Finalfälten på 3 000 meter hinder kan se annorlunda ut i framtiden. Mustafa Mohameds tränare Ulf Friberg vill införa blodpass för att stävja dopningsfusket. - Det verkar bli verklighet redan i höst, säger Friberg till TT.
Under EM i Göteborg 2006 hade hela 23 friidrottare hb-värden över de normala gränsvärdena. Ingen kunde dock fällas för dopning då inga otillåtna substanser kunde hittas i blodet.
- Tydligen gäller det att göra testerna vid rätt tillfällen, det kan röra sig om några få timmar, för att upptäcka dopning med små mängder av epo, förklarar Ulf Friberg.
Flera medaljörer i OS och VM under 2000-talet har kommit från ingenstans och prickat in oanade formtoppar framförallt på medel- och långdistans.
- Det är typiskt för dem som man misstänker, de som springer få internationella lopp och plötsligt får anmärkningsvärda formtoppar. Det har väl snackats mest om de fransk-marockanska löparna, säger Friberg, som är grenansvarig för långdistans, maraton och hinder på Svenska Friidrottsförbundet.
En av få som har åkt fast är den störste marockanske stjärnan, den olympiske 1 500-metersmästaren Rashid Ramzi, som testade positivt för bloddopningsmedlet epo i februari.
- Om man åker fast för dopning i Sverige får man nästan fly landet, men så är det inte i fattiga afrikanska länder. Där är det många som kan ta en chans för att komma ifrån fattigdomen och få ett bättre liv.
Längdåkningen har infört ett system med blodpass, där åkarna testas ofta för att visa vilket hb-värde (hemoglobinhalt) de normalt har i blodet. Ulf Friberg har i flera år varit drivande för att samma system ska införas även inom friidrotten.
- En blodbank håller på att byggas upp och det kan bli verklighet redan till hösten, säger han.
- Jag tycker i alla fall man inte ska få starta på grund av hälsoskäl om man har för högt hb-värde, även om man inte blir avstängd för dopning, det är ju också samma regelverk som inom längdåkningen.
Inom längdåkningen är gränsvärdet för män 170 och 160 för kvinnor. Mustafa Mohameds hb-värde ligger kring 140 och är bara marginellt högre efter en höghöjdsvistelse.
Mohamed själv vill att blodpass ska införas så snart som möjligt:
- Det har varit på gång länge så jag hoppas det blir av snart. Vi inte vad som har gjort att det har dröjt.
På tisdagen avgörs VM-finalen på 3 000 meter hinder och Ulf Friberg är noga med att inte rikta någon misstanke mot de ledande kenyanska löparna.
- Nej, de tävlar hela säsongen och testas ofta. Dem man misstänker är de som inte tävlar lika ofta.
Publicerat 2009-08-17 19:25 Lars Markusson/TT
tisdag 18 augusti 2009
Bolibompa = Startskottet!
Min vana trogen satt jag denna morgon med RIX FM's småprat i bakgrunden och lyssnade till lite extra då morgonens gäst var ingen mindre än Martin Stenmark. Jag gillar Stenmark. Både vår egen Tärnabyson men även denne underbara artist som kan blända de flesta med sin utstrålning, för att inte tala om sin personlighet. Så genuint äkta! Nyhet för morgonens zoo, och då talar jag inte om det egna hemmet, är den frågesnurra som gästerna får dra ett varv på och beroende på nummer svara på den fråga Fylking så inspirerat och genomtänkt har skapat. Martins fråga - "Vem tar initiativet till sex hemma hos er"? ...och som en blixt, kom svaret : -"Bolibompa"! Skratten ljöd men i mitt stilla morgonsinne nickade jag igenkännande. - Vi har alla varit där! Som en jingel klockan 6 pm, lika klart ljuder startskottet. Som en Bolt med sikte på världsrekord är förspel lämnat i mixzone och med huvudet först slänger vi oss desperat mot mållinjen. Yes! - där satt den. ...eller som Martin själv sa: -"Jag presterar alltid bäst under press"! - Vilken pärla!
fredag 14 augusti 2009
IAAF to rule on Jamaican doping case before start of world championships
BERLIN — The world athletics federation says it will rule on the doping cases involving five Jamaican athletes before Saturday's opening of the world championships. The IAAF had been waiting for documents all week after the five were cleared by a a disciplinary panel appointed by the island's sports minister. The panel found there wasn't enough evidence for substance abuse.
