I am currently in Berlin covering the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) Council meeting, which is being held in the Inter Continental hotel and its feels like I have been transported back in time.
That is because the last time the Council met in this city was at this very hotel in October 2003 and top of the agenda then was Dwain Chambers. A couple of weeks previously I had exclusively revealed the news that the British sprinter had tested positive for the banned anabolic steroid THG and his name was on the lips of everyone in the sport.
Fast forward six years and nothing has changed, it appears. The question in the hotel lobby everyone - from Sebastian Coe, who is a vice-president of the IAAF to the journalists covering the meeting - is: "How do you solve a problem like Dwain?" His newly published book, Race Against Me, has been like a hand grenade dropped on the sport. The lurid description about the extent of his drug-taking in the years between 2001 and 2003, and how easily he avoided detection have upset many. So have his allegations that half the United States team that competed in the Olympics at Beijing last year had either taken drugs or were still using them. Then there are the personal attacks on leading figures like Coe, Colin Moynihan and Niels de Vos.
He has certainly not set out to win friends and influence people. Which is fine - this is after all his story and his version of what happened - except that Chambers still wants to have a future in the sport. And it is therefore no surprise that those people running athletics are not exactly falling over themselves to help him achieve that. The IAAF are particularly upset because they feel that they have done everything they can to help rehabilitate the disgraced Briton. Lamine Diack, the organisation's President, even spoke out on behalf of Chambers last year when UK Athletics were trying to freeze him out and they have allowed him the opportunity to give back the prize and appearance money he fraudlently won while he was taking drugs on a pay as he earns basis. Their argument is if Chambers, as he keeps claiming, now wants to be a force for good why does he keep conjuring up such unhelpful headlines for a sport that is struggling to retain the hearts and minds of the public, jaded by so many drugs scandals involving its heroes? The final straw was insidethegames' story last week that Chambers has resumed a working relationship with Victor Conte, the man who had supplied him with the cocktail of drugs in the first place. Chambers claims that they are determined to put right what they did wrong and are now working on a revolutionary new technique that involves him alternately breathing low and high oxygen air through a hypoxicator in a techinque that causes the body to begin creating its own Erythropoietin (EPO), the hormone that stimulates red blood cell production. People are naturally suspicious of how Chambers is now managing to run faster now than he did before when he had enough rocket fuel in his body to power him to the moon. No other athlete coming back from a drugs ban has managed that before so it is natural that people want to know how come Chambers can do it. He can have no complaints about that, especially now he has again started working with Conte. The ironic thing is, that the amount of people here who have actually read the book that has got Chambers into so much new trouble, is a very small minority indeed. Coe, for example, whose private life is the subject of so many pages had not seen a copy until I showed him mine. I hope that the money Chambers received for writing the book is worth the aggravation it is now causing him. The only thing we can certain of is Dwain Chambers' name will still be on people's lips for a while yet.
Published: Inside the Games
By Duncan Mackay - 21 March 2009
Note: Duncan Mackay is the publisher and editor of insidethegames.com. He was the 2004 British Sports Journalist of the Year and was the athletics correspondent of The Guardian for 11 years. He was the writer that exposed Dwain Chambers as a drug
måndag 30 mars 2009
torsdag 26 mars 2009
Doping Buzz!!
Vienna blood bank investigation closed
Austrian authorities have closed their investigation of "Humanplasma", a blood bank in Vienna. Charges could not be brought because blood doping is illegal in Austria only since last summer.
The investigation was opened in January 2008, based on allegations that some 30 to 50world-class athletes, ranging from skiers to cyclists, had visited the facilities for forbidden blood transfusions.
Blood doping became illegal in Austria only in August 2008. Before that, illegal doping was defined to explicitly include the use of medications. There was no indication that the Clinic used any sort of medications, prosecutors said, nor was there evidence of insurance fraud.(SW)
Publ.// Latest Cycling News, March 25, 2009 Edited by Bjorn Haake
Fifa and Uefa unite against WADA doping rule
Uefa has joined Fifa in opposing a rule that would allow drug-testers to know the whereabouts of top footballers for an hour each day.
Fifa opposed the rule last week, and they were backed up on Tuesday at the Uefa executive committee meeting in Copenhagen.
The two authorities issued a joint statement saying: "The governing bodies of Fifa and Uefa formally reject the stance taken by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) concerning the 'whereabouts' rule and, more specifically, the individual location of team sports' athletes."
Dutch event follows Berlin by inviting Chambers to compete
• Dwain Chambers 'very grateful' for Dutch invitation
• Sprinter has been asked to attack all-comers record
Dwain Chambers has been invited to attack the Dutch 100 metres all-comers' record in Uden on Saturday 27 June. The event, which holds a Dutch national permit, is not part of the Euromeetings group which has advised its members not to allow former drug cheats into their competitions. Chambers, who served a two-year suspension after testing positive for THG in 2003, said: "Uden approached me and showed their hand by giving me a race which comes at a good time of the season. It's a good start for me and I'm very grateful for their offer."
Stephan Kreij, a spokesman for the meeting, told De Telegraaf: "We have a new Mondo track and would like to see how fast that is. Dwain has [done] his … sentence. It is an accepted phenomenon that an athlete returns after suspension."
Chambers will be asked to challenge the current record of 10.08sec achieved by the American Leroy Burrell in Hengelo in 1994. "I'm not saying it will happen but, after their help, I'll be giving it everything I have," added Chambers, who will attend a warm-weather camp next month in Florida. Publ:// guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 25 March 2009 11.37 GMT
Champion Steinigen said East German biathletes drank doping punch
Hamburg - East German biathletes were given banned substances in drinks during the 1980s, Olympic biathlon champion Jens Steinigen said Tuesday. Speaking to German Press Agency dpa Steinigen said that the practice was then stopped.
"The team doctor at the time then stopped this as there were obviously problems with giving the right doses. Nobody knew how much the athlete drank and thereby took doping substances," he said.
Steinigen, who competed for East Germany but won a relay gold for Germany at the 1992Games in Albertville, said that until 1985 performance-enhancing substances, mainly anabolic steroids like Oral-Turinabol, were mixed into sports drinks. (dpa)
:// Submitted by Mohit Joshi on Tue, 03/24/2009 - 14:34.
Austrian authorities have closed their investigation of "Humanplasma", a blood bank in Vienna. Charges could not be brought because blood doping is illegal in Austria only since last summer.
