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Gordon Farquhar

Why Russian drug tests could be tip of much bigger scandal


Beijing

Professor Arne Ljunqvist is a scientist whose entire inclination is to deal in facts.

He's not a man prone to exaggeration or hysteria.

So when the Chairman of the IOC's Medical Commission, and Vice President of Wada calls the suspension of seven Russian women athletes a case of, "systematic planned cheating," we need to take notice.

I know the women concerned haven't faced their disciplinary hearings yet, and are protesting their innocence, but let's just think about this again.

The IAAF are convinced they were tipped off and knew the testers were coming to carry out these out of competition tests.

By whom?

I know the IAAF are sure it wasn't someone inside their own organisation, so let's assume they're right.

Who else could be party to that information? The office issuing the visas to the testers? Someone at the Russian Athletics Federation?

Surely it's a narrow field of suspicion.

Two of the named athletes, Tatyana Tomashova (centre) and Olga Yegorova (left), won gold and silver in 1500m at the 2005 World Championships

That begs the question, what should be done?

The Balco scandal was one of lies and deceit among a relatively small number of people.

The implications of this case could include collusion, systematic fraud, a complete betrayal of trust.

The method of cheating apparently used by the women is a crude old favourite.

Think back to the cases of Katrin Krabbe, Grit Breuer and Silke Moeller in 1992.

All three were found to have given identical urine samples at a training camp in South Africa, although they were later cleared on a technicality...(Krabbe and Breuer were caught out later, and were banned for a year.)

For urine replacement to be effective, the contents of the individual's bladder have to be emptied, then replaced with "clean" urine from a third party, and the sample given promptly.

In other words, it requires prior warning.

The IAAF seem to have little choice other than to carry out a full investigation into the circumstances surrounding this case.

Gordon Farquhar is BBC 5 Live's sports news and Olympics correspondent. Our FAQs should answer any questions you have.


Comments

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  • 1. At 11:35am on 06 Aug 2008, varitek wrote:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Begging_the_question

    Complain about this comment

  • 2. At 2:46pm on 06 Aug 2008, DCHeretic wrote:

    Not only does the IOC need to investigate the doping, but the Russian government must take public actions to deter doping among its athletes. After the BALCO scandal in the USA, the US Congress held public hearings about doping among US athletes and an American Olympic star, Marion Jones, is currently serving a jail sentence for her role in the doping scheme.

    There is no room for cheats at the Olympics.

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  • 3. At 8:36pm on 06 Aug 2008, n c wrote:

    Note to bbc mods

    What kind of filters are you using? Or is it something else? I can't post anything. What's the use of pretending you are running a blog here if people can't contribute anything? At least you could have given a list of those filtered words or whatever -- what people are not supposed to say. the funny thing is I can write that, say, Gordon is an idiot and that will be duly posted but I can't post legitimate arguments against Gordon's assertions.

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  • 4. At 4:53pm on 12 Aug 2008, pdduggan wrote:

    varitek: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedant

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  • 5. At 7:48pm on 14 Aug 2008, shivfan wrote:

    The Jamaicans are right to complain....

    32 tests in five days is ridiculous! I wonder how often the American team or British team is tested.

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  • 6. At 9:16pm on 14 Aug 2008, QPR4Me wrote:

    Mikesiva,

    You may have a point that could be justified, but only when Jamaica takes responsibility for its own athletes. As yet Jamaica (or the US for that matter) has no comprehensive drugs testing regime. The only time their athletes are tested is by the World Anti Drugs Testing agencies. As for the claims that the drugs tests would leave Jamaican athletes weak for competition, grow up and get a life. The amounts of blood involved are too small for the body to notice and just stink of a ready made excuse for when  "the drugs don't work".

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