[Jean-Paul]

The second link:

Anti-Doping Religion Getting Late Converts
By CHRISTOPHER CLAREY

Published: October 26, 2003


In a rush, Americans appear to have gotten religion on the most significant issue facing international sports.

First, the United States Olympic Committee issues an ultimatum to its national track and field federation to put its house in order in a hurry or risk foreclosure. Then the United States Anti-Doping Agency devises a test for a previously undetectable designer steroid and announces that several prominent athletes have been caught using it. Then on Wednesday, USA Track and Field responds to the ultimatum by announcing its intention to put into effect a zero-tolerance program that could result in lifetime bans for first-time steroid offenses and fines up to $100,000 for athletes or their coaches.

Better very late than never, but the flurry of activity — most of it generated by outside pressure — should not obscure the fact that the United States still needs to stop playing catch-up and start playing the leading role in the global fight against doping.

It needs to do this for its young people. Sports might be the toy store in the megamall of modern life, but who wants children playing with dangerous toys?

It needs to do this for its international credibility, and not just within the sports community. The United States and its policies are hardly greeted with widespread enthusiasm in this complex, fractious era. Trivial though it might seem in the big picture, its generalized foot-dragging and hypocrisy toward performance-enhancing drugs have further damaged its reputation with Europeans, particularly young Europeans, fitting too neatly into the perception that the United States plays by the rules unless the rules no longer suit it.

The United States sanctimoniously wags fingers at other nations whose athletes test positive but then refuses to acknowledge when its own athletes test positive, as the U.S.O.C. did in the 1980's and 1990's and as USA Track and Field did in the case of Jerome Young, the 400-meter runner who was allowed to compete in the 2000 Olympic Games and win a relay gold medal.

"When you're a superpower, you tend to be a target," said Dick Pound, the Canadian lawyer who is president of the World Anti-Doping Agency. "But if you're a moral superpower, and you don't toe the line, the effect is much worse than it would normally be. There is such an opportunity for the U.S. to be a leader, and it's resolutely fumbling the ball."

At least it now appears to be chasing after the loose ball with some conviction, although it would have been more reassuring if the U.S.O.C. had decided to press USA Track and Field before going through a wrenching scandal of its own and before the International Olympic Committee applied all the leverage it could.

It would have been more reassuring, too, if the United States Anti-Doping Agency had uncovered the previously unknown steroid, tetrahydrogestrinone, or THG, with some cutting-edge science. Instead, a sample of the substance came from a top-level coach who has yet to be identified. Think of all the in-the-know coaches who have not blown the whistle.

But at least somebody called, and it would be great if it started a trend. It would be even better if the major professional leagues, which set the tone for sports in the United States, were anywhere near as serious about testing for performance-enhancing drugs as they are about performance enhancement.

Major League Baseball's new program is a joke. It will become a genuine program with genuine sanctions only if more than 5 percent of players test positive this year (as if any less were not cause for concern). The National Basketball Association and the National Football League do have real programs but don't do nearly enough out-of-competition testing and have yet to commit to the international anti-doping code that the I.O.C. and the vast majority of its affiliated federations endorsed this summer.

Pound said: "The message by most of the professional leagues is, `Well, don't take crack cocaine, because that makes the public angry about our off-field activities, but you know we really don't care too much about what you do to get ready for your games. We'll go as far as saying we believe in drug-free sport, and yes, you're going to get tested for steroids on Sept. 22. Remember that, Sept. 22.' "

The element of surprise is the only true deterrent to postmodern cheats, and only consistent emphasis and financing can maintain that element of surprise. It's shameful that the World Anti-Doping Agency, set up in the wake of the Tour de France scandal, is missing about one-third of its budget for 2003 because national governments have not honored financial commitments.

That damages research and credibility. "We're in the long slog now," Pound said. "This is not an eight-second sound bite, and it's hard to maintain government interest in it."

Drug busts gain attention, but when the news cycle churns on and the lighthouse searchlight tracks to some other hot topic, the drug police are left on the rocks in the dark until the next headline.

There needs to be more commitment. But what is intriguing about the still developing THG scandal is that it has the potential to jump the cognitive firewall in the United States that separates Olympic sports like track and field from professional team sports in the public's perception.

This is not some distant problem, involving East German swimmers, Belgian cyclists, Italian soccer players or a Swiss-based sports organization. This is a homegrown morality play, and if the allegations prove true, it is a homegrown conspiracy, with coaches and researchers colluding to commit fraud by designing and distributing a new drug.

United States Anti-Doping Agency officials allege that THG was supplied to athletes by the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, a maker of nutritional supplements in Burlingame, Calif. Balco is being investigated by a federal grand jury that has issued subpoenas to dozens of prominent athletes. Balco's founder, Victor Conte, has denied developing or distributing THG, and it remains unclear if the grand jury's inquiry will focus on doping or whether it will deal exclusively with tax evasion.

But Balco's business links with top American football players and the baseball stars Jason Giambi and Barry Bonds, both of whom have been subpoenaed, though not accused of taking THG, have put this drug scandal and its fallout on the agenda of the average American sports fan. The fact that a United States concern was the one to develop the test for THG should also give this more weight with Americans, sometimes skeptical of accusations from abroad.

Craig Masback, the beleaguered chief executive officer of USA Track and Field, is scrambling to use the wider implications of this scandal to turn a big negative into something constructive. He has called for an emergency drugs-in-sport meeting in Washington next month, sending invitations to the leaders of major sports in the United States.

"The situation in which we find ourselves is not a track and field problem, or even a baseball problem," Masback said. "It is an American problem with more than 4 percent of American high school seniors indicating they have used steroids in the last year."

In truth, it remains a global problem. Just wait and see how many foreign athletes other than the British sprinter Dwain Chambers have tested positive for THG by the time the last urine sample is retested. But the Americans do have a responsibility to be a big part of the solution. Why not the biggest part?