The investigation was opened in January 2008, based on allegations that some 30 to 50world-class athletes, ranging from skiers to cyclists, had visited the facilities for forbidden blood transfusions.
Blood doping became illegal in Austria only in August 2008. Before that, illegal doping was defined to explicitly include the use of medications. There was no indication that the Clinic used any sort of medications, prosecutors said, nor was there evidence of insurance fraud.(SW)
Publ.// Latest Cycling News, March 25, 2009 Edited by Bjorn Haake
Fifa and Uefa unite against WADA doping rule
Uefa has joined Fifa in opposing a rule that would allow drug-testers to know the whereabouts of top footballers for an hour each day.
Fifa opposed the rule last week, and they were backed up on Tuesday at the Uefa executive committee meeting in Copenhagen.
The two authorities issued a joint statement saying: "The governing bodies of Fifa and Uefa formally reject the stance taken by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) concerning the 'whereabouts' rule and, more specifically, the individual location of team sports' athletes."
Dutch event follows Berlin by inviting Chambers to compete
• Dwain Chambers 'very grateful' for Dutch invitation
• Sprinter has been asked to attack all-comers record
Dwain Chambers has been invited to attack the Dutch 100 metres all-comers' record in Uden on Saturday 27 June. The event, which holds a Dutch national permit, is not part of the Euromeetings group which has advised its members not to allow former drug cheats into their competitions. Chambers, who served a two-year suspension after testing positive for THG in 2003, said: "Uden approached me and showed their hand by giving me a race which comes at a good time of the season. It's a good start for me and I'm very grateful for their offer."
Stephan Kreij, a spokesman for the meeting, told De Telegraaf: "We have a new Mondo track and would like to see how fast that is. Dwain has [done] his … sentence. It is an accepted phenomenon that an athlete returns after suspension."
Chambers will be asked to challenge the current record of 10.08sec achieved by the American Leroy Burrell in Hengelo in 1994. "I'm not saying it will happen but, after their help, I'll be giving it everything I have," added Chambers, who will attend a warm-weather camp next month in Florida. Publ:// guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 25 March 2009 11.37 GMT
Champion Steinigen said East German biathletes drank doping punch
Hamburg - East German biathletes were given banned substances in drinks during the 1980s, Olympic biathlon champion Jens Steinigen said Tuesday. Speaking to German Press Agency dpa Steinigen said that the practice was then stopped.
"The team doctor at the time then stopped this as there were obviously problems with giving the right doses. Nobody knew how much the athlete drank and thereby took doping substances," he said.
Steinigen, who competed for East Germany but won a relay gold for Germany at the 1992Games in Albertville, said that until 1985 performance-enhancing substances, mainly anabolic steroids like Oral-Turinabol, were mixed into sports drinks. (dpa)
:// Submitted by Mohit Joshi on Tue, 03/24/2009 - 14:34.
tisdag 24 mars 2009
Dopity Dopity Dope
Cologna and Kowalczyk had barely set their new crystal globes down before the doping news started emerging yesterday.
In Austria, "an unnamed cyclist and former Austrian Nordic ski coach Walter Mayer, who was involved in the 2006 Turin Olympics doping scandal, have been arrested in connection with new doping allegations." Though the cyclist is being called "K" rather than being named, that letter happens to be the first letter in the surname of the disgraced climbing phenom Bernhard Kohl, who won (and the was stripped of) the King of the Mountains jersey at the '08 Tour de France. Mayer's hijinks at Torino led to lifetime Olympic bans for Austrian skiers Jürgen Pinter, Johannes Eder, Martin Tauber, and Roland Diethart and the biathletes Wolfgang Rottmann and Wolfgang Perner. The FIS also punished Eder, Tauber, and Diethard with two-year bans which will end in November 2009.
The most prominent and accomplished Austrian skier, Christian Hoffmann, narrowly avoided being caught up in the Mayer affair in Torino, but he was tripped up at Falun, where testing found his hemoglobin levels to be in excess of his normal profile and the FIS suspended him from competitions for two weeks. The Belarussian Sergei Dolidovich was also found to have overly high hemoglobin levels and received a five-day suspension from competition. Of course, the high hematocrit levels could result simply from natural overproduction and the effects of high-altitude training... Neither of which contributed to the positive test for EPO by the young - and successful - Russian sprinter, Natalia Matveeva at the Callaghan Valley World Cups. Her "B" sample will be tested on Tuesday, March 24.
Matveeva's countryman, Sergei Shiraev, fresh off a doping suspension handed down after the Sapporo World Championships, posted the fastest time in Sunday's 15km pursuit at Falun - nine seconds faster than Vincent Vittoz. Presumably, Shiraev is well rested. (Maddeningly, the Eurosport UK announcers couldn't explain why Shiraev hadn't raced in 2007 and 2008, and guessed that he'd just been on bad form, and fallen off the Russian team.)
I can affirm I doped with nothing but skiing science in the World Cup Prediction Challenge.
Published: Nordic Commentary Project
Posted by Christopher Tassava at 3:54 PM
Monday, March 23, 2009
In Austria, "an unnamed cyclist and former Austrian Nordic ski coach Walter Mayer, who was involved in the 2006 Turin Olympics doping scandal, have been arrested in connection with new doping allegations." Though the cyclist is being called "K" rather than being named, that letter happens to be the first letter in the surname of the disgraced climbing phenom Bernhard Kohl, who won (and the was stripped of) the King of the Mountains jersey at the '08 Tour de France. Mayer's hijinks at Torino led to lifetime Olympic bans for Austrian skiers Jürgen Pinter, Johannes Eder, Martin Tauber, and Roland Diethart and the biathletes Wolfgang Rottmann and Wolfgang Perner. The FIS also punished Eder, Tauber, and Diethard with two-year bans which will end in November 2009.
The most prominent and accomplished Austrian skier, Christian Hoffmann, narrowly avoided being caught up in the Mayer affair in Torino, but he was tripped up at Falun, where testing found his hemoglobin levels to be in excess of his normal profile and the FIS suspended him from competitions for two weeks. The Belarussian Sergei Dolidovich was also found to have overly high hemoglobin levels and received a five-day suspension from competition. Of course, the high hematocrit levels could result simply from natural overproduction and the effects of high-altitude training... Neither of which contributed to the positive test for EPO by the young - and successful - Russian sprinter, Natalia Matveeva at the Callaghan Valley World Cups. Her "B" sample will be tested on Tuesday, March 24.