The IAAF could provisionally suspend the five if it rules that the doping infractions were serious enough. The runners have been identified as Yohan Blake, Sheri-Ann Brooks, Allodin Fothergill, Lansford Spence and Marvin Anderson.
The ruling could affect the Jamaican sprint relay teams competing at the world championships.
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS (CP) – 2 hours ago
The IAAF could provisionally suspend the five if it rules that the doping infractions were serious enough. The runners have been identified as Yohan Blake, Sheri-Ann Brooks, Allodin Fothergill, Lansford Spence and Marvin Anderson.
The ruling could affect the Jamaican sprint relay teams competing at the world championships.
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS (CP) – 2 hours ago
torsdag 13 augusti 2009
”HAN BORDE FÅTT 270 ÅR”
Svenskarna rasar mot den dopade världsmästartrion
De dopade ryska superstjärnorna döms till två års avstängning.
Det får de svenska åkarna att rasa.
– Jarosjenko borde stängts av i 270 år, säger Björn Ferry till Sportbladet.
I går kom så domen i förra säsongens stora ryska dopningsskandal.
Jekaterina Jurjeva, Albina Achatova och Dmitrij Jarosjenko, alla tidigare världsmästare, lämnade positiva dopningsprov vid världs-cuptävlingarna i Östersund i december i fjol. De hade allihop blod-dopat sig med epo och döms till två års avstängning. Det får de svenska stjärnorna att rasa.
Livstid – gånger tre...
Björn Ferry menar att framför allt Jarosjenko borde ha fått ett hårdare straff då han testades positivt för epo ytterligare två gånger under säsongen.
– Mer än så kan man inte fuska i en konditionsidrott. Jag tycker att bloddopning borde ge livstids avstängning, följaktligen borde Jarosjenko få cirka 270 års avstängning, säger Ferry till Sportbladet.
Han får medhåll av sina lagkamrater.
– Två år är för lite. Att medvetet dopa sig under lång tid som Jarosjenko gjort... då ska man bort, säger Carl-Johan Bergman.
Anna-Carin Olofsson: – Reglerna är väl så här. Men jag tycker att straffen bör vara hårdare i alla dopningsfall. Har man fuskat ska man få det surt.
Mattias Nilsson fick häromdagen, tillsammans med tränaren Wolfgang Pichler, stiftelsen Ren Idrotts pris på 25 000 kronor för sin kamp mot dopningen när den ryska dopningsbomben briserade i vintras. Nilsson är inte förvånad över straffet:
– Det var ju väntat. Men det är konstigt att det ska ta åtta månader att komma fram till det, säger han.
Enligt ryska medier planerar trion att överklaga domen.
Aftonbladet Sportbladet Publicerad: 2009-08-13
Johan Flinck
De dopade ryska superstjärnorna döms till två års avstängning.
Det får de svenska åkarna att rasa.
– Jarosjenko borde stängts av i 270 år, säger Björn Ferry till Sportbladet.
I går kom så domen i förra säsongens stora ryska dopningsskandal.
Jekaterina Jurjeva, Albina Achatova och Dmitrij Jarosjenko, alla tidigare världsmästare, lämnade positiva dopningsprov vid världs-cuptävlingarna i Östersund i december i fjol. De hade allihop blod-dopat sig med epo och döms till två års avstängning. Det får de svenska stjärnorna att rasa.
Livstid – gånger tre...
Björn Ferry menar att framför allt Jarosjenko borde ha fått ett hårdare straff då han testades positivt för epo ytterligare två gånger under säsongen.
– Mer än så kan man inte fuska i en konditionsidrott. Jag tycker att bloddopning borde ge livstids avstängning, följaktligen borde Jarosjenko få cirka 270 års avstängning, säger Ferry till Sportbladet.
Han får medhåll av sina lagkamrater.
– Två år är för lite. Att medvetet dopa sig under lång tid som Jarosjenko gjort... då ska man bort, säger Carl-Johan Bergman.
Anna-Carin Olofsson: – Reglerna är väl så här. Men jag tycker att straffen bör vara hårdare i alla dopningsfall. Har man fuskat ska man få det surt.
