One year after the once-undetectable steroid tetrahydrogestrinone (THG) was revealed, athlete banishments without positive tests have put lawyers with doctors at the lead of the doping fight.
International Olympic Committee medical director Patrick Schamasch said in Indianapolis on Tuesday that the Balco steroid scandal’s major legacy is opening the door to non-analytical positives when testers cannot outwit dope-cheat developers.
”The issue of designer steroids is very important. Now we have proof that there are organisations who have produced these substances. That’s huge,” he said.
”It’s not just a medical fight against doping. It’s also a legal one. The lawyers, with the IOC, have done a great job. The fight against doping is a risky sport. It’s important to have the political support.”
In the year since a THG sample was delivered to a United States Anti-Doping Agency lab in Los Angeles, athlete admissions and testing evasion have been enough to bring two-year bans that have been upheld in legal challenges.
”We were sure the rules we had were very strong,” Schamasch said.
”With this increase in the fight, the room for cheaters is growing smaller every day. You have to be optimistic.”
Schamasch discussed Athens Olympic anti-doping techniques on Tuesday at the World Sports Medicine Congress, noting how 26 Olympians were suspended for doping-related issues and calling five non-analytical positives most important.
Sydney Olympic 200-metres champion Kostadinos Kenteris and fellow Greek star Ekaterini Thanou, the Sydney 100m runner-up, missed scheduled tests.
Hungarians Laszlo Fazekas, who won the discus title, and Adrian Annus, who won the hammer throw, were banned for two years. Fazekas was caught trying to swap a urine sample during a drugs test. Annus refused to take a second drug test after suspicions he used someone else’s sample for a post-victory test.
Schamasch said dope testers cannot become global cheat chasers.
”We’re not hunters,” he said.
They are physicians who must combat profit-seeking counterparts who can plumb the pioneers of science to develop sport cheats. The next battleground could very well be genetic manipulation, Schamasch said.
”We will be facing some genetic doping. That’s one of the next topics,” he said, noting that DNA testing to link samples to people is not yet done.
”DNA is not part of the code. We have to be very careful not to open Pandora’s Box.”
As global anti-doping forces look to future genetic cheaters, they must keep vigilance on methods of the past, Schamasch warned.
”Even if we’re looking to the future we always have to keep an eye backward. We don’t want to give any room to the cheaters,” he said.
”Old products are still present. Athletes are still using the products on the list since ages. They work. They are cheap. ‘I’m trying to cheat so why spend a lot of money?”’
A 722-person Olympic doping control staff administered 2 796 tests on 280 litres of urine, samples of which are saved for potential future tests if new drugs not yet detectable are uncovered.
Schamasch said Olympic village dentists administered care 473 times and said athletes need to take better care of their teeth.
”The dental status of the athletes was very, very bad,” he said.
”The status even in so-called well developed countries was a disaster. We have realised the dentist has a huge impact upon the performances.” – Sapa-AFP