable end in itself. But in an era when sporting bodies and media networks rely upon stars like Armstrong for ratings and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/jun/24/uk-athletics-poaching-foreign-born-athletes-sponsors-zharnel-hughes">athletes are naturalized</a> or <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-07-29/south-sudan-'pressured'-by-advertiser-into-athlete/7674116">selected</a> on the basis of sponsorship rather than talent, should we really be surprised? </p>
<p><em>This an updated version of an article originally published on Aug. 9, 2016.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/63442/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Duncan Stone does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In sports, what’s considered fair play has changed throughout history. At one point, even looking ‘too poor’ was grounds for exclusion.Duncan Stone, Visiting Researcher, University of HuddersfieldLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/636612016-08-09T04:56:03Z2016-08-09T04:56:03ZHorton wins by naming the elephant in the room at Rio Olympics<p>He may not realise it yet, but Australian swimmer Mack Horton’s biggest achievement at the Rio Olympics this week wasn’t winning the 400m freestyle gold medal. It was the stance he took against doping, in reference to Chinese rival Sun Yang, by saying he had no <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/sport/olympics/rio-2016/olympics-swimming/i-dont-have-time-or-respect-for-drug-cheats-mack-horton-tears-into-sun-yang-20160806-gqmptz.html">time or respect for drug cheats</a>. </p>
<p>The Sun Yang doping case is not a new one; the Chinese swimmer, who is in Rio as the reigning 400m and 1500m London Olympics champion, served a <a href="https://www.swimmingworldmagazine.com/news/sun-yang-doping-case/">secret three-month ban in 2014</a> after a positive test to trimetazidine (a stimulant used to treat angina). Neither is it a particularly severe example of doping; there are other athletes competing at Rio with longer doping histories.</p>
<p>But what does feel new and unusual is the strength and clarity of the public anti-doping stance that the 20-year-old Horton has taken as an athlete in the midst of competition. Rarely do we see such unscripted individual honesty on difficult topics such as doping, right in the middle of arguably the biggest international sporting stage.</p>
<p>What has also been a little surprising – but welcome nonetheless – is the swift and equally strong support shown to Horton by various Australian officials from bodies such as <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/sport/olympics/rio-2016/olympics-swimming/swimming-australia-rallies-behind-mack-horton-as-doping-row--escalates-20160807-gqn847.html">Swimming Australia and the Australian Olympic Committee</a>, and <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-08-09/rio-2016-no-apology-mack-horton-china-sun-yang-kitty-chiller/7703312">Australian chef de mission Kitty Chiller</a>. Sports officials are typically strong on doping anyway, but usually quieter on individual cases to avoid public controversy. </p>
<h2>All kinds of consequences</h2>
<p>Horton’s stance is also fraught for a number of reasons. Some have argued there’s a <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/sport/rio-olympics/rio-olympics-2016-swimming-sun-yang-mack-horton-row-stokes-diplomatic-tensions/news-story/c525b3df7d5a48d5d892e0d7c286643c">geopolitical aspect</a> to the matter that may yet play out at the diplomatic level. There may also be legal questions around the limits of what can be said or implied about an already sanctioned athlete. </p>
<p>Then there’s the chance that this issue could escalate to the detriment of Horton’s, and possibly the Australian swim team’s, coming performances. Yang supporters are already <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/sport/olympics/rio-2016/olympics-swimming/rio-olympics-2016-mack-horton-bombarded-with-abuse-for-his-baiting-of-chinese-rival-sun-yang-20160807-gqn4fb.html">targeting Horton on social media</a>. <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-08-08/china-demands-apology-from-mack-horton-over-attack-on-sun-yang/7699644">Chinese officials are calling for an apology</a>, which is presumably adding some pressure. </p>
<p>If there’s even a hint that this episode is a distraction from the main game, the official support for Horton could easily weaken. It’s not hard to imagine the media questioning Horton’s focus and strategy if he’s bested by Yang in the 1500m heat on Saturday morning, or if the Australian swim team “underperforms” from now.</p>
<p>That said, I think Horton’s position on this issue is the right one. Swimming Australia president John Bertrand was also right in calling Horton’s 400m gold medal a <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/sport/olympics/rio-2016/olympics-swimming/john-bertrand-mack-horton-gold-medal-was-a-defining-moment-of-rio-olympics-20160807-gqn83l.html">“defining moment”</a> of the Rio Olympics. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/133472/original/image-20160809-20932-njihpq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/133472/original/image-20160809-20932-njihpq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/133472/original/image-20160809-20932-njihpq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/133472/original/image-20160809-20932-njihpq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/133472/original/image-20160809-20932-njihpq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/133472/original/image-20160809-20932-njihpq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/133472/original/image-20160809-20932-njihpq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Yulia Efimova (pictured, left), who has served a 16-month suspension for doping and tested positive for meldonium this year, has been criticised by fellow Olympians Lilly King (pictured) and Fiona Doyle.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dominic Ebenbichler/reuters</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But this is a story that goes way beyond medal counts. The Rio Olympics might finally mark the moment in international sport when more athletes start to speak out against doping and make known their views and frustrations about the current state of affairs.</p>
<h2>Something in the air</h2>
<p>There are already some encouraging signs. Horton hasn’t been the only one making his views clear in Rio. We’ve also had <a href="http://www.independent.ie/sport/rio-2016-olympics/tearful-irish-swimmer-fiona-doyle-lashes-out-at-cheats-after-devastating-exit-34946541.html">Irish swimmer Fiona Doyle speak out</a> against doping after her 100m breaststroke heat was won by the Russian Yulia Efimova, who has served a 16-month suspension for doping and tested positive for meldonium this year:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Cheaters are cheaters and FINA caved and it’s not fair on the rest of the athletes. She has tested positive five times this year and she has got away with it.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The American swimmer Lilly King also <a href="http://www.independent.ie/sport/rio-2016-olympics/watch-american-lilly-king-wags-the-finger-and-calls-out-at-drug-cheat-rival-yuliya-efimova-34947645.html">expressed her disapproval</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>You wave your finger ‘Number 1’ and you’ve been caught drug cheating … I’m not a fan.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I’d like to see more athlete-led action and words like those we have seen so far from Horton, Doyle and King. And we should hear more from athletes in other sports where there’s clearly still controversy – sports such as <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/sport/olympics/rio-2016/olympics-cycling/drug-controversy-around-lizzie-armitstead-casts-shadow-over-womens-olympic-road-race-20160807-gqmwj3.html">cycling</a>, <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/the-times/rio-olympics-2016-kenya-team-official-recalled-from-rio-over-drug-cheat-sting/news-story/21e0a915227733c60963ed2c2a37e6af">athletics</a> and <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/08/sports/olympics/blinded-to-doping-amid-the-olympics-spectacle.html?_r=0">weightlifting</a> to name just three.</p>
<p>Why don’t our Olympic cyclists denounce the dopers riding with them in Rio? And why haven’t we heard from our track and field athletes about the cheats next to them on the start line?</p>
<h2>The plot thickens</h2>
<p>As for Horton and Yang’s rivalry, a fascinating showdown is looming when the swimmers meet in heat five of the 1500m on Saturday. One senses that this is a story with a narrative arc that Horton could not possibly have predicted when he uttered the words “drug cheat” at the poolside.</p>
<p>If Horton beats Yang and goes on to medal in the 1500m final, the narrative continues to be one of a clean athlete vanquishing a rival competitor with a history of doping. </p>
<p>But if Yang prevails, the anti-doping sentiments from within Australian swimming – and perhaps other parts of the world – could become louder. And Horton could yet be criticised for a lack of judgement and focus if he doesn’t triumph over his rival.</p>
<p>Either way, this episode rightly shines a light on the topic of doping in sport and invites us to consider the question of how athletes with previous positive doping tests should be treated. It also highlights the question of how clean athletes ought to be behave and what they should or should not say in relation to past, current and suspected dopers in their midst.</p>
<h2>Making the change</h2>
<p>Doping in sport is a cultural phenomenon; it’s not simply the result of individual choices made in isolation. The cultural change needed to tackle the issue needs to come from athletes, both as individuals and as a collective. </p>
<p>And sports governing bodies need to support change with a serious and unambiguous official approach to doping. That can’t be an approach that permits some athletes, teams and countries with a history of doping to compete while excluding others.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, the official anti-doping rhetoric doesn’t match the cultural reality within some sports. With the exception of some philosophers and academic researchers, most people are against doping in sport. </p>
<p>And yet, we can still see sports governing bodies, federations, codes, teams and clubs that leave dopers in positions of influence in sports administration, promotions and coaching; let some dopers compete but not others; and celebrate past dopers as heroes.</p>
<p>The best chance of reducing and perhaps even one day eliminating doping will be the words, actions and changes led and prompted by athletes themselves as the key actors within their own sporting cultures. It might be time for the anti-doping officials and experts who aren’t helping to get out of the way.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/63661/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Craig Fry leads the Culture and Values in Health research program at the Centre for Cultural Diversity and Wellbeing, and is a Research Affiliate of the Institute of Sport, Exercise and Active Living, Victoria University. He has received research funding from the NHMRC, ARC, philanthropic bodies, and federal and state governments.</span></em></p>Rarely do we see such unscripted individual honesty on difficult topics such as doping, right in the middle of arguably the biggest international sporting stage.Craig Fry, Associate Professor, Centre for Cultural Diversity and Wellbeing, Victoria UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/599292016-05-29T16:42:18Z2016-05-29T16:42:18ZWhy banning Kenya from Rio presents an Olympian dilemma<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/124101/original/image-20160526-16681-jjm6cz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">From left, Kenya's Florence Kiplagat, Emily Chebet and Joyce Chepkirui celebrate victory at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters/Suzanne Plunkett</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The World Anti-Doping Agency, the International Olympic Committee and the International Association of Athletics Federations are facing a real dilemma. Having pushed Kenya towards improving its anti-doping environment, the question remains whether to follow through and deliver the ultimate sanction – disqualification from the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.</p>
<p>Such a move would potentially prove disastrous for Kenyan sport. Athletes would lose the opportunity of participating in the most prestigious event. Months, even years, of planning would feel wasted. The economic rewards would be lost. The reputational damage would be enormous and a huge shadow would be cast over the country’s involvement in other international events.</p>
<p>The arguments for such a move are clear. Media investigations claim to show <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/apr/16/kenyan-epo-tv-documentary-wada">widespread doping</a>. More than 40 athletes have failed drugs tests since 2011 and 18 are currently serving bans. Some highly successful male and female athletes are now associated with <a href="http://nairobinews.nation.co.ke/news/here-are-the-top-kenyan-athletes-who-got-banned-for-doping/">doping and cheating</a>. Only six months ago, former World Anti-Doping Agency President Dick Pound <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/athletics/36287484">said</a> it was “pretty clear there are a lot of performance-enhancing drugs being used” in Kenya. Some of these allegations <a href="http://athleticsillustrated.com/interviews/hajo-seppelt-kenyan-doping-exposed/">go back four years</a>. </p>
<p>Kenya’s non-compliance would mean it had not fulfilled all the requirements of the World Anti-Doping Code. These include having an effective independent national anti-doping organisation to oversee testing, education, sanctions and appeals. Subsequent legal amendments made by Kenya on specific recommendations would, it appears, result in the country being declared compliant and thus able to compete in the Olympics. But this remains to be seen.</p>
<p>It is not unique for a country to have doping cases – in some situations a high number of positives is seen as evidence of an effective anti-doping system. But the problem facing Kenya is its long-running non-compliance with the World Anti-Doping Code. </p>
<p>Despite warnings and support from the World Anti-Doping Agency over the <a href="http://www.sportsintegrityinitiative.com/a-timeline-the-anti-doping-agency-of-kenya/">past two years</a>, Kenya’s sports and political leaders have left it to the proverbial last minute. In an effort to resolve this in time for the Olympics, the parliament is <a href="http://www.business-standard.com/article/news-ians/kenya-to-amend-laws-in-line-with-wada-anti-doping-code-116052200256_1.html">pushing through legislation</a>.</p>
<p>However, we should look beyond the policies to take stock of the wider situation and potential implications of a ban. </p>
<h2>Kenya is not an isolated case</h2>
<p>In the broader international context, Kenya is arguably unlucky to be singled out. This might be because it is home to so many successful athletes. Its various successes include finishing top of the table at the last World Athletics Championships with <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-34102562">seven gold medals</a>. The London marathon is also an example of their dominance: since 2004, the men’s race has been won by a Kenyan athlete on all but two occasions. This year Eliud Kipchoge won it for the second year in a row with a course record. Another example is Florence Kiplagat’s world record last year for the <a href="http://www.iaaf.org/news/report/florence-kiplagat-half-marathon-world-record1">women’s half marathon</a>. </p>
<p>It is hardly surprising that sports scientists have been searching for the <a href="http://sportsscientists.com/2013/04/the-kenyan-success-genetic-controversy/">secret to their success</a> for over a decade. It is a high-profile target, similar to American champion cyclist Lance Armstrong. </p>
<p>But other countries have also recently faced issues with their <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2016/02/05/sport/china-athletics-state-sponsored-doping-allegations/">anti-doping systems</a>. In March 2016, Spain and Mexico were non-compliant, and Olympic hosts Brazil still had final steps to take even after being declared compliant. Six countries were added to the list and four had only just been <a href="https://www.wada-ama.org/en/media/news/2016-03/wada-statement-on-compliance-of-watch-list-national-anti-doping-organizations">declared compliant</a>.</p>
<p>In April, the Chinese anti-doping laboratory had its <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/36109146">accreditation suspended</a> for four months. And, of course, Russia is the other country that could face disqualification after a damning report in November 2015 by a commission led by <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/athletics/36088254">Dick Pound</a>. </p>
<p>Given the apparent range of anti-doping system weaknesses, the Kenyan sports community might think itself hard done by if the county is the only one to be severely punished through removal from the Olympics.</p>
<h2>What a ban would mean</h2>
<p>The potential implications of a ban are far from clear. Presumably the sports and specific athletes not implicated in any doping investigation would feel highly aggrieved. Most of the focus has been on track and field, despite the fact that Kenya’s 2012 <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympics/2012/countries/kenya?sport=&go=go">Olympic squad</a> included boxers, swimmers and a weightlifter.
Athletes who do not have a positive test as evidence of their individual doping might have a legal case for compensation if a country-level ban prevented their participation. </p>
<p>Moreover, disqualification would open up challenging questions around where to draw the line in other contexts. As doping mainly occurs during training periods, any country that is not sufficiently testing its athletes during the full four years between Olympic events has arguably opened the door to cheating. So becoming compliant in the months before the Games hardly suggests a long-term commitment to anti-doping. </p>
<p>And would the Rio Games be of the same quality without the best athletes from all countries competing? Any disqualification would be a regression to the early 1980s, when political boycotts meant gold medal winners could not claim to be the best in their sport. </p>
<p>It was recently reported that even fans <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/20/sports/olympics/rio-olympics-doping-juliet-macur.html?_r=0">would not be too concerned</a> if they were watching “doped” athletes in Rio. Once you take the best athletes out of a competition, there is potential to lose viewers and sponsors. This also harms the clean athletes, whose career opportunities are dependent on the economic viability of their sport. </p>
<p>Unfortunately the spate of recent scandals means that the World Anti-Doping Agency and international sports agencies are under pressure to prove that they are cracking down on doping. </p>
<h2>The question of equality</h2>
<p>Perhaps an even wider political lens needs to be taken on this subject. It is difficult for developing countries to meet the expectations of globalised anti-doping when economic resources are much scarcer and geographical locations make testing even more challenging. With each test costing US$500-$800, many African, Asian and South American countries might reasonably identify other priorities for public finances. </p>
<p>In addition athletes in developing countries see sport as a route out of poverty, not as a pastime for wealthy people. For example, some Kenyans describe athletes as a way to create <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17853592">new wealth</a> for their family and community. By comparison, 20% of the British squad at the 2012 Olympics attended <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/9449422/An-Olympic-education-schools-producing-Team-GB-Olympians.html">private fee-paying schools</a>. </p>
<p>If Kenya were to be banned from Rio 2016, the overall inclusiveness of the Olympics and the global equality of sporting opportunities would be seriously questioned.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/59929/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paul Dimeo 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 Kenya from the Rio Olympics would raise questions about the overall inclusiveness of the Games and equality in global sporting opportunities.Paul Dimeo, Senior Lecturer in Sport, University of StirlingLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/594812016-05-19T15:19:20Z2016-05-19T15:19:20ZAnti-doping crackdown is unleashing an unnecessary glut of scandals<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/123032/original/image-20160518-13484-zji08b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=4%2C49%2C1016%2C582&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">On their knees. Scrutiny and stigma for athletes has ramped up.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/tabor-roeder/5746255229/in/photolist-9KM4u2-8vtJRX-mVTyN-eKSiYB-cmx7a7-831uxp-gpHCsf-86ti67-nPvzBA-EafdSj-pkPHe5-834yE7-fMRSA2-c4tChu-nuSMQe-8zGJdn-cN81yb-dHMZYj-nsEQEe-rh2Sur-btWFf5-8vw4mN-mnRNwi-nVVy8a-ft5rpD-eonsYx-iwvQWj-auYGX2-6NutL7-9pecT3-qUnkWT-8vt3Rn-nVCnEB-nxeRe7-9Sxiwt-eGCDjC-nQNRE3-s6gRrY-nPWZz-jYhhqB-82TVSs-fs7Qnf-4GDzou-ncjBu4-q6ngG7-p4kztr-pYLJvX-dVmbJX-k2Ud1V-rq5id5">Phil Roeder/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Anti-doping is in crisis. Russia has <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/russia-doping-scandal">created a real dilemma</a> as the World Anti Doping Authority (WADA) and the International Olympic Committee agonise over the extent and nature of sanctions after doping revelations. Kenya is struggling to meet the requirements that will allow it <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/may/13/kenya-escapes-rio-olympics-ban-doping-iaaf">to take part at the Olympics</a>. A <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/36034369">fiasco over recently banned substance meldonium</a> rumbles on, and the Chinese anti-doping laboratory <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-sport-doping-china-idUSKCN0XJ0CR">has had its accreditation withdrawn</a>. </p>
<p>It seems that the tougher WADA try to be, the more scandals emerge, the less trust the public have in athletes, scientists, doctors and sports leaders. The stories of complicity and corruption at the highest level are enough to make the most enthusiastic flag waver feel cynical and despondent.</p>
<p>The root of this crisis is in the 1960s: the time when anti-doping was given shape through new testing procedures and the <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2211266912000072">first list of banned substances</a> was made. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) was the leader, based on its amateur sports principles and strong moral sense of sport’s purpose. There was also a latent sense that athletes should be “natural” and “pure”, competing without the interference of money or the seriousness of political ambitions. </p>
<p>But what made sense then is no longer viable: practically or idealistically. The pioneers of anti-doping focused on what athletes took in immediate preparation for a race; stimulants that would give short bursts of energy and concentration. By drug testing the top finishers, they could determine if someone had cheated their way to a medal. Anti-doping had an achievable ambition, focusing on the cheating aspects of short-term drug abuse. Idealists proclaimed the end of doping.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/123035/original/image-20160518-13484-1gmdbpd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/123035/original/image-20160518-13484-1gmdbpd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/123035/original/image-20160518-13484-1gmdbpd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=236&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123035/original/image-20160518-13484-1gmdbpd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=236&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123035/original/image-20160518-13484-1gmdbpd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=236&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123035/original/image-20160518-13484-1gmdbpd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=297&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123035/original/image-20160518-13484-1gmdbpd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=297&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123035/original/image-20160518-13484-1gmdbpd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=297&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Running can be its own stimulant.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/vesparado/8733654151/in/photolist-eiLg6Z-pLX3Xp-pFhkmC-qVXsQo-cBPiQf-feLwUg-kBfcyq-mWXp7G-d15SBy-c7hSAy-d15UkL-f8SbrB-re6MTK-mWW2Qg-c9ZryU-eiLg6x-eiLg5B-noS1Do-eDpN2-fiebgT-n4vpvr-mWV4Pt-bZdUGh-gEP2sG-i2SmMA-d15P7s-fNgMct-eJLvKQ-cJ34Xo-n4vwTK-f97sg9-kaEAGN-bx31Vc-n4p4De-n4wYB5-n69vYt-n4vn9T-rTqhBk-n69urF-fbhzFm-LJVH-D1agPS-oGkh9Q-gEQbNH-f4Gm1R-feLxaz-fYD82Y-c9ZsGo-cBPm2E-eNB58g">Scooter Lowrimore/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Genie out of the bottle</h2>
<p>By the 1970s, however, the widespread use of <a href="http://library.la84.org/SportsLibrary/ISS/ISS2401/ISS2401e.pdf">steroids during training periods</a> created two irresolvable problems. First, the only way to know if an athlete used steroids was to test them regularly in their home, training centre or workplace. This is expensive, impractical, easy to beat, and impinges on personal freedoms and privacy. The IOC did not have the finances to support this, so steroid use was uncontrollable. </p>
<p>Second, it is not possible to determine the exact cause and effect of using steroids as the direct impact on performance is part of a combination of other sports preparation and psychological strategies. </p>
<p>Over time the list has grown to overly complex proportions. There are now ten categories of banned substance or methods. Some are allowed out of competition but not in competition. Some are allowed up to a threshold level. The time a drug stays in the body varies. Some names of drugs vary depending on the manufacturer. Some have very complex names. </p>
<p><a href="http://list.wada-ama.org/prohibited-in-competition/prohibited-substances/">The list has further expanded</a> in response to athletes using masking agents (such as diuretics that disguise the presence of steroids in urine), inventing illnesses to use medical products, suppliers innovating with drugs that could not be tested for, and restrictions on recreational drugs. This approach to anti-doping policy has led to innocent athletes being banned and stigmatised: not because they cheated, but because they inadvertently broke the rules.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/123038/original/image-20160518-13484-xf1fmc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/123038/original/image-20160518-13484-xf1fmc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/123038/original/image-20160518-13484-xf1fmc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123038/original/image-20160518-13484-xf1fmc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123038/original/image-20160518-13484-xf1fmc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123038/original/image-20160518-13484-xf1fmc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123038/original/image-20160518-13484-xf1fmc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123038/original/image-20160518-13484-xf1fmc.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"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In the shadows: athletes can be left to fend for themselves.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/martin_thomas/4438068725/in/photolist-7Lbgdi-7Lffms-nF5coU-pWgLva-eYU7vt-dexYuo-9rAS2b-qsVLeZ-cjUfh9-7Xq5yG-8R9TB3-a1MR8k-nyq18U-c8FoV9-ouuo2D-hyTkm6-7e3wqG-r31cKU-gRW6Fo-5m8hG5-6m9Hu5-29M4Rp-od2pBm-b7SbL6-ax7QCy-nKAhQJ-6zorLf-8SJd2P-BSXJRA-o8x85L-2tNxP-bkzXbw-5rTwCg-6VCDmt-kMwV-fNtevZ-crejN3-8Eav4k-85g6hP-8Ld8Qu-4rQKQS-4JnxH1-3ZQac-dqv9Ww-ejbrcf-5EgXKA-cYSDPS-9dUX9T-f5Ax8U-5R7Jts">Martin Thomas/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The history of sport is littered with examples of innocent athletes caught up in the net of anti-doping. Those who get caught face alienation from their social networks and their only occupation, causing some to be so depressed as <a href="http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/breyne-attempts-suicide-after-positive-doping-test/">to attempt suicide</a>. There is a distinct lack of sympathy for drug cheats, disproportionate to other forms of cheating. </p>
<h2>Different era, same rules</h2>
<p>When WADA was created in 1999, the ideals, principles, practices, objectives and Utopian vision of drug-free sport – as laid out in the much simpler 1960s – should have been carefully dissected and reinvented for modern sport. Instead the IOC model was simply recycled and empowered in a global organisation. But we now live in a world of technology, commerce, and performance innovation; where drugs could be safely used for recovery and performance, if only the rules were relaxed. Of course, people <a href="http://blog.practicalethics.ox.ac.uk/2013/10/should-athletes-be-allowed-to-use-performance-enhancing-drugs/">react to such proposals with dismay</a>, arguing that open drug use would mean young people being forced to take unsafe drugs just to take part in sport. </p>