Matveeva's countryman, Sergei Shiraev, fresh off a doping suspension handed down after the Sapporo World Championships, posted the fastest time in Sunday's 15km pursuit at Falun - nine seconds faster than Vincent Vittoz. Presumably, Shiraev is well rested. (Maddeningly, the Eurosport UK announcers couldn't explain why Shiraev hadn't raced in 2007 and 2008, and guessed that he'd just been on bad form, and fallen off the Russian team.)
I can affirm I doped with nothing but skiing science in the World Cup Prediction Challenge.
Published: Nordic Commentary Project
Posted by Christopher Tassava at 3:54 PM
Monday, March 23, 2009
måndag 23 mars 2009
EXCLUSIVE: Chambers should end all contact with Conte
Dwain Chambers should immediately end his controversial relationship with Victor Conte, the President of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) Lamine Diack said here today.
The disgraced British sprinter has resumed working with Conte, the owner of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operartive (Balco) and who supplied Chambers with the 300 illegal substances he took in the period 2001-2003.
As insidethegames revealed last week, Chambers admitted that they are working on a revolutionary new technique that involves him alternately breathing low and high oxygen air through a hypoxicator.
It supposedly causes the body to begin creating its own Erythropoietin (EPO), the hormone that stimulates red blood cell production and, if taken in a synthetic form, is illegal.
The method Chambers and Conte are pioneering is not banned, although the World Anti-Doping Agency have investiged it, but Diack has now warned the Londoner that he must end the association otherwise there will always be a cloud of suspicion hanging over him. When asked by insidethegames about the relationship, Diack said: "He should stop being in touch with this man who is dangerous for him and the sport.
"He [Conte[ has been sent to prison for what he did and the problems he caused Chambers, among many other athletes.
"Dwain Chambers has to break off all contacts with this man immediately."
Conte pleaded guilty in July 2005 to to one count of conspiracy to distribute steroids and a second count of laundering a portion of a cheque.
He was sentenced three months later to spend four months in prison and another four under house arrest.
Besides Chambers, athletes associated with Conte who have been banned include Marion Jones, who won five medals at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, including three gold, Tim Montgomery, the former world record holder for the 100 metres, and Kelli White, who won two gold medals the 2003 World Championships before testing positive and being stripped of her titles.
The IAAF admit they are powerless to prevent Chambers, who won the European indoor 60 metres title earlier this month, from working with Conte because it would too hard to police but there is growing frustration with him that his story is continuing to dominate the sport.
Sebastian Coe, the chairman of London 2012 who is also a vice-president of the IAAF, was among senior officials here who yesterday debated whether action should be taken against Coe for bringing the sport into disrepute after the publication of his book, Race Against Me. In the end, they decided it was up to UK Sport and UK Athletics to take action if any was necessary.
Coe said: "If you're saying to me, am I am ever comfortable about seeing people who have failed doping tests back on the track? "Then the answer is, no I'm not.
"I also recognise there is a practicality about what I am saying and that if you have a sanction and that sanction isn't a life ban, then you actually sometimes have to hold your nose and accept that people, within the laws of the sport, come back.
"If you're saying to me, am I ever going to be comfortable about seeing somebody who I know has cheated coming back into my sport? "The answer is no, I can't be."
Published// Insidethegame March 22
By Duncan Mackay in Berlin
Note: Duncan Mackay is the publisher and editor of insidethegames.com. He was the 2004 British Sports Journalist of the Year and was the athletics correspondent of The Guardian for 11 years. He was the writer that exposed Dwain Chambers as a drugs cheat.
The disgraced British sprinter has resumed working with Conte, the owner of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operartive (Balco) and who supplied Chambers with the 300 illegal substances he took in the period 2001-2003.
As insidethegames revealed last week, Chambers admitted that they are working on a revolutionary new technique that involves him alternately breathing low and high oxygen air through a hypoxicator.
It supposedly causes the body to begin creating its own Erythropoietin (EPO), the hormone that stimulates red blood cell production and, if taken in a synthetic form, is illegal.
The method Chambers and Conte are pioneering is not banned, although the World Anti-Doping Agency have investiged it, but Diack has now warned the Londoner that he must end the association otherwise there will always be a cloud of suspicion hanging over him. When asked by insidethegames about the relationship, Diack said: "He should stop being in touch with this man who is dangerous for him and the sport.
"He [Conte[ has been sent to prison for what he did and the problems he caused Chambers, among many other athletes.
"Dwain Chambers has to break off all contacts with this man immediately."
Conte pleaded guilty in July 2005 to to one count of conspiracy to distribute steroids and a second count of laundering a portion of a cheque.
He was sentenced three months later to spend four months in prison and another four under house arrest.
Besides Chambers, athletes associated with Conte who have been banned include Marion Jones, who won five medals at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, including three gold, Tim Montgomery, the former world record holder for the 100 metres, and Kelli White, who won two gold medals the 2003 World Championships before testing positive and being stripped of her titles.
The IAAF admit they are powerless to prevent Chambers, who won the European indoor 60 metres title earlier this month, from working with Conte because it would too hard to police but there is growing frustration with him that his story is continuing to dominate the sport.
Sebastian Coe, the chairman of London 2012 who is also a vice-president of the IAAF, was among senior officials here who yesterday debated whether action should be taken against Coe for bringing the sport into disrepute after the publication of his book, Race Against Me. In the end, they decided it was up to UK Sport and UK Athletics to take action if any was necessary.
Coe said: "If you're saying to me, am I am ever comfortable about seeing people who have failed doping tests back on the track? "Then the answer is, no I'm not.
"I also recognise there is a practicality about what I am saying and that if you have a sanction and that sanction isn't a life ban, then you actually sometimes have to hold your nose and accept that people, within the laws of the sport, come back.
"If you're saying to me, am I ever going to be comfortable about seeing somebody who I know has cheated coming back into my sport? "The answer is no, I can't be."
Published// Insidethegame March 22
By Duncan Mackay in Berlin
Note: Duncan Mackay is the publisher and editor of insidethegames.com. He was the 2004 British Sports Journalist of the Year and was the athletics correspondent of The Guardian for 11 years. He was the writer that exposed Dwain Chambers as a drugs cheat.
Doping tests must modernise
MOSCOW - DOPING tests in Russia must be modernised and tightened up in a bid to crack down on athletes using performance-enhancing drugs, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Monday.
