I watched the German TV/ Sunday Times drugs in sport documentary:
Doping - Top Secret: The Shadowy World of Athletics.
with an increasingly sad heart. Most of my "grown-up" sporting experience has been against a backdrop of performance-enhancing drug use in professional sport. The sports I love include cycling and athletics, and more recently triathlon, so as endurance sports, performance-enhancing drugs have always been a part of the scene. It used be interesting, almost amusing. In cycling there's a well-known statement by 5-times Tour de France winner Jacques Anquetil that: "I only take drugs when it's absolutely necessary." "And how often is that?" "Almost all the time." The Anquetil cocktail was a heady mix of heroine, speed, painkillers and other drugs. Anquetil was a character in the sport, loved by most, and the drug use was just a part of the deal. Every one did it, and without much subtlety. In the same era of cycling a famous British rider of the time, Tommy Simpson, died while riding on the Mont Ventoux. His pockets contained vials of amphetamines and his bloodstream was found to have alcohol in it. His autobiography reveals how he was born into relative poverty, and used his bike racing as a means to get out of that. That was a constant theme within cycling, which used to be regarded as a very working class sport. Its very much the same now with football, and with some areas of athletics which is one reason why there are so many top-level African distance runners. Coming into sport as a means of earning a living for yourself and often for your entire extended family, predisposes any athlete towards a "win at any cost" mentality, of which drug use is a major part. Simpson was known to everyone as Mr Tom, and was ambitious in his personal life, as well as his cycling career. He had told everyone before the fateful race that he wanted a win in order to buy a particular, expensive Mercedes car. The rumour was that he'd put a deposit down on it. But winning at that time meant taking performance enhancing drugs, particularly amphetamines. One of the worst aspects of this is how little was known, certainly by the cyclists, of the effects both positive and negative. It's easy to look back now, and see that amphetamines, alcohol, dehydration and excessive heat would cause massive problems. But back then they didn't know. Simpson was pretty much a victim of his time, and it is probably for this reason that he is generally revered and honoured. I don't think that I have ever seen any criticism of Simpson and his doping. When I first started watching the Tour de France, knowing that some - if not all - of the riders were doping, didn't really detract from my enjoyment. I used to love watching the Colombians attacking the mountains, and the likes of Pedro Delgado, and later on Marco Pantani, taking on some of France's most feared climbs. It was only later, as I started to take the sport more seriously, that I started to get concerned about drug use and feel that it detracted from the sport.
Reading the Paul Kimmage book "Rough Ride" back in the 80s made me realise the dangers involved, the pressure put on the riders by their teams and sponsors, and just how widespread the practice was. Kimmage described how he had to dope just to get through the round of criterium races that he was contracted to do. Not in order to win, just to survive them. Then came a couple of high-profile busts, culminating with the Festina affair in 1999, where one of the soigneurs of the team was found with a well-stocked pharmacy in his car. I began to lose faith in my cycling heroes and in my sport. Up till that point, I'd assumed it was pretty well a cycling phenomena, but then one of my athletic heroines, Diane Modal, got busted. I believed her story; I defended her at every opportunity; and I genuinely thought it would all turn out to be a big mistake. In my minds eye, I can still see the moment on TV when she was pulled out of a race. I can still see the shock on her face. To this day, I probably still believe she was innocent, and she was cleared on appeal. But now, unlike then, I have doubts. The last decade has seen many, many of my sporting heroes "popped" for drugs. (The fact that they use phrases like "popped", meaning arrested, and "glowing", meaning their blood still has detectable traces of doping substance in it, just demonstrates to me how much of a game the whole process seems to be.) The more I read about the subject, the more I understand how it was, essentially a process of outwitting the testers - not difficult, by all accounts. The worst of course, was being taken in by Armstrong, and when he confessed it eroded a fundamental part of why I love sport. As a result of that, I can't imagine that I will ever love sport so unquestioningly again.