<p>I agree, that is an unwanted outcome. However, given the ongoing crisis caused by the intensity of current anti-doping policies, a rational response might be to stop, take stock, assess the positives and negatives, engage athletes and fans, and come up with some fresh ideas that (if nothing else) are achievable, don’t harm innocent athletes, and treat “sanctioned” athletes with humanity, dignity and a constructive route of rehabilitation.</p>
<p>A <a href="https://theconversation.com/athletics-doping-report-should-spark-radical-rethink-on-drugs-in-sport-50376">number of reform models</a> have been proposed by academics, yet we need a way to innovate. WADA has <a href="https://www.wada-ama.org/en/resources/world-anti-doping-program/independent-commission-report-1">set up independent commissions</a> to review specific issues, such as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/may/10/whistleblower-vitaly-stepanov-wada-russian-doping-athletics">the revelations by Russian whistleblowers</a>. Perhaps what is needed is a different type of independent commission, external to WADA that reviews existing strengths and weaknesses, rewrites the 60s vision of drug-free sport for the 21st century, and makes realistic proposals that protect the basic humanitarian values of sport.</p>
<p>At the heart of such proposals could be health protection, encouraging the athlete’s voice, evidence use in policy making, transparency of the scientific decisions, protection of whistleblowers, a reduced cost appeals process, and some action to engage sports audiences in a mature way that explains what it is like to be a high performance athlete. If we can agree some core shared values, then power could be devolved to allow local organisations to deal with the unique circumstances they face. This could target resources at the “problem” areas. But until we have a new platform for open debate and fresh ideas, the current crisis is unlikely to disappear soon.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/59481/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paul Dimeo has received funding from the World Anti-Doping Agency, Wellcome Trust, British Academy and Fulbright Commission. This article is not associated with any of these projects.</span></em></p>The history of the fight against drug taking in sport shows us why we’re in such a mess right now.Paul Dimeo, Senior Lecturer in Sport, University of StirlingLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/586602016-04-29T14:24:56Z2016-04-29T14:24:56ZTerbutaline: the drug at the heart of British Cycling’s week from hell<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/120670/original/image-20160429-10493-17azsdw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Simon Yates at start of the British Mens Road Race Cycling Championships, Abergavenny, 2014</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/sumofmarc/14537451775/in/photolist-wpXNVp-o9CeWg-9ea8f6-9ea8ve-ogeFvX-fUNnP6-9ea8oK-fFufiL-9s2JU8-dc3vFj-o9K4Va-eWjyn3-rTzqV7-obwfYe-AdMWVg-nSfGRH-o9DMYh-nSgtrT-5ktcSS-rWLyXQ-rWJorL-rhyfSi-rWJi9b-se9S4h-nSg9Ee-6LtX9-nWk9fA-nSgayP-o9BasC-55rnX9-nXbeFt-dXVsCF-55rnPQ-73C77R-5GXwLe-73FEfb-74kQXV-argzLq-756ofQ-nSfdbh-o9JH1e-nSfcTy-o9rzmg-2pkXoV-uVTmnU-nV4tyU-G7ssY2-reaBVA-sb2fjo-uq4ouz">Marc/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>It was a week British Cycling would rather forget. Accusations of discrimination <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cycling/36153485">forced the resignation</a> of technical director Shane Sutton and then, it was reported that one of its brightest young stars <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/apr/29/orica-green-simon-yates-positive-test-administrative-error">had submitted</a> a positive drug test. Just 100 days before the Olympic Games kick off in Brazil, it is a gruelling time for a sport that has delivered national success for Britain like few others.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.greenedgecycling.com/team/simon-yates">Simon Yates</a>, who rides for Australian professional team Orica-Greenedge, was found to have a drug called terbutaline in his system during the March stage of the Paris-Nice. The team confirmed <a href="http://www.greenedgecycling.com/news/statement-regarding-simon-yates-adverse-analytical-finding.phps">the news in a statement</a> but said the positive result was for the drug’s use as an asthma treatment noted by the team doctor on a doping control form signed at the time of the test. </p>
<p>The UCI, cycling’s governing body, does allow the use of terbutaline under its programme of <a href="http://www.uci.ch/clean-sport/therapeutic-use-exemptions/">therapeutic-use exemptions</a> (TUEs), and Orica blamed one of the team’s doctors for failing to submit the relevant paperwork. It said it was “solely based on a human error that the doctor in question has taken full responsibility for”. The UCI said it <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cycling/36169275">would not be suspending the 23-year-old rider</a> because use of this drug did not call for its imposition. </p>
<p>So what is terbutaline? How does it work? And why have anti-doping authorities required athletes to seek permission before using it?</p>
<h2>At the limit</h2>
<p>Many athletes have a form of asthma known as <a href="http://acaai.org/asthma/exercise-induced-asthma-eib">exercise induced bronchoconstriction</a>(EIB). In fact, the prevalence of asthma/EIB in elite athletes (21%) is reported to be <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1747493/">more than double</a> that of the UK general population (9%). Athletes are more susceptible to this form of asthma because they regularly expose themselves to a significant volume of asthma triggers (dry air, dust, pollution) as a result of long and intense hours of training on the road. In simple terms, increased exposure to those triggers equals greater chance of asthma/EIB. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.aafa.org/page/exercise-induced-asthma.aspx">Asthma/EIB</a> is an obstructive airway disease characterised by inflammation and muscle constriction around the airway. Any asthma sufferer will be able to relate to familiar symptoms such as tight chest, difficulty in breathing and wheezing. An athlete’s aerobic performance will obviously be compromised if they are unable to ventilate their lungs effectively so a group of drugs known as β2-Agonists can be used to reverse the muscle constriction, open up airways and reduce symptoms. These drugs allow athletes with asthma/EIB to train and compete without compromising their health and performance. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/120679/original/image-20160429-10512-10u1xcs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/120679/original/image-20160429-10512-10u1xcs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/120679/original/image-20160429-10512-10u1xcs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120679/original/image-20160429-10512-10u1xcs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120679/original/image-20160429-10512-10u1xcs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120679/original/image-20160429-10512-10u1xcs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120679/original/image-20160429-10512-10u1xcs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120679/original/image-20160429-10512-10u1xcs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Performance enhancing?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/niaid/5950870440/in/photolist-a4RLsu-9ah9vn-6DtYim-cCnjkG-6DpPXX-5vMrJi-m5KpY4-6SM5dy-na51eJ-oH4rdU-osBKo-8pAw9q-5tz14g-3QDtwr-gMQcjo-29eQm-4URrnm-aMoZfn-eZjr3q-5Adove-7cNP1a-2XVWgL-9qMECF-99xZRa-su6i2z-9x67Q3-8DcgGt-8PeqeY-pZLdgL-8F3aBC-9x383K-2gtk5s-8x6gbV-9x387t-baD1Hx-ekYLQy-8CnCVQ-aBA6JJ-q34hzt-79dsDq-dSUcid-qtiDb1-ossFKs-9FoACn-9FrwSQ-9FrwXJ-9FrxSW-PWitQ-8j1Kom-dFZiox">NIAID/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>All but four forms of β2-Agonists are banned for athletes to use in and out of competition by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). <a href="https://wada-main-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/resources/files/wada-2016-prohibited-list-en.pdf">Clenbuterol, for example, is banned</a> for enhancing strength and power performance as well as reducing body fat. Athletes can use salbutamol, salmeterol, formoterol and terbutaline – although terbutaline is the only one that requires an athlete to apply for a TUE certificate before they can use it. </p>
<p>Salbutamol and formoterol have limits on the amount you can use but do not require special permission. This is because it is possible to distinguish between whether a dose is inhaled (to treat asthma) or taken orally. But this is not possible for terbutaline (and there is no oral form of salmeterol). In other words, once you have an exemption for terbutaline you could in theory use an oral dose without specifically targeting asthma. </p>
<h2>Performance gains?</h2>
<p>But can terbutaline and the others make a difference in a cycling race? Well, there is evidence that oral doses of terbutaline improve <a href="http://jap.physiology.org/content/119/5/475.long">strength and power performance</a> and that high doses of inhaled terbutaline <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4270505/">may improve sprint and power</a> but not endurance. Strangely enough, the action behind the potential performance improvement is not linked to improved lung function. </p>
<p>Terbutaline and other treatments may improve performance by altering muscle function so that power production per muscle contraction is enhanced. Long-term use may also improve the energy producing pathways that do not require the presence of oxygen, hence a boost to anaerobic bursts of power. But to achieve these performance gains inhaled doses of terbutaline must be <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4270505/">well above the therapeutic dose</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/120699/original/image-20160429-10518-306iz1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/120699/original/image-20160429-10518-306iz1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/120699/original/image-20160429-10518-306iz1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120699/original/image-20160429-10518-306iz1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120699/original/image-20160429-10518-306iz1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120699/original/image-20160429-10518-306iz1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=529&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120699/original/image-20160429-10518-306iz1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=529&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120699/original/image-20160429-10518-306iz1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=529&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">All a blur. Inhaler drugs may boost your sprint power.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/puliarfanita/8744956413/in/photolist-ejLbSz-cUJFKQ-eAxT5s-iENCPw-byZvwV-om4FKn-oPWnRN-puTcM3-y9954-4Qsfkc-y9wPt-9vj3T6-eie7wK-6tyif7-y994m-6NfiFv-iELjfQ-amqjaf-4Cbczy-nYwDYo-hdwBoS-otidut-iGRSu9-CMeLCH-iGRNwu-iGRQH3-iGRPmA-fdjrhc-fni3YD-6sxuPQ-iEKFwt-ajz8rL-afRCEV-8j1HMr-fmYi34-nGE59Y-fpCxcB-oVbA3B-fndtAw-y994Y-i5wYRZ-y8BUT-eAuFKr-5K11JA-iELiYN-fnbW1w-oPWnCw-admxQ9-619P9a-3xVkMq">Anita Ritenour/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>So an athlete using terbutaline as prescribed therapeutically is not likely to benefit from a performance enhancement in their sprinting. However, once an athlete has a TUE for terbutaline they have licence to use as much as they like. So an unscrupulous athlete could seek to gain an advantage once they had the exemption. </p>
<p>There is no hint that climbing specialist Yates was using the asthma drug for anything other than his condition, or that the dose in his case was unusually high. </p>
<p>Fellow British rider Owain Doull also leapt to Yates’ defence on Twitter:</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"725973890221137920"}"></div></p>
<h2>Anti-doping retreat</h2>
<p>Because athletes need to apply for permission to use terbutaline, most athletes with asthma/EIB choose to use salbutamol – which is found in the commonly-seen blue inhaler. </p>
<p>Back in 2009 however, the World Anti Doping Authority (WADA) <a href="https://wada-main-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/resources/files/WADA_Prohibited_List_2009_EN.pdf">had placed all four</a> β2-Agonists on the list of banned substances. The upside was that athletes had to prove they had asthma/EIB by producing a specific objective test as evidence of their condition, and there is <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1747493/">plenty of evidence</a> that this process improved diagnostic practices and the management of athletes with the condition. The downside was that it massively increased the administration burden on sports medics and governing bodies. </p>
<p>And so, by 2010 the decision was reversed for all but terbutaline. There was at the time limited evidence that inhaled β2-Agonists improved performance, and crucially, the costs and practicality of testing every athlete around the world with suspected asthma/EIB were deemed impractical. Given the <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23834392">emerging evidence</a> that these treatments may improve strength and power performance, WADA may decide to revisit that position.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/58660/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Dickinson has previous received funding from World Anti-Doping Agency. </span></em></p>Asthma medication can cause trouble for athletes but why are some inhalers alright while others need permission to use?John Dickinson, Head of the Respiratory Clinic and Senior Lecturer, University of KentLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/535432016-02-18T15:02:16Z2016-02-18T15:02:16ZAmateur doping shaping up to be sport’s latest test as cycling bans rack up<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/111984/original/image-20160218-1276-wdnyn2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Speed demon.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-290276831/stock-photo-cyclist-in-maximum-effort-in-a-road-outdoors.html?src=olXO1pIOkZ7YyfhMmLcVWg-3-30">Cyclist by Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The past few months have been <a href="https://theconversation.com/sebastian-coe-faces-a-monumental-task-in-cleaning-up-athletics-50480">traumatic for the world of athletics</a> as it struggles to fight free of a suffocating doping and corruption scandal. On the flip side, it has been quite a turnaround for cycling, which has started to emerge from the dark days of the Lance Armstrong era and is now cited widely as <a href="https://theconversation.com/cycling-might-hold-the-key-for-athletics-to-move-past-its-annus-horribilis-50437">a benchmark for the bosses of track and field</a>. Cycling, however, has a dirty secret.</p>
<p>Well, <a href="https://theconversation.com/cycling-should-take-a-lead-from-f1-as-hidden-motor-scandal-emerges-54011">maybe two</a>, but let’s put aside the spectre of mechanical doping for now and focus on a spate of news stories which have highlighted the murky world of amateur doping in a sport which is slogging away to clean up the professional game.</p>
<h2>Fighting for an edge</h2>
<p>The cases have come thick and fast. Britain’s junior national time trial champion <a href="http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news/latest-news/junior-time-trial-champion-gabriel-evans-admits-epo-use-203450">Gabriel Evans</a>, an 18-year-old from London, was recently caught using the <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/front_page/4657010.stm">banned blood booster EPO</a> (Erythropoietin). He admitted taking the drug, and <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/cycling/12044175/Teenage-cyclist-Gabriel-Evans-admits-to-doping-because-culture-had-been-normalised-and-justified.html">claimed it had become “normalised and justified”</a> in his mind because he’d read about others regularly being caught. </p>
<p>British Masters road race champion Andrew Hastings was <a href="http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news/latest-news/british-masters-champion-andy-hastings-given-four-year-doping-ban-203379">handed a four-year ban</a> after testing positive for two anabolic steroids. <a href="http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news/latest-news/banned-cyclist-hastings-cites-borrowed-used-syringe-as-reason-for-failed-steroids-test-203455">He claimed</a> that the failed test came after he borrowed a used syringe to take a vitamin supplement.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/111946/original/image-20160218-1252-1ff9jx1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/111946/original/image-20160218-1252-1ff9jx1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/111946/original/image-20160218-1252-1ff9jx1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/111946/original/image-20160218-1252-1ff9jx1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/111946/original/image-20160218-1252-1ff9jx1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/111946/original/image-20160218-1252-1ff9jx1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/111946/original/image-20160218-1252-1ff9jx1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/111946/original/image-20160218-1252-1ff9jx1.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"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Spiked?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/marosh/103066377/in/photolist-a7f3v-7291b-8ync5Y-7Akczu-7wLbTF-7hbyKu-9ygzd6-8ZpZLJ-8mkjmb-9h4SCu-8mh8Mi-9naNh5-BwXwnK-9ueWY6-LCArq-93SZ1B-9wrxch-93Vk8b-2dopwH-4VV4G3-as2Bgz-bpMV8P-8mhggX-ifM5NH-9Ynxim-3K6Zu5-bpMWbx-4jvTQe-esJThu-baLfET-7uCsMJ-4vzisU-63ciQ6-7YwcA5-CM3Lf-4LqMao-q1DSaH-7YsXAr-76rAVy-ef4aq2-aFxrX4-fWjnGv-LxzJe-BpLPn-f9MrH-99XfiM-7Z3hWo-abVMYs-bpLeKM-76L5wv">marosh</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>English masters rider, Jason White <a href="http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news/latest-news/jason-white-handed-two-year-ban-skipping-drugs-test-150819">was banned for two years</a> after refusing to provide a urine sample to drug control officers. Dan Stevens <a href="http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news/latest-news/british-cyclist-dan-stevens-banned-for-failing-to-provide-anti-doping-sample-192254">also failed to provide a sample</a> but his two-year sanction was reduced after he assisted <a href="http://www.sportsintegrityinitiative.com/ukad-reduces-dan-stevens-sanction-for-assisting-circ/">an inquiry into doping</a>.</p>
<p>These are far from isolated examples in the wider world of cycling. Oscar Tovar, the 32-year-old winner of the 2015 New York Gran Fondo, a competitive but amateur race with little prize money, <a href="http://velonews.competitor.com/2015/10/news/gran-fondo-new-york-winner-stripped-of-title-for-doping_388383">was stripped of his title</a> after testing positive for synthetic testosterone and accepted a two-year ban. In January, 59-year-old Italian jazz guitarist Gigi Cifarelli <a href="http://europe.newsweek.com/italian-jazz-playing-cyclist-banned-doping-gigi-cifarelli-417219">was banned for four years</a> for doping after a positive test at the Grand Prix Dell’Uva Fragola-Suno amateur event. He too accepted the sanction.</p>
<h2>Testing the limits</h2>
<p>The fear must be that this is only the start of something bigger in cycling and other amateur sports. Unsurprisingly perhaps it looks like it may be an emerging crisis in Ironman triathlon competitions – a sport where you must swim 2.4 miles, cycle 112 miles, and then run a marathon. Danish competitor Thomas Lawaetz, <a href="http://www.sportsintegrityinitiative.com/danish-ironman-issued-with-four-year-ban-after-epo-positive/">was banned for four years</a> after he admitted EPO use. And a survey of 3,000 Ironman triathletes showed that around <a href="http://www.irishtriathlon.com/index.php/2014/01/ironman-triathlon-doping-epo-steroids/">20% admitted doping</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/111919/original/image-20160218-1243-8z06ui.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/111919/original/image-20160218-1243-8z06ui.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/111919/original/image-20160218-1243-8z06ui.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/111919/original/image-20160218-1243-8z06ui.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/111919/original/image-20160218-1243-8z06ui.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/111919/original/image-20160218-1243-8z06ui.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/111919/original/image-20160218-1243-8z06ui.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/111919/original/image-20160218-1243-8z06ui.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sport in transition.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/marc_buehler/9719342937/in/photolist-fNSb3e-fP9GkQ-fP9GRj-eHhwsZ-6Q9Rhb-hpLAHg-7gMES5-6HBxVP-fNS9rp-fzbJs-6Jw3zu-7ZTnGu-6HBLX2-9V3B9V-85PmWh-85PmZ1-85LcTp-6HFFZN-8f92hU-846f3r-6HBGtR-agPNZ2-6HBHTH-6d4s5e-6HFPhf-6HBFK4-6HBHcM-3A3iS-6JsncW-6JHhyE-amen6X-d1p78C-6HFJzy-8vyV4U-agSBws-6HBvQ8-agSBqE-agPPgP-fNSxta-fP9E2y-fNS8eK-fNS8Cr-dJKWhj-fNSsyz-8v4v9A-rStz6-7ZQrQD-NHaHn-9tvqDj-nUpg4">Marc Buehler/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The proposed solution is <a href="http://www.slowtwitch.com/News/More_IRONMAN_AG_doping_testing_5575.html">more testing</a> of amateurs, an approach also taken by <a href="http://velonews.competitor.com/2015/11/news/anti-doping-is-coming-to-masters-and-amateur-racing_389517">USA Cycling</a> due to their increasing concerns that doping has spread through the lower ranks.</p>
<p>However, testing is very limited: it is very expensive and most of the focus is quite rightly placed on elite, professional athletes. It is nigh on impossible to undertake a systematic strategy of out-of-competition testing of amateurs, and many with some knowledge of the substances could ensure they are “washed out” their system before the competition. The implication of this, of course, is that those few individuals who have tested positive are only the tip of the iceberg.</p>
<h2>Force of the law</h2>
<p>While <a href="http://velonews.competitor.com/2008/04/news/road/france-toughens-anti-doping-laws_75622">the French</a> and Danish governments have laws against doping in lower-level sport, it is not an approach widely supported by other countries. And so responsibility and costs fall on cash-strapped sports agencies who have other funding priorities. A <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.3109/09687637.2015.1029872">recent study</a> of US cycling highlighted the challenges involved in addressing this problem.</p>
<p>The rising popularity of competitive amateurs, especially in endurance sports, means that doping is more than simply challenge to ideas of sporting purity and the ideal of noble <a href="http://www.independent.ie/regionals/kerryman/sport/other-sports/olympics-far-removed-from-corinthian-ideal-27422425.html">Corinthian endeavour</a>. It also poses serious dangers to the health of athletes tempted to dabble.</p>
<p>Weekend competitors are unlikely to find expert “doping doctors” like those who helped Armstrong and his team-mates to manage their doping regime. Risks of over-use, sharing needles and contaminated products are significant. EPO has been tentatively <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/aug/02/blood-doping-what-is-it-and-has-anyone-died-as-a-result-of-it">linked to several deaths</a>, although without any conclusive proof. It works by releasing more oxygen-carrying red blood cells which “thicken the blood” and force the heart to work harder. Anecdotes <a href="http://inrng.com/2012/11/epo-the-wonder-drug/">from cycling’s darkest days</a> tell of riders setting alarm clocks through the night so they could wake up periodically to train, and to make sure their own congealed blood didn’t kill them while they slept.</p>
<p>More and more, amateur competitors are prepared to spend thousands of pounds on equipment, invest 10-15 hours a week training, spend their holidays on training camps, and pay for personal coaches. It’s no great leap to seeing doping as just another opportunity for improvement. They may not be doing it for money – it seems pride and social status, and perhaps even just curiosity – are motivating principles. The paradoxical twist here is that if testing does get ramped up, then the open secret will disappear into the shadows, increasing the health risks as it goes.</p>
<p>UK Anti-Doping chief Nicole Sapstead <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/drugsinsport/12160508/Doping-culture-that-is-threatening-to-ruin-British-amateur-sport-could-be-worse-than-anyone-realises.html">admitted to the Daily Telegraph</a> that she can only guess at the scale of the problem, and has little money available to tackle it. UKAD relies instead on tip-offs and close monitoring of social media to spot potential dopers.</p>
<p>It looks like a humble operation amid the scandals of corrupt sports leaders, cover-ups and organised doping in Russia, which symbolise crisis at the highest level of world sport. The attention afforded these situations arguably detracts from a much wider potential public health issue, as yet unacknowledged and without obvious solutions. By defining doping as a part of elite sport, amateur doping falls between the cracks of responsibility, allowing unregulated doping cultures to grow where medical oversight and advice is least able to intervene.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/53543/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paul Dimeo receives funding from various bodies including the World Anti-Doping Agency. None are specifically related to the subject of amateur athletes and anti-doping.</span></em></p>Health risks loom as weekend athletes aiming to beat their mates become a new frontline for anti-doping.Paul Dimeo, Senior Lecturer in Sport, University of StirlingLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/532122016-01-18T19:26:58Z2016-01-18T19:26:58ZAfter the Essendon saga, any reform to anti-doping regimes must give athletes a greater say<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/108376/original/image-20160118-20933-1ri5vib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C79%2C4096%2C2336&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Athletes are marginalised in anti-doping processes led by the World Anti-Doping Agency.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/Hendrik Schmidt</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>WADA, the World Anti-Doping Agency, has moved on from its <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-pomp-in-circumstance-cas-rules-against-essendon-players-53043">relatively minor clash</a> with AFL club Essendon to tackle allegations of drug use and cover-ups in <a href="https://theconversation.com/new-athletics-doping-report-piles-more-pressure-on-iaaf-but-there-mustnt-be-an-over-reaction-52991">international athletics</a>. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, Australia is left to pick up the pieces of the Essendon saga, which has left 34 athletes suspended from sport for the 2016 football season. Greens leader Richard di Natale last week asked some <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/sport/afl/essendon-doping-richard-di-natale-urges-break-from-wada-code/news-story/8070d0aac59c64347a6debfa8856a23e?login=1">pretty difficult questions</a> – the most tricky of which is the future of anti-doping in Australian sport. Calling on the federal government to inquire into the Essendon case, di Natale said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The system is broken when the blame is laid with players and other individuals and organisations aren’t faced with the same sort of penalties.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Any reform must acknowledge the historical roots of the anti-doping movement and give greater voice to those most affected by anti-doping processes – individual athletes.</p>
<h2>Founding of anti-doping</h2>
<p>A <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5406/jsporthistory.38.2.237">potted history</a> of the ideological basis to the anti-doping system is that it stemmed from pre-second world war anxieties about “doped professionals” demeaning “clean amateurs”. </p>
<p>After the war, 1960s anxieties around the Cold War and the war on drugs were added to the mix. The East took on a <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wnet/secrets/the-state-sponsored-doping-program/52/">systematic approach</a> to doping, while the West acknowledged it had to compete in a doping arms race or do something else.</p>
<p>A series of drug crises drove the “something else”. The anti-doping movement manufactured some of these crises. It seemed quite comfortable with the idea of manipulating evidence to suit its ends. For example, the <a href="https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=iBZVAAAAIBAJ&sjid=YJMDAAAAIBAJ&pg=736%2C173634">claim</a> that famed British cyclist Tommy Simpson died from an overdose of amphetamines fails to acknowledge the role heatstroke, overexertion and dehydration due to diarrhoea and alcohol misuse played.</p>