'The main problems of doping tests in Russia have occurred because the existing methods here do not fit strict demands of up-to-date doping control in Europe,' Medvedev said after visiting a training centre in Sochi, the Russian Black Sea resort city that will host the 2014 Winter Olympics.
'Doping tests are one of the main parts in the process of preparing the country's athletes,' the president said, quoted by the ITAR-TASS news agency.
'We need to solve all the technical problems in this sphere, otherwise our problems with doping will continue.'
Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko replied that a new modern doping control center would be opened in Russia before the end of the year.
'There will be no more problems in dope testing for us in the near future,' Mutko said.
Earlier this year three Russian biathletes were suspended after failing dope testing.
Ekaterina Iourieva, who was leading the World Cup rankings when she was banned in February, along with compatriots Albina Akhatova and Dmitry Iaroshenko, all tested positive for banned substace EPO.
Meanwhile, the samples that were given by the 22-year-old ski sprinter Natalia Matveyeva at the seventh World Cup stage at Whistler, Canada, on January 16-18, showed the presence of EPO.
Last year several top-class Russian athletes were sidelined after failing drugs tests, missing their chances to perform at the Beijing Olympics. -- AFP
'The main problems of doping tests in Russia have occurred because the existing methods here do not fit strict demands of up-to-date doping control in Europe,' Medvedev said after visiting a training centre in Sochi, the Russian Black Sea resort city that will host the 2014 Winter Olympics.
'Doping tests are one of the main parts in the process of preparing the country's athletes,' the president said, quoted by the ITAR-TASS news agency.
'We need to solve all the technical problems in this sphere, otherwise our problems with doping will continue.'
Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko replied that a new modern doping control center would be opened in Russia before the end of the year.
'There will be no more problems in dope testing for us in the near future,' Mutko said.
Earlier this year three Russian biathletes were suspended after failing dope testing.
Ekaterina Iourieva, who was leading the World Cup rankings when she was banned in February, along with compatriots Albina Akhatova and Dmitry Iaroshenko, all tested positive for banned substace EPO.
Meanwhile, the samples that were given by the 22-year-old ski sprinter Natalia Matveyeva at the seventh World Cup stage at Whistler, Canada, on January 16-18, showed the presence of EPO.
Last year several top-class Russian athletes were sidelined after failing drugs tests, missing their chances to perform at the Beijing Olympics. -- AFP
Nilsson mordhotad av ryssar: ”Är en förklädnad”
De svenska skidskytteherrarna har börjat odla mustasch.
Anledningen?
Att skydda mordhotade Mathias Nilsson i världscupavslutningen i Ryssland.
– Det är för att de inte ska känna igen honom, säger Björn Ferry.
I början av februari i år fördömde skidskyttelandslagets Mathias Nilsson de tre ryska åkare som åkt fast för doping på sin blogg.
Det ledde till massiva hotmejl från ryska "supportrar".
En del av dem var rena mordhot och det har gått så långt att Nilsson blivit lovad livvakter i världscupavslutningen i ryska Chanty Mansijsk nästa helg.
”Är en förklädnad”
Men nu har de svenska skidskyttarna själva kommit på en plan för att skydda Nilsson.
Med hjälp av nyodlade mustascher ska det bli svårare att känna igen de svenska skyttarna i Ryssland.
– Det är egentligen en förklädnad. Jag vet inte vems idé det var, men vi fick för oss att vi skulle börja spara till Ryssland, säger landslagsstjärnan Björn Ferry till SVT.
”Trea av 70”
Frågan är dock hur pass bra de nyodlade mustascherna hjälper som förklädnad.
– "Nisses" (Mathias Nilsson) är riktigt tam så man känner igen honom ändå.
– Min är ändå hyfsad, den syns ju, men på en skala till 70 är det väl en trea, säger Ferry med ett leende.
Enligt Nilsson själv brukar landslaget av tradition hitta på något ovanligt inför sista världscupveckan - men tillägger med anledning av det som varit, med glimten i ögat:
– Det kanske fungerar bra med mustasch där borta. Den täcker dock inte så bra så jag får kanske gå till någon maskeradbutik.
Publicerad: 2009-03-22 12 DN Sport
Anledningen?
Att skydda mordhotade Mathias Nilsson i världscupavslutningen i Ryssland.
– Det är för att de inte ska känna igen honom, säger Björn Ferry.
I början av februari i år fördömde skidskyttelandslagets Mathias Nilsson de tre ryska åkare som åkt fast för doping på sin blogg.
Det ledde till massiva hotmejl från ryska "supportrar".
En del av dem var rena mordhot och det har gått så långt att Nilsson blivit lovad livvakter i världscupavslutningen i ryska Chanty Mansijsk nästa helg.
”Är en förklädnad”
Men nu har de svenska skidskyttarna själva kommit på en plan för att skydda Nilsson.
Med hjälp av nyodlade mustascher ska det bli svårare att känna igen de svenska skyttarna i Ryssland.
– Det är egentligen en förklädnad. Jag vet inte vems idé det var, men vi fick för oss att vi skulle börja spara till Ryssland, säger landslagsstjärnan Björn Ferry till SVT.
”Trea av 70”
Frågan är dock hur pass bra de nyodlade mustascherna hjälper som förklädnad.
– "Nisses" (Mathias Nilsson) är riktigt tam så man känner igen honom ändå.
– Min är ändå hyfsad, den syns ju, men på en skala till 70 är det väl en trea, säger Ferry med ett leende.
Enligt Nilsson själv brukar landslaget av tradition hitta på något ovanligt inför sista världscupveckan - men tillägger med anledning av det som varit, med glimten i ögat:
– Det kanske fungerar bra med mustasch där borta. Den täcker dock inte så bra så jag får kanske gå till någon maskeradbutik.
Publicerad: 2009-03-22 12 DN Sport
torsdag 19 mars 2009
The Tour de France announces its team selection for the '09 race and IAAF announces Doping Rule Violations!
Former Saunier Duval team not in 2009 Tour
PARIS (AP) — Twenty teams will compete at this summer's Tour de France, with the former Saunier Duval-Scott team excluded from cycling's premier race.
