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The drug rules don't work, time to fix themby Matt Slater - BBC Sport (U1647490) 15 November 2007   Imagine a world where a large international sports event is held, over 1,000 drugs tests are conducted to make sure everybody is playing fair and nobody is caught cheating. The best method the authorities currently have to deal with HGH is to catch somebody red-handed Wouldn’t you be tempted to level the playing field a bit if you thought the blokes in lanes three, five, six and eight were relying on more than just their God-given talent and work ethic?Because that is what happens when you rely on a flawed testing system that catches only the careless and stupid. Any cheat who knows what they’re doing can play the system with impunity and watch the medals, prize money and sponsorships pile up. The “whereabouts” system? Easy peasy. Tell the testers to come around to your house first thing. You could have taken a shot of human growth hormone before bedtime and still have a very good chance of beating the current test for that very popular drug. And if you don’t want to take that risk you can just stick your head out of the bedroom window, tell the testers you’ll be down in a minute and take whatever “precautions” your coach/chemist told you to take to spoil your sample. Random out-of-competition testing? Yes, that works, but only when it really is random and out-of-competition. Only the biggest/richest nations can afford genuine testing regimes so the rest rely on the international governing bodies to do their policing for them, which means a huge number of random, out-of-competition tests are nothing of the sort. They are very predictable tests taken during the competitive season. The current test for human growth hormone? No, sorry, that doesn’t work at all. Well, only if you were stupid enough to have a quick top-up before your race. The best method the authorities currently have to deal with this very, very effective performance-enhancing drug is to catch somebody red-handed. This is how Chinese swimmer Yuan Yuan was tripped up on the way to the 1991 world championships in Perth. Actor Sylvester Stallone would make the same mistake 16 years later when he was caught with 48 vials of Chinese-made Jintropin at Sydney Airport. He should have just ordered some off the internet and waited for it in the post. That’s what we did (just to prove we could, of course). I’m not sure we actually did get Jintropin from our source in Jakarta – I “met” him in a weightlifting chat room – but we definitely got 11 vials of something, three syringes and a dirty white sports sock, used, presumably, to protect our PEDs in the post. It’s difficult not to be cynical about doping and elite sport when you hear the likes of Conte and Sonksen tell you HGH use is rife and the good guys are still losing the battle We don’t actually intend to use them (and it would be illegal for me to supply them to somebody else, so don’t ask) but anybody that does want them, and can afford them, can have them. They’re readily available.According to Sonksen, an advisor on doping to the IOC, UK Sport and Wada, sport hasn’t moved very far on the HGH detection front since Yuan Yuan got busted. The frustrating thing for him is that the science is out there to move things on considerably. He knows this because the IOC asked him to find it in 1996 and he delivered a workable test three years later. His report is still gathering dust somewhere at Olympic HQ, while he refines, tweaks and waits for the powers-that-be to give him the green light to get on with catching cheats. When I asked him if IOC/Wada didn’t like his test because they were worried what they might find, the professor smiled and said, in his best House of Cards impression, “You might say that; I couldn’t possibly comment.” That line, first heard on British television around the time Yuan Yuan came a cropper, has since entered the public lexicon as an example of arch cynicism. And it’s difficult not to be cynical about doping when you hear the likes of Conte, Sonksen and others (who wished to remain nameless) tell you HGH use is rife and the good guys are still losing the battle. So come on, IOC. Come on, Wada. Let’s ditch “whereabouts” and move to genuinely random, targeted testing. And let’s use the best tests science can provide. Fans demand it, worried parents want it and clean athletes deserve it. Latest 10 commentsRead members' comments or add your own
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CMTommy (U10440536) posted Nov 20, 2007 Whilst there is large amounts of money at stake for competitors and sponsors alike, especially the Olympics, there will NO change in the drug testing. You can just see the Chinese Olympics competitors and their coaches rubbing their hands and counting the 'golds' already! Remember the Chinese Swimming cheats in Sydney.
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00_neoFrenchyFrench (U3330094) posted Nov 20, 2007 I wonder if WADA will now have the teeth to do anything about drugs in sport after the shambles the appointment of its new president was....
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gj1962 (U9987557) posted Nov 20, 2007 I personally would condone a life ban on drug cheats and stripping of all medals and records from their whole career. However, I'm not sure that this would stop cheating.
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deafspiderboris (U10507781) posted Nov 25, 2007 There is nothing faintly amusing in Dick Pound's outpourings in his time as WADA president. The fight against doping in sport is a serious issue and is not helped by having a sensationalist buffoon at the helm.
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worriedjrobbo (U5473073) posted Dec 10, 2007
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kokojambomon (U6817577) posted Dec 13, 2007 Why are drugs in Sport an Issue? Why do we care so much about catching cheats? More pertinently how much money is spent/wasted on drug testing?
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DavidHURST (U2136222) posted Dec 13, 2007 "It's quite simple, really. Three Rules:
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hockeyking0011 (U3182022) posted Jan 4, 2008 i always go to the opposite way of thinking on this topic, let EVERYONE take what they want. at least this way it would be totally even playing field, and people stay sports are to test the limits that the human body can reach, surely if nature gave us the brains to invent these drugs then they should be used to bring the human body to its full potential. just somethig to get you thinking
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cleardooley (U11076211) posted Feb 16, 2008 Everyone who has been an elite athlet knows that doping is a common - even "mandatory" - practice, accepted by institutions, governments, coaches, even athlets etc..
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robius3 (U2202417) posted Aug 21, 2008 Athletes who are caught cheating once, come back after a ban, need to go on testing probation for the rest of their sporting careers. So they get tested each month for every drug and doping technique on the planet. THis would have picked Bonski up and acted as a deterent. Comment on this article
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