<p>The crises mounted through the 1980s and 1990s as a result of a general lack of interest in managing drugs. Anti-doping was understood to be a charade necessary to protect the growing commercial interests of sport. </p>
<p>The doping scandals at the <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/special_report/1998/07/98/tour_de_france/144326.stm">Tour de France</a> and <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/sport/47684.stm">World Swimming Championships</a> in 1998 were the last straw for some governments around the world. They forced sport to move beyond charade and actually implement independent anti-doping policies.</p>
<p>Given the endemic corruption in sport, governments required the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to share administration of anti-doping procedures. They therefore took a <a href="https://www.wada-ama.org/en/governance">50% stake</a> in WADA.</p>
<h2>Alternative drug control</h2>
<p>Through the 1960s and 1970s, collective bargaining in US professional men’s sport addressed the issue of drugs. Those sports appeared to be more concerned with athlete drug misuse and abuse. Team owners had an interest in making sure their employee-athletes were available for lucrative events.</p>
<p>Collective bargaining meant that athlete associations were interested in protecting members from summary termination of employment, especially when the drug consumption may be related to sport. As a result, the three major sporting leagues in the US – Major League Baseball (MLB), the National Football League (NFL) and National Basketball Association (NBA) – all developed policies that saw treatment as the first step where drugs agreed to damage the sport’s integrity were detected.</p>
<p>This suggests that when athletes have a voice in drug control, drug control tends to focus on what is referred to as <a href="http://www.ihra.net/what-is-harm-reduction">“harm reduction”</a> – that is, the focus is on ensuring that athletes are OK.</p>
<p>While this approach sounds like a good idea, the devil is in the detail. There have been problems with harm-reduction approaches to drug control in these sports. The power imbalances between owners and players meant that drug-based exploitation still happened. The NFL seems to have had the <a href="http://deadspin.com/its-remarkably-easy-to-beat-nfl-drug-testing-1695935246">most problems</a> in this regard. </p>
<p>That said, the AFL in Australia has taken a harm-reduction approach with its <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-brave-new-world-the-afls-updated-illicit-drug-policy-49991">illicit drug policy</a>. Despite the bad press, medical evidence suggests it is actually one of the better approaches to drug control in sport.</p>
<p>Professional sport in the US has been forced to adopt stricter anti-doping procedures. In particular, the extraordinary political pressure arising from the <a href="http://files.mlb.com/mitchrpt.pdf">Mitchell Report</a> into doping in baseball meant the MLB was forced to change its anti-doping policies. However, it is still <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-nfl-drugs-idUSKBN0UB1I520151229">not a signatory</a> to the WADA Code.</p>
<p>The AFL was <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2005/s1417859.htm">initially resistant</a> to the introduction of the WADA Code in 2005. The Australian government forced the AFL to sign up to the code with the threat of cutting it off from public funding. One wonders whether MLB and AFL are any better off for the change.</p>
<h2>How did the alternative emerge?</h2>
<p>The one key difference that has led to such different policies emerging in US sports is the involvement of athletes. While athlete associations were and remain relatively weak in sport, that they are present at all means athletes have a greater voice than they would if the major American leagues were signatories to the WADA Code.</p>
<p>By comparison, athletes are marginalised in WADA-led anti-doping processes.</p>
<p>WADA’s governance arrangements exclude athletes and athlete associations or unions from having a role in anti-doping decision-making. WADA’s <a href="https://www.wada-ama.org/en/executive-committee">executive committee</a> and <a href="https://www.wada-ama.org/en/foundation-board">foundation board</a> are comprised of IOC members and government ministers – including Australia’s sports minister, Sussan Ley. </p>
<p>Athletes are given the opportunity to advise these boards through the <a href="https://www.wada-ama.org/en/athlete-committee">athlete committee</a>. However, the athletes invited onto the committee are handpicked for their support of anti-doping, ensuring that no views critical of anti-doping can be voiced. The reasons for the exclusion of athletes from anti-doping governance lie in paternalistic assumptions that pervade how sport is run.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/108378/original/image-20160118-20970-mbefm2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/108378/original/image-20160118-20970-mbefm2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/108378/original/image-20160118-20970-mbefm2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=771&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/108378/original/image-20160118-20970-mbefm2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=771&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/108378/original/image-20160118-20970-mbefm2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=771&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/108378/original/image-20160118-20970-mbefm2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=969&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/108378/original/image-20160118-20970-mbefm2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=969&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/108378/original/image-20160118-20970-mbefm2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=969&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Non-Olympic sport such as Australian rules is denied access to the WADA boards.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Joe Castro</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In reference to the Essendon case, it is worth noting that non-Olympic sport (such as Australian rules or rugby league) is denied access to the WADA boards.</p>
<p>The anti-doping movement might say that athletes and non-Olympic sport are given a voice through their minister. However, that is one voice and one vote among many. They can be easily steamrolled. </p>
<p>The anti-doping movement might also argue that its extensive consultations on WADA Code revisions are an opportunity for athletes to have a voice. But it is difficult to have confidence that the interests of athletes or non-Olympic sport might be heard given the anti-doping movement’s willingness to use evidence “tactically”.</p>
<h2>Giving a voice to athletes and non-Olympic sport</h2>
<p>The question for di Natale and Ley is whether they will have the courage to demand that WADA change to give voice to athletes and non-Olympic sport.</p>
<p>Changing the WADA board to have equal representation of Olympic sport, non-Olympic sport, governments and athletes might be a good start. </p>
<p>Alternatively, if WADA is unable to change, perhaps Australia – having learned some hard lessons with the Essendon case – should use those lessons to develop a better approach to drug control for sport.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/53212/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 Prorgramme and WADA Social Science Research Programme. He also became a member of the Essendon Football Club in 2014 for research purposes. Dr Mazanov takes the view that there must be some form of drug control for sport, and that such drug control needs to evolve from the lessons learned from the failures of the anti-doping policy. </span></em></p>Having learned some hard lessons with the Essendon case, Australia should lead the way in developing a better approach to drug control and anti-doping in sport.Jason Mazanov, Senior Lecturer, School of Business, UNSW-Canberra, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/529912016-01-14T19:02:37Z2016-01-14T19:02:37ZNew athletics doping report piles more pressure on IAAF – but there mustn’t be an over-reaction<p>The release of a <a href="https://www.wada-ama.org/en/resources/world-anti-doping-program/independent-commission-report-2">second World Anti Doping Authority (WADA) report</a> into doping in athletics has proved to be as astounding as the outcomes of the first report in November 2015. It offers allegations of <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/athletics/12099794/Lord-Coe-under-intense-pressure-after-damning-WADA-doping-report.html">extortion</a> at what were the highest levels of the sport. But the report appears to leave the way clear for reform efforts to be led by the current president of the sport’s governing body, Sebastian Coe.</p>
<p>This story first broke in the summer of 2015 when the Sunday Times and German broadcaster ADR released documents showing that hundreds of athletes had abnormal blood profiles which suggested systematic doping. WADA’s investigation, led by its former president Dick Pound, claimed that there had been “corruption and bribery practices <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/nov/09/wada-iaaf-russia-dick-pound-banned">at the highest levels</a>” of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) to cover up doping cases. Russia received an indefinite <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/nov/26/russia-full-indefinite-ban-world-athletics-doping-scandal">ban from competition</a>.</p>
<p>Since then, major figures have been identified and face punishment, including former <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/athletics/34782521">IAAF President Lamine Diack</a>, former head of anti-doping for the IAAF, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/nov/05/gabriel-dolle-iaaf-criminal-investigation">Gabriel Dolle</a>, and Diack’s son <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/jan/11/papa-massata-diack-arranged-parcels-for-senior-ioc-members">Papa Massata Diack</a>. Russian scientists and anti-doping leaders have been sanctioned. We have also learned from an IAAF Ethics Committee report that athletes from other countries might be involved, including <a href="http://bigstory.ap.org/article/8dd8108125ba42789461109e3d055b73/iaaf-investigating-allegations-kenya-doping-cover">Kenya</a> and <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/jan/08/wada-iaaf-extortion-report-turkish-athlete">Turkey</a>, and that people who had been in IAAF leadership roles apparently <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/sports/olympics/summer/trackandfield/iaaf-explored-ways-to-cover-up-russian-doping-1.3400476">knew about doping allegations</a> several years ago. </p>
<h2>IAAF accused</h2>
<p>This second report was delayed pending police investigations and was released on January 14 at a press conference in Munich. It makes claims of IAAF staff involved in extortion and the covering-up of positive tests. The focus remained on Russia and examined why the athletics governing body was so slow to respond to evidence of widespread doping. </p>
<p>Sebastian Coe’s position was endorsed by Pound – indeed he said he could not think of anyone better to lead the IAAF at what is a key moment for it. But the report says the IAAF Council, which included Coe at the time “could not have been unaware of the extent of doping in athletics”. Coe had been vice-president of the IAAF under Diack. Pound appeared to focus his criticism of the council on a failure to address alleged nepotism.</p>
<p>Most frustrating is that the remit of this report was limited to Russia. Suggestions that those cases were just the <a href="http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/sport/athletics/article4665469.ece">tip of iceberg</a> of doping and extortion leaves open the possibility that the situation is a whole lot worse. </p>
<p>Pound accused the IAAF of “<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/athletics/35309759">continued denial</a>” and requiring an overhaul of governance processes to address previous failures. But it is hard to see how such high-level interventions might change behaviour among athletes, coaches and doctors in the short-term.</p>
<h2>Armstrong legacy</h2>
<p>Athletics seems to be in a similar position to cycling three years ago. Long-standing rumours of doping cultures within elite teams were not finally confronted by that sport’s governing body the UCI until the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) published <a href="http://cyclinginvestigation.usada.org/">a detailed report</a> in 2012 that looked into the US Postal team based upon detailed interviews. Their objective was to sanction Lance Armstrong and to break through the “omerta” to work towards clean sport.</p>
<p>The step-by-step process of USADA’s investigation also exposed weaknesses in the system and influence of anti-doping agencies. Many of the confessions were only obtained when federal prosecutors threatened them with prison sentences for perjury or withholding evidence, and even then with the promise of a reduced sanction (Armstrong’s team-mates received six-month bans while he <a href="http://www.latimes.com/sports/sportsnow/la-sp-sn-lance-armstrong-lifetime-ban-20150318-story.html">received a lifetime ban</a>).</p>
<p>The Russia case is in some ways similar. It was only because two whistle-blowers worked with media organisations that the suspicions began to be confirmed. The courageous husband and wife <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-athletics-corruption-whistleblower-idUSKCN0T91PL20151120">are now in hiding</a>. Even after the revelations were published in the Sunday Times, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/athletics/33784236">Coe responded</a> with an attack on the reporters.</p>
<p>All of which suggests that the current approach of testing athletes is not enough to prevent many from doping, either through their own volition or with the support of coaches, doctors and scientists. It would seem that the threat of a four-year ban is not a sufficient deterrent. A governance model that requires organisations within each country and sport to act in accordance with the World Anti-Doping Code is also flawed, if those organisations help support doping. There are simply too many vested interests at play here.</p>
<h2>Biting the bullet</h2>
<p>The future for athletics <a href="http://www.stir.ac.uk/news/2016/01/study-aims-to-shape-global-anti-doping-programmes/">looks very challenging</a>. Much like cycling, their leaders need to be prepared to sanction the very best competitors even if that risks more scandal and high-profile withdrawals from major events. The level of corruption among administrators will be harder to tackle, not least because finding evidence and processing legal cases takes time and effort. However, a change of culture means confronting the problem, not pretending it is historical or limited to a handful of countries.</p>
<p>In light of these scandals, some have called for new and tougher tactics such as criminalising doping or <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/athletics/35277793">deleting all historical event records</a> and starting again. There is a risk of over-reacting when such situations seem so extreme that the force of law seems like the only solution. </p>
<p>Since WADA was formed in 1999, many academics <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09523367.2013.826652">have warned</a> about the potential abuse of power in the anti-doping environment. Certainly when there are cases of accidental doping that lead to bans of two or four years many question the validity of the outcomes. The recent controversy over the case of Australian rules football team Essendon, where <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/35288575">34 past and present players were banned for 2 years</a> for using a supplement provided by the team in 2012 shows the dilemmas and legal challenges faced in some cases. The rights of the individual athlete should always be at the forefront, and some common sense applied when there is no intention to cheat or genuine misunderstandings occurred. </p>
<p>The reality of the situation now is that many “real dopers” are still getting away with it, while many relatively innocuous cases are being harshly treated. The reaction to this new report ought to be tinged with caution. An over-reaction and toughening up of policy might undermine the very principles of fairness and protecting the health and well-being of athletes that the anti-doping campaigners are so keen to protect.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/52991/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paul Dimeo has received funding from various external organisations for projects relating to aspects of anti-doping, including British Academy, Fulbright Commission, Carnegie Trust, Wellcome Trust and the World Anti-Doping Agency. </span></em></p>Fresh details about the findings of the World Anti Doping Authority raise questions about athletics chiefs.Paul Dimeo, Senior Lecturer in Sport, University of StirlingLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/530432016-01-12T01:15:42Z2016-01-12T01:15:42ZThe pomp in circumstance: CAS rules against Essendon players<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/107865/original/image-20160112-6992-1b669xp.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">AAP/Joe Castro</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>When ASADA issued infraction notices against 34 past or present Essendon footballers, the case was heard – as per World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) protocol – by the anti-doping tribunal of the relevant sport – in this case the AFL. The members were David Jones (retired County Court judge), John Nixon (retired County Court judge) and Wayne Henwood (barrister with Owen Dixon Chambers). </p>
<p>They found that a case against the players could not be proven to the requisite standard of the tribunal, which is “comfortable satisfaction”. </p>
<p>To the surprise of many, but certainly not ASADA CEO Ben McDevitt, WADA chose to appeal the AFL tribunal finding at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). Although CAS resides in Lausanne and operates under Swiss law, for convenience this tribunal (it is a court in name only) sat in Sydney in late 2015. </p>
<p>From a procedural perspective, the prosecution was entitled to nominate a judge from the list of accredited CAS tribunal members, as was the defence. The prosecution selected Romano Subiatto QC (Cleary Gottlieb – Brussels and London), while the defence chose James Spigelman QC (former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New South Wales). As is customary, they decided on the tribunal chair, settling on Michael Belloff QC (Blackstone Chambers – London). </p>
<p>In essence, WADA would rely on a second tribunal to look at essentially the same body of evidence in the hope of reaching a different conclusion under the same <a href="https://theconversation.com/judge-suspects-but-must-acquit-man-on-child-pornography-charges-41501">standard of proof</a>. There was, nonetheless, the prospect of new evidence because the case would be heard de novo (anew). This was all exceptionally important. </p>
<p>CAS not only hears appeals, whether from WADA or defendants, but it is effectively the final ruling on the matter. Case closed. From that perspective, the second tribunal is undoubtedly far more important than the first; a sport anti-doping tribunal carries no weight in the event of a successful CAS appeal. </p>
<p>Tuesday’s announcement that CAS has delivered a very different verdict to the first tribunal is, to many who have followed this three-year saga, a surprise. The reality, of course, is that in both law and sport the umpire’s decision is final; the adjudication must therefore be accepted. </p>
<p>What, then, were the key reasons for the <a href="http://resources.news.com.au/files/2016/01/12/1227705/420711-cas-decision.pdf">CAS decision</a>?</p>
<ol>
<li><p>CAS concluded that, despite a lack of evidence of positive tests, Essendon sport scientist Stephen Dank did administer a banned supplement, thymosin beta-4 (TB-4). It is a naturally occurring substance in the body, particularly useful for tissue repair. WADA proscribes the exogenous supply of TB-4, arguing that its regenerative capabilities have a performance-enhancing impact. </p></li>
<li><p>The prosecution’s case rested on what it argued were reasonable assumptions: that Dank did source TB-4 for players (rather than for his own supplements business), and that the use of TB-4 was part of Essendon’s “secretive” high-performance program. </p></li>
<li><p>CAS concluded that the covert nature of Essendon’s supplementation program gave rise to reasonable suspicion that it was contrary to the WADA code. This view was bolstered by (a) the inability of players to respond confidently to what they had been administered, and (b) the absence of Thymosin (a legal immune booster that Dank says he administered) on players’ declarations to ASADA before taking to the field. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>CAS has taken a very strong view that the players (and therefore any athlete) cannot use the excuse that they were following the instructions of sport scientists or doctors. The Essendon players signed a consent form to indicate their understanding of what they were being supplied with conformed to the WADA code. But CAS did not believe this was worth the paper it was written on.</p>
<p>From CAS’s point of view, the players were willing accomplices in a game of deception. This latter point is in stark contrast to ASADA’s position at the AFL tribunal, where it viewed the players as pawns in a pseudo-scientific experiment. </p>
<p>There are many ironies in all this. One of them is that the Cronulla Sharks players who accepted a three-week penalty for peptide use have ended up in much better shape than the Essendon footballers, each of whom refused a deal with ASADA because they wanted to clear their names. They have, in the end, been buried by a circumstantial case – the strength of which will continue to be debated for years.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/53043/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
When ASADA issued infraction notices against 34 past or present Essendon footballers, the case was heard – as per World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) protocol – by the anti-doping tribunal of the relevant…Daryl Adair, Associate Professor of Sport Management, University of Technology SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/505712015-11-16T12:38:23Z2015-11-16T12:38:23ZA single, permanent Olympic site would help us reclaim the integrity of sport<p>With accusations of <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/wada">state-sanctioned doping levelled at Russia</a> and some results from the 2012 London Olympic Games called into question, the integrity of elite global sport has rarely looked more fragile. The time has come to dump the piecemeal reforms and decide on a permanent venue for our flagship tournament; it would centralise control over events and even the training of the athletes. </p>
<p>My idea of a permanent Olympic site <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02y0dh0">has been accused</a> of being unrealistic or impractical. However, with every major sporting nation embroiled in <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/rugbyunion/international/france/11435914/France-drug-scandal-I-never-used-amphetamines-says-Philippe-Saint-Andre.html">one scandal</a> <a href="http://www.outsideonline.com/o/outdoor-adventure/water-activities/swimming/The-Sex-Abuse-Scandal-Plaguing-USA-Swimming.html">or another</a> over the past 20 years or so, it is clear the solution must be bold and come from the top. </p>
<p>With a central venue, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) can in one masterstroke confirm its rightful place as the epicentre of global sporting excellence and underscore the ideals of the Olympiad where peace and social justice can be promoted through a common global language of sport.</p>
<h2>If you build it …</h2>
<p>The costs of such a site and infrastructure would be immense, but then the costs right now aren’t chicken feed either. <a href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/02/140221-olympics-sochi-rio-de-janeiro-london-boris-johnson-montreal-athens-world/">Tens of billions</a> each were spent on the games in Beijing, London and Sochi. You have the bidding process, the campaigning, the planning, the massive infrastructure costs and the extra money <a href="http://www.teamgb.com">proud hosts spend</a> on training athletes to get a morale-boosting result. A single site for summer in Greece, historic home of the Olympics, and winter in neutral Switzerland, would each cost less to construct than recent Games in London and Sochi. Maintenance and running costs would be spread globally rather than resting with one nation..</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/101736/original/image-20151112-9396-1q5iffu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/101736/original/image-20151112-9396-1q5iffu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/101736/original/image-20151112-9396-1q5iffu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101736/original/image-20151112-9396-1q5iffu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101736/original/image-20151112-9396-1q5iffu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101736/original/image-20151112-9396-1q5iffu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101736/original/image-20151112-9396-1q5iffu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101736/original/image-20151112-9396-1q5iffu.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">Iconic. The UN’s home in NYC.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/un_photo/8250223333/in/photolist-dz3xXT-fUWmW1-pJtKnp-8v4S6B-kz81eM-97qNBx-8Atr35-4t3GV2-pE8f7a-AgbYzQ-fMy2b8-7PePDH-etnZ5-avf9qK-9g2T72-evGAjR-kY8Kq-pWFd2G-dPtevk-bkMmCf-oZPCLg-fMQCjL-6ZDGt5-rh6YR9-5yvwYq-VgYxX-3QkMPd-pEbanx-8Dc9oj-iWrVY6-hNfWLh-8ks81H-fPto7R-9b2o4L-83As8x-9rJpnt-9gbdd9-7bnLf7-oZLBKq-pWnNJc-ayVy69-pEdbcY-pEcVqd-63GLLE-rkggdR-8Atqu7-82EG1w-pE7B5V-4rzwEW-6Z7uj2">United Nations Photo</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Permanent sites can also provide a sense of gravitas – see the UN in New York for evidence of that – which heightens the moral and political authority of the organisation. This may never have been a more enticing prospect than it is right now. Sports organisations understand the need for “integrity”; the public must believe that true, fair and honest competition is taking place.</p>
<h2>Development strategies</h2>
<p>The waters have been muddied, however. Behind the facade we see lies a vast and wealthy sports industry worth about <a href="http://www.pwc.com/gx/en/industries/hospitality-leisure/changing-the-game-outlook-for-the-global-sports-market-to-2015.html">US$145 billion a year</a>. And ever since the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles <a href="http://www.bgcv.org/Websites/bgcv/Images/20thAnniversary.pdf">turned a useful profit</a>, we have become used to hearing that mega-events can be economic <a href="http://www.res.org.uk/details/mediabrief/1452941/The-Olympic-Effect-How-Hosting-Or-Bidding-For-A-Mega-Event-Boosts-National-Expor.htmll">(re)generators for the hosts</a>. Many countries link economic development strategies to the attraction of major international sporting events. <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/014365904200281302">They hope that they can buy exposure</a>, boost tourism, and deliver supporting infrastructure. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/101737/original/image-20151112-9369-m67w99.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/101737/original/image-20151112-9369-m67w99.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/101737/original/image-20151112-9369-m67w99.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101737/original/image-20151112-9369-m67w99.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101737/original/image-20151112-9369-m67w99.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101737/original/image-20151112-9369-m67w99.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101737/original/image-20151112-9369-m67w99.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101737/original/image-20151112-9369-m67w99.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Touted from the top. Political buy-in is a must.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/thedcms/7758758172/in/photolist-cPBEuC-cPBDpL-a7JgWe-a7Jh7x-a7JhyB-a7MacS-a7Masb-a7JhAe-a7Ma7W-a7Jhrc-a7MaqA-a7Jh1M-a7Makf-a7Mand-a7JhsX-a7Jhxa-a7Ma1o-a7Ma35-ffaP5H-ffaP7R-ffq4nq-ffq4tm-ffpTy1-crsxYd-a84vxG-a84vNG-a84vts-a81DET-a7DePq-a7DeRE-a81Dmk-a84vs1-a84vKb-a81DwZ-a84vBS-a84vz1-a84vFC-a84vDS-a81DrK-a84vwo-a84vMd-cPBX9U-a81Dgg-ffaNNT-ffpTkY-ffpTof-ffaCyM-ffaCGX-ffpTqS-ffaCQ4">The Department for Culture, Media and Sport</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>And if a city is to mount a viable bid to host the Olympics, it needs an enthusiastic government behind it. But the necessarily unequivocal nature of political backing often ignores negative consequences. These can be found at local level near major projects, across the region, or can affect the whole country. </p>