The Spanish team now called Fuji-Servetto quit the 2008 Tour when rider Riccardo Ricco tested positive for the blood-booster CERA after winning two stages. The team was also excluded from the recent Paris-Nice race. The 20 teams will have a total of 180 riders for the 96th edition of the Tour, which starts July 4 in the principality of Monaco. Seven-time Tour champion Lance Armstrong is returning to the race with the Astana team in a comeback after 3 1/2 years of retirement. France will enter five teams, the only country with more than two. The two U.S. teams are Garmin-Slipstream and Team Columbia-Highroad. On Tuesday, Ricco's two-year doping ban was reduced by four months. The decision by the Court of Arbitration for Sport means the Italian will be eligible to ride in the 2010 Giro d'Italia and Tour de France. Ricco appealed to CAS for a year ban because he gave information that helped French doping authorities catch teammate Leonardo Piepoli for CERA use.
Doping Rule Violations
The IAAF has recently been informed of the following Anti-Doping Rule Violations:
Mitchell POPE (USA) - 2 years ineligibility
Jordan VADEN (USA) - 2 years ineligibility
Lada CHERNOVA (RUS) - 2 years ineligibility
Svetlana NECHAYEVA (RUS) - 2 years ineligibility
Edi MAIA (POR) - Warning and Disqualification
Enrique LLANOS (PUR) - 2 years ineligibility
Manuel REPOLLET (PUR) - 2 years ineligibility
Andriy Yurin (UKR) - 1 year ineligibility
Further information on these violations can be found on the anti-doping section of the IAAF website: click here
PARIS (AP) — Twenty teams will compete at this summer's Tour de France, with the former Saunier Duval-Scott team excluded from cycling's premier race.
The Spanish team now called Fuji-Servetto quit the 2008 Tour when rider Riccardo Ricco tested positive for the blood-booster CERA after winning two stages. The team was also excluded from the recent Paris-Nice race. The 20 teams will have a total of 180 riders for the 96th edition of the Tour, which starts July 4 in the principality of Monaco. Seven-time Tour champion Lance Armstrong is returning to the race with the Astana team in a comeback after 3 1/2 years of retirement. France will enter five teams, the only country with more than two. The two U.S. teams are Garmin-Slipstream and Team Columbia-Highroad. On Tuesday, Ricco's two-year doping ban was reduced by four months. The decision by the Court of Arbitration for Sport means the Italian will be eligible to ride in the 2010 Giro d'Italia and Tour de France. Ricco appealed to CAS for a year ban because he gave information that helped French doping authorities catch teammate Leonardo Piepoli for CERA use.
Doping Rule Violations
The IAAF has recently been informed of the following Anti-Doping Rule Violations:
Mitchell POPE (USA) - 2 years ineligibility
Jordan VADEN (USA) - 2 years ineligibility
Lada CHERNOVA (RUS) - 2 years ineligibility
Svetlana NECHAYEVA (RUS) - 2 years ineligibility
Edi MAIA (POR) - Warning and Disqualification
Enrique LLANOS (PUR) - 2 years ineligibility
Manuel REPOLLET (PUR) - 2 years ineligibility
Andriy Yurin (UKR) - 1 year ineligibility
Further information on these violations can be found on the anti-doping section of the IAAF website: click here
måndag 16 mars 2009
No athlete who has previously served a 2 year anti doping ban can be nominated for the European Athlete of the Month.
European Athletics will name a male and female winner each month and feature the athlete on the European Athletics website. Selections are based on votes by the public, the media and a panel of European Athletics experts with each counting for 33.3% of the final vote.
Note:// Visit www.iaaf.org for the complete list of nominees.
Note:// Visit www.iaaf.org for the complete list of nominees.
Doping scandal hangs over Russian biathlon athletes
WHISTLER, B.C. — Robin Clegg, Canada’s senior international biathlete, just shook his head, smiled and said he wasn’t going to comment. He just wasn’t going to go there. The issue was doping and after another image-tarnishing scandal involving Russia at the sport’s world championships in Korea last month, many are treading carefully — particularly after reports that those critical of what they see as systemic problems in Russia had been threatened, either in person or by e-mail.
Then World Cup leader Ekaterina Iourieva and multiple world champions Dmitri Yaroshenko and Albina Akhatova were sent home from world championships following positive tests for what is believed to be a new generation of EPO, the banned blood booster.
“Unlike previous doping cases, we are now facing systematic doping on a large scale in one of the strongest teams in the world,” International Biathlon Union president Anders Besseberg said then. “Is that all or just the top of the iceberg?”
Canadian coach Geret Coyne believes it goes deeper and has added his voice to the call for penalties beyond the suspension of athletes in a sport that is hugely popular in Europe.
“I don’t think coaches believe it’s just one athlete hiding off in a corner going rogue,” Coyne said at the IBU World Cup in the Callaghan Valley. “This is systemic and where do you hit them to change their behaviour?
“The medical community in the IBU has been pretty strong in their testing and catching. The question is whether the penalties are teaching any lessons. That’s the frustration of many of the coaches on the circuit. Does this just mean three new (athletes) are coming and it’s going to take you three months before you find the profile there and then they’re out, too? If you have countries that have very big talent pools, they go through fairly easy.”
Biathlon has often been cited as the winter equivalent of doping-plagued cycling.
Olga Pyleva of Russia was stripped of her silver medal at the Turin Olympics in 2006 for a positive test. And two Austrian biathletes disappeared from Turin after police raided the biathlon and cross-country team bases and arrested ex-coach Walter Mayer, who had been banned from the 2006 and 2010 Olympics for drug offences at Salt Lake City in 2002. Besseberg said in an interview Thursday that the IBU believes there are “people behind” the doping of the Russian athletes, but will need the co-operation of the athletes to substantiate fully.Iourieva has already declared herself innocent and wondered what team doctors had done to her. Akhatova sees a conspiracy, saying she always felt “Russia is not well liked by the world, but after what has happened, it looks like we are simply hated.”
An IBU doping hearing panel and the Russian Biathlon Union have launched investigations into the most recent positive cases.
“If there are people belonging to the (RBU) who are behind it, then you can punish the federation itself,” said Besseberg. “But if there are people outside the federation then you cannot punish the federation.”
Meantime, Besseberg said he’s been assured by the RBU that foreign athletes and officials will be protected 24 hours a day during the World Cup final later this month in Khanty-Mansiysk. Last month, Wolfgang Pichler, coach of the Swedish team and a leading voice against doping, said he and his athletes had been threatened with death in e-mails originating from Russia after he called for the entire Russian team to be banned from the 2009 worlds and the 2010 Olympics.
“We have to take it seriously,” said Besseberg, noting other countries have been threatened. “As late as today, we have a statement from (World Cup organizers) that they will secure these people 24 hours a day, whether it’s at the stadium or the hotel.”
