Doping tests: A and B samples

Phil Russell
Phil Russell Posts: 1,736
edited August 2007 in Pro race
In no way do I condone drugs or associated practices that lead to cheating (blood transfusion for instance). But I am puzzled over how the A and B samples are dealt with. The A sample is declared positive by lab X. The accused opts to have sample B tested ... but this seems to always be done by the same lab X (if I am wrong, correct me). Surely, to remove any possibility of an error in the lab X procedure, the B sample should be tested at another lab... or maybe the B sample is then split in two and one part returned to lab X for a second test and the other part tested by an independent lab.
Seems to me that if this was done it would help resolve claims of dodgy lab procedures.
Why not?

Cheers, Phil

Comments

  • drenkrom
    drenkrom Posts: 1,062
    A lab either has the equipment and procedures to do a test or they don't. If they are certified for a test, the lab itself can not be faulted for the results. The human beings doing the tests can. According to WADA guidelines, a different person must do the B-sample test. Chain of custody must be clearly established to prove that. Those last two points are what the Landis defense mainly targeted when they talked about dodgy lab procedures, which was a valid argument in that case, if not of the magnitude that gets you off the hook. If all guidelines are strictly followed, the current system is pretty good. As long as there will be lawyers, though, you'll always find someone to find niggles in it, usually riders after they get caught. The leaking of results to the press is the biggest problem imo.

    I've seen many propositions of enhancements, most of them quite valid. I personally believe the only way you'll ever get rid of people putting the fault on the labs or the system is through the total elimination of lawyers. And that ain't happening anytime soon.
  • John Stevenson
    John Stevenson Posts: 962
    A riding pal of Elden 'Fat Cyclist' Nelson makes an interesting point here:

    http://www.fatcyclist.com/2007/07/27/cy ... -solution/

    In short, an unintended consequence of increasingly harsh punishments for doping is that athletes who test positive now have very little choice but to throw everything they have at attacking the system.

    Whether they succeed or not that reduces the respect fans etc have for the anti-doping cause, because our sympathies are always going to be with the athlete - who at the very least has been a source of entertainment for us - and not with a bunch of bureaucrats and lab technicians.

    It also doesn't help that the science is increasingly esoteric, which means we journos end up presenting both sides of the argument as having equal weight, because few of us understand the depths of the subject. So eye-swivelling lunacy like Tyler Hamilton's chimerism and vanishing twin excuses gets presented as plausible.

    You do have to wonder about the general philosophical framework of sporting ethics.

    Put the wrong substance in your body, and you are suspended for two years. Bite another athlete, and you're out for just eight games. Say what?
    John Stevenson
  • ut_och_cykla
    ut_och_cykla Posts: 1,594
    Phil
    My thoughts entirely - as long as there is a doubt hanging over the relaibility of a test & its carrying out there will be these tiresome/damaging discussions. For blood doping /testosterone suspicions it should be possible to take more blood within a few days and retest the sportsperson at another lab which would surely put the 'lab is dodgy' argument to bed for good.

    Lab techs are not robots, tehy can make mistakes... I was once one...:-)

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