World anti-doping chief says athletes should think twice
BEIJING • The head of the World Anti-Doping Agency has a message to athletes who are thinking about cheating during the Olympics.
“If you thought you could get away with it, there is a lesser likelihood of you getting away with it than you did any time before,” WADA president John Fahey said before Friday’s start of the Beijing Games.
Expanded testing measures and increased government support give Fahey hope for a relatively clean Olympics in a country that’s the world’s largest manufacturer of human growth hormone.
Since the 2004 ratification of the WADA code, testing strategies have advanced, out-of-competition testing has risen, education programs have been developed and government and law-enforcement agencies have taken a more active approach.
A WADA-endorsed, 12-person independent observer team – part of the Olympics for the fifth straight time – will monitor how the International Olympic Committee handles doping control in Beijing.
About 4,500 drug tests are scheduled, 900 more than were performed at the 2004 Athens Games. This time, 10,500 athletes, including 596 Americans, are subject to testing for HGH and EPO.
“There really is now no excuse for doping,” said Fahey, an Australian who replaced Canadian Dick Pound in January. “We continue to close the gap. We’re now able to detect some drugs even prior to them coming on the market.”
IOC president Jacques Rogge said he anticipates 30 to 40 positive tests in Beijing. That would top the record of 26 positives, set in Athens.
At least 45 athletes from 11 countries in marquee sports such as swimming, track and field and wrestling were banned for drug violations in the weeks preceding the Olympics, according to an unofficial count by The Associated Press.
The list of suspended athletes includes U.S. swimmer Jessica Hardy, who maintains her innocence despite testing positive for Clenbuterol, a stimulant that boosts aerobic capacity and oxygen flow in the bloodstream.
“I hate doping. We all hate doping,” Rogge said. “But we have to be realistic. Doping is to sport what criminality is to society, and there will always be criminality. You have 500 million people practicing competitive sport around the world. You don’t have 500 million saints in the world. We cannot be hoping to have a zero doping situation.”
Rogge continues to push governments and sports federations to adopt the UNESCO convention, implemented in 2005 and reinforced last year to require compliance with the WADA code.
President Bush followed suit with 86 countries Monday by ratifying the treaty before he left for Beijing. The IOC has threatened to exclude national Olympic committees from the Games if they’re not in compliance with the UNESCO pact by November.
“We are smarter than we used to be,” Fahey said. “We’re learning more. We’re targeting. Our investigations are becoming more effective.”
Photo by Mark Reis, The Gazette