If a pill or injection could make you the best in your field, would you take it? Even if that was cheating and might damage your health? For the likes of Lance Armstrong and Ben Johnson, and apparently Russia’s Ministry of Sports, the answer was “bring it on.” The temptation is only heightened when state-of-the-art stimulants are undetectable in the latest drug tests. But the advantage in this long-running cat-and-mouse game may be swinging back toward anti-doping authorities, thanks to the prolonged storage of test samples. That’s allowed specimens to be reanalyzed using newer technologies, resulting in the nabbing of dozens of abusers who thought they had got away with it. Combine that threat with the ever-present risk from whistleblowers, and drug cheats may rest a little less easy.
The Situation
In November, Russia was stripped of four gold medals and lost its top ranking from the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics following the re-analysis of athlete samples. It was the latest fallout 4 cheats since a 2016 independent report commissioned by the World Anti-Doping Agency confirmed allegations of Russian state-sponsored doping. The McLaren report concluded that a scheme to obscure positive dope-test results involved about 1,000 Russian athletes from 2011 to 2015. The International Olympic Committee will decide in December on possible penalties for February’s Winter Games in PyeongChang, South Korea, after the anti-doping agency recommended blacklisting the Russian team. In 2016, the IOC rejected the agency’s call to disqualify Russia from the Rio Summer Games, though its track and field team was barred following revelations by a whistle-blowing runner who was labeled “Judas” by Russian President Vladimir Putin. Retesting is an increasingly effective backup for anti-doping authorities. Some 98 athletes — including at least 40 medalists — were snared using samples stored from the 2008 Beijing and 2012 London Summer Olympics. Among the guilty parties, track and field, weightlifting and Russians dominated. The practice of allowing athletes to take banned drugs on medical grounds has become a contentious issue after hackers released details of sportsmen and women who had received exemptions, including cyclist Bradley Wiggins and tennis players Serena and Venus Williams.
