‘Slap on wrist won’t stop the drug cheats’
WADA founder ponders the big sports question
One of the leading figures in the fight against blood doping in world sport came to Stirling this week.
Dick Pound, the first president and one of the founders of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), hosted a lecture titled “The Big Sporting Question: doping in sport, is there a way forward?”, at the University of Stirling last night (Thursday).
The 74-year-old Canadian joined Stirling academic and anti-doping expert Dr Paul Dimeo, who has been appointed chair of the USA Cycling AntiDoping Committee, to discuss drug cheating in sport and whether it can ever be eradicated.
As a swimmer, Mr Pound competed for Canada and won a gold medal at the 1962 Empire and Commonwealth Games.
He served as vicepresident of the International Olympics Committee (IOC) but since playing a key role in the formation of WADA in 1999, he has worked to clean up sport of drugs cheating at all levels – and has recently helped highlight the issue of doping in Russian athletics.
Speaking before his lecture at the university, he covered a range of topics including the ban imposed on tennis star Maria Sharapova, drugs in football and golf, and even the circumstances surrounding Stirling skier Alain Baxter being stripped of the bronze medal he won at the 2002 Winter Olympics.
Baxter tested positive for the banned stimulant levomethamphetamine after finishing third in the men’s slalom at the Salt Lake City Olympics of 2002, resulting in him being stripped of his bronze medal.
However it later emerged that the trace found in his system came from an American version of a Vicks nasal spray he had used. Months later at the Court of Arbitration for Sport he was cleared of being a drugs cheat but is still yet to have his cherished medal returned, despite a longrunning campaign.
Mr Pound said: “There was a similar case at the games in Sydney where a teenage gymnast was given a pill by her doctor. She had whatever advantage came with it but it was clearly no fault of hers. Instead of booting her out of the games she had to give up her medal.
“We had a Canadian rower a few years ago who took something after asking her doctor. They said she was fine to take it but she tested positive and the whole boat was disqualified.
“You do catch some who have done it inadvertently with no intention to dope, but they have still had the advantage of whatever the substance contained.
“What we want is to catch the ones who are doing it deliberately and professionally, and are getting away with it.
“Is the drug likely to enhance performance, is it likely to be dangerous to the health of the athlete, and does it violate the defined term called the spirit of sport?
“If it meets any two of these it goes on the list.”
Last month Russian tennis star Maria Sharapova admitted testing positive for banned substance meldonium and was provisionally suspended from competition by the International Tennis Federation (ITF).
Mr Pound said: “I listen to Sharapova and I’m thinking - who is advising her? She said there was diabetes in the family but the amount of exercise she gets she’s not going to get diabetes.
“You’re earning millions of dollars a year and all of which depends on you being able to swing a racket and compete in competition. What was she thinking?”
He insists he is looking forward to the time when drugs would be eradicated from sport, adding: “It’s disappointing that they would cheat but you want to know why they have cheated and why they think they could get away with it.
“The problem will one day go away as the certainty of being found out increases, and as the anti-doping agencies impose more meaningful sanctions.
“Nobody is going to change conduct if it is a slap on the wrist or a reprimand, but if you’re out for four years, that’s a big chunk of your sporting life.
“A big challenge is to make it easier and safer for whistleblowers to disclose what they know.
“If you’re out there on the field of play you know if you are being cheated by an opponent, but athletes don’t want to speak out about it. Probably because sports organisations are really tough on whistleblowers.
“They get treated worse than the perpetrators so there’s not much incentive to do it. The people at the top of these organisations don’t want any waves so it’s far easier to deny it.
“Those doing it should know that you can’t hide it forever, though. Somebody else knows so you’re always at risk. You don’t know why they might rat you out but it could happen.”
Mr Pound also made reference to possible issues with doping in professional football and golf – claiming football was in “self-denial” when it came to the issue.
He said: “About three of four years ago we [WADA] looked at the FIFA list, the world’s largest sport. You know how many registered athletes they had on their [registered testing pool] list, in the whole world? Ten. So that’s not a serious indication. There’s a huge amount of self-denial.”
And he added: “We’ve all seen the shape changes in golfers and the distances they are hitting now. We know that the equipment is better and the balls are better but it isn’t just that.”
Nobody is going to change conduct if it is a slap on the wrist or a reprimand