While watching training on Thursday, Pichler said he’s comfortable with the security assurances he’s been given. He was not, however, backing away from his insistence that the IBU take tougher measures to combat doping.
“Doping is a big problem in this sport,” said the grizzled veteran of the world’s biathlon coaches. “I think 90 per cent of the athletes are clean, but the rest we have to fight.”
BY GARY KINGSTON, CANWEST NEWS SERVICEMARCH 12, 2009
Note://Finnish biathlete beats life ban on technicality - Finnish biathlete Kaisa Varis has won an appeal to overturn her lifetime ban from the sport because of a technicality.Varis tested positive for the banned drug EPO, but the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled Friday that biathlon's governing body broke anti-doping rules by not giving her the chance to be represented when her backup sample was opened.The court said as a result, the "B" sample cannot be accepted as evidence against Varis.The 33-year-old Varis, who had a previous two-year ban for using EPO during her career as a cross-country skier, can now resume competing in biathlon. (LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP)
Then World Cup leader Ekaterina Iourieva and multiple world champions Dmitri Yaroshenko and Albina Akhatova were sent home from world championships following positive tests for what is believed to be a new generation of EPO, the banned blood booster.
“Unlike previous doping cases, we are now facing systematic doping on a large scale in one of the strongest teams in the world,” International Biathlon Union president Anders Besseberg said then. “Is that all or just the top of the iceberg?”
Canadian coach Geret Coyne believes it goes deeper and has added his voice to the call for penalties beyond the suspension of athletes in a sport that is hugely popular in Europe.
“I don’t think coaches believe it’s just one athlete hiding off in a corner going rogue,” Coyne said at the IBU World Cup in the Callaghan Valley. “This is systemic and where do you hit them to change their behaviour?
“The medical community in the IBU has been pretty strong in their testing and catching. The question is whether the penalties are teaching any lessons. That’s the frustration of many of the coaches on the circuit. Does this just mean three new (athletes) are coming and it’s going to take you three months before you find the profile there and then they’re out, too? If you have countries that have very big talent pools, they go through fairly easy.”
Biathlon has often been cited as the winter equivalent of doping-plagued cycling.
Olga Pyleva of Russia was stripped of her silver medal at the Turin Olympics in 2006 for a positive test. And two Austrian biathletes disappeared from Turin after police raided the biathlon and cross-country team bases and arrested ex-coach Walter Mayer, who had been banned from the 2006 and 2010 Olympics for drug offences at Salt Lake City in 2002. Besseberg said in an interview Thursday that the IBU believes there are “people behind” the doping of the Russian athletes, but will need the co-operation of the athletes to substantiate fully.Iourieva has already declared herself innocent and wondered what team doctors had done to her. Akhatova sees a conspiracy, saying she always felt “Russia is not well liked by the world, but after what has happened, it looks like we are simply hated.”
An IBU doping hearing panel and the Russian Biathlon Union have launched investigations into the most recent positive cases.
“If there are people belonging to the (RBU) who are behind it, then you can punish the federation itself,” said Besseberg. “But if there are people outside the federation then you cannot punish the federation.”
Meantime, Besseberg said he’s been assured by the RBU that foreign athletes and officials will be protected 24 hours a day during the World Cup final later this month in Khanty-Mansiysk. Last month, Wolfgang Pichler, coach of the Swedish team and a leading voice against doping, said he and his athletes had been threatened with death in e-mails originating from Russia after he called for the entire Russian team to be banned from the 2009 worlds and the 2010 Olympics.
“We have to take it seriously,” said Besseberg, noting other countries have been threatened. “As late as today, we have a statement from (World Cup organizers) that they will secure these people 24 hours a day, whether it’s at the stadium or the hotel.”
While watching training on Thursday, Pichler said he’s comfortable with the security assurances he’s been given. He was not, however, backing away from his insistence that the IBU take tougher measures to combat doping.
“Doping is a big problem in this sport,” said the grizzled veteran of the world’s biathlon coaches. “I think 90 per cent of the athletes are clean, but the rest we have to fight.”
BY GARY KINGSTON, CANWEST NEWS SERVICEMARCH 12, 2009
Note://Finnish biathlete beats life ban on technicality - Finnish biathlete Kaisa Varis has won an appeal to overturn her lifetime ban from the sport because of a technicality.Varis tested positive for the banned drug EPO, but the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled Friday that biathlon's governing body broke anti-doping rules by not giving her the chance to be represented when her backup sample was opened.The court said as a result, the "B" sample cannot be accepted as evidence against Varis.The 33-year-old Varis, who had a previous two-year ban for using EPO during her career as a cross-country skier, can now resume competing in biathlon. (LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP)
torsdag 12 mars 2009
Sport doping test is 'not fit for purpose' experts warn
Some athletes could be 'getting away' with doping because their genes allow them to pass drug tests even if they have been using illegal substances, a research paper has found. The current urine test is ‘not fit for purpose’ and should be changed, scientists said in the British Medical Journal online. An analysis found that different thresholds should be set according to ethnic group because of the prevenance of a certain genetic fault varies in each. The genetic fault could allow an athlete to take testosterone to enhance their performance but still test negative for doping. The fault is estimated to be present in one fifth of the African population, eight out of ten Asians, ten per cent of Caucasians and seven per cent of Hispanics. Sport testing authorities set a ratio of testosterone to epitestosterone glucuronide concentration (T/E) at four, with anything above that triggering an investigation for possible doping. The genetic fault affects how the body breaks down testosterone so an athlete with the fault could take the substance but still have a T/E ratio of less than four. Research from the Laboratory for Doping Analyses, University Centre of Legal Medicine, in Switzerland, calculated that the threshold should be set at 5.6 for African athletes, 3.8 for Asians, 5.7 for Caucasians and 5.8 for Hispanics. The study was carried out on 171 professional football players. Research author Dr Christophe Saudan and colleagues said it would be better to track individual athletes’ own ratios over time and look for changes. Genetic profiling should also be used to determine cases where disparities remain.
He write: “These results demonstrate that a unique and non-specific threshold to evidence testosterone misuse is not fit for purpose.”Prof Vivien James, emeritus professor of chemical pathology at Imperial College London said it would not be practical to enforce.
He said: “There are ethnic differences in people in the way they handle testosterone and this could provide a method for some people to get under the radar of the drug testing system. Introducing a passport would be a more secure way of monitoring T/E ratios over time so you could look for disturbances in the pattern.”
