POSTED: October 20th 2010

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NEIL WILSON: Time to make dope-test punishments fit all the crimes

THE NEIL WILSON COLUMN / An exclusive, authoritative series from Sports Features Communications

LONDON, Oct 18: That India finished one gold medal ahead of England at the Commonwealth Games probably concerns nobody but a triumphant Indian public. But on this occasion it should . . . because India finished one gold medal ahead for only one bad reason – its weightlifters won two gold medals.

India’s weightlifters should not have been competing at all. The country’s weightlifting fraternity should have been banned for the whole of 2010 by the International Weightlifting Federation under its own rules.

India had six or more lifters suspended for drug taking in 2009. Suspension of a federation follows under IWF law. India is a serial offender. It was suspended from all competition in 2004 and 2006.

It escaped in 2010 because the IWF felt sorry for it because it was Commonwealth Games year and it was host nation. So it levied instead a fine of $500,000. Hefty,  you might think, but missing the point.

Suspension is the only fair punishment. Fair, that is, to the rest of the world’s weightlifters.

The IWF’s rule, when applied properly, is a credit to the federation. Admittedly, it was forced upon it by the International Olympic Committee’s disgust at the serial offending of the sport and its potential exclusion from the Olympic movement. But for one year at a time at least it makes for a fairer playing field for all.

If only other sports were pressed by the IOC to copy it, there would be some interesting disappearances from the international scene. Athletics had four doping cases at the Commonwealth Games, three of them Nigerians. That will bring the number of Nigerians presently sanctioned by the IAAF to 14.

Cut-off figure

There are many more practising athletes than weightlifters but even if the IAAF doubled the IWF’s cut-off figure, Nigeria would be suspended. So would Russia, currently with 19 sanctioned athletes.  And the United States would be getting close with nine.

Had the IWF rule been in practice within the International Cycling Union, Spain would be out of international competition.  They had 10 cyclists caught in 2008, 11 in 2009 and more than six already this year.  Italy would also be suspended.

It is a just punishment because it punishes officials as well as athletes. National federations suspended by the IWF lose their vote, and their officials cannot officiate internationally. It should be welcomed in every sport.

The great irony of the Indian weightlifting let-off is that the IWF imposed a deadline of August 31 for payment of the $500,000. The money was paid with days to spare only because the Indian Olympic Association loaned its weight-lifting federation the amount interest-free.  Rather took the sting out of the sanction – and manipulated the medal table.

NEIL WILSON reported his first Olympic Games in Munich in 1972. He has since covered another nine summer and nine winter Olympics for various newspapers, including The Independent and the Daily Mail with whom he has worked for the last 19 years as Athletics and Olympic correspondent. He was Britain's Sports Journalist of the Year in 1984 and is the author of seven books     

Keywords · Neil Wilson · IWF · India · Commonwealth Games · dope-tests

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