Reform The WADA Code

Alberto Contador wants to go down swinging. He insists that he is a victim of an unfair anti-doping crusade that insists upon "strict liability." Alberto Contador argues that the minuscule amounts of clenbuterol found in his system did not enhance his performance and should be discounted as an anomaly. Alberto Contador claims to have ingested tainted meat contaminated with clenbuterol; a one year suspension is an outrageous affront to his dignity. He hopes that the Spanish Cycling Federation will change their minds and allow him to keep his 2010 Tour de France title and Saxo Bank contract. You have to feel sorry for the guy.

The arguments used by disgraced cyclists are legion: Floyd Landis argued that the synthetic testosterone measured in his urine samples had little or no performance enhancing qualities, yet he was suspended for two and a half years and was forced by Pierre Bordry to sign a seperate agreement not to race in France while his case was pending. Alberto Contador, in comparison, is being treated humanely with dignity, not as a possessed satanic fiend from hell, like poor Floyd Landis was. Perhaps the anti-doping crusade has become immured, desynthesized to inflicting mental and physical abuse on athletes with these expensive long drawn out legal battles and outrageous suspensions...?

No. Indeed. Alberto Contador can argue till doomsday that the testing science and methods are pre-historic, barbaric monstrosities of a bygone era, but if they were improved? Alas, be careful what you wish for, Alberto Contador, for if the testing were improved the plastics found in your urine would have provided supplemental evidence of your guilt! Very difficult to explain away plastic residues; they are not encoded into one's DNA and reflected in one's physiology. You cannot simply provide a receipt from a doctor, like you can a butcher!

Sorry. For all the shouts for reform nothing happens. For all the calls for "independent oversight," away from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) umbrella, nothing happens. The UCI refuses to wean cycling from WADA. "Conflicts of interest" favor prosecutions. Outcomes are more important than serious considerations of scientific evidence. The anti-doping crusade must enhance it's monetary existence by foul means. The Court of Arbitration of Sport needs to be abolished. The WADA code scrapped!

Because, my friends, no matter your opinion of the Alberto Contador case and aftermath, innocent athletes have been demeaned by the current system and this system needs reform. One year suspensions for athletes who make simple mistakes with no intent to increase performance, or cheat, is outrageous! It would be simpler to disallow an athlete for a competition: or as is done in cycling, prohibition from competition for a fixed period of time "for health reasons."

Yes, Alberto Contador has it all wrong, the science and methods of testing are adequate, not perfect, could be improved, true, but adequate. The punishment extracted by the UCI is Byzantine and bizarre, antiquated, worthless, and nonsensical. Athletes are human beings and are fallible. They should be treated in context, not universally stereotyped as dopers and cheaters. Common sense needs to happen now!

But would such sensible change open the door for dopers intent on cheating the system and create more problems than it solves? No. A simple change would not lull the anti-doping crusade into somnolence, the vigilance will not diminish, there is nothing to fear, but maybe very much to gain.