Prof Peter Sonksen, Emeritus Professor of Endocrinology St Thomas’ Hospital and King’s College London, said the ratios proposed by the research authors would probably not be acceptable in professional sport because it would mean one ‘clean’ athlete would wrongly test positive for doping for every 100 tests carried out.
He added: “It’s not all bad news, however; the increasingly popular ‘athlete’s passport’ and ‘I’m clean’ approach to doping control, where an athlete builds a profile of his/her own metabolism over time as the results of samples accumulate, will allow ‘athlete specific’ reference ranges to be established and these will clearly be lower in people with the gene mutation.
“With this approach it should make the testing more fair and less influenced by ethnicity.”
A spokesman for UK Sport, the national anti-doping organisation, said: “We have already been working on Steroid Profiling, through which we can pick up anomalies in an athlete’s profile which might not necessarily mean prohibited substances are showing up at levels sufficient for them to return elevated T/E, but they provide information which might suggest the need for further investigation or targeted testing."
by Rebecca Smith, Medical Editor
Last Updated: 2:58PM GMT 11 Mar 2009
He write: “These results demonstrate that a unique and non-specific threshold to evidence testosterone misuse is not fit for purpose.”Prof Vivien James, emeritus professor of chemical pathology at Imperial College London said it would not be practical to enforce.
He said: “There are ethnic differences in people in the way they handle testosterone and this could provide a method for some people to get under the radar of the drug testing system. Introducing a passport would be a more secure way of monitoring T/E ratios over time so you could look for disturbances in the pattern.”
Prof Peter Sonksen, Emeritus Professor of Endocrinology St Thomas’ Hospital and King’s College London, said the ratios proposed by the research authors would probably not be acceptable in professional sport because it would mean one ‘clean’ athlete would wrongly test positive for doping for every 100 tests carried out.
He added: “It’s not all bad news, however; the increasingly popular ‘athlete’s passport’ and ‘I’m clean’ approach to doping control, where an athlete builds a profile of his/her own metabolism over time as the results of samples accumulate, will allow ‘athlete specific’ reference ranges to be established and these will clearly be lower in people with the gene mutation.
“With this approach it should make the testing more fair and less influenced by ethnicity.”
A spokesman for UK Sport, the national anti-doping organisation, said: “We have already been working on Steroid Profiling, through which we can pick up anomalies in an athlete’s profile which might not necessarily mean prohibited substances are showing up at levels sufficient for them to return elevated T/E, but they provide information which might suggest the need for further investigation or targeted testing."
by Rebecca Smith, Medical Editor
Last Updated: 2:58PM GMT 11 Mar 2009
It’s all about Project Bolt!
DWAIN CHAMBERS has confessed he is still working with infamous nutritionist Victor Conte — the man who supplied the drugs that cost him a two-year worldwide ban.They are involved in a high-altitude training regime that appears to deliver even better results than the drugs sprinter Chambers was caught cheating with in 2003.Last week Chambers, 30, ran 6.42sec — the third-fastest 60 metres time in history — in the semi-finals of the European Indoor Championships in Turin. Then he landed gold in the final. But his continued relationship with Conte, founder of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative in California, and refusal to abandon former trainer Remi Korchemny, convicted in the BALCO investigation, is sure to raise eyebrows.Conte spent four months in jail and four under house arrest after Chambers’ drugs bust. But both insist their new bid to improve the English runner’s times by hundredths of a second is totally legal.Chambers is believed to be the first elite sprinter to try a technology called intermittent hypoxic training — alternately breathing low and high-oxygen air for several minutes. He said: “This allows me to have a deeper training load. I suffer less lactic acid, delivering more oxygen to my muscles.
“It’s a shame we didn’t know this five years ago.
“The relationship with Victor really never went sour.
“I am totally drug-free. I’ve forgiven him, he’s forgiven me.
“I don’t blame him for anything that occurred. I ruined my career, nobody else did. My relationship with him now is on an educational basis. The information they require from me about when to test, I ask Victor for that and give it to the relevant bodies.” Conte said: “The last time I gave any athlete performance-enhancing drugs was in August of 2003. My days of wrong-doing ended the day of the BALCO raid. Now Dwain is absolutely blazing a new trail.
“Everyone thought simulated altitude training was all about endurance athletes. No one thought of applying this to explosive sprinting.”
For three days, Chambers breathes air thinned to 10,000 feet for five minutes and then rests for about an hour. Over the coming days of a two-week spell, the oxygen is thinned to 12,500ft, 15,000ft and finally 20,000ft. In his autobiography ‘Race Against Me’ Chambers wrote that from 2002 to 2003 under Conte he was a “walking junkie” who took “more than 300 different concoctions” of drugs that cost him $30,000 a year. Eventually he tested positive for the steroid THG.
Now he is back and intent on dethroning Jamaican sprint sensation Usain Bolt — with Korchemny on board. Chambers added: “He still helps as much as he can. He wants to try and correct where we went wrong. It’s all about Project Bolt.”
By GEOFF SWEET
“It’s a shame we didn’t know this five years ago.
“The relationship with Victor really never went sour.
“I am totally drug-free. I’ve forgiven him, he’s forgiven me.
“I don’t blame him for anything that occurred. I ruined my career, nobody else did. My relationship with him now is on an educational basis. The information they require from me about when to test, I ask Victor for that and give it to the relevant bodies.” Conte said: “The last time I gave any athlete performance-enhancing drugs was in August of 2003. My days of wrong-doing ended the day of the BALCO raid. Now Dwain is absolutely blazing a new trail.
“Everyone thought simulated altitude training was all about endurance athletes. No one thought of applying this to explosive sprinting.”
For three days, Chambers breathes air thinned to 10,000 feet for five minutes and then rests for about an hour. Over the coming days of a two-week spell, the oxygen is thinned to 12,500ft, 15,000ft and finally 20,000ft. In his autobiography ‘Race Against Me’ Chambers wrote that from 2002 to 2003 under Conte he was a “walking junkie” who took “more than 300 different concoctions” of drugs that cost him $30,000 a year. Eventually he tested positive for the steroid THG.
Now he is back and intent on dethroning Jamaican sprint sensation Usain Bolt — with Korchemny on board. Chambers added: “He still helps as much as he can. He wants to try and correct where we went wrong. It’s all about Project Bolt.”
By GEOFF SWEET
tisdag 10 mars 2009
Tema Doping!