Mattias Nilsson fick häromdagen, tillsammans med tränaren Wolfgang Pichler, stiftelsen Ren Idrotts pris på 25 000 kronor för sin kamp mot dopningen när den ryska dopningsbomben briserade i vintras. Nilsson är inte förvånad över straffet:
– Det var ju väntat. Men det är konstigt att det ska ta åtta månader att komma fram till det, säger han.
Enligt ryska medier planerar trion att överklaga domen.
Aftonbladet Sportbladet Publicerad: 2009-08-13
Johan Flinck
onsdag 12 augusti 2009
Berlin.Det tuffaste antidopningsprogrammet hittills vid ett VM hotar stoppa sprintstjärnan Asafa Powell!
...samt två andra av Jamaicas OS-medaljörer dagarna innan VM invigs. De tidigare fem dopningsertappade jamaicanerna friades, men är åter under utredning.
Bara tre dagar före VM-invigningen här i Berlin har dopningen redan kastat sin skugga över mästerskapet.
Internationella Friidrottsförbundet (IAAF) kör här sitt mest omfattande antidopningsprogram hittills vid ett VM. Drygt 1 000 dopningsprov, varav 600 blodprov, ska tas. Därför är IAAF noga med att alla som ska tävla i VM finns på de uppladdningsläger deras förbund arrangerar. Detta för att vara tillgängliga för prov.
Då inte Asafa Powell, tidigare världsrekordhållare på 100 meter, Shelly-Ann Fraser, OS-mästarinna på 100 meter i Peking, samt Sherika Williams, OS-silver på 400 meter inte dök upp på Jamaicas läger i Nürnberg hotas de nu från sitt eget förbund att inte få tävla i VM. Powells agent Paul Doyle sa till Reuters att han inte uppfattat att lägret var obligatoriskt för att få tävla i VM.
– Bara att det förväntades att de skulle vara där. Jag har talat med alla inblandade och de har också uppfattat det så. Ingen av de aktiva har heller uppmanats av IAAF att vara i Nürnberg, sa Doyle.
– Jag sa till Doyle att lägret var obligatoriskt. Kommer de inte till lägret kan de inte delta, sa i sin tur Howard Aris, ordförande i Jamaicas friidrottsförbundet, till Reuters.
De tre friidrottarna plus kortahäcklöparen Brigitte Foster-Hylton, som det också handlar om, tävlar för samma klubb MVP (Maximum Veocity Power) under ledning av Stephen Francis på University of Technology i Kingston. De VM-laddar på ett eget läger i italienska Lignano.
– Jaha, förbundet har sagt att vi inte kan delta eftersom vi inte var på lägret, skrev Williams på sin Facebook-sida enligt Jamaica Observer.
Nu hoppas Doyle att allt ska lösas då han adepter kommer till Berlin.
De fem jamaicaner som ertappades med mentylxanthin vid Jamaicamästerskapen, friades först då medlet inte fanns på listan för förbjudna preparat.
Det fick den jamaicanska antidopningsbyråns disciplinkommitté, Jadco, att direkt överklaga sitt eget beslut.
– Den som tror att de kan delta kan glömma det, säger Neville McCook, bas för för Nord- och Centralamerikas samt Karibiens friidrottsförbund till Jamaica Observer, och pekar på att IAAF ännu inte fått in uppgifter från Jadco och den omständliga process som väntar.
Av de fem aktuella ingår bara Sheri-Ann Brooks, 100 meter, i Jamaicas VM-trupp.
Publicerat 2009-08-11 14:23
Sven Gustavsson
sven.gustavsson@dn.se
Bara tre dagar före VM-invigningen här i Berlin har dopningen redan kastat sin skugga över mästerskapet.
Internationella Friidrottsförbundet (IAAF) kör här sitt mest omfattande antidopningsprogram hittills vid ett VM. Drygt 1 000 dopningsprov, varav 600 blodprov, ska tas. Därför är IAAF noga med att alla som ska tävla i VM finns på de uppladdningsläger deras förbund arrangerar. Detta för att vara tillgängliga för prov.
Då inte Asafa Powell, tidigare världsrekordhållare på 100 meter, Shelly-Ann Fraser, OS-mästarinna på 100 meter i Peking, samt Sherika Williams, OS-silver på 400 meter inte dök upp på Jamaicas läger i Nürnberg hotas de nu från sitt eget förbund att inte få tävla i VM. Powells agent Paul Doyle sa till Reuters att han inte uppfattat att lägret var obligatoriskt för att få tävla i VM.
