Keep these drug cheats away from our Games
THE ISSUE of drugs in sport will be back in the headlines when the British Olympic Association’s lifetime ban goes in front of the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne on March 12.
If the BOA lose then the likes of sprinter Dwain Chambers and cyclist David Millar will be free to compete at London 2012. My views are clear: they should not be at this Olympics or any Olympics.
I’d just like someone to explain to me, if you’ve got an exclusive club (the BOA) and you’ve got certain rules ( a lifetime exclusion for serious offenders) and one of your members goes against those rules, why can’t you throw him out? Why should international law make you take him back?
I don’t see why we should be dragged down by the rest of the world, who impose a maximum two-year ban on even the most motivated cheaters. If we want high standards in this country then we should be entitled to them. If the rest of the world don’t share our standards or can’t enforce them why should we have to kowtow?
One more thing I’d like to know: the World Anti-doping Agency have spent £118million since 2001, and £18.6m in 2010, the last year for which they published their financial records, and they have caught virtually nobody. That’s before you add the almost £ 200m spent annually by international federations and national anti-doping agencies.
The only people who have caught anyone are the law enforcement agencies. Who cracked BALCO, the San Francisco-based drugs laboratory? It wasn’t principally WADA. It was the US Federal government.
So I want to know what WADA are doing? They are meant to be policing my sport — for me, not the cheats. They are meant to be looking after the little guy. They are not doing any of that. So, tell me this, why are they still in existence?
I thought they were going to bring some clarity to the issue of drugtaking in sport. To try to make sure that athletes and spectators weren’t cheated. That’s not what they have done. What they have done is tried to establish a consensus over punishments.
They have come up with the minimum they can impose. I want them to be in court all the time — fighting cheats, not the BOA. WADA are not taking their job seriously. They are beancounters and do-gooders — well, why don’t they do some good for the people who have always competed fairly?
The BOA’S opponents say cheats deserve a second chance, redemption. Well, for redemption you first have to be sorry. And don’t tell me that Marion Jones is sorry she systematically took performanceenhancing drugs. No, she’s sorry she got caught. She lied under oath and only admitted to her crime in a plea-bargain after an FBI investigation. David Millar is sorry — sorry he got caught. Dwain Chambers is sorry he got caught. It angers me that people in positions who should know better, and who are clearly not in the majority, are more worried about the perpetrators’ rights than the victims’. And in sport — which I think should have higher standards than the rest of society — justice has swung too far in the wrong direction.
I know there are various levels of offences. People buying a flu remedy over the counter. Take the skier Alain Baxter being banned for using a dodgy Vicks inhaler after winning bronze at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics. I don’t care about that kind of thing. I also accept there are some grey areas in the debate. But I’m saying that for serial/ serious offenders: don’t come back.
I don’t think the BOA have the best reputation in the world, and I’ve not always been an admirer of what they’ve done, but over this they are dead right. Sport is based on Utopian ideals. That’s how it should be — even if it’s not the real world.
We talk about London’s legacy. About getting kids to play sport. About beating obesity. That’s great but we need sport to fight against drugs for the next generation. Seb Coe feels as strongly about this as I do. I think he knows that if we don’t adhere to those ideals then in 50 years’ time we won’t have sport. You can’t have sport when it’s unfair and drugs are endemic.