Det andas korridor och böcker, förväntan och puls. Kliver in på Östra Skolan, Hudiksvall. Tema för dagen: Doping, droger, gymvärlden och IOGT. Själv är jag inbjuden att snacka Ren Idrott. Dom blir en aning överraskade. Av vana och disträ oinspiration ser man hur första gänget till min ”föreläsning” långsamt släntrar in i rummet. Mina adepter för dagen ett gäng 15-åringar klass 9. Totalt ca 120 elever uppdelade på tre grupper.
- Välkommen!
- uh!! …Morron…
- Så, ”Doping va´e´de´?
- Uh! Va!?
Det går hem varje gång. Plötsligt ser man sig lite nervöst omkring, frågande och funderande. Vad menar hon? Ska jag tänka till? …
- Precis, använd papperet ni fick och ge mig ett ord, en mening om vad Doping är för dig! - Ni har en minut!
Man ser förändringen. Pennan skriver, tanken kommer igång och små diskussioner skapas.
- Minute up!
Jag har fångat deras intresse. Hårt håller man i sin papperslapp och lyssnar intensivt de resterande 40 minuter som vår föreläsning/diskussion/samtal pågår. Vi avverkar dopingens historia, blir generade över penis och tjurtestiklar, skrattar åt ungerska dopingkontrollanter som motar in en i spegelbeklädda toaletter och uppmanar att ”spread your legs” och vi förfasas över de konsekvenser som blir genom användande av otillåtna preparat.
Så, vad är doping?! Plötsligt verkar frågan logisk och jag får många svar.
- ”Fusk!”,
- ”Det är när man tar droger för att förändra sin kropp så man får mer muskler!”
- ”Farligt!”
- ”Doping är när man tar droger/steroider för att prestera bättre eller må bättre. Det är inte alltid som det går bättre!”
- ”Fel!”
- ”Doping är otillåtna tabletter som gör att man tex får bättre syreupptagningsförmåga!”
- ”Förbjudet!”
- ”Förstörelse för en själv och andra!”.
Alla har rätt. Alla har tänkt till och alla förstår. Tempot och klivet ur klassrummet ligger plötsligt på en annan nivå. Borta är det trötta och oinspirerade. Ut går samtal och tänkande diskussioner. När jag kliver ut andas fortfarande korridor och böcker och känns det roligt att vara i skolans värld. En värld i förändring och insupande av kunskap! Idag Tema Doping!
Note: På Östra Skolan i Hudiksvall går ca 460 högstadieelever åk 7-9.
- Välkommen!
- uh!! …Morron…
- Så, ”Doping va´e´de´?
- Uh! Va!?
Det går hem varje gång. Plötsligt ser man sig lite nervöst omkring, frågande och funderande. Vad menar hon? Ska jag tänka till? …
- Precis, använd papperet ni fick och ge mig ett ord, en mening om vad Doping är för dig! - Ni har en minut!
Man ser förändringen. Pennan skriver, tanken kommer igång och små diskussioner skapas.
- Minute up!
Jag har fångat deras intresse. Hårt håller man i sin papperslapp och lyssnar intensivt de resterande 40 minuter som vår föreläsning/diskussion/samtal pågår. Vi avverkar dopingens historia, blir generade över penis och tjurtestiklar, skrattar åt ungerska dopingkontrollanter som motar in en i spegelbeklädda toaletter och uppmanar att ”spread your legs” och vi förfasas över de konsekvenser som blir genom användande av otillåtna preparat.
Så, vad är doping?! Plötsligt verkar frågan logisk och jag får många svar.
- ”Fusk!”,
- ”Det är när man tar droger för att förändra sin kropp så man får mer muskler!”
- ”Farligt!”
- ”Doping är när man tar droger/steroider för att prestera bättre eller må bättre. Det är inte alltid som det går bättre!”
- ”Fel!”
- ”Doping är otillåtna tabletter som gör att man tex får bättre syreupptagningsförmåga!”
- ”Förbjudet!”
- ”Förstörelse för en själv och andra!”.
Alla har rätt. Alla har tänkt till och alla förstår. Tempot och klivet ur klassrummet ligger plötsligt på en annan nivå. Borta är det trötta och oinspirerade. Ut går samtal och tänkande diskussioner. När jag kliver ut andas fortfarande korridor och böcker och känns det roligt att vara i skolans värld. En värld i förändring och insupande av kunskap! Idag Tema Doping!
Note: På Östra Skolan i Hudiksvall går ca 460 högstadieelever åk 7-9.
måndag 9 mars 2009
Kalla´rem varu vill men dopingtester bör utföras även under perioder då atleten är avstängd!
Helt underbart att se Kalla i sin karakterisktiska slitarstil. Målmedveten, stark och med en kombination av rå vinnarskalle och otrolig ödmjukhet. Inte undra på att hon är populär. Och visst spelar det roll. Atleternas attityd och dess framtoning. Satt som många andra klistrad framför skidor, cykling och friidrott denna helg och följde med intresse dessa atleters vilja att lyckas. Men av alla var det Dwain Chambers som stack ut. Han är tillbaka igen efter två års avstängning och mannen är ju otroligt snabb. Bara hundradelar från Greens WR och EM Guldet var liksom från början hans. Men frågan är om man riktigt "unnar" honom denna seger. För det första har han attityd, mannen... och då menar jag inte en humant ödmjuk. För det andra vet vi hur de senaste årens diskussioner har gått och hur kontroversiellt beslutet faktiskt var att åter ta in Chambers i GB's team. Han är verkligen bättre än någonsin, inte att förakta. Men åter måste vi ifrågasätta hur atleter hanteras och kollas under deras avstängda period. Här ligger nyckeln till min och säkerligen mångas tviviel. Och ett tvivel för att återfå tro till prestationer. Vi vet att idag utförs inga dopingtester under perioden atleten är avstängd, här gäller inga whereabouts. Detta måste vi ändra på. Att atleter kommer tillbaka efter avslutat straff är en egen debatt men att komma tillbaka och under en två års period haft alla möjligheter till upplägg och grundande till nya stordåd - utan att vara kollad av vare sig förbund eller IAAF och WADA måste ifrågasättas. I en ambition att återfå publikt förtroende bör detta finnas med på prioriteringslistan när det gäller antidopingarbetet. Samtidigt som det bör vara en klar skyldighet gentemot övriga aktiva!
Note: Brittiska sprintern Dwain Chambers dopade sig mer än 300 gånger under ett år utan att åka fast, avslöjar han i sin nya bok "Race Against Me".
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