In 2015 drugs are part of the everyday story of sport - all sport. We have suspicion everywhere, convicted drugs cheats that have served their time and are returning to the sport, and the knowledge that the authorities are at the very least, turning a blind eye, if not actually complicit. So it's against this background that I watched this documentary. It reveals some shocking information about blood doping, the IAAF, WADA, and other sporting authorities. Leaked information shows the number of abnormal blood tests recorded by athletes to be phenomenally high, and dangerously so. I find it impossible to believe that the IAAF, having access to this information, did nothing about it, but when you hear a top Kenyan marathon runner (Rita Jeptoo, now banned for two years) tell how she wasn't tested for 9 years - 9 years! - despite her profile and results, it says a lot about how lax the whole process is. Seb Coe, who I respect enormously, has fallen into the trap of attacking the documentary. Sorry Seb, but you are missing the point. It doesn't matter if they shouldn't have the file; it doesn't matter if you think it's sensationalist; it doesn't even matter if they have drawn wrong conclusions: what matters is that there is a huge public feeling on this, and attacking the messenger will not fix the problem.
My favourite sports, which all tend to be endurance based, are all in danger. The public at large are hugely sceptical, as are many of my sporting friends. Many of them think I'm just naive, still believing - or maybe just hoping - that there are a large number clean athletes out there. Whether I'm right or wrong, something that I have observed quite recently is an acceptance that drugs are part of sport. I'm not saying that they condone it, but they certainly accept that it's there, and they are much less disappointed when they discover an athlete is doping. I loved watching the 2015 Tour de France recently, which I believe was one of the best races in years, but I had to constantly defend Chris Froome. I believe he is clean, but most of my friends believe he's on drugs. I have read his autobiography recently, and two things stand out to me: firstly the dedication and commitment to his training and cycling in order to get into the sport; and secondly he is absolutely outspoken in his opposition to drugtaking in sport. Whether I am wrong or right about Froome, it is a sad fact that this debate will be repeated across all endurance sports and across all the world. We now have convicted drugs cheats return to sport in athletics, cycling and other disciplines. One shining light amongst this is that the world of triathlon firmly rebutted Armstrong's efforts to get into that sport, a stance that I support 100%. Elsewhere though, Justin Gatlin who will be competing against Usain Bolt in the forthcoming World Championships. Gatlin was caught, convicted, and banned for two years. He has now served those two years, and he's back in the sport that he showed so little respect for. If he beats Bolt, who as far as we know is clean, how do we deal with that? I'm not sure I can.
Quite apart from the sporting element of all of this, there is the danger to health and to life, which the sporting authorities should be addressing. From Tommy Simpson in the 60s, and numerous continental cyclists and other athletes in the intervening years, many have put their health at risk by chasing results. It is bad enough if they know the risks, but I would suggest that mostly they don't; even if they did know there were risks, it is unlikely that they knew how big these risks were. In the early days of EPO, a number of professional cyclists died in their sleep as their hearts simply stopped beating because of the thickness of their blood. The top professional teams took to waking their riders up in the middle of the night and making them run through the corridors of their hotels in order to keep their blood viscous enough for the heart to pump it. They did not stop taking EPO. In the German documentary, one of the scientists - a world-renowned blood specialist - expresses horror at the levels of blood doping witnessed in the files that he was given access to showing the blood tests of top athletes over a period of 11 years. His horror was based on the damage and risk to health of blood contaminated to such a degree.
There is too much evidence, from the "blind eye" shown to 1960s cyclists, through the whole of the Armstrong era to now, that drugs testing is inadequate and the authorities inattentive. There will always be some athletes who will cheat, and there will always be athletes tempted by the money or the glory but if we're going to continue to enjoy sport then we have to continue to believe in the athletes who make up that sport. For that to happen, we have to take this seriously and we have to force the authorities to do the same. As long as we simply play at this game we will continue to be riddled with suspicion, disbelief and disillusionment. And ultimately that will kill top-level endurance sport.