– Bara att det förväntades att de skulle vara där. Jag har talat med alla inblandade och de har också uppfattat det så. Ingen av de aktiva har heller uppmanats av IAAF att vara i Nürnberg, sa Doyle.
– Jag sa till Doyle att lägret var obligatoriskt. Kommer de inte till lägret kan de inte delta, sa i sin tur Howard Aris, ordförande i Jamaicas friidrottsförbundet, till Reuters.
De tre friidrottarna plus kortahäcklöparen Brigitte Foster-Hylton, som det också handlar om, tävlar för samma klubb MVP (Maximum Veocity Power) under ledning av Stephen Francis på University of Technology i Kingston. De VM-laddar på ett eget läger i italienska Lignano.
– Jaha, förbundet har sagt att vi inte kan delta eftersom vi inte var på lägret, skrev Williams på sin Facebook-sida enligt Jamaica Observer.
Nu hoppas Doyle att allt ska lösas då han adepter kommer till Berlin.
De fem jamaicaner som ertappades med mentylxanthin vid Jamaicamästerskapen, friades först då medlet inte fanns på listan för förbjudna preparat.
Det fick den jamaicanska antidopningsbyråns disciplinkommitté, Jadco, att direkt överklaga sitt eget beslut.
– Den som tror att de kan delta kan glömma det, säger Neville McCook, bas för för Nord- och Centralamerikas samt Karibiens friidrottsförbund till Jamaica Observer, och pekar på att IAAF ännu inte fått in uppgifter från Jadco och den omständliga process som väntar.
Av de fem aktuella ingår bara Sheri-Ann Brooks, 100 meter, i Jamaicas VM-trupp.
Publicerat 2009-08-11 14:23
Sven Gustavsson
sven.gustavsson@dn.se
IAAF issues world championship drugs warning
MONACO — The world athletics championships, which get underway in Berlin on Saturday, will be the target of the most comprehensive drug testing programme ever conducted, the IAAF announced on Tuesday.
Over 1000 samples will be collected, both before and during the competition in Germany, the sport's governing body promised in a statement from its Monaco headquarters.
IAAF president Lamine Diack said the two week championships were a chance to recognise 'clean' athletes.
"I would like to turn our attention back to the huge majority of honest athletes who will arrive at these championships and compete based on their own skill and years of hard work and sacrifice," Diack remarked.
"All this anti-doping work is done to protect them, and so that in Berlin we can join together and celebrate their achievements."
But he went on to warn: "However for those athletes who still consider that they need to cheat to succeed both blood and urine samples collected from this event will be analysed and even stored by the IAAF for future analysis should new prohibited substances or methods become detectable."
Around 600 blood samples will be taken in Berlin prior to the championships and another 400 blood and urine samples taken during the competition itself with all samples being sent to the Cologne and Dresden World Anti-Doping Authority accredited laboratories.
Diack added: "Athletes should be well aware that not only do we have the possibility to store samples, but that already in the past year the IAAF has prosecuted several cases based on re-analysed samples.
"If they think they can turn up to our championships with an undetectable drug and get away with it, then they may be in for a shock, and our recent prosecutions prove this."
Five athletes competing at last year's Beijing Olympics, including Bahrain's 1500m champion Rashid Ramzi, were caught out after samples were re-tested in February and found to contain a new form of the banned blood booster EPO-CERA.
The majority of blood samples taken from the world championships will also form part of the IAAF biological passport programme and be added to the individual profiles of each athlete.
The IAAF say it has been collecting samples as part of this passport programme from selected athletes since January 2009.
The organisation added that the world championships are not all about testing, with the important aspect of education also present in Berlin via the IAAF Athlete Outreach Programme and the implementation of an IAAF interactive online education programme called 'Real winner'.
IAAF staff will be onsite in Berlin to answer any athletes questions and both education programmes aim to raise athlete awareness of the important anti-doping issues.
Over 1000 samples will be collected, both before and during the competition in Germany, the sport's governing body promised in a statement from its Monaco headquarters.
IAAF president Lamine Diack said the two week championships were a chance to recognise 'clean' athletes.
"I would like to turn our attention back to the huge majority of honest athletes who will arrive at these championships and compete based on their own skill and years of hard work and sacrifice," Diack remarked.