<p>Host nations and cities want a sanitised space where imagined visions can be projected to spectators and the global community. Unsightly landscapes are removed and people are <a href="https://lareviewofbooks.org/essay/global-parties-galactic-hangovers-brazils-mega-event-dystopia">moved out of their homes</a>, historic communities are broken down and cost overruns feed into national budgets and can damage citizens’ quality of life. In other words, the regeneration narrative is no simple tale to pull off; it is fraught with contradictions, questionable in its motivations and unverifiable <a href="https://theconversation.com/mega-sized-sporting-events-too-often-fail-to-deliver-health-legacy-31540">in its results</a>. </p>
<h2>Aspiration nation</h2>
<p>But we are happy to cheer the parade. We put to one side <a href="http://www.labourbehindthelabel.org/jobs/item/1042-adidas-olympic-worker-exploitation-must-stop">evidence about horrible living and working conditions</a> for workers who produce sporting goods, and we don’t allow forced removals or the suppression of democratic freedoms to ruin our fun. We enjoy our festivals of nationalist celebration, stories of triumph against adversity. </p>
<p>A permanent Olympic site could let us do that without the tainted legacy of tawdry campaigns and brutal infrastructure projects. We could eliminate the economic injustices often promulgated in the name of the Olympics. </p>
<p>As the World Anti Doping Authority published its <a href="http://www.runnersworld.com/performance-enhancing-drugs/the-russian-doping-scandal-how-did-we-get-here">startling report on Russian athletics</a>, however, the debate is less about the mechanics of bidding for the Olympics, than the chemistry of winning gold.</p>
<p>The athletes have always faced the brunt of criticism about doping, but in reality it is born from a structural issue. Simply put, we have a problem because the interests of administrators, coaches, suppliers, scientists and gambling rings all combine to make doping a sane decision; a risk worth taking for the athlete and their teams. </p>
<p>That’s why a permanent Olympic site under the control of IOC-managed training regimes and focused on performance excellence through clean practices would address the core of this structural problem. It would insert another, overriding, interest into that story of the athlete’s career which can challenge the narrative of success at all costs.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/101738/original/image-20151112-9400-cuat1t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/101738/original/image-20151112-9400-cuat1t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/101738/original/image-20151112-9400-cuat1t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101738/original/image-20151112-9400-cuat1t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101738/original/image-20151112-9400-cuat1t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101738/original/image-20151112-9400-cuat1t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101738/original/image-20151112-9400-cuat1t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101738/original/image-20151112-9400-cuat1t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The 1896 Olympic Stadium in Athens.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/42906305@N05/18787217950/in/photolist-uCapmS-uUKo9H-tXKuA9-uCayPN-8azpcN-6ymmqw-k3LBD8-F3TVb-EF9x4-9ZyjkX-qsNWHt-7XEKp-2n9Nvj-2bwL39-ed4e3A-3Uwho-9Zbnzr-Frxm-9Zv392-8y8L1E-8y5GTB-8y8KMh-8y5HtK-8y8Kuw-8y8L7s-8y5J9k-8y5HFc-8y8LKG-8y8Lt7-8y8JYu-8y8L9A-8y5Jop-8y8LzL-8y5Jge-8y8Kwm-8y5Hwc-8y5GXK-8y8KrS-8y8L3W-8y8Kkf-8y8LbN-8y5H3X-8y5JqV-8y8Lf7-8y8Kny-8y5J7k-8y5J1M-8y8LQh-8y5HJR-8y8Kf1">Warren Smart</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A single site would allow for tighter controls over performance enhancement, and more efficient and environmentally friendly delivery of Olympic Games competitions. There would be no reliance on diverse national approaches to each. It would also allow the IOC to more easily limit protests and maintain a safe environment for participation, rather than attempting to insert a massive logistical intrusion into one of the world’s major cities. All good news for any skittish corporate sponsors, who would also have their marketing investment more readily protected (no more troublesome <a href="http://www.standard.co.uk/business/rugby-world-cup-2015-heineken-secures-500-metre-marketing-exclusion-zone-to-maximise-20m-sponsorship-a2413386.html">“exclusion zones”</a> perhaps).</p>
<p>Control over the entire process of elite sport at the highest level could be maintained directly. Is this likely in the near future? Perhaps not given the role of nationalism and national governments. But it is worth developing a model for such a site and how it would work practically for there will come a time when the classical liberal approach of small-scale reforms simply doesn’t cut it any more.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/50571/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Nauright 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 the integrity of sport lies tarnished, it is the right time to end the merry-go-round of Olympic bids and national oversight over performance and doping.John Nauright, Professor of Sport and Leisure Management, University of BrightonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/504372015-11-13T11:01:28Z2015-11-13T11:01:28ZCycling might hold the key for athletics to move past its annus horribilis<p>When a German TV documentary made some astonishing claims about systemic doping in Russian athletics last December, who knew it would end up like this? Athletics is now searching for answers after the release of a report which confirms the content of that broadcast. And some of those answers might lie in a sport that has already been forced to face its demons.</p>
<p>Based principally on evidence provided by a former Russian anti-doping official, the German documentary alleged that leading Russian athletics officials supplied banned substances in exchange for 5% of an athlete’s earnings. There were also allegations both of doping control officers colluding with athletes to falsify tests and attempting to blackmail athletes who had tested positive. </p>
<p>A subsequent investigation by the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/athletics/33824471">Sunday Times</a>, based on an analysis of 12,000 blood tests taken from 5,000 athletes over the past decade, reinforced the view that Russia is the “epicentre” of blood doping in sport. And earlier this month, French prosecutors <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/nov/08/russia-expulsion-doping-report-iaaf">announced</a> that the former President of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) – the sport’s world governing body – is being investigated over allegations he took payments for deferring sanctions against Russian drugs cheats.</p>
<p>The commission established by the World Anti-Doping Authority (WADA), which had supplied the information which prompted the French probe, essentially concluded that the German investigation was accurate. Now, the eyes of the sporting world are on current IAAF president, Sebastian Coe, who has to decide <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/nov/12/russia-iaaf-ban-doping-sebastian-coe-vladimir-putin-olympics">whether to boot out Russia</a> as he attempts to restore the credibility of the sport, less than 10 months before the start of the <a href="https://uk.news.yahoo.com/iaaf-russia-await-report-blackmail-doping-104340908--spt.html#vsXAHcf">2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games</a>. </p>
<h2>Learning cycle</h2>
<p>The best advice to give Coe is that he should phone fellow Briton, Brian Cookson, president of cycling’s world governing body, the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI). He has had to introduce sweeping reforms in light of a similar deluge of doping allegations in that sport.</p>
<p>Two of the UCI’s proposed reforms are of interest. First, the establishment of an independent anti-doping tribunal specific to the sport and consisting of judges specialised in anti-doping claims. The UCI’s idea is that such a tribunal would remove the current operational burden of doping trials from national federations and ensure consistency in doping case decisions, reducing the number that go to the <a href="http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news/latest-news/cycling-teams-can-now-suspended-doping-cases-151337">Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS)</a> on appeal.</p>
<p>The UCI also has proposed that before a team can be registered to compete in the sport it must show evidence of a minimum level of compliance with anti-doping regulations. If not, that team license to compete can be withheld. Moreover, where there is proof of systemic doping, the UCI reforms suggest that the team ought to be suspended for an escalating period of months. </p>
<p>This licencing/team-suspension model could be adapted by the IAAF to athletics. On proof of systemic doping at a national level, the governing national federation could be held vicariously liable for the action of its athletes. And if the national federations in question did not satisfy an anti-doping licencing regime, then their athletes could be banned from competing internationally.</p>
<h2>This Sporting Life</h2>
<p>The WADA report also has wider repercussions. The allegations in the German TV documentary were not confined to athletics. They referred to doping conspiracies in a host of endurance events, including collusion at a troika of Russian government-funded agencies – the national anti-doping agency, the national athletics federation and the nation’s <a href="https://www.wada-ama.org/en/resources/world-anti-doping-program/independent-commission-report-1">WADA-accredited anti-doping laboratory in Moscow</a>.</p>
<p>Russia’s problem becomes the world’s problem as doubt is cast on medals won by its athletes not just at the London Olympics of 2012, but also at the 2013 World Athletics Championships (held in Moscow), the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi and this year’s World Swimming Championship, held in Kazan. Moreover, it is likely that football’s world governing body, FIFA, will have to look again at who manages its onsite anti-doping programme for the World Cup in 2018 in Russia. </p>
<p>Another worry for WADA will relate to its own operations. In 2013, a record <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/33686397">283,304 samples</a> were analysed by WADA-accredited laboratories. Russia was second only to China in the number of tests carried out. Adverse findings were returned for only 1.36% of tests, but how credible now is this finding that 98.64% were negative? </p>
<p>But perhaps the most crucial lesson to draw from the WADA report is that it once again reveals a core weakness in the political governance of world sport – the lack of a separation of powers. In global sporting terms, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is sport’s public House of Representatives. WADA has been delegated executive powers to deal with doping; CAS acts as sport’s judiciary. </p>
<p>While questions about the individual effects of each branch remain – and in particular the lack of athlete representation – of equal importance is the close-knit relationship between all three, and the lack of transparency. There is, for example, unnecessary crossover in the membership of the executives of the IOC, CAS and WADA. </p>
<p>In short, 2015 may go down as sport’s annus horribilis with a combination of doping and corruption allegations still pending against the UCI, FIFA and the IAAF. The wider picture is that sport is condemned to repeat its mistakes until it fixes a loose, self-regulatory governance structure with origins in the <a href="http://www.bl.uk/sportandsociety/exploresocsci/sportsoc/history/articles/histsportrev1.pdf">19th century</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/50437/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jack Anderson 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 massive doping problem in the Lance Armstrong era has inspired some useful reform ideas, but governance issues must be solved as well.Jack Anderson, Professor of Sports Law, Queen's University BelfastLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/503762015-11-09T16:01:35Z2015-11-09T16:01:35ZAthletics doping report should spark radical rethink on drugs in sport<p>It’s hard to overplay the importance of the damning <a href="https://wada-main-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/resources/files/wada_independent_commission_report_1_en.pdf">report from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)</a> that has presented evidence of widespread and systematic doping – particularly in Russia, which it recommends should be suspended from competition. The investigation has provided world sport with a long-overdue and historically significant moment of truth. The global response to this scandal could indelibly shape the nature of sport.</p>
<p>In a press conference to launch the report, Dick Pound, the former WADA president who has spent nearly a year investigating allegations of widespread doping, said investigators had found evidence of “cover-ups, destruction of samples, payment of money to conceal doping tests”.</p>
<p>The investigation followed a documentary aired on German television in December 2014: Top Secret Doping: How Russia makes its Winners, which alleged the existence of a “sophisticated and well-established system of state-sponsored doping” within the governing body for the sport of athletics in Russia. </p>
<p>In addition to <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/nov/08/russia-expulsion-doping-report-iaaf">Russia</a>, <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/11/06/us-athletics-kenya-doping-idUSKCN0SV1OV20151106">Kenya</a>, where several top athletes have failed doping cases, has also been seen as a serious problem. Yet, at present, WADA has little power of influence where groups within a country – especially state agencies – collaborate to protect doping or turn a blind eye. </p>
<p>It is easy for athletes to be warned of the testers coming to visit, or <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/athletics-russia-risk-severe-damage-wada-inquiry-report-060838252.html">as WADA alleges may have happened in Russia</a>, laboratories and officials colluding to resist anti-doping measures. One can imagine that the desire to protect your best athletes – and to win medals – might supersede thoughts of good ethical behaviour when nobody benefits from a doping bust.</p>
<h2>Coming clean</h2>
<p>What can be done in such circumstances? The current approach is to measure the anti-doping system against criteria relating to the <a href="https://www.wada-ama.org/en/what-we-do/the-code">World Anti-Doping Code</a>. But that is a bureaucratic exercise, not the sort of micro-management that would be necessary to ensure standards are upheld. WADA does not have the scope of power or resources to ensure that all countries and all sports are “clean”.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/101270/original/image-20151109-29321-114zcp8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/101270/original/image-20151109-29321-114zcp8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/101270/original/image-20151109-29321-114zcp8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101270/original/image-20151109-29321-114zcp8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101270/original/image-20151109-29321-114zcp8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101270/original/image-20151109-29321-114zcp8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101270/original/image-20151109-29321-114zcp8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101270/original/image-20151109-29321-114zcp8.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"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Signature move: even doping control can get star struck.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/fotofreund/211874764/in/photolist-jHUZb-5hgMMm-5hcrsK-9NH9LR-9NJAiA-9NEYMC-9LPBnH-8KgHv8-9NvF6h-8KjLdY-9Nvxqd-9NDgMs-i3VsPJ-9NJfwE-nMScWf-9NJdLE-87DbTP-oo5xeE-acyZAY-6v4P68-bCjx4A-kQ7DAH-nCk13Q-7jfqm2-4TLNLP-9NJhg3-abTQAd-PJSDX-66w5A6-6Y95SP-8KjLfJ-dZ9dNh-qajsHr-aPrPuM-bWNx49-aPrRZz-aPrQuF-aPrsGT-aPrm6t-aPrNyF-eVpkrD-a9KbCo-aPrnKB-aPrziX-aPrjxn-aPrAm8-aPrgTc-aPrJ8z-bWNhY9-aPr7pM">fotofreund</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>However, what makes this scandal distinctive is that the sport’s governing body – The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) – is also under scrutiny. The <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/athletics/33749208">leaked blood data information</a> in August this year showed potential doping cases that were not investigated thoroughly enough. A recent revelation <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/athletics/11974834/Former-IAAF-chief-Lamine-Diack-quizzed-by-French-police-over-alleged-corruption-and-cover-up-of-Russian-dopers.html">of alleged extortion and cover-ups</a> has also drawn in Lord Coe’s predecessor as head of the IAAF, Senegalese former long-jumper, Lamine Diack. The investigations centre around allegations that the some of the leaders of world athletics, much like some of <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/othersports/article-2985647/UCI-guilty-doping-cover-Cycling-chiefs-colluded-Lance-Armstrong-claims-independent-report.html">cycling’s former leaders</a>, are seen as either passively accepting a doping culture or actively benefiting from it.</p>
<p>WADA places a great deal of trust in what it calls the <a href="https://www.wada-ama.org/en/who-we-are/anti-doping-community">anti-doping community stakeholders</a>. Yet, much like a country which wants to see its athletes succeed, an international governing body does not want its reputation rocked by doping cases. It is a system which means it is potentially not in the interest of the sport’s governing body to expose the cheats, at least not in the short term.</p>
<p>The question is whether the current path is the right one – simply requesting more resources – or if the whole situation needs to be rethought.</p>
<h2>New strategies</h2>
<p>If we simply wanted to boost the resources devoted to combating doping, then the first step should involve increasing WADA’s authority and reach in order to ensure that athletes are tested more often and any dopers are more likely to be caught. But this can’t just be a strategy for one or two countries, it would have to be rolled out globally. New technologies such as the <a href="http://www.uci.ch/clean-sport/the-athlete-biological-passport-abp/">biological passport</a> or <a href="http://bit.ly/1MGNk5X">testing DNA samples</a> could potentially be implemented. </p>
<p>Politically, WADA would need all governments to offer support and finance, which for many countries is a real challenge. It would need sports organisations to be genuine cheerleaders for the ethics of anti-doping, even if it tarnishes their image and some of their top performers get sanctioned. </p>
<p>This amounts to an omnipresence of doping control – and omnipotence of WADA, which is, frankly, an unlikely scenario. But if were to go for a wholesale rethink, which elements should be considered?</p>
<h2>Health and efficiency</h2>
<p>The ambitions of anti-doping are usually stated as clean sport or drug-free sport. This is an anachronism in a world of technology and supplements, a far cry from the first IAAF <a href="http://www.iaaf.org/news/news/a-piece-of-anti-doping-history-iaaf-handbook">ruling against artificial methods issued in 1928</a>. The idea of a natural athlete is inconceivable, so a new definition of “clean” might be developed that emphasises health rather than trying to limit performance enhancement. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.wada-ama.org/en/media/news/2015-09/wada-publishes-2016-prohibited-list">three criteria underpinning the rules</a> – protecting the health of the athlete, protecting the level playing field, and promoting the spirit of sport – could be rewritten to reflect the experiences of today’s athletes, not some imaginary idealisation of a sporting utopia.</p>
<p>A new regulatory agency might be another step forward. At the moment, WADA is the rule-maker and police officer; it publishes the bible of anti-doping (the World Anti-Doping Code) which gets reviewed every few years. An external auditor could assess gaps in the system where risks are highest and provide short-term solutions. This might also facilitate the sanctioning of sports leaders more readily than is allowed for under the current rules.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/101273/original/image-20151109-29300-bbe5fl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/101273/original/image-20151109-29300-bbe5fl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/101273/original/image-20151109-29300-bbe5fl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101273/original/image-20151109-29300-bbe5fl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101273/original/image-20151109-29300-bbe5fl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101273/original/image-20151109-29300-bbe5fl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101273/original/image-20151109-29300-bbe5fl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101273/original/image-20151109-29300-bbe5fl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">On your marks. Picking a lane for the road ahead.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/53370644@N06/4976494944/in/photolist-8zKQyY-x2Cip3-9DjTsh-qnihAY-8f32MM-6WgEi6-iQDrmr-6dHPvD-e6ozVU-8xUAqw-9QWsQi-7m4CyS-annACZ-a5mR5V-jp8hBW-6yTinj-7Jgqyq-7kJT4N-uUE4Q2-ubQcix-e87NTN-dUr22j-eaqdHq-doY2FP-9wBejZ-9Dqajr-6sRkHa-fmgSsL-dCe7VK-6oG1BQ-ueU9af-gor3t8-gmhPi1-pjw1hq-59A2cq-9ma5mg-uiW9y-91U9kP-4pXiAp-DDepx-9W9SJH-cPh7uh-9kY6mK-9peJUX-6oELdm-dnU75u-aCYAdY-jWC3i1-4QF4ch-aaJMFN">tableatny</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Athletes could be seen a part of the solution, not just treated as potential dopers. Stories of doping in Olympic track and field have been circulating for years and many in the sport <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/athletics/30922172">are not surprised</a> by recent events. There should be methods in place, not simply for whistleblowing, but for the systematic engagement of all athletes in the process of building sustainable anti-doping cultures.</p>
<p>Lastly, academic critics should be listened to. A recent conference of the International Network of Doping Research highlighted the <a href="http://www.sportsintegrityinitiative.com/inhdr-conference-is-anti-doping-fit-for-purpose/">wide range of unintended consequences</a> such as the sanctioning of innocent athletes, exaggerated health fears, regulation of recreational drugs, false positives and excessive surveillance. These are genuine concerns, but anti-doping leaders seem averse to discussions which shine unfavourable light on their strategies and actions. </p>
<p>This debate has become about good versus evil, clean as opposed to dirty, moral versus immoral. It is a world where any loosening of restrictions is seen as opening the doors to doping. We need to move to a more balanced approach to this problem, in which listening to informed criticism might actually strengthen policy – or at least make it more achievable, rational and humanistic. And if at the 2020 Olympics the crowds are cheering a gold medallist who has openly and safely used performance-enhancing treatments under regulation from a new global body, it might just not be the end of the world. That would, of course, take a radical shift in public expectations of athletes and in our sense of what is acceptable in sport.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/50376/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paul Dimeo 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>Where can sport go when performance-related doping always seems one step ahead? The WADA report should open the door to a more rational future.Paul Dimeo, Senior Lecturer in Sport, University of StirlingLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/423852015-08-10T15:44:56Z2015-08-10T15:44:56ZWhy organised crime should not be used to shape anti-doping policy<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/89157/original/image-20150721-24298-195opzd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Social networks gotta lotta cheek.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Boss by Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The use of <a href="http://www.druginfo.adf.org.au/drug-facts/pieds-facts">performance and-image enhancing drugs</a> has traditionally been viewed as <a href="http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415619233/">a problem in sport</a> and one for <a href="http://www.universitypress.dk/shop/elite-sport-doping-2718p.html">sporting officials to tackle</a>. As a result, methods to combat doping have predominately focused on testing and surveillance in sport. However, more recently the use of performance and image-enhancing drugs (PIEDs) have been reported as a <a href="https://theconversation.com/using-anabolic-steroids-harms-your-health-and-social-image-37605">wider social problem</a> – <a href="http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/09/22/us-doping-health-idUSBRE88L06E20120922">a threat to public health</a> and a criminal justice issue. </p>
<p>While some attention has been paid to the criminalisation of <a href="https://deviantleisure.wordpress.com/2015/01/21/muscle-profiling-anti-doping-policy-and-deviant-leisure/">recreational users</a> and <a href="https://sports.vice.com/en_us/article/criminalized-doping-and-sending-cheaters-to-jail">athletes</a>, anti-doping has tended to focus on those who traffic PIEDs. </p>
<p>Armed with evidence from <a href="http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/news/story?id=2840433">various scandals</a> and a <a href="https://www.wada-ama.org/en/what-we-do/investigation-trafficking/trafficking/donati-report-on-trafficking">growing body of research</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/not-fun-and-games-organised-crime-and-sport-12062">the media</a>, <a href="http://nypost.com/2014/10/07/organized-crime-controls-25-of-world-sport-wada-director/">sport officials</a> and <a href="https://www.crimecommission.gov.au/publications/intelligence-products/unclassified-strategic-assessments/organised-crime-and-drugs">government agencies</a> have reported a black market for PIEDs, driven and controlled by “mafia-type” organised criminals. </p>
<h2>The policy response</h2>
<p>However, there are still <a href="http://www.unesco.org/shs/sport/addbase/media/docs/doc-506aac23e2af9.pdf">great inconsistencies</a> among countries in the how they tackle the consumption, possession, production, and distribution of doping substances, which confounds international efforts to stem trafficking. The anti-doping movement has called for greater coordination among law enforcement, and the establishment of legal frameworks at the domestic level aimed at the trafficking of PIEDs.</p>
<p>Cross-border bodies such as the <a href="http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200708/cmselect/cmcumeds/347/347.pdf">EU</a> and <a href="http://www.unesco.org/new/en/social-and-human-sciences/themes/anti-doping/international-convention-against-doping-in-sport/">UNESCO</a> have supported and advocated for the application of criminal law to anti-doping. Meanwhile anti-doping authorities have formed <a href="https://www.wada-ama.org/en/what-we-do/investigation-trafficking/trafficking/interpol-cooperation">alliances with law enforcement agencies</a> such as Interpol. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/FlagPost/2013/April/Where_in_the_world_is_doping_a_crime_doping_in_sports_pt_6">Numerous countries</a> have also begun to criminalise doping (<a href="http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/30007100">in Germany athletes now risk jail time</a>) and governments around the world are paying more attention to the doping phenomenon by committing more resources to the <a href="http://www.dopingautoriteit.nl/media/files/Strategy_for_Stopping_Steroids_Report_WEB.pdf">consumption</a> (for example, <a href="http://www.playthegame.org/uploads/media/Ask_Vest_Christiansen_-_Testing_recreational_athletes_01.pdf">doping controls in gyms</a>) and illegal distribution of <a href="https://theconversation.com/steroid-seizures-and-arrests-soar-to-record-highs-in-australia-41955">PIEDs</a> (<a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-08-27/qld-beefs-up-steroid-laws-after-drastic-rise-in-seizures/5698532">Australia recently reclassified steroids as schedule one drugs</a>). </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/89160/original/image-20150721-24261-151m60j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/89160/original/image-20150721-24261-151m60j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89160/original/image-20150721-24261-151m60j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89160/original/image-20150721-24261-151m60j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89160/original/image-20150721-24261-151m60j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89160/original/image-20150721-24261-151m60j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89160/original/image-20150721-24261-151m60j.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">German athletes now risk jail time for doping.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-237793789/stock-photo-sport-athlete-runner-in-silhouettes-on-red-background.html?src=TaBWVObr5U2EEvgwOW9ycg-1-0">Sport by Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The market for these drugs</h2>