Doping - Top Secret: The Shadowy World of Athletics.
with an increasingly sad heart. Most of my "grown-up" sporting experience has been against a backdrop of performance-enhancing drug use in professional sport. The sports I love include cycling and athletics, and more recently triathlon, so as endurance sports, performance-enhancing drugs have always been a part of the scene. It used be interesting, almost amusing. In cycling there's a well-known statement by 5-times Tour de France winner Jacques Anquetil that: "I only take drugs when it's absolutely necessary." "And how often is that?" "Almost all the time." The Anquetil cocktail was a heady mix of heroine, speed, painkillers and other drugs. Anquetil was a character in the sport, loved by most, and the drug use was just a part of the deal. Every one did it, and without much subtlety. In the same era of cycling a famous British rider of the time, Tommy Simpson, died while riding on the Mont Ventoux. His pockets contained vials of amphetamines and his bloodstream was found to have alcohol in it. His autobiography reveals how he was born into relative poverty, and used his bike racing as a means to get out of that. That was a constant theme within cycling, which used to be regarded as a very working class sport. Its very much the same now with football, and with some areas of athletics which is one reason why there are so many top-level African distance runners. Coming into sport as a means of earning a living for yourself and often for your entire extended family, predisposes any athlete towards a "win at any cost" mentality, of which drug use is a major part. Simpson was known to everyone as Mr Tom, and was ambitious in his personal life, as well as his cycling career. He had told everyone before the fateful race that he wanted a win in order to buy a particular, expensive Mercedes car. The rumour was that he'd put a deposit down on it. But winning at that time meant taking performance enhancing drugs, particularly amphetamines. One of the worst aspects of this is how little was known, certainly by the cyclists, of the effects both positive and negative. It's easy to look back now, and see that amphetamines, alcohol, dehydration and excessive heat would cause massive problems. But back then they didn't know. Simpson was pretty much a victim of his time, and it is probably for this reason that he is generally revered and honoured. I don't think that I have ever seen any criticism of Simpson and his doping. When I first started watching the Tour de France, knowing that some - if not all - of the riders were doping, didn't really detract from my enjoyment. I used to love watching the Colombians attacking the mountains, and the likes of Pedro Delgado, and later on Marco Pantani, taking on some of France's most feared climbs. It was only later, as I started to take the sport more seriously, that I started to get concerned about drug use and feel that it detracted from the sport.
Reading the Paul Kimmage book "Rough Ride" back in the 80s made me realise the dangers involved, the pressure put on the riders by their teams and sponsors, and just how widespread the practice was. Kimmage described how he had to dope just to get through the round of criterium races that he was contracted to do. Not in order to win, just to survive them. Then came a couple of high-profile busts, culminating with the Festina affair in 1999, where one of the soigneurs of the team was found with a well-stocked pharmacy in his car. I began to lose faith in my cycling heroes and in my sport. Up till that point, I'd assumed it was pretty well a cycling phenomena, but then one of my athletic heroines, Diane Modal, got busted. I believed her story; I defended her at every opportunity; and I genuinely thought it would all turn out to be a big mistake. In my minds eye, I can still see the moment on TV when she was pulled out of a race. I can still see the shock on her face. To this day, I probably still believe she was innocent, and she was cleared on appeal. But now, unlike then, I have doubts. The last decade has seen many, many of my sporting heroes "popped" for drugs. (The fact that they use phrases like "popped", meaning arrested, and "glowing", meaning their blood still has detectable traces of doping substance in it, just demonstrates to me how much of a game the whole process seems to be.) The more I read about the subject, the more I understand how it was, essentially a process of outwitting the testers - not difficult, by all accounts. The worst of course, was being taken in by Armstrong, and when he confessed it eroded a fundamental part of why I love sport. As a result of that, I can't imagine that I will ever love sport so unquestioningly again.