"All this anti-doping work is done to protect them, and so that in Berlin we can join together and celebrate their achievements."
But he went on to warn: "However for those athletes who still consider that they need to cheat to succeed both blood and urine samples collected from this event will be analysed and even stored by the IAAF for future analysis should new prohibited substances or methods become detectable."
Around 600 blood samples will be taken in Berlin prior to the championships and another 400 blood and urine samples taken during the competition itself with all samples being sent to the Cologne and Dresden World Anti-Doping Authority accredited laboratories.
Diack added: "Athletes should be well aware that not only do we have the possibility to store samples, but that already in the past year the IAAF has prosecuted several cases based on re-analysed samples.
"If they think they can turn up to our championships with an undetectable drug and get away with it, then they may be in for a shock, and our recent prosecutions prove this."
Five athletes competing at last year's Beijing Olympics, including Bahrain's 1500m champion Rashid Ramzi, were caught out after samples were re-tested in February and found to contain a new form of the banned blood booster EPO-CERA.
The majority of blood samples taken from the world championships will also form part of the IAAF biological passport programme and be added to the individual profiles of each athlete.
The IAAF say it has been collecting samples as part of this passport programme from selected athletes since January 2009.
The organisation added that the world championships are not all about testing, with the important aspect of education also present in Berlin via the IAAF Athlete Outreach Programme and the implementation of an IAAF interactive online education programme called 'Real winner'.
IAAF staff will be onsite in Berlin to answer any athletes questions and both education programmes aim to raise athlete awareness of the important anti-doping issues.
måndag 10 augusti 2009
ANDY MIAH, Sports Doping, and the Enhancement Enlightenment
Andy Miah is the Renaissance man of the enhancement enlightenment. While best known for defending “doping” (performance enhancement) in sports, as a professor in Ethics and Emerging Technologies at the University of the West of Scotland, his work draws from law, philosophy, art, cultural studies, sociology, bioethics, human enhancement, social media, life-extension, ethical culture, climate change, synthetic biology, and artificial life. As if that isn’t enough, Miah says he’s now looking at architecture and the future, extraterrestrial ethics, and ideas about biocultural capital. (And just for fun, he’s also a graphic designer and film connoisseur.)
Miah has been writing and talking in various public forums about enhancement, sports enhancement, and the future for almost ten years. In that time, he has become an influential voice in these areas, along with all things “bio.” Miah has published over 100 soloauthored academic articles on sports enhancements and other topics. He has published two books, including Genetically Modified Athletes (Routledge, 2004), regarding biomedical ethics, gene doping and sport. And while Miah’s writing on sports enhancement has made him fairly controversial, he refuses to be pigeonholed. He knows that being labeled creates boundaries, and he has worked to have his voice heard in such influential places as the Olympics committees.
The Olympian Professor With his spiky jet-black hair, self-confident charisma, and his understated but hip sartorial style, Miah gives the impression of an intellectual rock star. Given his eclecticism, it shouldn’t be surprising that our conversation skips across a wide range of topics.
We talked about the Beijing Olympics, which Miah attended. Suffice it to say that he continues to be an unapologetic supporter of human enhancement in the world of sports. Miah wants to see sports doping normalized, by regulating it and making the enhancements safe, accessible and accepted. In his articleGene Doping, published in the April 2007 issue of the Biochemical Society Journal, he wrote,“Genetically modified athletes will simply be those people who gave value to enhancements that are most suitable for athletic performances.”
Our conversation turned to controversial headliner and amputee sprinter, Oscar Pistorius. Miah said that he wanted to see Pistorius be allowed to compete, if he would have qualified, amidst the fantastic architecture of the Beijing stadium, saying that, “there’s so much conceptual overlap when thinking about the future” and seeing these two images together.
It may surprise you to know that Miah has written papers for the British Olympic Association, the International Olympic Committee, the International Olympic Academy, and the Brazilian Olympic Committee. But he doesn’t seem to expect to win his point with the Olympic authorities. “For the anti-doping authorities, they have little option but to press on full steam. It’s getting a bit out of control in my view, how much they will do for socalled clean sport.”