<p>But what is the extent of the problem and is there a market for so called “organised” criminals to capitalise on? There is evidence to suggest that PIEDs are <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/active/mens-health/10796402/Steroids-supersizing-the-man-in-the-mirror.html">being increasingly consumed</a> and that there is potential for criminal organisations to capitalise on this demand. But we still know very little about the claims made by anti-doping regarding extensive and organised criminal networks who trade in these drugs. </p>
<p><a href="https://wada-main-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/resources/files/2013-Paoli-Donati-Report-Executive-Summary-EN.pdf">Contrary evidence exists</a> which suggests that organised crime plays a limited role in this market which is driven by a broad supply base. For instance, according to the <a href="https://www.crimecommission.gov.au/publications/intelligence-products/organised-crime-australia/organised-crime-australia-2011">2011 report</a> of the Australian Crime Commission: “The ready availability of these drugs [PIEDs] reduces opportunities for organised crime groups to control or have significant influence in this market”. </p>
<p>So, while organised groups may produce and supply PIEDs, they are just one section of the broader market. Additionally, where busts have been made in connection with groups identified as organised criminals they have often been in relation to <a href="https://www.wodc.nl/onderzoeksdatabase/evaluatie-wet-op-geneesmiddelenvoorzieninghandel-in-dopinggeduide-middelen.aspx?nav=ra&l=inspectiedienst">other</a> criminal <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/264333953_Bodily_Violations_testing_citizens_training_recreationally_in_gyms">activities</a>, as opposed to the primary criminal enterprise.</p>
<p>Much of the available evidence would suggest that the problem of doping supply is <a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs12117-014-9235-7">internal to the world of sport</a>. Looking at several recent large-scale doping scandals such as <a href="http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/index-of-lance-armstrong-doping-allegations-over-the-years">the Lance Armstrong affair</a>, <a href="https://presse.wdr.de/plounge/tv/das_erste/2014/12/_pdf/English-Skript.pdf">anti-doping corruption in Russia</a>, as well as <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/jun/30/mo-farah-alberto-salazar-doping">the recent allegations</a> surrounding Mo Farah’s coach Alberto Salazar, accused suppliers are predominately <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2013/may/10/spanish-doping-doctor-reveal-sports">sport physicians</a>, <a href="http://www.iwf.net/2014/12/04/weightlifting-coach-banned-for-attempted-trafficking-of-steroids/">coaches</a>, and the athletes themselves, and in the Russian case, anti-doping officials were <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/athletics/31485481">accused of covering up test results</a>.</p>
<p>Moreover, contrary to claims of organised criminals in the pursuit of profit, some <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07418820902814013#.VbI-2CpViko">research</a> has pointed out that outside the world of sport, PIED dealing networks are often the <a href="https://www.academia.edu/9118768/The_Symbiotic_Evolution_of_Anti-Doping_and_Supply_Chains_of_Doping_Substances_How_criminal_networks_may_benefit_from_anti-doping_policy._Trends_in_Organized_Crime._DOI_10.1007_s12117-014-9235-7">product of social networks</a>, that stem from an individual’s involvement in particular <a href="https://theconversation.com/anabolic-steroids-a-serious-global-health-problem-amid-boom-in-cosmetic-use-24238">subcultures</a> such as bodybuilding or cycling. </p>
<h2>Distorted policy</h2>
<p>Claims of organised crime in control of supply are based on <a href="https://www.ncjrs.gov/nathanson/organized.html">popular mythologised media stereotypes</a>, of “mafia-style” godfathers and lieutenants, who direct specialised divisions. However, this model seems to be the exception rather than the rule and has been <a href="http://www.springer.com/gp/book/9781402026157">largely rejected</a> in scientific research and by law enforcement groups. </p>
<p>It is well established that <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/apr/24/crime-falling-reduce-fear-crime">fear of specific crimes</a> usually outweigh their actual prevalence – some things are disproportionately feared, not because of objective risks but because the way they are <a href="http://www.sagepub.com/haganintrocrim8e/study/chapter/handbooks/42347_1.2.pdf">framed and understood</a>. </p>
<p>In general, the narrative of organised criminal gangs has also been used by politicians and law enforcement agencies <a href="http://bjc.oxfordjournals.org/content/49/1/106.abstract">throughout history</a> and, more recently sport officials, as a way to pass legislation that may otherwise meet resistance. The failure to apply claims about PIEDs according to the scientific method, coupled with the employment of selective evidence that supports the interests of the anti-doping policy regime and politicians has resulted in a <a href="https://www.academia.edu/2117732/Drug_trends_and_policy_responses_Explaining_the_drug_policy_ratchet">systematic distortion of drug policy</a>.</p>
<h2>Unintended consequences</h2>
<p>Public health claims against doping <a href="http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6939/8/2/">are by no means new</a> – and the calls for law enforcement agencies to <a href="https://www.wada-ama.org/en/media/news/2013-02/intelligence-experts-emphasize-importance-of-legislation-and-information-sharing">play a larger role</a> in anti-doping are seen as a means to protect athletes and society from the dangers of doping, and to safeguard the integrity of sport. </p>
<p>But <a href="http://www.cph.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/human-enhancement-drugs---the-emerging-challenges-to-public-health---4.pdf">as scientific evidence is scarce</a> about the prevalence and health risks of doping (for example, the long-term effects, or PIED-related deaths), national governments should take pause to reflect on the implications of taking a hardline stance on doping products. The reality is that we know very little about the harms associated with PIEDs.</p>
<p>While the war on doping has yet to reach the extent of the war on drugs, a similar policy trend can be seen as the anti-doping policy elite around the world (in particular Europe) continue to ratchet up their response to doping. But is zero tolerance and criminalisation really the best way to protect public health and decrease the market share of any organised criminals that do exist in the PIED market? History would suggest that the answer to both questions is a resounding no. </p>
<p>Not only are criminal justice measures <a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/war-on-drugs-an-expensive-failure-bc-study-says/article14667754/">expensive</a>, but evidence from the “war on drugs” suggests this approach reduces neither consumption nor supply and has a limited effect on the protection of public health. </p>
<p>Increasing legal risk to traffickers may even <a href="http://evolvecms.webfreelancersuk.co.uk/sites/default/files/Making%20drug%20control%20fit%20for%20purpose%20-%20Building%20on%20the%20UNGASS%20decade.pdf">attract more dangerous groups</a>. Indeed, a zero-tolerance drug policy has led to several <a href="http://issuu.com/gcdp/docs/global_commission_report_english/1?e=4620863/2855236">unintended negative consequences </a> one of which is <a href="http://www.countthecosts.org/sites/default/files/Crime-briefing.pdf">growing black markets</a>. </p>
<p>This is by no means a denial of problems posed by PIEDs, but rather a call for a <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/19406940.2012.756824">sober, unadulterated look</a> at the issues presented by the growing use of a <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22868973">broader spectrum of human enhancement drugs</a> and those who supply them.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/42385/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kyle J.D. Mulrooney holds an Erasmus Mundus Fellowship for the joint doctoral programme, the Doctorate in Cultural and Global Criminology (DCGC), and receives funding from the Educational, Audiovisual and Cultural Executive Agency of the European Union.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Katinka van de Ven 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>Easy media stereotypes rather than clear evidence attributes performance enhancing drug supplies to organised criminals.Kyle J.D. Mulrooney, Ph.D. Fellow, Doctorate in Cultural and Global Criminology, University of KentKatinka van de Ven, Ph.D. candidate, Doctorate in Cultural and Global Criminology , University of KentLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/443742015-07-10T10:04:47Z2015-07-10T10:04:47ZA brutal Tour de France will always create a temptation to dope<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/87600/original/image-20150707-1277-1hhn13s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=6%2C76%2C2041%2C1266&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Rohan Dennis leads the field out of Utrecht on the Tour's second stage.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/victorvanwerkhooven/19438005315/in/photolist-vBERLF-vC3AHr-vk6xYS-vznbUE-uEQ4jF-vB7DJ5-uEEqrm-vB7BqN-uEEnPs-vC3ABp-vk6yKb-vzndb7-uEEqWQ-uEQ344-vkdFzR-vznbLU-vBEQ5e-vjTsVQ-uEQ5gR-vBsCLX-uF9zK4-uEQ5DV-vBsGST-vBQiQx-vz9tqb-vjSM3q-vjTbPw-uEBpCn-uEBtRc-vAUacE-vkdHHD-vjSEaA-vzncaj-vBEShk-uEBahi-vk6wfJ-vkdJz8-vzngYN-vk6wx7-vk6wRd-vC3CYZ-vC3Dhp-vk6BMJ-vC3Dxz-vznhmm-uEEtzA-vznhyf-vC3E18-uEEnEE-vkdEjp">Victor van Werkhooven</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Two serious, high-speed crashes on Stage 3 of this year’s Tour de France reminded us of the pain associated with the world’s greatest cycling race. Thursday’s slower crash on Stage 6 robbed us of another leader. Germany’s Tony Martin limped home in his yellow jersey with a broken collar bone much as his Swiss rival Fabian Cancellara had a few days earlier with cracked vertebrae. In the immediate aftermath of the pile-ups, there was a reminder too of the special culture that often exists in professional cycling. Stage 3 was neutralised, with riders asked to maintain a sedate pace to let injured cyclists catch up; Tony Martin’s team mates lined up alongside him to push and cajole his pain-wracked body over the line. </p>
<p>Surely this is elite professional sport at its very best? And it is a decency combined with exceptional performance too. This Tour has already had a record-breaking ride on the first stage as <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cycling/33396438">Rohan Dennis delivered a staggering time trial performance</a>. The Australian rider covered a 14km (8.6-mile) route round Utrecht in 14 minutes, 56 seconds – at an average of around 55kph (34mph). </p>
<p>But with the highs in cycling come the lows. The Astana team has <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/cycling/11584912/UCI-explains-reason-for-not-removing-Astana-licence.html">struggled to keep its place in the elite of cycling</a> this year after a series of scandals, and in pre-race tests their rider, Dutchman Lars Boom, <a href="http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/racing/tour-de-france/astana-suspended-from-mpcc-over-lars-boom-cortisol-test-180867">showed low levels of cortisol</a>. This can either be a sign of fatigue, or can sometimes signal evidence of cortisone use. However, cycling’s governing body, the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) stressed that no rules had been broken and <a href="http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/boom-blames-asthma-inhaler-for-low-cortisol-levels/">the rider said</a> his use of an asthma inhaler prompted the test result.</p>
<h2>Truth and reconciliation</h2>
<p>Earlier this year, a UCI report and recommendations <a href="http://velonews.competitor.com/2015/03/news/circ-report-full-text_362430">by the Cycling Independent Reform Commission (CIRC)</a> into the causes of the pattern of doping that developed within cycling and allegations of ineffective investigation by official bodies was published. The report’s findings predictably emphasised the need to control doping, which remains the scourge of professional cycling. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/87614/original/image-20150707-1274-unohcl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/87614/original/image-20150707-1274-unohcl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/87614/original/image-20150707-1274-unohcl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87614/original/image-20150707-1274-unohcl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87614/original/image-20150707-1274-unohcl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87614/original/image-20150707-1274-unohcl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87614/original/image-20150707-1274-unohcl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87614/original/image-20150707-1274-unohcl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Even better than the real thing? Lance in waxwork form.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/judepics/748968086/in/photolist-29bE7S-4sUzNk-6k475t">Judith</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
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<p>But despite the sport’s reformist mood, for cynics and jaded fans alike, doubt is a tenaciously negative mindset to overcome. Indeed, one of the most worrying features of the UCI report was the acknowledgement by riders and by the report’s authors that doping continues to be a significant problem – one professional rider even estimated that 90% of the peloton still dopes. </p>
<p>With this in mind, during this year’s Tour it will be interesting to monitor whether any more speed records are broken. And with several riders now nursing injuries from the serious accidents of Stage 3, it will also be interesting to observe recovery rates as well as overall performances.</p>
<h2>Going the distance</h2>
<p>An issue which the CIRC report notably failed to address is arguably one of the most important underpinning drug use – competition design, notably the length of the race and of some individual stages. This year’s Tour de France is nearly 3,400 kilometres long. For riders, this is a major test of endurance. </p>
<p>The challenge is further heightened by the average speed of the Tour, which for this year’s event is likely to be around 40kph (25mph). And it is worth considering too that Tuesday’s Stage 4 (the longest of this year’s Tour) was a <a href="http://www.letour.com/le-tour/2015/us/stage-4.html">near 230-kilometre scramble from Seraing</a> in Belgium to Cambrai in France. Significantly, 13 kilometres of the stage were cobblestones, one of the most difficult surfaces in professional cycling to ride on.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/87618/original/image-20150707-1311-1q3iruf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/87618/original/image-20150707-1311-1q3iruf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/87618/original/image-20150707-1311-1q3iruf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87618/original/image-20150707-1311-1q3iruf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87618/original/image-20150707-1311-1q3iruf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87618/original/image-20150707-1311-1q3iruf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87618/original/image-20150707-1311-1q3iruf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87618/original/image-20150707-1311-1q3iruf.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>
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<span class="caption">Bumpy ride.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/sportpixonline/6916269104/in/photolist-bxaFR3-bxaZbE-9nac1u-no2Lhk-7RsG3F-bxaLNY-7RvWNL-7RvXku-7RvV5o-7RsGpa-7RvVfj-7nAs6Q-7RvVum-kChhb1-kCfAzt-kCfzFp-kCfALa-4wwhj6-8oS6Rd-8Mc4LG-b67hDp-ed9uHG-e11WGG-am3E3d-6retPj-npA8DR-6MC6LN-omC1Pr-oLBCkW-p25tJL-cmNHmy-r6gwSV-7nRpoi-7tuADq-6D5ZBr-5CJpWy-7nV5ay-qucfRD-8AGe9E-fET48k-7nREeV-dfuoBR-pXi8qd-bkugeF-tgoiCy-qLBKBt-bkugDX-dZVfge-5qwtyf-4ELitn">Luca Pedroni</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>So for some of the rider’s in this year’s race, having been thrown face down into a Belgian ditch in excruciating pain on one day, they will then have had to wake up the next day and ride the race’s longest stage across its worst surface. It is therefore unsurprising that these slender framed young men often feel the need to dope, especially as demands on them are not only to ride – they are expected to win as well. This raises some highly pertinent questions of the CIRC report, cycling in general and, indeed, the people like us who feast on professional cycling.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Pbc6BHuEWPk?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Uncomfortable viewing?</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Business model</h2>
<p>For the general public, this three-week soap opera is seductive and compelling. But the drama comes at a cost, most notably in the form of the riders’ fractured bodies and souls. For those of us who care about other humans, this should be sufficient to change our view of how the Tour is run. It should certainly impact upon our view of doping and its causes. </p>
<p>For the event organisers, there are issues too, most notably pertaining to <a href="https://theconversation.com/millions-of-spectators-and-no-tickets-unpicking-the-tour-de-france-business-model-29244">the Tour’s business model</a>. The main sources of revenue for the race come from sponsorship and hosting fees paid by towns and cities for stages. In order to deliver a return on investment, maximising the race’s duration seems an imperative. The problem is, the longer and harder a day a rider has on his bicycle, the more likely he will be to aid his recovery through drug use.</p>
<p>This is where the convergence of doping, competition design and governance becomes significant, not least in the way it shows that we are all complicit in cycling’s ongoing travails. Stage 3 of this year’s race made for great drama, but at what cost to the riders? Stage 4’s cobblestones were designed to be the ultimate test in human endurance, but were actually tantamount to torture. And yet in spite of the carnage, sponsors and stage hosts will still seek to make the most of race’s intensity.</p>
<p>Cycling can no longer find the solution at the tip of a needle. But in order to ensure that doping doesn’t remain a viable option, then these more fundamental, structural issues around the sport must be addressed in a way that the CIRC report failed to. So, as you settle down to watch the next stage of this year’s Tour de France in anticipation of ensuing speed and danger, it’s time to consider the way our greedy consumption of the Tour’s mystique is helping to feed its ongoing problems.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/44374/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<h4 class="border">Disclosure</h4><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Simon Chadwick gave evidence to the UCI's Cycling Independent Reform Commission as part of its investigations.</span></em></p>Cycling’s biggest race delivers speed, pain and danger to boost its popularity and profitability. And we wonder why doping leaves such a long shadow.Simon Chadwick, Professor of Sport Business Strategy, Coventry UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/429782015-06-10T15:11:16Z2015-06-10T15:11:16ZIn sport’s drug-testing arms race, the cheats are usually a step ahead<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/84544/original/image-20150610-6820-ko3da9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Ouch.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Yet another big name in sport has been caught up in allegations surrounding a doping scandal. Alberto Salazar, coach to several star athletes including double Olympic gold medallist Mo Farah, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/athletics/33063187">denies</a> claims in a <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b05zhqvk/panorama-catch-me-if-you-can">BBC documentary </a>he broke anti-doping rules with one of his trainees, Galen Rupp. Farah is not accused of any wrongdoing.</p>
<p>Salazar <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/jun/04/mo-farah-five-questions-alberto-salazar-doping">once said</a> an athlete might “not even consider it cheating if they believe all their top competitors are doing it”. Does this mean many elite athletes are doping? If so what are they using and how do they evade the tests?</p>
<p>Testing has improved over the past 20 years. Equipment is more sensitive and specific to particular substances. This means testers can find smaller amounts of a substance in each sample and so any drug used will be detectable for longer.</p>
<p>If these new and improved tests worked more efficiently you would expect the percentage of athletes caught to increase. However, this number remains fairly static at around 2% of all athletes tested. This is very low compared to the estimated 14-39% <a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40279-014-0247-x#page-1">who are thought to dope</a>, based on questionnaires and some lab testing. This gap tells us many athletes are doping in a way to avoid testing positive for a banned substance.</p>
<h2>Cat and mouse</h2>
<p>Most new drugs are detectable in urine samples once testers have worked up a method. Pharmaceutical companies and WADA are now sharing information on new drugs in development, meaning labs start to develop tests before the drug is released. But these tests still require considerable time and resource to develop, years in some cases. Validation is not simple, complicated by the body breaking down the drug before it reaches the urine.</p>
<p>As such, a game of cat and mouse can ensue between dopers and testers. CERA, a synthetic form of the hormone known as EPO which is used to increase red blood cell production, was approved for use in kidney disease patients in early 2008. A test was developed by the middle of the year but it was presumed athletes were using the drug before testing caught up. This was later confirmed when the test was <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_sports/cycling/7638711.stm">used without warning</a> in the Tour de France and on samples frozen from earlier in the year.</p>
<p>As well as equipment changes, there have been step changes in the thinking behind tests over the past decade, most recently with the creation of the “<a href="https://www.wada-ama.org/en/what-we-do/science-medical/athlete-biological-passport">athlete biological passport</a>”. This looks for evidence of doping but not necessarily the substances used themselves. For example, it detects increased ability to carry oxygen in the blood that is likely caused by use of EPO or similar drugs. Results are then stored on a database and compared to an individual’s profile.</p>
<p>The athlete biological passport has had successes and some cyclists and athletes <a href="http://www.iaaf.org/news/press-release/six-new-athletes-sanctioned-under-the-iaaf-at">have been suspended</a> through its use. But it <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21336951">has struggled</a> to catch those using microdosing - taking small regular doses of drugs like EPO rather than single large doses.</p>
<p>The knowledge required to avoid testing positive is certainly not beyond medics working with athletes. If they know the time the drug remains in the body they can calculate how long before a competition use must be stopped. They also know the “at risk” period following use when an athlete may get caught.</p>
<p>The best way of not testing positive in this period is not to be tested. Athletes give their whereabouts for one hour of each day in advance. Athletes have been known to give incorrect addresses to avoid testers or to simply hide if they know they are at risk. There is a rule that three missed tests over 18 months constitutes a doping offence. That gives you one or two chances to avoid testing and blame logistics or disorganisation, a risk some athletes are willing to take. It was this rule that led to Olympic and World 400m champion Christine Ohuruogu <a href="http://www1.skysports.com/athletics/news/12040/8867891/world-championship-athletics-christine-ohuruogu-factfile-after-moscow-gold">serving a one-year suspension</a> though she has always vehemently denied any wrongdoing. </p>
<h2>Playing the system</h2>
<p>Athletes will also seek to exploit loopholes in the regulation. The increased sensitivity of testing has created a greater likelihood of positive results from contaminated supplements or food. A drug detected in urine from contamination is impossible to differentiate from deliberate use just through testing, creating more scope for athletes to contest the results.</p>
<p>Exactly what drugs should be off-limits to athletes is itself a major topic of debate. The substances in the Salazar allegations are testosterone, which is banned at all times in sport, and prednisone (used to treat asthma) and the thyroid medication thyroxine, which are just controversial.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887323550604578412913149043072">The question</a> is whether substances such as these are required to treat pre-existing medical conditions or are just being used to help athletes recover from intense training sessions, gain energy or lose weight.</p>
<p>There are two types of medicines that fall into the grey area of medical treatments that may not strictly be required. One set are on the World Anti Doping (WADA) <a href="http://list.wada-ama.org">banned list</a> and require medical assessment before they can be used. The second set, which includes prednisone and thyroxine, are neither monitored nor recorded.</p>
<p>There have also been examples of drugs not available to the public being detected in sports samples. And there are even some drugs being used such as <a href="http://www.weareforensic.co.uk/how-to-get-skinny-and-get-cancer-gw1516/">GW1516</a> which was considered unfit for human use.</p>
<p>Who is winning the race? In general the athletes are one step ahead most of the time, but occasionally testers get on top. One thing is for sure: as long as people have incentives to win, it is very unlikely doping will be eradicated.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/42978/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tom Bassindale 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>Drug testing has improved but athletes are finding new ways to get around the rules and the technology.Tom Bassindale, Senior Lecturer in Forensic and Analytical Science, Sheffield Hallam UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/399272015-04-13T20:25:25Z2015-04-13T20:25:25ZAFL illicit drug reform needs to be about more than punishment<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/77693/original/image-20150412-4058-ah1ugc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Collingwood's Lachlan Keeffe faces a ban of up to four years after testing positive to a performance-enhancing drug.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Joe Castro</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Ten years ago, the AFL introduced its <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/ANZSportsLawJl/2007/3.pdf">policy</a> on “out of competition” illicit drug use. It was the first Australian sport to do so, and was prompted by the AFL’s awareness that some of its players were marijuana users. The AFL worried that players who used cannabis risked testing positive “in competition”. Under the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Code, if traces of cannabis – or other illicit substances – showed up during “in competition” testing, there is the prospect of <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/sport/afl/players-banned-from-matches-under-afls-contentious-illicit-drugs-policy/story-fnca0u4y-1226571141105">significant penalties</a>. </p>
<p>Now, the AFL is <a href="http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/call-for-regular-drug-tests-on-afl-players-to-stop-illicit-drug-use/story-fni0fiyv-1227291427069">mortified</a> by something different – inadvertent doping by players who have used illicit drugs that have been cut with a performance-enhancing substance.</p>
<p>In March, it was announced that two players from the Collingwood Football Club, Lachlan Keeffe and Josh Thomas, have <a href="http://www.3aw.com.au/news/collingwood-drug-scandal-how-you-can-get-clenbuterol-20150330-1mbjkz.html">tested positive</a> to clenbuterol, a banned performance-enhancing drug that is known to be used to cut cocaine. The results of the players’ “B samples” are pending. But they are under WADA scrutiny at a time when the <a href="https://asada.govspace.gov.au/2014/12/16/2015-world-anti-doping-code-what-does-the-revised-code-mean-for-you-part-one/">2015 code</a>, which enforces penalties of up to four years for doping, is in operation.</p>
<p>AFL players have voluntarily agreed to the league’s <a href="http://www.sportingpulse.com/get_file.cgi?id=1225710">illicit drugs policy</a> because the primary focus of a positive test is remediation under medical supervision, not naming and shaming. Players receive confidential drug counselling and face target testing with the first two “strikes”, followed by a A$5000 fine and suspension (12-18 weeks) in the case of a third positive.</p>
