In this Olympic ‘Year of the Rat’ there will no doubt be new drug scandals. It goes with the territory!

While society in general is drowning in a sea of drugs to treat ‘under-performance’ off the sporting field, the line in the sand is drawn when it comes to under-performance on the sporting field though. Hence the doping rules.

Despite the rules it appears that for many athletes then there is no ‘line in the sand’. It may come as no surprise but 80% of athletes surveyed at the Sydney Games admitted taking at least one substance and another 20% admitted five or more, and one ‘junkie’ admitted taking 26 different concoctions.

'The mantra seems to be "abuse your body" but don’t worry there is a "pill to fix all your ills"'


On the surface many athletes are mimicking society and in this era of ‘disease mongering’ where under-performance in the classroom, in the boardroom and in the bedroom are labelled diseases in need of drugs then who are we to suggest that under-performance on the sporting field is not a disease as well.

These days the mind and body are under ‘pharmaceutical’ attack . . . Ritalin to unscramble ADHD afflicted minds of ‘over-active’ kids in the classroom or to ‘sharpen’ the minds of students taking exams or for corporate leaders pitching boardroom battles . . . Viagra to stay ‘longer’ in the bedroom . . . weight loss pills for the lazy sods that don’t exercise or eat right, and on it goes.

The mantra seems to be ‘abuse your body’ but don’t worry there is a ‘pill to fix all your ills’. I am not convinced that the public really gives two hoots about drugs in sport because they themselves are performance enhancing so it’s not a great moral leap to accept then that athletes should do same.

I am sure that when Usain Bolt set a new world record of 9.72secs for the 100m recently, the first question would have been what drugs was he on. It’s almost a natural reaction these days and is a sad indictment of where things are today.

The endless scandals have also led to doping fatigue in the general community. Irrespective of the publics position though the avalanche of drugs is but one of the problems that plague sports beleaguered anti-doping efforts.

The world is a big place and there will be some 200 nations competing at the Beijing Games. Of these only about 30 have drug testing labs so for the most part, the world is a drug-testing free zone.

And even where testing occurs, what chance that corrupt officials are covering over, shredding or manipulating test results and testing programs to avoid embarrassment on the part of governments, dictators or monarchs? How many athletes will turn up in Beijing already pumped full of drugs that have already left the system?

In countries where gold medals were once a matter of policy it seems that the usual suspects continue to infringe upon the doping rules. The whole Russian Rowing Federation has been threatened with expulsion for four years over eight doping violations in the past year.

Bulgarian athletes Vanya Stambolova (European 400m women’s champion) and high jump silver medalist Venelina Veneva were banned after testing positive for testosterone, or its precursors, in Budapest in January 2007, Veneva testing positive again one month later.

Most of the Greek weightlifting team tested positive for steroids in April blaming a bad batch of ‘supplements’ from suppliers in China.

Any number of conspiracy theories could be postulated, not the least of which that supplements were purposely tainted with the objective of having one of the main medal threats expelled from the Games, increasing China’s chances of success in the weightlifting events. Or it could be simply that the Greeks are cheats. Nothing would surprise me though.

And the Germans just don’t seem to have moved on from the halcyon days of the 1980s where doping was state sanctioned (in East Germany anyway). The sport of cycling in Germany was in meltdown earlier this year after numerous positive cases (Matthias Kessler, Patrik Sinkewitz) and the doping cloud that hovered over its most famous cyclist Jan Ullrich and the admissions by Erik Zabel, Rolf Aldag and Jorg Jaksche.

As for the ‘schizophrenic’ Americans we continue to be pestered by scandals of athletes attributing success to hard work only to be exposed as drug cheats, ala Marion Jones, Floyd Landis, Lance Armstrong (scientifically but not legally proven), Barry Bonds and the like.

While the attitude of the cheats maybe ‘if you don’t win then you need a better doctor or better drug’ what is perhaps more galling is the attitude of many aspiring athletes.

A few years ago a group of potential Olympians in the USA (where else) were surveyed and when asked if they would take drugs to help them win but that they would be dead in five years, more than half said yes. Can you believe it? The trade-off of possible death against winning is totally out of whack.

It’s out of control, and the protagonists of doping who say that athletes are not, and should not, be role models then think about this. In a 2005 USA survey (MSNBC.com) among students in Grade 8 through 12 who admitted to using anabolic steroids, 57% said professional athletes influenced their decision to use the drugs. Tell me this is not about role models.

We can all philosophize until the cows come home but in the meantime what will happen on the ground in Beijing. Chinese officials are claiming to have the best equipment and the best minds on the job so are we to expect a plethora of doping scandals?

What drugs are out there that will fly under the radar anyway? Sure the tried and true drugs like steroids, stimulants and blood doping will be easy meat for testers, but I suspect most, if not all, the cheats will have stopped taking these drugs before entering the Olympic Village. There are still a few ways to fool the testers on game day though.

The next instalment will outline what the threats are likely to be and perhaps more importantly those that we may have no idea about.  Rats may hold the key!