To assess the quantum of doping work worldwide, tell us how many tests were carried out in 2012?
WADA is not a testing agency and it does not receive testing figures from anti-doping laboratories until the following year, so it is not possible to give details for 2012 yet. But, a total of 243, 193 tests were conducted in 2011.
As WADA science director since 2002, can you lead us through the challenges you have faced in trailing dope cheats and upgrading the technology?
There are many challenges involved in the fight against doping in sport. Some of these are scientific, some practical, some economic and some down to what we call the ‘human element’.
The best way to sum them up would be to highlight that there are many ‘sophisticated dopers’ who have the support of an entourage that can develop ways to cheat the system. This entourage can consist of unscrupulous scientists, doctors, coaches and sometimes even parents, and very often the doping activities that they resort to are supported by underworld figures controlling the black market.
Over 10 years, we have made significant progress in detection of EPOs, anabolic steroids, human growth hormone, blood manipulations, as well as the detection of gene manipulations. Our collaboration with the biopharmaceutical industry also gives us access to drugs with doping potential in development by the industry, helping us to develop anti-doping tests before some of these substances are commercialised and made accessible to doped athletes.
WADA and the world’s anti-doping community have put in place anti-doping processes that make it much harder today for an athlete to dope than it was a decade ago, but the unfortunate reality is that if an athlete is determined to dope and has the support, there are ways and means to avoid detection.
Among athletes, there is apprehension and ignorance about doping and also a lot of misinformation. What is the way ahead for a clean regime in sporting activity?
Since it was established in 1999, WADA has put emphasis on prevention through education. It has developed turn-key education tools available to signatories and runs education programmes at youth sports events across the world. WADA’s signatories are also obliged to run anti-doping education programmes.
Furthermore, WADA has an Outreach Department to raise anti-doping awareness at major sport events by interacting directly with athletes. This interaction is designed to leave the athletes much better informed on the dangers of doping. WADA has run this programme at every summer Olympic Games since 2000 and every winter Olympics since 2006. We continue to emphasise on education and awareness programmes as a means of prevention.
Considering many athletes, coaches and physicians are not educated in the inadvertent use of banned substances, do you not think there is equal need to protect the athletes from such activities as there is need to punish them? Especially in countries like India where many are not well-educated and sometimes even illiterate and go by what their ill-informed coaches tell them...
WADA and the anti-doping community has been warning athletes for many years of the dangers of supplements. Not only is it questionable what benefit supplements have that a balanced diet would not provide, it is also impossible for anyone to know what supplements contain because it is an unregulated industry.
There is evidence to suggest that some supplements do not contain what is advertised on the packaging, while others are contaminated due to the conditions in which they are made and packaged. A lot of information is available to athletes and a modern athlete cannot ignore rules, including anti-doping rules that apply to his/her sport.
Each athlete is responsible for what he or she puts in their body, but mitigating circumstances can be taken into account if an athlete proves that they inadvertently ingested a prohibited substance and then tested positive. Each anti-doping organisation warns athletes as to the dangers of using supplements.
Does WADA has enough at its disposal to check substance abuse?
WADA operates with an annual budget of US$26 million, while the annual money spent on anti-doping across the world is a very, very small percentage of the hundreds of billions of dollars sport generates annually. WADA dedicates 15-20 % of its total annual budget to research, which is significant for an organisation like ours. Most of this money is dedicated to improvements of existing anti-doping tests as well as development of new anti-doping methods. WADA would like more funds to fight doping in sport, but it is realistic that times are tough economically in many parts of the world and consequently it operates as best it can on what is available. It is for this reason that WADA has developed relationships and partnerships that not only make testing more effective, but also more cost-effective. WADA’s increasing interaction with the pharmaceutical industry is a good example of this and last month in Paris WADA staged an international conference with members of the anti-doping community and pharmaceutical industry to look at ways to further enhance co-operation.
One practical way, which was successfully used following the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, is for pharmaceutical companies to give WADA early warning of a pipeline product has the potential to enhance performance.
In 2008, Roche worked with WADA in anticipation of the commercial release of CERA which resulted in WADA quickly developing a test which resulted in a number of athletes being sanctioned after their samples from Beijing were retested.
When a well-anointed hero like Lance Armstrong is labelled a drug cheat by WADA, there is a whole lot of opinion that grows in his favour. How do you deal with such mass public outpourings which question the efficacy and accuracy of a WADA investigation due to sheer hero worship?
Lance Armstrong was not labelled a drug cheat by WADA, he was charged by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) for a range of doping violations. USADA produced more than 2,000 pages of evidence which proved beyond doubt that Armstrong was involved in systematic doping for a decade.