<p>Without making assumptions about the Keeffe-Thomas case, there may be career-ending sanctions for players who have inadvertently tested positive to a performance-enhancing drug after having consumed an illicit drug. This has led to <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/architects-of-afl-drugs-policy-call-for-reform-amid-addiction-worries-20150402-1mdrtm.html">strong calls</a> for reform of the AFL’s illicit drugs policy.</p>
<h2>Contradictory messages</h2>
<p>Although players using marijuana or ecstasy hardly do so for performance enhancement, WADA has long viewed these substances as a form of doping – and by extension cheating – when found in the body on match day. </p>
<p>This position is complicated by WADA not requiring, nor taking responsibility, for the <a href="http://www.aaronctsmith.com/Article%20PDFs/Stewart_SMR_2011.pdf">testing of illicit drugs</a> out of competition. If that testing happens at all, it is up to individual sports (and their budgets), and is independent of WADA and its code.</p>
<p>I have <a href="https://theconversation.com/illicit-drugs-australian-sports-intervene-while-wada-spectates-37977">argued previously</a> that the AFL, like other leading sport organisations, has five key aspirations with its illicit drug policy. These can be summarised as the management of risk, reputation and welfare – whether to players or the sport. </p>
<p>There has been robust <a href="http://bjsm.bmj.com/content/early/2012/09/09/bjsports-2012-091329.full">support</a> and <a href="https://www.tasa.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/McDermott.pdf">criticism</a> of the AFL’s illicit drug policy for many years. And now, this debate has reached a <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/sport/opinion/league-must-hand-illicit-drugs-policy-to-clubs-to-police/story-e6frg7uo-1227297777200">crescendo</a>.</p>
<h2>Medical or punitive model?</h2>
<p>Critics – including some AFL coaches – contend that the current three strikes system “hides” problematic players. Although a club’s <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/afl-losing-the-battle-against-illicit-drugs-collingwood-coach-nathan-buckley-20150407-1mftpk.html">medical officer</a> is informed of a strike, that information remains in confidence. </p>
<p>Consequently, it is asserted, the strike fails to either deter the individual or enable the <a href="http://www.afl.com.au/news/2015-04-07/it-doesnt-make-sense">coach and club</a> to proactively assist them. Players are said to be able to <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/pert-worried-about-volcanic-offseason-behaviour-by-players-20121128-2add3.html">run the gauntlet</a> of illicit drug use without fear of repercussions until a third indiscretion.</p>
<p>Sceptics also lament that footballers are allowed to “self-report” illicit drug use on one occasion – thus avoiding a strike. </p>
<p>The most <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/coalition-may-strike-on-afl-illicit-drugs-policy-20130903-2t3dw.html">severe critics</a> argue that illicit drug policy should be like that of WADA for performance-enhancing drugs: zero tolerance, public identification and substantial penalties – even banishment at the first positive test. That is surveillance for the purpose of punishment, as opposed to detection in the interests of remediation.</p>
<h2>The way forward</h2>
<p>My sense is that the AFL Players Association – the players’ union – will stand firm about a <a href="http://www.afl.com.au/news/2015-04-01/we-are-open-to-a-review">medical model</a> of treatment and player privacy. But there may be room for negotiation in terms of:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>the <a href="http://www.afl.com.au/news/2015-04-06/newbold">number of strikes</a>;</p></li>
<li><p>suspensions at each strike (as in England’s <a href="http://www.thefa.com/%7E/media/files/thefaportal/governance-docs/rules-of-the-association/2014-15/027_anti-doping.ashx">Football Association</a>); and </p></li>
<li><p>confidential briefings to a <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/afl-losing-the-battle-against-illicit-drugs-collingwood-coach-nathan-buckley-20150407-1mftpk.html">club’s coach and CEO</a>, together with its doctor. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>This is something of a “middle way” between those who advocate the status quo and those who seek a hardline approach.</p>
<p>If recent <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/afl-players-push-for-hair-tests-in-tougher-approach-to-drugs-20150407-1mg970.html">media comments</a> are any guide, the players themselves are not opposed to a more <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/sport/hawthorn-players-back-clubs-increased-drug-tests-says-ceo-stuart-fox-20150408-1mgyt3.html">substantive testing regime</a>. </p>
<p>There are calls to increase analyses of hair samples, which can <a href="http://www.aic.gov.au/publications/current%20series/rpp/21-40/rpp25.html">diagnose</a> illicit drug use over the past three months. However, there would need to be a change of process. Hair samples have thus far <a href="http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/afl-pushing-players-for-permission-to-hair-test-them-for-illicit-drugs-year-round-after-queensland-cocaine-scandal/story-fni5f22o-1227239030908">been used</a> to provide statistical information about collective use. The much less effective <a href="http://www.aic.gov.au/publications/current%20series/rpp/21-40/rpp25.html">two-to-three-day window</a> urinalysis is the official method for testing individuals. </p>
<p>There is no appetite among players to be <a href="http://www.nmfc.com.au/news/2015-04-08/dal-santo-backs-push-for-increased-hair-tests-nmfc">publicly named</a>. But should suspensions be introduced at each strike, the logistics of explaining a player absence – such as a fake injury – could prove challenging, as has been found in <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2036786/FA-defend-anti-doping-rules.html">English Premier League</a> football.</p>
<p>A more proactive approach is now needed given the ongoing risk of testing positive to an illicit drug in competition, and a growing realisation that illicit drug use out of competition may put players at risk of inadvertent doping. It is therefore much more than a health and welfare issue: it is also about risk management. </p>
<p>Players can <a href="http://www.afl.com.au/news/2015-04-07/no-drugs-changes-without-player-support-evans">take the lead</a> – should they choose to – in helping to protect their colleagues from harm on several fronts.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/39927/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>There may be career-ending sanctions for sportspeople who have inadvertently tested positive to a performance-enhancing drug after having consumed an illicit drug.Daryl Adair, Associate Professor of Sport Management, University of Technology SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/395862015-04-01T01:21:59Z2015-04-01T01:21:59ZASADA vs Essendon: through the haze and fog, now what?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/76688/original/image-20150331-1253-14slbf6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Thirty-four current and former Essendon players have been cleared of taking a banned substance during the club's supplements program.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Joe Castro</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>After a two-year Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA) investigation, the AFL’s anti-doping tribunal <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-03-31/essendon-supplements-afl-anti-doping-tribunal-decision/6361006">ruled unanimously</a> on Tuesday that banned substance thymosin beta-4 was not proven to have been administered to 34 Essendon Football Club players in 2011-12. ASADA, which led the investigation and charged the players, has <a href="https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/sport/afl/a/26881716/asada-still-considering-bombers-appeal/">not yet announced</a> whether it will appeal the tribunal’s decision. It has 21 days to do so.</p>
<p>And with that, the so-called <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/national/this-is-the-blackest-day-in-australian-sport-20130207-2e1i3.html">“blackest day”</a> in Australian sport – February 7, 2013 – can now instead be described as the precursor to its foggiest period. It began when then-Gillard government ministers Jason Clare and Kate Lundy – along with the heads of Australia’s major sporting organisations – presented to the media an Australian Crime Commission (ACC) report, <a href="https://www.crimecommission.gov.au/sites/default/files/organised-crime-and-drugs-in-sports-feb2013.pdf">Organised Crime and Drugs in Sport</a>. Clare <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2013/s3685762.htm">said</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The findings are shocking and they’ll disgust Australian sports fans. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Unredacted copies were passed onto police. Two years later, the public still awaits the arrests of organised crime figures associated with that investigation. In that respect the fog remains. But what are we to make of the anti-doping ruling on the Essendon players? </p>
<h2>What about ASADA’s credibility?</h2>
<p>ASADA CEO Ben McDevitt was unimpressed with the AFL tribunal’s decision. He <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-03-31/essendon-supplements-afl-anti-doping-tribunal-decision/6361006">said</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>What happened at Essendon in 2012 was … absolutely and utterly disgraceful. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Rather than cop the decision sweet, McDevitt harked back to Essendon’s governance failings, for which the club had already received <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/hird-and-his-club-pay-highest-of-prices-20130827-2so59.html">significant penalties</a> back in 2013 – including the suspension of coach James Hird, a A$2 million fine, the loss of draft picks and expulsion from that year’s finals series. </p>
<p>ASADA can challenge the verdict at the AFL Appeals Tribunal and ultimately the Court of Arbitration for Sport. But if it does so, ASADA will be unlikely to find support in the court of public opinion. After two years of fog, footy fans, clubs and players are yearning for blue sky. They now better understand the World Anti-Doping Authority (WADA) and its requirements. They want to move forward.</p>
<h2>What about athletes and their entourage?</h2>
<p>Footballers put trust in their employers to provide a safe working environment. Athletes therefore need to have faith in those at the club who provide substances and treatments for nutritional, medical and performance purposes. Responding to the tribunal’s decision, Essendon captain Jobe Watson <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/essendon-verdict-jobe-watson-says-players-feel-vindicated-and-ready-to-move-on-20150331-1mc8ap.html">said</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>When you go to your employer and they can’t tell you exactly what went on, that’s concerning. And I think the players are well within their rights to feel anger about that.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>A footballer is in no position to refuse a drink from a trainer and ask for the contents to be independently tested. Yet this is what WADA’s <a href="https://www.wada-ama.org/en/questions-answers/strict-liability-in-anti-doping">strict liability</a> principle infers: anything that ends up in the body of an athlete is their responsibility. </p>
<p>In Essendon’s case, players were hoping – rather than being certain – that the substances they were provided adhered to what they <a href="http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/signed-forms-may-save-essendon-players-involved-in-drugs-investigation/story-e6frf9jf-1226583062920">signed</a> to accept, and all was consistent with the <a href="https://www.wada-ama.org/en/what-we-do/the-code">WADA code</a>.</p>
<h2>What about governance?</h2>
<p>Stephen Dank masterminded Essendon’s program. Dank, though <a href="http://www.sportal.com.au/afl/news/dank-no-sports-scientist/186ww1ddgccz41rlcap5w4xdux">not recognised</a> by Exercise and Sports Science Australia as an accredited sport scientist, orchestrated a <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/archive/news/sports-scientist-stephen-dank-to-sue-media-organisations-over-drug-claims/story-fncagcd8-1226575238286">“cutting-edge”</a> high-performance regime. Essendon was penalised and ultimately accepted abject failure in its responsibility to adequately supervise and monitor the day-to-day operation of its sport science program.</p>
<p>This was not an admission that doping took place. Rather, Essendon acknowledged that it was unable to categorically state what supplements were administered to each player. </p>
<p>The fog in this respect is now lifting. There have been reforms in sport science personnel management and in the operation and record-keeping of Essendon’s football department. The AFL has also <a href="http://www.afl.com.au/news/2014-02-06/afl-appoints-integrity-investigator">added</a> layers of health and safety compliance, such as: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>No substance is to be administered to any player by injection other than by an appropriately qualified medical practitioner and only to the extent it is necessary to treat a legitimate medical condition.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Yet only one AFL club, Port Adelaide, has insisted that all of its <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/port-adelaide-sets-benchmark-for-sports-science-peak-body-essa-says-20141015-116axn.html">sport science staff</a> be accredited with ESSA, which is the peak body for this profession, and operates under a code of ethics under which breaches result in disciplinary procedures.</p>
<h2>What about drugs in Australian sport?</h2>
<p>Looking specifically at the AFL, Ahmed Saad served an <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/ahmed-saad-given-18month-suspension-20131126-2y877.html">18 month-ban</a> after consuming a protein drink that included a stimulant banned in competition. Ryan Crowley is <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/fremantle-dockers-ryan-crowley-tests-positive-to-banned-substance-20150316-1m08nb.html">facing suspension</a> after testing positive to a substance banned in competition that he claims was contained in a painkiller. And very recently, Lachlan Keeffe and Josh Thomas have <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/collingwood-footballers-lachlan-keeffe-and-josh-thomas-face-positive-drug-test-20150330-1maznj.html">tested positive</a> to the performance-enhancing substance clenbuterol. </p>
<p>The first two cases appear to be inadvertent positives – negligence rather than deception. The second case has mirrors the world over in sports like athletics and cycling – the assumption is deception rather than negligence.</p>
<p>The management of risk and the health and well-being of players remains an ongoing challenge in elite sport. The AFL – Australia’s best-resourced sporting organisation – needs to restore public faith in its governance systems and processes. While Essendon players were cleared of doping, they were unimpressed about being accused of cheating after putting trust in their employer.</p>
<p>ASADA also has a big task to win back public confidence. Its processes are unwieldy, and a Senate inquiry into its operation has been <a href="http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/push-for-senate-inquiry-into-asadas-essendon-supplements-probe/story-fni0fiyv-1227285412698">mooted</a>. Maybe that will help to lift the fog on anti-doping in Australia.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/39586/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 so-called “blackest day” in Australian sport can now instead be described as the precursor to its foggiest period, following the exoneration of 34 Essendon players from taking a banned drug.Daryl Adair, Associate Professor of Sport Management, University of Technology SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/368302015-01-30T04:12:28Z2015-01-30T04:12:28ZMore than one bad apple: a systems view on the Lance Armstrong doping saga<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/70556/original/image-20150130-14862-j4huhg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The system that allowed Lance Armstrong to cheat and dope successfully for years should share the responsibility for his behaviour.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/Olivier Hoslet</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>There are again questions over Lance Armstrong’s admissions and apologies following a <a href="http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/cycling/30955902">BBC interview</a> in which the former cyclist and confessed drug cheat admitted he would take performance-enhancing substances again:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>You take me back to 1995, when it was completely and totally pervasive, I’d probably do it again.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Part of the debate has <a href="http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/cycling/31040693">now shifted</a> to whether there should be forgiveness and a reduction of Armstrong’s life ban from competitive sport.</p>
<p>In safety science, <a href="http://www.thinking.net/Systems_Thinking/OverviewSTarticle.pdf">systems thinking</a> tells us that behaviour is an emergent property of systems; that there is a shared responsibility for all behaviour; and that this responsibility is shared across all of the people within the system in which the behaviour occurs. </p>
<p>This approach has proven powerful for identifying the systemic factors that combine to cause accidents and catastrophes. We now no longer blame individuals as the sole cause of events (even in cases when rules are wilfully broken). We look at the overall system and the web of contributory factors. </p>
<p>The blame culture is acknowledged to be out of date, morally and ethically wrong, and generally useless for improving safety.</p>
<h2>A systems approach to doping</h2>
<p>Let’s apply this thinking to Armstrong’s doping transgressions. Is it acceptable to make Lance Armstrong the <a href="http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/cycling/31012367">scapegoat</a>? Or is it actually the overall elite cycling system – comprising many people, organisations and agencies – that should be held to account? </p>
<p>American psychologist Philip Zimbardo famously <a href="http://www.psychologicalscience.org/index.php/publications/observer/2006/august-06/bad-apples-or-bad-barrels-zimbardo-on-the-lucifer-effect.html">discussed</a> “bad apples” (or bad individuals) and “bad barrels” (external factors that create bad behaviours) when examining wrongdoing. It is worth looking at the “system” within which Lance Armstrong committed his doping. Was it really a case of one bad apple or were there bad barrels as well? Were there bad barrel-makers, bad barrel-owners and bad growers too? </p>
<p>This is in no way a defence of Armstrong’s doping, or his <a href="http://www.newrepublic.com/article/112031/lance-armstrong-doper-bully-jerk">behaviour</a> towards the individuals who questioned him. Rather, to improve behaviour you have to focus on the system itself, not merely the individuals within it. Focusing all of the attention on Armstrong makes it difficult to prevent cycling moving forward as the bad barrels remain.</p>
<h2>Cycling as a complex system</h2>
<p>The elite cycling system is complex. It is made up of multiple people, groups, agencies and organisations, including cyclists, coaches, sports scientists, doctors, cycling teams, manufacturers, sponsors, sports organisations, governing bodies, manufacturers and doping agencies – to name only a few. This has important implications for causality and responsibility.</p>
<p>First, the doping program adopted by Armstrong and his teams was a result of interactions (good or bad) between all of these actors. Either knowingly or unknowingly, the behaviour of those within the elite cycling system enabled the doping program – or, in some cases, supported it. Armstrong has <a href="http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/lance-armstrong-claims-verbruggen-aided-in-doping-cover-up">alleged</a>, for example, that Union Cycliste Internationale (cycling’s world governing body) president Hein Verbruggen covered up a positive test in 1999.</p>
<p>Were these interactions preventative, or if there were more of a culture of preventing the use of performance-enhancing drugs, the doping program could not have prospered.</p>
<p>Second, the doping program was enabled through multiple factors, not just Armstrong’s transgressions (even if he was a driving force). A weak anti-doping system is one example. Thus it is the overall system that should share the responsibility for blood doping, not just Armstrong himself. </p>
<p>Remove Armstrong and many of the other factors that enabled him and his team to dope remain. It is naïve to think others would not dope within a system that cannot prevent it. Further positive tests <a href="http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/cycling/30217866">continue</a>, indicating that the system is such that teams and cyclists will still chance their arm.</p>
<h2>A shared responsibility for doping</h2>
<p>So, who should share the responsibility? First, there are those who were knowingly involved: Armstrong, his teammates, doctors, coaches and so on. The United States Anti-Doping Authority’s (USADA) <a href="http://d3epuodzu3wuis.cloudfront.net/ReasonedDecision.pdf">“reasoned decision”</a> on Armstrong labels the period in which Armstrong doped as the “dirtiest ever”.</p>
<p>The USADA report mentions peloton’s code of silence – the “omerta” – on doping. It notes that 20 of the 21 Tour De France podium finishers between 1999 and 2005 – Spanish rider Fernando Escartin is the exception – have been linked to doping. Add to this the intricate teams of doctors and suppliers needed and an intricate web of actors quickly emerges. </p>
<p>Second, there are those within the cycling system who were not engaged in doping programs but were nonetheless part of the system in which it was able to continue. This includes those involved in testing, governance, coaching and team management. They can all share some of the responsibility, even though they were not knowingly involved or doing anything wrong. This is just as aircraft designers, air traffic controllers, airlines and others share the responsibility for aviation accidents.</p>
<p>This all paints a picture of a broken system in which doping was able to prosper. It is hard from this viewpoint to have one scapegoat. Yes, Armstrong committed terrible acts, broke the rules and ultimately damaged the sport’s reputation. But the system itself should share the responsibility, not Armstrong alone, simply because it was able to work for so long.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/70559/original/image-20150130-14886-t6jhzv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/70559/original/image-20150130-14886-t6jhzv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/70559/original/image-20150130-14886-t6jhzv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/70559/original/image-20150130-14886-t6jhzv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/70559/original/image-20150130-14886-t6jhzv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/70559/original/image-20150130-14886-t6jhzv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/70559/original/image-20150130-14886-t6jhzv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Lance Armstrong’s coach Johan Bruyneel (left) was also banned for his part in the cyclist’s doping regime.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The way forward</h2>
<p>The wrong approach is to have scapegoats and to punish individuals. The correct approach is to fix the system: to identify all of the factors across all levels of the system that in any way enabled doping to occur. These can be factors related to governing bodies, rules and regulations, coaching and training, team management, drug testing policy and procedures, culture, sponsorship and prizemoney. </p>
<p>Interventions should then focus on removing these factors. Encouragingly, this is <a href="http://www.uci.ch/news/article/cycling-independent-reform-commission-circ/">already happening</a>. Only through in-depth, top-to-bottom examinations can true systems reform happen.</p>
<p>On the matter of forgiveness, there are some that have, some that will and no doubt some that won’t. The issue is bigger than Armstrong, and the important thing now is to fix the sport, not to break him. In his BBC interview, he <a href="http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/cycling/30955902">suggested</a> cycling doesn’t have the culture to be clean. </p>
<p>But it looks to be worse than that. Cycling might not have the right system to be clean. A systems approach to the issue of doping will show the full picture of responsibility and will enable the system reform required.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/36830/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paul Salmon receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p>There are again questions over Lance Armstrong’s admissions and apologies following a BBC interview in which the former cyclist and confessed drug cheat admitted he would take performance-enhancing substances…Paul Salmon, Professor, Human Factors, University of the Sunshine CoastLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/319522014-09-22T03:53:30Z2014-09-22T03:53:30ZASADA v Essendon: next steps for the winners and losers<p>Federal Court Justice John Middleton’s <a href="http://www.judgments.fedcourt.gov.au/judgments/Judgments/fca/single/2014/2014fca1019">decision</a> to uphold the legality of the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA) investigation into the potential use of banned substances at the Essendon Football Club raises as many questions as its answers.</p>
<p>The “winners” (ASADA and, to a lesser extent, the AFL) are likely to come under pressure to resolve the matter quickly; the “losers” (Essendon and coach James Hird) will be assessing whether to appeal; and the “biggest losers”, the players, will be wondering what to do now.</p>
<p>The Federal Court decision might also nudge Victoria’s workplace health and safety regulator – the Victorian WorkCover Authority (VWA, formerly known as WorkSafe Victoria) – to investigate Essendon Football Club’s failure to protect the health and safety of its players. </p>
<h2>ASADA</h2>
<p>ASADA is the clear winner. Not only did Justice Middleton uphold the legality of its investigation, he interpreted ASADA’s enabling legislation broadly and strongly supported ASADA adopting “innovative processes and methods of investigation”. </p>
<p>First, Justice Middleton found ASADA had power “to do all things necessary or convenient” in connection with its investigation, including cooperating with sporting administration bodies such as the AFL. </p>
<p>Second, Justice Middleton found ASADA’s disclosure of information to sporting administration bodies was within ASADA’s powers if done for the purposes of, or in connection with, an ongoing investigation. </p>
<p>Justice Middleton found ASADA’s disclosure of its interim report to the AFL satisfied both these criteria: it was done to obtain comments from the AFL to inform its continuing investigation; and to assist the AFL’s investigation of Essendon’s internal governance concerning anti-doping matters, something closely connected with the ASADA investigation. </p>
<p>It is important to keep in mind the court case was about whether ASADA’s investigation was conducted in accordance with the law; it was not about whether that investigation has reached the right conclusions. Whether or not Essendon players took banned substances remains to be proven. </p>
<p>ASADA <a href="http://www.asada.gov.au/media/organised_crime_and_drugs_in_sport.html">responded</a> to the Federal Court decision by reiterating its determination to expose what happened at the Essendon Football Club. </p>
<p>But ASADA can also be expected to come under pressure to resolve the matter quickly, possibly by sanctioning a settlement similar to that reached with National Rugby League (NRL) Cronulla Rugby League Club players, whose backdated suspensions resulted in them missing only a handful of games. ASADA described the <a href="http://www.asada.gov.au/media/organised_crime_and_drugs_in_sport.html">NRL settlement</a> as a “good result for sport”.</p>
<h2>AFL</h2>
<p>The AFL was not part of the court action. Nevertheless, Justice Middleton’s decision is a vindication of its joint investigation with ASADA. This may prove to be a pyrrhic victory, however, as the AFL now faces the prospect of another compromised season should Essendon players be suspended. </p>
<p>The AFL, too, can be expected to come under pressure to resolve this matter quickly. An NRL-style settlement that minimises the games players miss clearly is in its interests.</p>
<h2>Essendon Football Club and James Hird</h2>
<p>The immediate issue the Essendon Football Club and James Hird face is whether to appeal Justice Middleton’s decision. Both will have their QCs pore over every word. If there are grounds for appeal, they will find them – although Justice Middleton has been very thorough in his analysis of the facts, and of the application of the law to those facts. There are no obvious errors in his 123-page decision.</p>