I asked Miah about the notion of having two separate venues — one for enhanced athletes and another for clean (au natural, if you will) athletes, He’s somewhat skeptical. “The problem is that, in this scenario, you’d still have the enhanced trying to get into the clean… I think people like Pistorius will allow us to confront some important issues.” Reflecting on it a bit, Miah conceded, “It all depends on whether the enhanced could achieve adequate prominence to rival the clean. It’s ultimately about trying to build symbolic value around a new series of competitions. I actually think the way it’ll go is that we end up with just the enhanced… I argue that sports authorities are obliged to invest into creating safer forms of enhancement for athletes to use.”
We seem to be witnessing the wisdom of Miah’s way when we look at the borderline hysteria and the apparent inability to stop steroid and other performance enhancement in major league baseball in the U.S. The societal consensus is that we do not want our athletes to do steroids or human growth hormone or any other drugs that enhance their athletic performance. The acceptance of human enhancements in sports will be a long time coming. In the meantime, we’re likely to witness another unwinnable “war” attempting to stop people from doing what they are inevitably, eventually going to do. As Miah observed, the acceptance of personal enhancement “has been far from smooth… but equally the desire to enhance has become more apparent, as evidenced by the number of ways in which we seek to alter our bodies and minds.”
The acceptance of personal enhancement “has been far from smooth… but equally the desire to enhance has become more apparent.”
As our conversations moved from sports and into the more general subject of human enhancement, I discovered that Miah’s enthusiasms are pretty much limitless and his knowledge is encyclopedic. Mention that you’re looking for an image of an enhanced eye, Miah’s got one. Want a woman that could be a poster girl for the beauty of enhancement, with prosthetic legs and a body and face you wouldn’t believe? Miah has the information and images. “We are very keen on exploring dimensions of our identity though biological modifications. We’ve done this in the past through tattoo, piercing, scarification even. There’s a long list and each of these mechanisms has been about marking oneself out culturally and socially.”
Remember that story about the selective memory deletion in mice a few months back? (If not, Google it. Crazy cool.) Ask Miah about it and he’ll refer you to his article on Eternal sunshine of the Spotless Mind. (Do you remember that movie? Or was it selectively deleted?) His article, like that film, really brings home the situation, and the nuances of memory deletion. It’s a good read, not just a journal article.
“…the moral narrative of Eternal Sunshine is ambiguous in many respects, since it confronts our uncertainty about how best to overcome difficulties in life… After watching Eternal Sunshine, while one is left feeling that the best solution to dealing with human suffering already resides within our learned capacities, there is also a sense in which leaving this merely for time to heal is inadequate and that we are quite right for seeking more effective, efficient and gentle means. The difficulty, though, is that Eternal Sunshine portrays memory deletion as anything but gentle.”
Lastly, as Malcom Gladwell would say, Miah is a Connector “with a special gift for bringing the world together.” Aside from his intellectual eclecticism, making connections between art and science and a broad mix of disciplines, he knows a lot of people: science fiction writers, philosophers, designers, artists, scientists, academics, people from sports and architecture. Andy Miah sees the value in bringing people together in a collaborative manner and having them work on ideas about the future. He believes that the artist and the scientist, working together, can create a truly beneficial relationship, envisioning a future that is enhanced, in the deepest and best sense of the word.
Written By: Kristi Scott - Date Published: June 15, 2009
Kristi Scott has a Master of Arts in Liberal Studies, interns with the Institute for Ethics & Emerging Technologies, is a freelance writer, and mother of three.
Miah has been writing and talking in various public forums about enhancement, sports enhancement, and the future for almost ten years. In that time, he has become an influential voice in these areas, along with all things “bio.” Miah has published over 100 soloauthored academic articles on sports enhancements and other topics. He has published two books, including Genetically Modified Athletes (Routledge, 2004), regarding biomedical ethics, gene doping and sport. And while Miah’s writing on sports enhancement has made him fairly controversial, he refuses to be pigeonholed. He knows that being labeled creates boundaries, and he has worked to have his voice heard in such influential places as the Olympics committees.
The Olympian Professor With his spiky jet-black hair, self-confident charisma, and his understated but hip sartorial style, Miah gives the impression of an intellectual rock star. Given his eclecticism, it shouldn’t be surprising that our conversation skips across a wide range of topics.
We talked about the Beijing Olympics, which Miah attended. Suffice it to say that he continues to be an unapologetic supporter of human enhancement in the world of sports. Miah wants to see sports doping normalized, by regulating it and making the enhancements safe, accessible and accepted. In his articleGene Doping, published in the April 2007 issue of the Biochemical Society Journal, he wrote,“Genetically modified athletes will simply be those people who gave value to enhancements that are most suitable for athletic performances.”
