If a doping manifesto is ever written, there’s no higher method to begin it than this seemingly benign assertion: When you don’t danger, you possibly can’t win. That is very a lot the crux of why an elite athlete considers taking performance-enhancing medicine. They understand it’s dangerous, they’re placing their total profession on edge by saying sure to medicine, however in addition they perceive the returns are huge, albeit provided that they don’t get caught.
The World Anti-Doping Company (WADA) is a notoriously strict quasi-governmental organisation main the battle in opposition to doping in sports activities. It’s the worst nightmare for an athlete to fall beneath the radar of WADA. As bizarre as it might sound, not everybody who will get caught is a acutely aware offender, some simply occur to take the prohibitive substance unknowingly. However even unintentional motion doesn’t absolve you of offence within the eyes of WADA, as Simona Halep realised this week when she was handed a four-year ban after testing optimistic for blood‑doping agent roxadustat.
Whereas Halep has obtained unconditional backing from her former coaches, Patrick Mouratoglou and Darren Cahill, gamers like Marin Cilic, and Novak Djokovic’s Skilled Tennis Gamers Affiliation (PTPA), some within the tennis circuit weren’t amused, throwing shade at her. The loudmouth good-for-nothing Nick Kyrgios made a provocative assertion, whereas Serena Williams posted a cryptic tweet, in reference to the 2019 Wimbledon ultimate which she misplaced to Halep.
At 31, this could possibly be the career-ending punishment for Halep. She’ll be preventing for her innocence within the Courtroom of Arbitration For Sports activities (CAS), however the course of is painstakingly gradual, and the purgatorial tennis limbo awaits her. However Halep just isn’t the one high-profile athlete who discovered herself in the midst of a doping controversy. French footballer Paul Pogba too has failed a doping check and has been provisionally suspended. Pogba has been discovered responsible of taking testosterone. He would possibly face a four-year suspension, like Halep.
However suspension isn’t the one punishment that befalls the dopers. The larger punishment is the character assassination, the desecration of your total physique of labor that follows. Whereas dishonest in sports activities divides opinion, doping is reviled unanimously. Even probably the most idealist followers who preserve it’s okay to cheat by capitalising on authorized loopholes will argue in opposition to drug enhancement.
Something that you simply’ve ever finished in your profession is diminished to ashes. Lance Armstrong was stripped of seven Tour de France titles and an Olympic gold. Serena Williams, who herself needed to battle baseless doping accusations all through her profession, wished the identical destiny for Halep. “8 is a greater quantity,” tweeted Williams.
She would have eight Wimbledon titles had she not misplaced to Halep within the 2019 ultimate. Whereas doping absolutely helps, the query is how a lot? A participant nonetheless must put in all of the onerous yards and burn the midnight oil. A below-average participant received’t simply find yourself successful a serious, irrespective of how a lot performance-enhancement drug he takes. Doping, nevertheless, does present the ultimate push, making your physique last more than typical, thus supplying you with an unfair benefit.
It’s onerous to attract a line between what constitutes doping and what doesn’t. When you’re allowed to take creatin in tennis matches – Djokovic was heard asking for “creatin” in a match this yr – testosterone is the place they draw the road. After all, there have to be legitimate scientific cause behind placing some substances beneath the purview of doping and others exterior it.
However principally it’s arbitrary. The explosive case of Maria Sharapova is an ideal instance of how athletes typically get the tough finish of the stick, typically with no fault of their very own. The Russian star was handed a two-year ban after she examined optimistic for meldonium, a substance that she had been taking for over ten years due to magnesium deficiency. Solely in 2016, meldonium was included within the prohibitive record, however Sharapova wasn’t alerted by her dietician and examined optimistic on the eve of the Australian Open.
If doping is to be legalised, the game will find yourself changing into a battleground for pharmaceutical corporations, the place excellence will all the time be greatest accessible to these with immense capital to purchase higher dietary supplements. However nonetheless, a little bit of transparency and equity in how anti-doping legislation works is not going to hurt the regulatory our bodies.