In 2015 drugs are part of the everyday story of sport - all sport. We have suspicion everywhere, convicted drugs cheats that have served their time and are returning to the sport, and the knowledge that the authorities are at the very least, turning a blind eye, if not actually complicit. So it's against this background that I watched this documentary. It reveals some shocking information about blood doping, the IAAF, WADA, and other sporting authorities. Leaked information shows the number of abnormal blood tests recorded by athletes to be phenomenally high, and dangerously so. I find it impossible to believe that the IAAF, having access to this information, did nothing about it, but when you hear a top Kenyan marathon runner (Rita Jeptoo, now banned for two years) tell how she wasn't tested for 9 years - 9 years! - despite her profile and results, it says a lot about how lax the whole process is. Seb Coe, who I respect enormously, has fallen into the trap of attacking the documentary. Sorry Seb, but you are missing the point. It doesn't matter if they shouldn't have the file; it doesn't matter if you think it's sensationalist; it doesn't even matter if they have drawn wrong conclusions: what matters is that there is a huge public feeling on this, and attacking the messenger will not fix the problem.
My favourite sports, which all tend to be endurance based, are all in danger. The public at large are hugely sceptical, as are many of my sporting friends. Many of them think I'm just naive, still believing - or maybe just hoping - that there are a large number clean athletes out there. Whether I'm right or wrong, something that I have observed quite recently is an acceptance that drugs are part of sport. I'm not saying that they condone it, but they certainly accept that it's there, and they are much less disappointed when they discover an athlete is doping. I loved watching the 2015 Tour de France recently, which I believe was one of the best races in years, but I had to constantly defend Chris Froome. I believe he is clean, but most of my friends believe he's on drugs. I have read his autobiography recently, and two things stand out to me: firstly the dedication and commitment to his training and cycling in order to get into the sport; and secondly he is absolutely outspoken in his opposition to drugtaking in sport. Whether I am wrong or right about Froome, it is a sad fact that this debate will be repeated across all endurance sports and across all the world. We now have convicted drugs cheats return to sport in athletics, cycling and other disciplines. One shining light amongst this is that the world of triathlon firmly rebutted Armstrong's efforts to get into that sport, a stance that I support 100%. Elsewhere though, Justin Gatlin who will be competing against Usain Bolt in the forthcoming World Championships. Gatlin was caught, convicted, and banned for two years. He has now served those two years, and he's back in the sport that he showed so little respect for. If he beats Bolt, who as far as we know is clean, how do we deal with that? I'm not sure I can.
Quite apart from the sporting element of all of this, there is the danger to health and to life, which the sporting authorities should be addressing. From Tommy Simpson in the 60s, and numerous continental cyclists and other athletes in the intervening years, many have put their health at risk by chasing results. It is bad enough if they know the risks, but I would suggest that mostly they don't; even if they did know there were risks, it is unlikely that they knew how big these risks were. In the early days of EPO, a number of professional cyclists died in their sleep as their hearts simply stopped beating because of the thickness of their blood. The top professional teams took to waking their riders up in the middle of the night and making them run through the corridors of their hotels in order to keep their blood viscous enough for the heart to pump it. They did not stop taking EPO. In the German documentary, one of the scientists - a world-renowned blood specialist - expresses horror at the levels of blood doping witnessed in the files that he was given access to showing the blood tests of top athletes over a period of 11 years. His horror was based on the damage and risk to health of blood contaminated to such a degree.
There is too much evidence, from the "blind eye" shown to 1960s cyclists, through the whole of the Armstrong era to now, that drugs testing is inadequate and the authorities inattentive. There will always be some athletes who will cheat, and there will always be athletes tempted by the money or the glory but if we're going to continue to enjoy sport then we have to continue to believe in the athletes who make up that sport. For that to happen, we have to take this seriously and we have to force the authorities to do the same. As long as we simply play at this game we will continue to be riddled with suspicion, disbelief and disillusionment. And ultimately that will kill top-level endurance sport.
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