scribe said:
I hope not. Doping culture certainly isn't as acceptable as it once was and that is a good start. How to clean it up is the responsibilities of all professionals involved.
Your point about all professionals being involved in finding a response to the drug problem is a good one.
I look at the situation from a combination of fan, participant, friend of professional athletes (in a range of sports) and - and sorry about this one folks - the background of my legal training.
In english based legal systems there's a concept called contributory negligence. Put simply it's about seeing all parties who are responsible for a particular harm and working out what level of responsibility each party takes.
Applying the same idea to drugs in cycling - or in fact any sport - you find what to my mind is a pretty simple answer of why the current focus only on athletes doesn't work. My simple analysis runs of responsibility runs something like:
- athletes - obvious issue of personal responsibility and choice. But even within that, there are questions about education and their perception of need and their perception of their future/post-competition prospects that need to be addressed.
- fans - unrealistic expectations of their sporting idols and expectations of constant improvements even if natural human limits are being surpassed, in part because many fans are "enthusiasts" rather than "fanatics". Examples include the expectations that GC contenders wont have a down day in a grand tour (contrast to the late 80's - early 90's) and the ever increasing speeds in a number of races.
- media - although there is a bit more press for anti-PED issues and riders supporting that movement, in general, the media is as willingly blind as many fans. Anyone who had the misfortune to sit through Versus coverage of the Tour (my first year in North America - and from here on out I'm watching French or English Eurosport on my computer) will know what I'm talking about. The media's movitation is to sell copy and advertising space. It creates icons to do that. Typically as a body it doesn't look particularly deeply at who it uses to create the profile it wants - as any number of public meltdowns of "stars" demonstrates. Combine that with what appears to be a real dearth of expert journos (in the english language media at least) and a general pre-occupation with sound bite reporting and the result is an environment where PED's are mostly quietly ignored.
- managers - ranging from turning a blind eye to complicit in PED use. I'd argue that these people have a "duty of care" to their riders. In any other employment field, employers have occupational health and safety responsibilities, why not in pro sports? Allowing or encouraging the use of PED's - which includes not having sufficient internal controls to catch abuse - is to my mind a dereliction of that duty. Jeez, even NZ rugby teams put in place programs to help their pro players build a career beyond their time at the top of their sport - if they can do it, why can't these multi-million dollar pro teams look after their riders better?
- sponsors - some just don't care how their sponsored athletes get the results. One friend was even encouraged by a very, very well known brand to start taking PED's if they wanted to see their sponsorship move to a higher level! In those countries where use of PED's is illegal, the corporation should to my mind be considered an accessory to a crime and directors/officers of the company should be liable for imprisonment - in the same way as they are under health and safety and environmental legislation. And again, as the athlete is a contractor to the sponsor - providing advertising services both on the "field of play" and at events - to my mind the sponsors owe the athletes a duty of care - which again comes into occupational safety.
- race/event organisers - the basic duty here is again akin to workplace safety. An event that encourages widespread PED use because of the difficulty of the course/event or an organiser who fails to provide sufficient controls of their own (irrespective of official testing) is to my mind directly analogous to a factory owner who operates machines without guards, has broken walkways, exposed wires etc. We've seen riders boycott stages and races for safety reasons - what I am talking about is an extension of the same sort of protest on the grounds of PEDs.
- organising bodies - to my mind, the role of the UCI and IOC and the various national federations is like that of a government certifying organisation. They either are - or should be - assessing and certifying events. I am not sure what criteria they assess on, but I believe that an expansion to include various criteria related to PED use should be considered. What they are doing at the moment would be like a national transport certifying agency looking at a new model car and having a certification list that excluded brakes and safety belts.
Ok, so this is getting overly long (apologies for that ... but as you can probably guess, it's something I'm kinda passionate about) - but even so I recognise that I've only skimmed the surface of the issue ... So please take the lack of discussion on establishing evidence etc in that light (ie., rather than dismissing the argument because of it).
I will conclude by saying that any criminology student will tell you that focusing only on making criminals (either literally or in a sporting sense) out of the riders wont ever fix the problem of PEDs when you have the network of pressure that I've described here behind them. The solution as I see it is to build a multi-layered framework that combines education, contracts, regulation and sanctions that are specific to each of these levels. (Again, space prohibits expansion ...) It'll take a generation or so to achieve the desired ends and will result in some pretty major blood spilling in the meantime - but I believe we'd get to where most people would rather be if we could implement something like this.
Again apologies for the length - but like I say, it's something I'm passionate about .... (jeez, if I could get the money I'd love to do a PhD or write more on this!!)
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