POSTED: October 19th 2011
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JOHN GOODBODY: How will the WADA cope with new doping problem
THE JOHN GOODBODY COLUMN / An authoritative and exclusive series from Sports Features Communications
LONDON: The 2012 Olympics will mark 20 years since the controversy over the drug, clenbuterol, blighted the Barcelona Games.
Known as ‘dopers’ delight’, because it is both a stimulant and an anabolic agent, the substance was being used at the time by a large number of competitors, several of whom claimed that they did not realise that it was prohibited.
Among those, who were found positive for the drug were Katrin Krabbe, the German sprinter who was the 1991 world 100 and 200 metres champion, two British weightlifters, Andrew Saxton and Andrew Davies, and Jud Logan, who finished fourth in the hammer throw at those Olympics.
There was a lengthy dispute whether the drug was adequately covered by the regulations at the time under the catch-all phrase “and related compunds”.
Several organisations clarified its own rules to ensure that there was no ambiguity. That, it was thought, was that: clenbuterol was a prohibited substance.
However, as the 2012 Olympics approach, it looks as if the status of clenbuterol is once again uncertain.
Next month, Spain’s Alberto Contador, who had an adverse finding for the drug during the 2009 Tour de France, which he won, will have his case heard by the Court of Arbitration in Sport (CAS) in Lausanne.
He is claiming that he ate some meat from Spain, which was contaminated with clenbuterol often used by farmers in that country to fatten up cattle.
This was a defence of Olympic judo gold medallist Tong Wen, who had an adverse finding for the drug at the 2009 world championships.
She believed the meat she had eaten in China had also contained clenbuterol. She was subsequently exonerated, although on a separate technicality.
In principle, the edict of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) remains that competitors are responsible for what they themselves consume.
However, the WADA has itself questioned this policy in a recent decision that could have significant reprecussions in the years to come.
Five senior Mexican footballers had adverse findings for clenbuterol at Concaaf Gold Cup and seven further players had levels which did not indicate a positive test.
The Mexican Football Federation declined to take any action because the players had been eating meat from cows, which in their country are often treated with clenbuterol.
The WADA was planning to take the case to the CAS only to withdraw the action when tests at the under 17 international football tournament in Mexico revealed that 109 samples or 52.4 percent also contained different levels of the drug.
The WADA also withdrew its action against the Danish cyclist Philip Nielsen, who had an adverse finding during the Tour of Mexico for the same substance.
Instead, the WADA warned competitors in the Pan American Games which began in Mexico on October 14 about the dangers of consuming local meat, stating:”We have received compelling evidence..that indicates a serious health problem in Mexico to meat contaminated with clenbuterol.”
It urged athletes only to eat in canteens regarded as safe by the organisers and to try to eat the same food in large numbers.
However, precedents have now been set . A wedge has now been driven between the policy of the Wada that competitors are responsible for whatever they consume and its recent pronouncement.
And in the build-up to the London Olympics, there may increasing numbers of cases of competitors claiming they have taken clenbuterol inadvertently. The question is: what will the WADA do about it?
** JOHN GOODBODY covered the 2008 Olympics for The Sunday Times, his 11th successive Summer Games and is the author of the audio book A History of the Olympics, read by Barry Davies, the BBC commentator. He was Sports News Correspondent of The Times 1986-2007, for whom he received journalistic awards in all three decades on the paper, including Sports Reporter of The Year in 2001.
Keywords · John Goodbody · anti-doping · WADA
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