Anti- doping system needs overhaul
The indignation of the IOC and its president, Thomas Bach, was rich.
Russia’s state- sponsored doping program was a “fundamental attack on the integrity of the Olympic Games and on sport in general,” the IOC said.
Anyone involved should be “excluded for life from participation in the Olympic Games in whatever capacity,” Bach added.
The kind of brazen cheating laid out in the second McLaren report Friday was made possible by Bach and his Olympic cronies’ steadfast refusal to do the right thing. It is impossible to promote the Olympic movement around the globe and keep competing countries honest at the same time, and in trying to do so the IOC failed its athletes again.
The anti- doping system is irreparably broken. Without a testing body that’s completely independent and requires compliance from nations and sports federations as the price of competition, it’s only amatter of time before another system failure occurs.
And there are only so many more existential crises the IOC can withstand before the rest of the world washes its hands of the whole sordid mess.
“There has to be some way to reform or improve or the risks are just huge to the Olympic movement,” said Roger Pielke Jr., director of the Sports Governance Center at the University of Colorado and author of The Edge: The War Against Cheating and Corruption in the Cutthroat World of Elite Sports. “( IOC and World Anti- Doping Agency leaders) have a role to play. But what real leadership would be would be to give up some power and invite some scrutiny from outside.”
There is no faith in the system and, really, why should there be? The events of the last year have proved that the people in power don’t have the will, or the resources, to protect the athletes.
“In the past few months, we’ve seen infighting,” said Richard McLaren, the Canadian lawyer who led the investigation of Russia’s doping program. “I find it difficult to understand why we’re not on the same team. We should all be working together to end doping in sports.”
If integrity is to be restored, there has to be a testing agency that is not beholden to the IOC, its member nations or the sports federations. Require the respective Olympic committees to sign on, agreeing to uninhibited and unannounced out- of- competition testing. Insist that the federations cede responsibility for sanctions. If anyone balks, they’re banned from competition. It’s severe, but it’s the only way forward.
“It’s a litmus test for sport leaders now,” said Max Cobb, president and CEO of US Biathlon and a longtime critic of the anti- doping system. “Systemic doping is a violation of the rights of athletes, it’s an affront to the health of athletes and it’s a perversion of sport as a propaganda tool. Now is the time when the sports leaders of the world need to say where they stand on that.”
Better yet, it’s time for them to take a stand. Create an independent testing system and give the athletes the level playing field they deserve.