Drug survey is worrying

WHILE we like to point at the wicked ways of the Russians, and others across the globe, who have cheated their way to Olympic medals, in the last few days it was time for Ireland’s greatest sports people to have a good look at themselves.

The revelation that 40 per cent of athletes here know others who have used banned substances is shocking. This was the figure presented this week by Dr Una May, the head of this country’s antidoping efforts, after doing the maths on an online survey conducted among 148 high performance athletes across 14 sports.

Sport Ireland’s Anti-Doping Programme plans to dig further. It might help us to understand the pressures facing our athletes.