Stain on all athletes

MONTHS ago, disgraced super athlete Lance Armstrong said that even with hindsight he would dope again were he to start over – because it was a time in competitive cycling when everyone was at it.

He was referring to the state of his sport 20 years ago, and stipulated that he would not do so in the present, cleaner era. Revelations in recent weeks about the extent of chemical performance enhancement in international athletics show, though, that it was by no means confined to cycling, nor to a past era.

Extensive media investigations involving retests of blood samples and interviewing hundreds of athletes produced a finding that one in three medals in world athletics between 2001 and 2012 was won by those with odd blood readings.

The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) has challenged these studies.

But it is significant that the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada), with an annual budget of $30 million (R388 million), is not coping with its workload. So desperate is Wada in arresting enhancement that it is considering banning entire countries from international competition. This in the light of evidence that teams are, in the pursuit of medals, concealing cheating.

TOMORROW the 15th World Championships in athletics start in Beijing under a massive, fresh doping cloud. This is not about individuals, but general practice. It sullies all sport.

As the gun goes off in the Bird’s Nest stadium, the question is whether we will be watching athlete vs athlete, or chemist vs chemist.

Since the disclosures in past weeks, the IAAF has instituted measures against 28 athletes in the 2005 and 2007 world championships – not quite the scandalous numbers being bandied about, but considerable shame nonetheless.

Reaction to the election this week of British hero Sebastian Coe as new president of the IAAF showed that one of the main hopes for his tenure is victory over doping.

He has a mighty battle on his hands to clean up the world of athletics.