The Athens Olympics will be a crucial battle in sport's war on drugs
“Olympismseeks to create a way of life based on the joy found in effort, the educational value of a good example and respect for universal fundamental ethical principles." So said Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympic Games. Alas, there is every chance the 28th summer Olympiad, which opens in Athens on August 13th, will make headlines less for the joy of effort – and still less for good example or respect for universal ethics – than for athletes caught cheating with performance-enhancing drugs.
The past year has brought plenty of evidence that "doping" is rife. In June 2003, a syringe containing a hitherto unknown and undetectable steroid, tetrahydrogestrinone (THG), was sent to America's Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), apparently by a disaffected coach. Speedily designed tests, some applied retrospectively to old urine samples, showed that use of THG had been widespread among top athletes. The drug was allegedly made by BALCO (the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative), in California, as a "nutritional supplement". BALCO’s clients Included many top sports stars, such as Tim Montgomery, world champion in the loom sprint; his partner, Marion Jones, the reigning women's Olympic 100m champion; Shane Mosley, a former boxing world champion; several members of the Oakland Raiders American football team; and Barry Bonds, who holds baseball's record for the most home runs in a season.
Although some of these athletes deny using THG, others have already been banned from their sport for doing so, including Dwain Chambers, a lop British sprinter. The USADA is seeking a lifetime ban for Mr Montgomery. After wide investigations, criminal charges have been brought against several people connected with BALCO – though no athletes, as yet-including its boss, Victor Conte, who has been indicted for allegedly supplying illegal drugs and laundering money. A lawyer for Mr Conte has hinted that other well-known athletes, due to compete in the Olympics, have yet to be identified as THG users, and that his client may be prepared to name them as part of a plea-bargain.
But the litany of recent illegal drug use stretches far beyond BALCO. Even cricket, the sport of gentlemen, has been tainted. Shane Warne, an Australian spin bowler, was banned for a year for taking a drug that can be used to mask steroids; on his return, he rivalled the record for the highest number of wickets taken in a Test (a record he shares, ironically, with a Sri Lankan who has born accused of cheating in n more old-fashioned way, by using an illegal bowling action). In soccer, England's top defender, Rio Ferdinand, was banned for eight months for failing to take a mandatory drug test.
Another Briton, Greg Rusedski, escaped a ban this year despite testing positive for nandrolone. The tennis star argued that he had been given the steroid without his knowledge by officials of the sport's governing body, the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). In 2003, the ATP let off seven unnamed players who failed drug tests, apparently for the same reason. Drug scandals have erupted in rugby league, ice hockey, orienteering, the triathlon and so on and on.
Cycling has provided many milestones in the history of doping in sport, including the first sportsman allegedly to die as a result of taking drugs, Arthur Linton, in 1896, and the first drug-related death during a televised event, of Tom Simpson, in the 1967 Tour de France. It continues to be rife with drug-taking. David Millar, a British world champion, has admitted taking steroids. Several top cyclists were recently accused of using a room at the Australian Institute of Sport as a "shooting gallery" in which they injected drugs. Even Lance Armstrong, the American cyclist who (in-spirationally) recovered from cancer to become a multiple winner of the Tour de France, entered this year's race – the sixth
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