Your assertion that there is much opinion in his favour and public outpouring is mostly incorrect. Armstrong has been revealed as one of the most systematic dopers in the history of sport and has paid the price with sanctions that reflect the level of his cheating. Many high profile athletes commended anti-doping authorities for not giving up on dopers, even when they are icons or past icons in their own sport.
Do you think that the Armstrong saga is just the tip of the iceberg in the quantum of sheer usage in most well laid-out dope cheating campaigns, like in Armstrong’s case? And how does WADA get through such solidly organised operations by dope cheats in which a top-to-bottom involvement is there?
The Armstrong case proved that it is possible to cheat the system if an athlete has the support of a well-financed and highly technical entourage. WADA is confident that it would be much harder for someone like Armstrong to dope to such an extent nowadays and not get caught, but the reality is that many athletes are still doping and avoiding detection.
For this reason, WADA has encouraged anti-doping organisations to develop more Intelligence and to increase their investigative capabilities. Testing has its limitations, and when it operates in tandem with sophisticated Intelligence and information gathering it becomes much more effective.
To this end, WADA has developed MoUs with Interpol and the World Customs Organisation and in 2011 released guidelines for helping anti-doping organisations to develop their Intelligence capabilities. More and more athletes are being sanctioned on the basis of non-analytical evidence, and this will continue to be a focus of the world’s anti-doping community going forward.
WADA has also developed the Athlete Biological Passport which is a longitudinal programme allowing anti-doping organisations to monitor athletes’ biomarkers to assess whether doping activities are taking place. To-date, 25 organisations are using the ABP to varying degrees and this is proving an extremely important tool in identifying possible doping activity. Several athletes have been sanctioned on the basis of abnormal blood profiles.
In India, cricket has recently come under dope testing. The BCCI and the players have been against the whereabouts clause of WADA. Do you think it is an unfair protest?
Whereabouts is an important part of testing and is critical if anti-doping authorities are going to be able to conduct out-of-competition testing that relies on the element of surprise.
What do you do about a substance which comes in from natural products or through certain required medication? Is it not unfair to make the athlete the fall guy in such cases?
If an athlete requires medication they can apply for a Therapeutic Use Exemption, which is a medical certificate that approves their usage of a particular prohibited substance. Most natural substances are well known to us and, when necessary, thresholds are established to ensure that natural non-performance enhancing consumption is tolerated by anti-doping rules.
How difficult it is to pin down a clever drug cheat, especially like Armstrong? Also, do you not think when a comprehensive involvement like was the case with Armstrong, punitive action against the athlete alone is not enough and that the sport federation/administrators of his nation should also be penalised?
The World Anti-Doping Code outlines the sanctions for an athlete who is found to have committed a violation. This includes sanctions for coaches/administrators who are deemed to have assisted in doping activities.
Do you think WADA has enough infrastructure to deal with this widespread problem? As science director, what challenges you face due to constantly evolving technology which allows cheats to build up their shields?
With regards to evolving technology, if by this you mean new substances and methods that allow athletes to avoid detection, then yes this is a challenge. WADA’s challenge is to keep pace with the science of the athletes who chose to dope and the science of those underworld figures that control the black market supply of doping substances. The best we can do is to invest in anti-doping research involving high profile international research teams and continue working with investigation forces to ensure that information collected in the field is brought to our attention to adjust our strategies.
Which countries are the worst offenders in your opinion and where does India stand in the WADA list of suspect activity? Jamaica, for instance, from where the elite track athletes come, has always been under suspicion about its sincerity in establishing a dope-free regime... your views on this.
WADA considers all sports and countries to be susceptible to athletes who wish to cheat by doping. Cheating is a human trait that does not recognise sporting or geographical boundaries.
How far, in your opinion, is the war on dope from being won? And what’s the way ahead?
Even if we have feedback from the field that the situation has significantly improved, it is WADA’s belief that the war on doping will never be entirely won. It is WADA’s responsibility to make it as difficult as possible for athletes to get away with cheating.
How expensive is dope testing and are there any funding issues that WADA faces?
The cost of sample collection and testing is an area WADA is trying to address. Obviously, anti-doping organisations have limited budgets we try to cut the costs involved in testing – transportation of samples, analysis of samples – WADA is trying to ensure that the money available is spent in the most effective way.
Can you tell us about the biggest challenges you have faced in your work as science director in the last decade and what are the areas of improvement WADA is looking at?
WADA faces many challenges in terms of science, whether it be micro-dosing, designer drugs, the abuse of medicines that are not yet on the market or never come to market. As mentioned earlier, the anti-doping community has to try and keep up with the science of the sophisticated dopers and those that assist them. To help keep pace with the developing science WADA invests approximately US$6m a year to science research to help develop new testing methods and improve those already in use. Science is making progress every day, which means that WADA too is always looking for improvement.
Source: Published in Sunday Pioneer, New Delhi on 27 January, 2103
Comments
Post a Comment