
Opprinnelig skrevet av
Ato Boldon Don't Drop the Ball
Tuesday 31 May, 2005
There is a saying where I am from that goes ’measure twice, then cut once’. Think of if you were building something important and you’ll figure it out - if you haven’t already. I think the U.S. equivalent is "look before you leap." I like the Trini version better.
A very interesting article surfaced in the Daily Telegraph in the U.K. yesterday, and it involves many people in the sport of track and field, and tennis even, including some friends of mine, in fact. It was reported in the Daily Telegraph that a leaked document, sent by the WORLD ANTI-DOPING AGENCY (WADA) to all its accredited labs, warns that new research shows that a new theory of "unstable urine" could invalidate a positive finding for the steroid nandrolone, one of the most commonly detected banned drugs in sport.
This is big.
It’s big because WADA has banned and or sanctioned so many athletes based on a positive test for nandrolone. But let’s go back a bit. Merlene Ottey and Linford Christie were both found to have tested positive for this drug some 5 years ago, and the "they all are on drugs" critics said "A-ha! See!". I never believed that anyone would use this drug, because any research on this drug shows clearly that you’d have to be a fool to use it...it is the doping equivalent of a Fort Knox heist.
It is the most detectable drug in existence. I suspected it was likely contaminated European supplements, and this was confirmed later on, but only after many reputations and careers had been forever tarnished or ended. Now comes this revelation - after a recent upswing in the number of positives for this drug.
My own teammates Larry Wade and Mickey Grimes both had positive tests for this drug in 2004, and at the worst possible time - during the BALCO fallout around the time of the US Olympic trials last year. At that time, people didn’t want to hear the difference between drugs or steroids or situations. And who could blame them? This revelation, though, forces another look at exactly why there are so many athletes failing tests for a drug which no-one who is desirous of cheating would use, simply because there is no way to have it NOT show up on a drug test.
WADA now ADMITS that nandrolone or its related compounds, 19-NA and 19-NE, can form SPONTANEOUSLY after an athlete’s urine sample has been taken away for testing. It could be the result of bacterial degredation OR naturally occuring hormones. Simon Davis, a British doping guru, says as many as 70% of the positive cases for this drug could be affected by this. That is way too high a number. It means that there are many athletes who have rightfully protested their innocence in cases involving nandrolone, who were in fact 100% correct, only to be struck down with the same "you are responsible for what is in your body" sword used against all doping offenders. That is the correct position, but if that is their stance then it must be an airtight testing procedure, not one whereby 70% of athletes forever branded as cheats could be, in fact, INNOCENT!
I say this not only because of my teammates whose careers have been railroaded due to what now appears to be a flaw in the testing, but also because I know how I would have felt had this been a case involving me. No-one would have believed me and that would have been extremely frustrating indeed. WADA needs to, at this point, not be sending secret memos around trying to cover their collective backsides, but in fact openly admitting that there could have been many false positives now and previously for this drug, and then try to work to make sure that there is no way that a positive can occur for any athlete who, in truth and in fact, has done nothing wrong.
For some athletes, maybe even my teammates, there will be no recourse, because their samples would have had to be tested to prove it was unstable beyond a shadow of a doubt, which is impossible at this stage.
WADA, if you are going to affect people’s reputations, lives and careers with a strict, no-tolerance policy, then there can BE no oversights, no mistakes or flaws in your prcoedures. You, too, must be held to a strict policy of no flaws in your results.
GET IT RIGHT! THE FIRST TIME!