<p>If they do not appeal, both Essendon and Hird face legal bills that will run into many hundreds of thousands of dollars. They also face the prospect of not being able to field a team next year.</p>
<p>Equally concerning is the risk of more legal action being brought against them. Potentially the most damming finding in Justice Middleton’s decision was his assessment, based on the evidence before him, that poor governance and management practices at Essendon contributed to possible systemic anti-doping violations by Essendon players. </p>
<p>In highlighting this connection, Justice Middleton strengthens the case that Essendon and its officers may have breached their duty to provide players with a safe and healthy work environment. This is something that should interest both players and workplace health and safety regulators.</p>
<h2>Players</h2>
<p>The Essendon players are the biggest losers, even though were not party to the case. Unless there is an appeal, they will now have to respond to ASADA’s <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/asada-showcause-notices-for-dons-20140612-zs64d.html">show-cause notices</a> and face the prospect of being suspended for up to two years.</p>
<p>But the players <em>do</em> have choices. Do they continue their alliance with the Club or seek their own path – legally and/or professionally? </p>
<p>Do they seek an NRL-style deal, or keep faith with Club management that continues to argue there is no evidence they have taken banned substances? </p>
<p>Do they look to the contractual clauses that provide them with redress in the event the Club has breached duties they owe them? And should they sue the Club for breach of those duties – a course already taken by <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/league-news/third-player-joins-lawsuit-against-sharks-20140205-3223i.html">some of their NRL colleagues</a>? </p>
<p>The complexity of these choices is matched only by the implications for the players of getting them wrong.</p>
<h2>VWA</h2>
<p>The VWA remains the “wild card” in the pack. Originally <a href="https://theconversation.com/time-for-ohs-regulators-to-get-off-the-bench-and-into-the-game-17039">reluctant to be involved</a>, the VWA’s hand has been forced by three requests it has received from members of the public for it to investigate the Essendon Football Club, other Victorian AFL clubs, and the AFL itself. Under its legislation, the VWA is required to investigate the matters and advise within three months <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/vic/consol_act/ohasa2004273/s131.html">whether it will prosecute</a>. </p>
<p>The VWA is <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/workcover-health-and-safety-probe-into-afl-clubs-on-hold-20140830-10aeup.html">reported</a> to have been waiting for the outcome of the Federal Court case. Justice Middleton’s comments about Essendon’s poor governance and management practices reinforce the case for it to fully investigate the matter.</p>
<p>The VWA recently was criticised by the Hazelwood Mine Fire Inquiry for adopting a narrow reading of its statutory responsibilities, and for the passivity which it <a href="http://report.hazelwoodinquiry.vic.gov.au">discharged those responsibilities</a>. Failure to act on the Essendon supplements saga runs the risk the VWA will again be seen as failing to discharge its role as the state’s health and safety regulator.</p>
<p>Justice Middleton’s decision is far from the end of the Essendon supplements saga. All actors in the saga have important decisions to make. The next days, weeks and months may be as interesting as those just passed.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/31952/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eric Windholz worked with the Victorian WorkCover Authority from 2001 to 2009, including as General Counsel and General Manager, Strategic Programs and Support.</span></em></p>Federal Court Justice John Middleton’s decision to uphold the legality of the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA) investigation into the potential use of banned substances at the Essendon Football…Eric Windholz, Lecturer in Law and Associate, Monash Centre for Commercial Law and Regulatory Studies, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/280702014-07-04T04:57:44Z2014-07-04T04:57:44ZTour de France’s doping history clouds a ‘cleaner’ sport<p>With the start of the 101st Tour de France only one day away, the topic of doping in cycling will no doubt start to rear its ugly head. While the riders cover 3,664km in 21 stages over three weeks in an extraordinary feat of human endurance, the aftershocks of the Lance Armstrong affair continue to colour our approach to the event and its champions.</p>
<p>Armstrong was meant to be the saviour of modern day cycling as it sought to recover from the <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/special_report/1998/07/98/tour_de_france/134842.stm">Festina scandal of 1998</a>. He was credited with an intense attention to detail and dedicated scientific approach to his preparation; his cycling team was revered for a scientific and systematic approach to training and racing. Both parties were seen as having “too much to lose” to be caught up in the doping scandals that surrounded the sport during the late 1990s and early 2000s. Unfortunately as we now know, this was not the case. </p>
<p>So where does this leave the current crop of cyclists as they push out on the start from the start line of this year’s Tour? Even the most cynical of us hope that the riders are clean, or at least cleaner than the previous decades. The anti-doping debate is also testament to the hope that people involved in the sport want change, and want to believe that professional cycling has cleaned up its act.</p>
<p>Media, sponsor and fan pressure is starting to force teams to take a <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cycling/20147726">“zero tolerance”</a> stance on doping, and is undoubtedly behind the decision of Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) President, Brian Cookson, to create the Cycling <a href="http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news/latest-news/uci-president-brian-cookson-announces-cycling-independent-reform-commission-19368">Independent Reform Commission (CIRC)</a>. Cookson’s actions have won many admirers including International Olympic Committee President, Thomas Bach, who said he was “impressed” with the UCI’s efforts to stamp out doping in the sport.</p>
<h2>Change on the horizon?</h2>
<p>But is the attitude towards doping in cycling actually changing in the peloton itself? It is difficult to say for certain. Thanks to the history of the sport there will always be scepticism about whether riders are clean. It is unfortunate, but inevitable, that riders and teams who carry the yellow jersey that has been stained by years of doping and cheating, will be questioned. It was no great surprise that many in the sport viewed <a href="http://www1.skysports.com/cycling/news/15264/9164881/chris-froome-hopes-to-silence-doping-doubters-with-another-dominant-season-in-2014">Chris Froome and Team Sky’s dominance</a> at last year’s Tour with a level of suspicion.</p>
<p>The introduction of the <a href="http://www.wada-ama.org/en/Science-Medicine/Athlete-Biological-Passport/">biological passport</a> for athletes in 2008 appears to have had an effect on athlete behavior and attitudes towards doping in the sport. The biological passport monitors certain parameters of a cyclist’s blood over time, making it more difficult for them to dope without detection. The passport does not test for specific banned substances, rather for the manipulation of blood parameters that suggest doping has occurred. Encouragingly, the biological passport has <a href="http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/cycling/news/story?id=6192949">stood up to legal challenges</a>. But it will take more evidence to show that the biological passport provides a long-term deterrent to doping within the sport.</p>
<p>So, why is doping such a big issue in cycling and other endurance-based sports? Well it improves performance, quite significantly, and in some cases <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0056151">by as much as 6%</a> according to research work by Yannis Pitsiladis. Therefore, assuming that professional cycling is cleaning up its act, the Tour should be significantly slower than the 1990s and 2000s. This can be tracked as the Tour often visits the same routes and mountains year on year, affording historical comparisons.</p>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/Scienceofsport">Sports scientists such as Ross Tucker</a> from South Africa have performed these comparisons, which demonstrate that from 2009, the average performance speed and power outputs of top tour riders fell by 5-10%. This is apparent from the fact that the tour winners of 2010 to 2012 being barely able to make the top ten in tours from the 1990s and 2000s. </p>
<p>Cycling power output carries with it some important physiological implications because the cyclist/bicycle system is “closed”: physiological power can be directly measured as mechanical power by a power meter on the bike. Therefore it is possible to estimate, with a few assumptions, what kind of physiology determines a given output. The performances of some riders in the Armstrong era were such that it is hard to believe they were the result of the “normal” training processes, however gifted they were. </p>
<p>In time, technological, training and nutritional advances might slowly narrow the gap between recent performances and those of the 1990s and 2000s. Last year <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-23368970">Chris Froome’s ascent of the main mountain stages</a> (Ax-3-Domaines and Mont Ventoux) matched the level of performance seen in the Armstrong era.</p>
<h2>Speculation and accusation</h2>
<p>Unsurprisingly following Froome’s performance in the mountains fingers started to be pointed at both him and Team Sky. Following a period of concerted pressure from the media, Sky eventually released Froome’s power data for “expert” review. Dave Brailsford, Team Sky Principal, suggested that their reluctance to release Froome’s data was <a href="http://velonews.competitor.com/2013/07/news/qa-brailsford-on-why-froome-wont-release-power-data_293771">due to the actions of “pseudo scientists”</a> who misinterpret power output data either inadvertently, or deliberately, to make it say more or less what they want.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/52885/original/knpvtdp4-1404300115.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/52885/original/knpvtdp4-1404300115.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/52885/original/knpvtdp4-1404300115.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/52885/original/knpvtdp4-1404300115.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/52885/original/knpvtdp4-1404300115.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/52885/original/knpvtdp4-1404300115.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=560&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/52885/original/knpvtdp4-1404300115.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=560&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/52885/original/knpvtdp4-1404300115.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=560&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Dave Brailsford.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/johnthescone/577882709/in/photolist-T4NoZ-bjwqvX-bjvsFe-bjtoTF-8RKRZR-8RNZ3m-8RNYzq-8RNYhS-8RKRCT-8RKRgB-anfV85-bjtquR-bjtrL6-dvLK9k-dvSfwG-fpgJoD-anfP4q-6z1Pd5-6z1QPA-6yWHQc-hpAuxS-6z1TRw-6yWKsv-6yWHsn-6z1Rx9-6z1N9W-6z1RbG-6yWFna-6z1LE9-6z1TcS-6z1KF9-6z1RR3-6z1PX1-6z1KZm-6z1Txu-6yWGaH-6z1PA3-6yWMop-6z1Mxb-6z1Qfj-6z1S8Q-6z1STw-5GVAh4-5GVPFz-ccEmqf-ccEiZC-ccEiU7-bVi4pn-ccEmvC-bjvH4c">johnthescone</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In some respect Brailsford is absolutely correct, there are many things that influence performance which power output data alone fails to capture (weather, race tactics, equipment calibration), making definitive conclusions difficult. It would be a misapplication of science to accuse a rider of doping due to an unrealistic performance, even though many do. </p>
<p>But secrecy and refusal to openly discuss performances inevitably leads to the speculation about their veracity. What most people strive for is a cleaner sport: at times there appears to be a polarised approach, either look to the future and deny everything from the past, or examine every detail and challenge every performance which from time to time leads to unfair accusations. A balanced approach is probably somewhere in the middle. </p>
<p>At the weekend, all eyes will turn to Froome and Team Sky as Tour favourites. Their performances are currently seen as the benchmark for the rest of the peloton, as well as cycling fans who want to know what it takes to win the Tour.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/28070/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>James Hopker 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>With the start of the 101st Tour de France only one day away, the topic of doping in cycling will no doubt start to rear its ugly head. While the riders cover 3,664km in 21 stages over three weeks in an…James Hopker, Senior Lecturer, University of KentLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/225042014-02-14T14:11:57Z2014-02-14T14:11:57ZA drug-free Olympics could be Sochi’s antidote to a bad image<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/41558/original/xz4g38j3-1392371711.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Kaetlyn Osmond of Canada had to undergo an unannounced doping test hours before performing.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ivan Sekretarev/AP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Since anti-doping tests were introduced at the 1968 Grenoble Winter Olympics there have only been 20 positive drug tests in <a href="http://en.europeonline-magazine.eu/feature-ioc-to-be-smarter-tougher-on-potential-olympic-drug-cheatsby-andreas-schirmer-dpa_314187.html11">Winter Olympic competition</a>. Compared to the Summer Olympics, which has <a href="http://azstarnet.com/sports/olympics/tough-drug-testing-net-in-place-for-sochi-olympics/article_fac5a06a-1b35-56c9-b8a7-5ac2459a44dd.html">more athletes and more sports</a> with a history of doping, the Winter Olympics appear relatively clean. Russia will be hoping to maintain this record. </p>
<p>A doping scandal would only add to the criticism Russia has already received for the style of hosting the games, but ensuring a “clean” Olympics can enhance their credibility. With the help of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), this is how they’ll do it.</p>
<p>Some of the preparations for the Sochi Games skated on thin ice. The <a href="http://www.thestar.com/sports/sochi2014/2013/11/17/sochi_2014_wada_provisionally_suspends_russian_drugtesting_lab.html">Moscow Anti-Doping Centre</a> was provisionally suspended and <a href="http://en.ria.ru/sochi2014/20140123/186854562/Doping-Not-an-Issue-for-Russian-Team-Ahead-of-Sochi-Olympics.html">numerous athletes</a> tested <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2014/jan/30/russian-olympian-sochi-failing-drug-test-irina-starykh">positive</a> in the build up to the Games. Russia’s poor <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/wireStory/olympic-host-russia-coming-doping-doghouse-22298188">doping record</a> also cast doubt on the credibility of anti-doping controls.</p>
<p>The IOC has invested $1 million into pre-Games testing with “<a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-11-13/more-effective-doping-test-needed3a-ioc-president/5090196">many millions of dollars more</a>” committed to in-competition tests. Despite this not all doping will be <a href="http://www.crikey.com.au/2012/07/31/doping-at-the-olympics-how-many-wont-get-caught/">detected</a>.</p>
<h2>A tough approach</h2>
<p>Nevertheless, the Sochi Organising Committee and the IOC have assured us that drug testing at Sochi will be the “<a href="http://www.olympic.org/news/ioc-president-calls-for-smarter-more-targeted-testing-and-better-research-at-wada-conference-in-johannesburg/217138">most stringent in the history of the Olympic Winter Games</a>” with a “<a href="http://www.chron.com/news/article/Tough-drug-testing-net-in-place-for-Sochi-Olympics-5181488.php">tough drug-testing net</a>” in place.</p>
<p>This tough approach includes increased testing prior to the games as well as during them. About 2,450 tests will be conducted overall, with additional unannounced testing during the games. This is a <a href="http://www.olympic.org/Documents/Reference_documents_Factsheets/Fight_against_doping.pdf">57% increase</a> from the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics. Particular attention will be paid to team sports such as ice hockey and events with a <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/wireStory/tough-drug-testing-net-place-sochi-olympics-22261205">history of doping</a> such as cross-country skiing and biathlon.</p>
<p>Anti-doping regulation is formed under the authority of the IOC, which appoints a <a href="http://www.olympic.org/medical-commission?tab=games">Medical Commission</a> to oversee all doping controls. The Sochi Organising Committee is responsible for implementing the doping controls with assistance from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). The IOC releases <a href="http://www.olympic.org/Documents/Games_Sochi_2014/Anti-doping/IOC_Anti-Doping_Rules_Sochi_2014-eng.pdf">Anti-Doping Rules</a> for each Olympics and these operate in conjunction with the <a href="http://www.wada-ama.org/en/World-Anti-Doping-Program/Sports-and-Anti-Doping-Organizations/The-Code/">World Anti-Doping Code</a> and the <a href="http://list.wada-ama.org/">WADA Prohibited List</a> of banned substances and methods.</p>
<p>Despite earlier concerns over <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/russian-olympic-drug-testing-lab-provisionally-suspended-1.2429676">quality control</a>, the IOC assures audiences – and warns drug cheats – of Sochi’s drug testing integrity. WADA has global oversight of <a href="http://www.wada-ama.org/en/Anti-Doping-Community/Anti-Doping-Laboratories/">anti-doping laboratory accreditation</a> and has kept a watchful eye on the Sochi Games preparations. When it was feared the Russian laboratory assigned the task of processing tests was not looking up to scratch, WADA asked the IOC to appoint <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/19/sports/olympics/wada-provisionally-suspends-sochi-games-lab.html?_r=0">international quality control experts</a> to ensure the accuracy and reliability of results.</p>
<h2>Testing procedures</h2>
<p>Urine and blood-based tests will look for stimulants, masking agents, beta-blockers, alcohol, narcotics and cannabis, as well as tests for human growth hormone. <a href="http://www.olympic.org/Documents/Reference_documents_Factsheets/Fight_against_doping.pdf">Samples will be stored for eight years</a> (extending to ten years from 2016) and can be re-tested as new technologies become available.</p>
<p>For the first time in Olympic competition, the Sochi Games will use the “<a href="http://www.smh.com.au/sport/new-german-test-detects-steroids-up-to-six-months-after-use-20131130-2yhqx.html">long-term metabolites</a>” method. This new procedure can detect smaller quantities of steroids for a longer period after their use. Over the past 12 months this test has found <a href="http://www.espn.co.uk/olympic-sports/sport/story/258911.html">hundreds of positive cases</a>, revealing more positives in older samples. This retrospective aspect of testing that is perhaps the most significant in the campaign against doping. The IOC is already testing samples from the <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/drugsinsport/10458454/IOC-to-act-after-new-testing-methods-reveal-hundreds-of-positive-results.html">2006 Turin Winter Olympics</a>.</p>
<p>Exactly how retrospective testing will have an impact on athletes is, as yet, unknown. Some commentators see the <a href="http://theconversation.com/more-olympic-drug-testing-than-ever-but-why-do-we-bother-7993">ideology</a> driving the anti-doping campaign as less than clear. They point to the fact that <a href="http://www.amazon.com/History-Drug-Use-Sport-Beyond/dp/0415357721">attitudes towards doping</a> have not always taken this punitive <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Mortal-Engines-Science-Performance-Dehumanization/dp/1930665377">approach</a>.</p>
<p>There are also calls for anti-doping regulation to pay more attention to the <a href="http://www.canberratimes.com.au/opinion/cruel-reality-ofsport-business-20130214-2efr0.html">complexities of sport</a> and the impact on athletes’ health and wellbeing. Nevertheless, the danger doping presents to the stability of sport – it is claimed – necessitates strict surveillance and harsh penalties for athletes.</p>
<p>Doping scandals in any sport can damage the reputations of athletes as well as sporting organisations. This is something the <a href="http://brage.bibsys.no/nih/bitstream/URN:NBN:no-bibsys_brage_9856/1/Hanstad%20IntRevSocSport%202008.pdf">IOC is well aware of</a>. The high financial investment, commercial returns and international prestige attached to Olympic sport mean that keeping the Games clean is as much about the legitimacy of elite sporting organisations, WADA and the governments of host nations as it is about the integrity of sport.</p>
<p>A clean Olympics is an opportunity to showcase a “<a href="http://www.olympic.org/news/-history-will-be-made-at-russia-s-first-olympic-winter-games/222604">modern Russia</a>”. Ensuring that doping is properly regulated at the Sochi Games is part and parcel of preventing international embarrassment for the Russian government on the world stage. </p>
<p>It is clear, however, that the challenges facing the Sochi Olympics extend beyond whether or not anti-doping regulation is successful at deterring or catching guilty athletes. With the world’s attention drawn to Russia’s <a href="http://www.latimes.com/sports/sportsnow/la-sp-sn-gay-rights-sochi-olympics-20140116,0,2104084.story#axzz2s3BbpSRo">anti-gay legislation</a> and the threat of <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-01-09/sochi-winter-olympics-terror-threat-remains-say-experts/5191662">terrorism</a>, catching “drug cheats” might be just the shot in the arm they are looking for.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/22504/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Vanessa McDermott is a co-investigator on a project that has received funding from the World Anti-Doping Agency.</span></em></p>Since anti-doping tests were introduced at the 1968 Grenoble Winter Olympics there have only been 20 positive drug tests in Winter Olympic competition. Compared to the Summer Olympics, which has more athletes…Vanessa McDermott, Research Fellow, School of Sociology, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/219782014-01-14T11:31:11Z2014-01-14T11:31:11ZAsafa Powell may be guilty of doping but he’s also a victim<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/38970/original/qww9vrdc-1389630723.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The former 100m world record holder tested positive for a banned stimulant last June.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Matt Slocum/AP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>As Asafa Powell <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2014/jan/13/asafa-powell-doping-hearing-jamaica">faces</a> the Jamaica Anti-Doping Disciplinary Panel, we already know his defence – that he was given a supplement called Epiphany D1 by his former physiotherapist, Chris Xuereb, without his knowledge and which contained the banned substance oxilofrine. But, as Powell should have known, athletes compete under strict liability. Their body, their crime.</p>
<p>Powell is a giant of the athletics world. He held the 100m world record between June 2005 and May 2008. His personal best of 9.7 seconds is the fifth fastest time in history. He had held the record for breaking the 10 second barrier more than anyone else – 88 times. But he’s <a href="http://blog.wellcome.ac.uk/2012/07/31/would-lifting-the-ban-on-drugs-enhance-sport/">not the first</a> medal-winning, record-breaking athlete to have been busted and he’s unlikely to be the last. </p>
<p>Given that whole careers hang in the balance and millions of dollars in prize money are on offer, doping is inevitable. And despite being told that testing is improving, the odds of being caught are relatively low. In 2012, the US Anti-Doping Agency’s own doping expert <a href="http://d3epuodzu3wuis.cloudfront.net/BOWERS+Witness+Statement.pdf">Larry Bowers said</a> a negative test cannot be equated with the absence of doping.</p>
<p>In a paper called <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0955395912001077">The Doping Myth</a>, researchers Hermann and Henneberg wrote:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Using typical values of detectability … the probability of detecting a cheater who uses doping methods every week is only 2.9% per test.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Doping is not just an issue for athletics but for all sports which require speed, power and endurance. There is already evidence that doping has been <a href="http://www.france24.com/en/20130805-doping-rife-among-west-german-athletes-decades-says-report/?ns_campaign=editorial&ns_fee=0&ns_linkname=20130805_doping_rife_among_west_german_athletes&ns_mchannel=reseaux_sociaux&ns_source=FB">rife in German football</a> and, I believe, that it is present systematically and endemically in professional football. </p>
<p>FIFA has been <a href="http://www.uefa.org/footballfirst/protectingthegame/antidoping/news/newsid=813342.html">resistant</a> to attempts by the World Anti-Doping Agency to increase testing, and have applied a modified version of the whereabouts rule to football which means doping officials only have to know where the team is training, and if any players will be absent. The ship sails on, for the moment. But time will tell.</p>
<h2>Skewed ethics</h2>
<p>Nearly everyone thinks that not only is doping wrong, it is deeply wrong. But it is worth scrutinising what determines whether or not a substance is categorised as banned or not.</p>
<p>In the 1988 Seoul Olympics, Australian fencer Alex Watson <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/08/02/2322263.htm?site=olympics/2008">tested positive</a> for a performance enhancing substance, 1,3,7-trimethylxanthine. He was banned from the sport for two years, his career in tatters and he was left footing a six-figure legal bill. Others have been stripped of medals for using the same substance.</p>
<p>In the London 2012 Olympics, British track cyclist Sir Chris Hoy attributed his success in part to the same substance, even <a href="http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/london-olympics-coffee-secret-behind-1229940">saying</a> he would bring his own “supply” as he did not trust local sources. Mark Cavendish, an outspoken anti-doping cyclist, attributed leaving his lucrative contract at <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/cycling/mark-cavendish/10428782/Mark-Cavendish-The-day-I-knew-it-was-all-over-with-Sky.html">Team Sky</a> partly to their lack of respect towards preparing the same substance properly.</p>
<p>1,3,7-trimethylxanthine is, of course, caffeine. It increases time to exhaustion by about 10%. Banned before 2004, it has <a href="http://www.ausport.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/469650/Caffeine_11-_website_fact_sheet.pdf">since been made legal</a>. </p>
<p>There is no deep ethical issue in doping. It is wrong because it is cheating. But if the rules were changed, there would be nothing intrinsically wrong with it. Wearing spiked performance-enhancing running shoes would be wrong if there were a rule that banned them. But there isn’t, so there is nothing unethical about shoes that give the runner greater leverage and speed. There is nothing wrong with Lasik eye surgery to give golfers like Tiger Woods better than natural 20/20 vision, provided there is no rule against it.</p>
<p>So we should drop the flawed principle that if something enhances performance then we should ban it. Instead we should consider four points when determining which substances should be banned or why. </p>
<h2>Safety</h2>
<p>What athletes take should be safe, or safe enough compared to the risks of the sport. Contrary to popular belief, modern doping practices are safe. In fact, a <a href="http://eurheartj.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2013/08/28/eurheartj.eht347.full">recent study</a> showed French Tour de France competitors had a 41% lower mortality than the French male population as a whole, despite what we now know about the prevalence and extent of doping in elite cycling.</p>
<p>Performance-enhancing substances such as steroids, growth hormones and blood are all natural and vary from individual to individual. We now also know a huge amount about <a href="http://www.ghc.org/all-sites/guidelines/epo.pdf">safe and unsafe levels</a>. These limits could be set and easily measured.</p>
<p>Of course, there can be some performance-enhancing substances that are unsafe at any dose, or taken in such large doses that they become unsafe. It is these substances or doses that we should focus on, not on the safe practices which are occurring today.</p>