Our conversation turned to controversial headliner and amputee sprinter, Oscar Pistorius. Miah said that he wanted to see Pistorius be allowed to compete, if he would have qualified, amidst the fantastic architecture of the Beijing stadium, saying that, “there’s so much conceptual overlap when thinking about the future” and seeing these two images together.
It may surprise you to know that Miah has written papers for the British Olympic Association, the International Olympic Committee, the International Olympic Academy, and the Brazilian Olympic Committee. But he doesn’t seem to expect to win his point with the Olympic authorities. “For the anti-doping authorities, they have little option but to press on full steam. It’s getting a bit out of control in my view, how much they will do for socalled clean sport.”
I asked Miah about the notion of having two separate venues — one for enhanced athletes and another for clean (au natural, if you will) athletes, He’s somewhat skeptical. “The problem is that, in this scenario, you’d still have the enhanced trying to get into the clean… I think people like Pistorius will allow us to confront some important issues.” Reflecting on it a bit, Miah conceded, “It all depends on whether the enhanced could achieve adequate prominence to rival the clean. It’s ultimately about trying to build symbolic value around a new series of competitions. I actually think the way it’ll go is that we end up with just the enhanced… I argue that sports authorities are obliged to invest into creating safer forms of enhancement for athletes to use.”
We seem to be witnessing the wisdom of Miah’s way when we look at the borderline hysteria and the apparent inability to stop steroid and other performance enhancement in major league baseball in the U.S. The societal consensus is that we do not want our athletes to do steroids or human growth hormone or any other drugs that enhance their athletic performance. The acceptance of human enhancements in sports will be a long time coming. In the meantime, we’re likely to witness another unwinnable “war” attempting to stop people from doing what they are inevitably, eventually going to do. As Miah observed, the acceptance of personal enhancement “has been far from smooth… but equally the desire to enhance has become more apparent, as evidenced by the number of ways in which we seek to alter our bodies and minds.”
The acceptance of personal enhancement “has been far from smooth… but equally the desire to enhance has become more apparent.”
As our conversations moved from sports and into the more general subject of human enhancement, I discovered that Miah’s enthusiasms are pretty much limitless and his knowledge is encyclopedic. Mention that you’re looking for an image of an enhanced eye, Miah’s got one. Want a woman that could be a poster girl for the beauty of enhancement, with prosthetic legs and a body and face you wouldn’t believe? Miah has the information and images. “We are very keen on exploring dimensions of our identity though biological modifications. We’ve done this in the past through tattoo, piercing, scarification even. There’s a long list and each of these mechanisms has been about marking oneself out culturally and socially.”
Remember that story about the selective memory deletion in mice a few months back? (If not, Google it. Crazy cool.) Ask Miah about it and he’ll refer you to his article on Eternal sunshine of the Spotless Mind. (Do you remember that movie? Or was it selectively deleted?) His article, like that film, really brings home the situation, and the nuances of memory deletion. It’s a good read, not just a journal article.
“…the moral narrative of Eternal Sunshine is ambiguous in many respects, since it confronts our uncertainty about how best to overcome difficulties in life… After watching Eternal Sunshine, while one is left feeling that the best solution to dealing with human suffering already resides within our learned capacities, there is also a sense in which leaving this merely for time to heal is inadequate and that we are quite right for seeking more effective, efficient and gentle means. The difficulty, though, is that Eternal Sunshine portrays memory deletion as anything but gentle.”
Lastly, as Malcom Gladwell would say, Miah is a Connector “with a special gift for bringing the world together.” Aside from his intellectual eclecticism, making connections between art and science and a broad mix of disciplines, he knows a lot of people: science fiction writers, philosophers, designers, artists, scientists, academics, people from sports and architecture. Andy Miah sees the value in bringing people together in a collaborative manner and having them work on ideas about the future. He believes that the artist and the scientist, working together, can create a truly beneficial relationship, envisioning a future that is enhanced, in the deepest and best sense of the word.
Written By: Kristi Scott - Date Published: June 15, 2009
Kristi Scott has a Master of Arts in Liberal Studies, interns with the Institute for Ethics & Emerging Technologies, is a freelance writer, and mother of three.
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