Olympic Doping
movingtarget
Posts: 6
This week there has been a large amount of Olympic competitors caught doping. Mainly in track and field sports but also in Fencing. The article below is only one of the incidents. It also makes you realise that corruption is as big a problem as detecting the dopers. If urine samples are being subtituted, the athletes are obviously getting help from "friends" at the doping controls or at other stages of the testing procedures. If I am to believe what I read in western media reports, then corruption in Russia is still rife, expected and condoned at all levels of society.
I suppose it is is good that they are being caught but you can see why in the sport of Athletics some competitors just end up walking away and retiring as the testing and guidelines are nowhere near as strict as in cycling. Look how long it took for Marion Jones to be found out. Cycling may not be perfect but as far as doping is concerned it is no longer the farce that other sports still are.
Olympics Drugs Czar
AFP - August 6, 2008, 1:04 am
BEIJING (AFP) - IOC drugs chief Arne Ljungqvist on Tuesday accused Russia of systematically doping after seven athletes were hit with suspensions which could lead to four-year bans.
The 77-year-old Swede, who is also a vice-president of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), expressed his huge disappointment at what had taken place.
"A year ago I would have answered no," said Ljungqvist referring to whether he thought it was a case of systematic doping.
"However, I agree that it is a case of systematic doping. This would fall under the new WADA code that carries a four year ban."
Ljungqvist, the IOC medical commissioner, congratulated his former colleagues at the IAAF for their handling of the case.
"I shouldn't really say very much as I am no longer a part of the IAAF, but this is a very bad story," said Ljungqvist, who announced that there would be 4,500 doping tests at the Olympics with at least 700 of those being blood samples.
"I find it frustrating that such planned cheating is still going on. I am very disappointed.
"Of course, the procedure is still going on and it is for the Russian federation to find out what was going on," added Ljungqvist, who said that at the Olympics there would be targetted dope testing based on information gathered.
The Russian scandal arose last week when the IAAF provisionally suspended seven leading Russian female athletes - five of whom were in the Russian Olympic squad - for the suspected switching of urine samples in drug tests last year.
The controls showed discrepancies in their DNA results, the IAAF said, which indicated the samples given were not from the athletes in question.
Yelena Soboleva, who has clocked the fastest times in the world this year over both 800m and 1500m, was targeted as well as fellow middle distance runners Svetlana Cherkasova, Yulia Fomenko, former double world champion Tatyana Tomashova and Olga Yegorova.
Yegorova has already courted controversy as the IAAF ruled she could run in the 2001 Edmonton world championships because French authorities had failed to test her blood as well as her urine when she tested positive for EPO at a Golden League meeting in Paris.
She went on to win the title in Canada amid boos from the crowd while Britain's long-distance star Paula Radcliffe held up a placard in the stands saying 'EPO Drug Cheats Out'.
Hammer thrower Gulfiya Khanafeyeva, a former world record holder, and reigning European discus champion Darya Pishchalnikova, were also named in the affair.
I suppose it is is good that they are being caught but you can see why in the sport of Athletics some competitors just end up walking away and retiring as the testing and guidelines are nowhere near as strict as in cycling. Look how long it took for Marion Jones to be found out. Cycling may not be perfect but as far as doping is concerned it is no longer the farce that other sports still are.
Olympics Drugs Czar
AFP - August 6, 2008, 1:04 am
BEIJING (AFP) - IOC drugs chief Arne Ljungqvist on Tuesday accused Russia of systematically doping after seven athletes were hit with suspensions which could lead to four-year bans.
The 77-year-old Swede, who is also a vice-president of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), expressed his huge disappointment at what had taken place.
"A year ago I would have answered no," said Ljungqvist referring to whether he thought it was a case of systematic doping.
"However, I agree that it is a case of systematic doping. This would fall under the new WADA code that carries a four year ban."
Ljungqvist, the IOC medical commissioner, congratulated his former colleagues at the IAAF for their handling of the case.
"I shouldn't really say very much as I am no longer a part of the IAAF, but this is a very bad story," said Ljungqvist, who announced that there would be 4,500 doping tests at the Olympics with at least 700 of those being blood samples.
"I find it frustrating that such planned cheating is still going on. I am very disappointed.
"Of course, the procedure is still going on and it is for the Russian federation to find out what was going on," added Ljungqvist, who said that at the Olympics there would be targetted dope testing based on information gathered.
The Russian scandal arose last week when the IAAF provisionally suspended seven leading Russian female athletes - five of whom were in the Russian Olympic squad - for the suspected switching of urine samples in drug tests last year.
The controls showed discrepancies in their DNA results, the IAAF said, which indicated the samples given were not from the athletes in question.
Yelena Soboleva, who has clocked the fastest times in the world this year over both 800m and 1500m, was targeted as well as fellow middle distance runners Svetlana Cherkasova, Yulia Fomenko, former double world champion Tatyana Tomashova and Olga Yegorova.
Yegorova has already courted controversy as the IAAF ruled she could run in the 2001 Edmonton world championships because French authorities had failed to test her blood as well as her urine when she tested positive for EPO at a Golden League meeting in Paris.
She went on to win the title in Canada amid boos from the crowd while Britain's long-distance star Paula Radcliffe held up a placard in the stands saying 'EPO Drug Cheats Out'.
Hammer thrower Gulfiya Khanafeyeva, a former world record holder, and reigning European discus champion Darya Pishchalnikova, were also named in the affair.
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