<h2>Testing human skill or talent</h2>
<p>People want sport to be a test of human skill, not purely of pharmaceutical or technological sophistication. But modern pharmacologically enhanced athletics remains a competition of human skill and endeavour. Steroids only shave a couple of tenths of a second off of sprint times. They allow athletes longer careers and harder training regimes. But they don’t have the transformational power of, say, Popeye’s spinach.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/38963/original/shf9spry-1389625747.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/38963/original/shf9spry-1389625747.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=839&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/38963/original/shf9spry-1389625747.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=839&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/38963/original/shf9spry-1389625747.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=839&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/38963/original/shf9spry-1389625747.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1054&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/38963/original/shf9spry-1389625747.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1054&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/38963/original/shf9spry-1389625747.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1054&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Steroids aren’t quite as effective as Popeye’s spinach.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Spectacle</h2>
<p>Professional sport is partly entertainment for those paying to watch it. Fans have a stake in sport being interesting and watchable. The current ban fails this test as we now no longer know who is taking a performance enhancing substance, and who isn’t.</p>
<h2>Enforcing the rules</h2>
<p>Rules should be enforceable in practice. The current ban is almost impossible to enforce because steroids, growth hormones, blood and other substances are all natural. For this reason, biological passports have been introduced to monitor various “biomarkers” of doping over time. But if you start early enough and are smart enough an athlete can use this passport to their advantage. Because people vary so much in these natural “biomarkers” you are never certain whether it is the result of natural variation or doping.</p>
<p>Testing simple physiological endpoints, like level of hormones and blood, is simpler, cheaper and more enforceable. The biological passport applied to these rules would become an effective tool. It would tell you across time if the athlete had crossed any unsafe physiological limit. What you measure in this case is just what you want to know – is the athlete fit to compete?</p>
<p>Contrary to the anti-doping hysteria, sport is about performance enhancement. If we recognise this and adopt the four principles into our thinking, maybe then there will be fewer doping trials and we can get on with playing and enjoying watching sport again.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/21978/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julian Savulescu 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>As Asafa Powell faces the Jamaica Anti-Doping Disciplinary Panel, we already know his defence – that he was given a supplement called Epiphany D1 by his former physiotherapist, Chris Xuereb, without his…Julian Savulescu, Uehiro Professor of Practical Ethics, University of OxfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/173102013-08-21T04:21:15Z2013-08-21T04:21:15ZAFL, NRL – it’s time to move on from anti-doping<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/29637/original/xrvgp48d-1377052298.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=3%2C201%2C1206%2C804&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Anti-doping is about protecting the integrity of sport, but what about the people?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">ĐāżŦ {mostly absent}</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>With the AFL and NRL “<a href="https://theconversation.com/topics/doping">doping scandals</a>” grinding on it seems there’s no end in sight to this saga. But there should be – and soon. Anti-doping will never work and should be replaced with a different approach, as outlined below. </p>
<p>Former president of the World Anti-Doping Agency (<a href="http://www.wada-ama.org/">WADA</a>) John Fahey has declared the “war on drugs in sport” <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/general/athletics/the-doping-battle-will-never-be-won-wada-president-john-fahey-delivers-worrying-appraisal-8729056.html">unwinnable</a>. The fundamental reason for the failure of anti-doping rests with “why”. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.wada-ama.org/en/world-anti-doping-program/sports-and-anti-doping-organizations/the-code/">World Anti-Doping Code</a> uses the <a href="http://playtrue.wada-ama.org/features/the-spirit-of-sport-and-anti-doping-policy-an-ideal-worth-fighting-for/">Spirit of Sport</a> statement as its moral basis - 11 virtues with no clear definition. It never tells us what constitutes courage in sport, or teamwork, or health, or fair play. </p>
<p>As I argued <a href="http://www.aph.gov.au/parliamentary_business/committees/senate_committees?url=rrat_ctte/completed_inquiries/2010-13/sports_science/submissions.htm">in my submission</a> to the recent Senate Inquiry into sports science, the Spirit statement is ineffective when it comes to guiding behaviour in Australian sport. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.aph.gov.au/parliamentary_business/committees/senate_committees?url=rrat_ctte/completed_inquiries/2010-13/sports_science/report/index.htm">Senate Committee agreed</a>. </p>
<h2>Protection and control</h2>
<p>After pointing out the hypocrisies, contradictions and paradoxes of anti-doping for a while it becomes like shooting fish in a barrel. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/29642/original/q9f2nygy-1377053305.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/29642/original/q9f2nygy-1377053305.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/29642/original/q9f2nygy-1377053305.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=825&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/29642/original/q9f2nygy-1377053305.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=825&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/29642/original/q9f2nygy-1377053305.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=825&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/29642/original/q9f2nygy-1377053305.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1036&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/29642/original/q9f2nygy-1377053305.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1036&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/29642/original/q9f2nygy-1377053305.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1036&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Jarrod Bannister.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Mick Tsikas</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For example, anti-doping ends up protecting the integrity of sport rather than people. The “<a href="http://www.wada-ama.org/en/adams/">whereabouts</a>” system that enables out-of-competition testing requires players and athletes to report when and where they will be available for drug testing or be punished - as happened to Australian javelin thrower <a href="http://www.couriermail.com.au/sport/more-sports/australian-javelin-thrower-jarrod-bannister-banned-almost-two-years-for-avoiding-drug-tests/story-fnii0hmo-1226693885050">Jarrod Bannister</a> earlier this month. This sort of control is usually reserved for dangerous convicted criminals rather than athletes unlikely to ever be guilty of a doping offence. </p>
<p>You then have someone watch “the sample leave your body” - which means a stranger scrutinises your genitals as you urinate. Apparently the right to freedom of movement and dignity are denied because “sport” is more important than any individual. </p>
<p>In the attempt to protect the integrity of sport and control athletes’ bodies we end up with a ridiculously complex system that defies even the best legal and scientific minds, let alone the poor bloody athletes and their support teams. </p>
<p>From my point of view, the <a href="https://theconversation.com/topics/essendon">Essendon</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/cronulla-sharks-and-thymosin-beta-4-is-it-doping-12694">Cronulla</a> “scandals” represent the failure of the drug control system rather than a failure of any player, support staff, coach or governance structure. </p>
<p>Indeed, the <a href="http://www.afl.com.au/staticfile/AFL%20Tenant/AFL/Files/EssendonFC-notice-of-charges.pdf">AFL’s charges</a> against the <a href="https://theconversation.com/human-experimentation-and-ethics-at-essendon-football-club-15550">Essendon Football Club and officials</a> of bringing the game into disrepute smacks of being a punishment for being caught rather than doing something wrong. As I’ve <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-lance-bomb-has-blown-but-is-doping-really-cheating-10183">written previously</a> in relation to Lance Armstrong, unless they <a href="https://theconversation.com/exposing-dopers-in-sport-is-it-really-worth-the-cost-16464">investigate everyone</a> the process lacks integrity - it is about trashing Essendon rather than doing something about doping in the AFL. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/29638/original/254rdhtb-1377052709.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/29638/original/254rdhtb-1377052709.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/29638/original/254rdhtb-1377052709.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/29638/original/254rdhtb-1377052709.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/29638/original/254rdhtb-1377052709.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/29638/original/254rdhtb-1377052709.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/29638/original/254rdhtb-1377052709.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/29638/original/254rdhtb-1377052709.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Coach James Hird is one of four Essendon club officials to be charged by the AFL.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Joe Castro</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In 2010 I put forward an <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/19406941003634032#.UhQimGStzvY">argument</a> that we need to move on from wasting everyone’s time, pointing out the many deficiencies of anti-doping. </p>
<h2>Effecting change – a proposal</h2>
<p>We need to move into second-generation drug control in sport. The AFL and NRL are well placed to do it.</p>
<p>First, show some courage and stop being World Anti-Doping Code compliant. Neither the AFL nor the NRL is ever going to be an Olympic sport so it makes no sense they should have to follow the drug control system mandated by the International Olympic Committee (<a href="http://www.olympic.org/ioc">IOC</a>). </p>
<p>They lose some millions of dollars in Federal Government funding by doing so, but that could easily be recovered elsewhere - perhaps in savings on administrative costs of having to deal with anti-doping. </p>
<p>Second, use the existing structures to set up a “permitted list”. Drawing on the excellent resources of the sports physicians associated with each sport, the players associations, and people who actually have a clue about drug control, the AFL and/or the NRL could set up a list of supplements and prescription drugs that players are allowed to use on their own or under medical supervision. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/29644/original/fz678948-1377053504.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/29644/original/fz678948-1377053504.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/29644/original/fz678948-1377053504.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/29644/original/fz678948-1377053504.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/29644/original/fz678948-1377053504.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/29644/original/fz678948-1377053504.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/29644/original/fz678948-1377053504.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/29644/original/fz678948-1377053504.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Shane Flanagan was reinstated as head coach of the Cronulla Sharks in March after being stood down as a result of an ASADA investigation.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Jane Dempster</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>That list might include substances that aid recovery or enhance performance. It provides clear guidance to general practitioners and non-elite players about what they can use safely and effectively, and may even reduce drug misuse and abuse in non-elite sport where ignorance is a clear and present danger. </p>
<p>Importantly, this system should be run by the players - after all, their bodies are on the line and they understand better than faceless bureaucrats the toll their sport takes. </p>
<p>This emphasis would return the concept of informed decision-making back to drug use in sport rather than the zealotry of the anti-doping crusade and its body count of infidels sacrificed for the greater glory of the IOC. </p>
<p>The list approach also has moral force - when players decide drug use is “cheating” it means something very different to the decision of a career sports administrators. Clubs or pharma companies could apply to the AFL or NRL for substances to be placed on the permitted list. </p>
<p>Substances could be placed on the permitted list after satisfying rigorous tests around the short-, medium- and long-term health implications of their use in the sporting context. </p>
<p>Finally, this system gives those involved the power to determine what is considered acceptable and unacceptable forms of performance enhancement for their sport, rather than the IOC decree that performance enhancement is somehow “wrong”.</p>
<h2>Making the list approach work</h2>
<p>Players should be tested regularly relative to this list - perhaps every two weeks. Any substance detected that is off the list would trigger immediate suspension until the source can be identified along the same lines as other infractions. </p>
<p>The reason for the suspension would be to protect athlete health rather than punishment. A system aimed at preserving the integrity of athletes might well see players wanting to be part of drug control rather than trying to “get away with it”. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/29636/original/hhr2nvrc-1377052214.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/29636/original/hhr2nvrc-1377052214.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/29636/original/hhr2nvrc-1377052214.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=769&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/29636/original/hhr2nvrc-1377052214.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=769&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/29636/original/hhr2nvrc-1377052214.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=769&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/29636/original/hhr2nvrc-1377052214.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=966&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/29636/original/hhr2nvrc-1377052214.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=966&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/29636/original/hhr2nvrc-1377052214.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=966&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">mrdamcgowan</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The list approach may also reduce the impact of organised crime. Certainly the black market for doping substances would change. </p>
<p>To many this proposal might seem radical. It is actually a variant of <a href="http://jcr.sagepub.com/content/41/6/749.short">Bird and Wagner’s proposal</a> first published in 1996, and the position advocated by <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1724991/">Savulescu, Foddy and Clayton</a> in 2004. At this point managers in the AFL and NRL are terrified of a system that allows players to use “drugs” – and that’s part of the problem. </p>
<p>Managers need to get in touch with the reality of modern sport. Players already use a wide range of drugs (such as caffeine and painkillers) to cope with the competition imposed on them by managers, coaches, broadcasters, journalists and fans. </p>
<p>All this proposed approach does is codify current practice rather than fight an unwinnable war. The AFL and NRL are big enough to lead the way on this. </p>
<p>Let’s dump the anti-doping crusade to protect the integrity of sport and implement a system of drug control that respects the integrity of people.</p>
<p><br>
<strong>Further reading:</strong><br>
See <a href="https://theconversation.com/search?q=drugs+in+sport">more Conversation articles</a> on drugs in sport.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/17310/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jason Mazanov has received funding from the Anti-Doping Research Program, and is part of a team executing a World Anti-Doping Agency Social Science Research Progam grant.</span></em></p>With the AFL and NRL “doping scandals” grinding on it seems there’s no end in sight to this saga. But there should be – and soon. Anti-doping will never work and should be replaced with a different approach…Jason Mazanov, Senior Lecturer, School of Business, UNSW-Canberra, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/154792013-06-26T04:51:11Z2013-06-26T04:51:11ZNew anti-doping powers won’t fix culture of drugs in sport<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/26201/original/cwh4277q-1372213337.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Essendon captain Jobe Watson was at the centre of the latest drugs-in-sport scandal this week after admitting he took a banned substance.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP </span></span></figcaption></figure><p>It’s been more than four months since Australia’s “<a href="http://www.smh.com.au/national/this-is-the-blackest-day-in-australian-sport-20130207-2e1i3.html">blackest day</a>” in elite sport, with allegations of widespread misuse of drugs and other substances. </p>
<p>After several years of high-profile cases of drugs-in-sport in cycling, AFL, NRL, swimming, athletics and cricket, the Australian government and major sports governing bodies finally vowed to harden their stance on drugs in sport. </p>
<p>Since then, we’ve seen calls for harsher punishments for athletes who test positive for drugs, more funding and power to anti-doping groups, and <a href="http://www.crimecommission.gov.au/sites/default/files/files/organised-crime-and-drugs-in-sports-feb2013.pdf">new links</a> between the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA) and the Australian Crime Commission.</p>
<p>The Senate <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/senate-votes-to-give-asada-greater-powers-20130625-2ovbf.html">also voted on Monday</a> to boost the coercive powers of ASADA, which would compel people to attend interviews and hand over documentation requested, including phone records, documents and players’ medical prescriptions. The bill is <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/senate-votes-to-give-asada-greater-powers-20130625-2ovbf.html">expected to clear</a> the House of Representatives by tomorrow. </p>
<p>But simply giving anti-doping agencies more power won’t fix the problem; coercion and punishment will not achieve the anti-doping culture and athlete behaviour that governments and sporting bodies are hoping for. </p>
<p>Instead, we need to better understand the factors and conditions that produce athletes who choose to engage in doping – and implement an evidence-based regime of education and prevention to address this culture. </p>
<h2>Lip service to ethics and integrity</h2>
<p>One interesting feature of the response to the drugs-in-sport issue has been the heavy emphasis on ethics and integrity by government, anti-doping agencies, and sporting codes. A remarkable amount of activity has occurred in this space recently: </p>
<ul>
<li>the <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/sport/afl/afl-to-appoint-anti-doping-expert-to-integrity-department/story-fnca0u4y-1226572766402">AFL</a>, <a href="http://www.nrl.com/nrl-announces-integrity-unit/tabid/10874/newsid/70697/default.aspx">NRL</a> and peak bodies for <a href="http://www.cricket.com.au/news-list/2013/6/20/review-of-ca-integrity-functions">cricket</a>, <a href="http://www.cycling.org.au/site/cycling/national/downloads/2013/130520EOICAEthicsIntegrityPanel.pdf">cycling</a> and <a href="http://www.athletics.com.au/home/news/news/2013/march/brian_roe_to_head_new_ethics_a">athletics</a> have either undertaken integrity reviews, established integrity units or strengthened powers of existing units</li>
<li>the <a href="http://www.regional.gov.au/sport/national_integrity/">Australian government</a> and <a href="http://www.premier.vic.gov.au/media-centre/media-releases/5991-new-victoria-police-sporting-integrity-intelligence-unit.html">Victoria police</a> have established sport integrity units, and </li>
<li>the Australian Olympic Committee has introduced an <a href="http://corporate.olympics.com.au/news/aoc-confirms-new-anti-doping-measure">ethical behaviour bylaw amendment</a> requiring athletes to sign a statutory declaration swearing no involvement in sports doping.</li>
</ul>
<p>At first glance, there seems to be little wrong with an approach to anti-doping that champions the ideas of ethics and integrity. But on closer inspection, two key problems deserve our attention.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/26208/original/ys3nhwgw-1372219897.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/26208/original/ys3nhwgw-1372219897.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/26208/original/ys3nhwgw-1372219897.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/26208/original/ys3nhwgw-1372219897.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/26208/original/ys3nhwgw-1372219897.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/26208/original/ys3nhwgw-1372219897.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/26208/original/ys3nhwgw-1372219897.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">Coercion and punishment won’t wipe out doping.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Image from shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>First is the lack of public dialogue about how ethics and integrity should be defined in relation to drugs in sport. Unfortunately, few sports governance bodies have revealed what definition of ethics and integrity is guiding their efforts. It is also telling that the <a href="http://www.regional.gov.au/sport/national_integrity/">National Integrity of Sport Unit</a> offers no definition of such concepts on their website – probably due to an assumption of widespread agreement on the ethics and integrity stance it prescribes.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://ausport.gov.au/supporting/integrity_in_sport/research/ethical_and_integrity_issues_in_sport">Australian Sports Commission</a> is a little more helpful in defining integrity as:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>the integration of outward actions and inner values. A person with integrity does what they say they will do in accordance with their values, beliefs and principles. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Integrity, for this peak Australian sports body, is about consistency of actions.</p>
<p>But what do we do when our ethics and values are inconsistent or differ? This is an especially important question considering these recent examples:</p>
<ul>
<li>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/can-ex-doper-matt-white-lead-a-clean-pro-cycling-team-15245">reinstatement of confessed doper Matt White</a> as sports director by Orica Greenedge, while the Australian Olympic Committee and Cycling Australia have refused to reappoint him </li>
<li>Varied sanctions on athletes from different codes for misuse of alcohol, against the backdrop of <a href="https://theconversation.com/time-to-cut-the-ties-between-alcohol-and-sport-15337">large-scale alcohol advertising and sponsorship</a> in sport</li>
<li>Recent cases of suspect supplement use within some codes, with few apparent consequences to date for coaches and other leaders.</li>
</ul>
<p>How are we to reconcile these inconsistencies with the recent rhetoric and actions of the Australian government and major sporting codes in the name of ethics and integrity?</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/26186/original/g5s5p8hr-1372202150.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/26186/original/g5s5p8hr-1372202150.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/26186/original/g5s5p8hr-1372202150.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/26186/original/g5s5p8hr-1372202150.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/26186/original/g5s5p8hr-1372202150.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/26186/original/g5s5p8hr-1372202150.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/26186/original/g5s5p8hr-1372202150.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">Cronulla Sharks coach Shane Flanagan was reinstated as head coach of the NRL club in March this year, after being stood down after his club was investigated by ASADA.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Enforcing ethical behaviour</h2>
<p>This leads us to the second problem threatening ethics and integrity activities in the Australian sports anti-doping setting – the narrow and negative framing of such activities as punitive policy tools designed to enforce ethical behaviour.</p>
<p>The ethics and integrity units recently established by sporting codes, organisations and governments are largely designed with detection and enforcement ends in mind rather than education, enablement and prevention. These units focus on surveillance, investigation, intelligence gathering and analysis, auditing and compliance, links with enforcement, and sanctions or punishments. These are deficit-reduction not capacity-building approaches.</p>
<p>The domain of ethics and integrity behaviour in sport is more complicated than this narrow framing by the government and major sporting codes would suggest. On the one hand, research shows that there is agreement in the <a href="http://www98.griffith.edu.au/dspace/bitstream/handle/10072/41581/71700_1.pdf?sequence=1">general population</a> and among <a href="http://www.regional.gov.au/sport/programs/adrp-griffith-university-3.aspx">athletes</a> about the need for sports anti-doping measures.</p>
<p>But importantly, the evidence also reveals that <a href="http://www.tasa.org.au/uploads/2011/11/Connor-Huybers-Mazanov-R0154-Final.pdf">divergent views</a> exist amongst the general public, athletes and sports officials (and at different levels of sport) about the <a href="http://ausport.gov.au/supporting/integrity_in_sport/research/ethical_and_integrity_issues_in_sport">relative incidence and impact of drugs and doping in sport</a> alongside other ethical and integrity issues (such as violence, racism, corruption, gender attitudes), and the <a href="http://www98.griffith.edu.au/dspace/bitstream/handle/10072/41581/71700_1.pdf?sequence=1">acceptability of specific anti-doping responses</a>.</p>
<h2>Looking back to go forward</h2>
<p>A 2011 Australian Sports Commission-funded <a href="http://ausport.gov.au/supporting/integrity_in_sport/research/integrity_literature_review_2011">review</a> of integrity in sport literature made similar points. The reviewers made two important recommendations in the ethics and integrity area which make very clear the information needs in this area:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>There is a need for significant further research on the behaviour, values and attitudes relating to integrity and ethics among younger sports players.</p>
<p>There is a pressing need to empirically evaluate the context, social meanings and effectiveness of policies, processes and structures that are designed to foster ethical sporting behaviours. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Unfortunately, judging from recent ethics and integrity initiative’s in Australian sport, this important review appears to have gained little traction in the sports governance and policy sphere.</p>
<p>For real progress, we need need to start with a greater understanding of the social, cultural and environmental conditions that produce athletes who choose to play outside the rules. Australian sport deserves nothing less.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/15479/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>A/Prof Craig Fry is a current recipient of National Health and Medical Research Council and Australian Research Council funding. He leads the Culture and Values in Health research program at the Centre for Cultural Diversity and Wellbeing, Victoria University.</span></em></p>It’s been more than four months since Australia’s “blackest day” in elite sport, with allegations of widespread misuse of drugs and other substances. After several years of high-profile cases of drugs-in-sport…Craig Fry, NHMRC Career Development Fellow, Victoria UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.