Marion Jones to Maria Sharapova, global sporting legends have gone down on their knees asking for forgiveness. Their sin: They tested positive for banned drugs.
Sports is all about honour. Cheats have no place in its hall of fame. However, the line has blurred between cheating and foul play.
Sports demands superhuman efforts from sportspersons. At the same time, the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) bars them from using performance-enhancing drugs. Sportspersons put their career at risk when they ignore the fiats from the Wada.
Russian tennis star Sharapova has admitted that she has been using meldonium since her teen days to improve her health. The drug was not on the banned list for the past ten years at least. Everything changed in the last Australian Open, when Sharapova was tested positive for meldonium.
The Wada updated its list of banned substance on January 1, adding meldonium to it.
It is hard to believe that Sharapova was trying to cheat by using a prohibited substance, especially when she knew about the drug tests at the Australian Open. She has, however, admitted that she and the doctors in her team have erred in recognising the prohibited drug.
This raises a question. Does Sharapova deserve to be shamed this way? Are the sportsperson supposed to learn by heart the long list of prohibited substances that the Wada updates now and then? Aren’t they supposed to keep themselves busy with rigorous training?
Meldonium is not a commonly prescribed drug. This is a drug used to normalise heartbeats, according to unconfirmed reports. The drug came under the Wada radar after it was found to be enhancing performance. If the Wada has found such a property for meldonium, it has a duty to submit its findings before the scientific fraternity. Medical researchers would like to know the details about the study conducted on meldonium.
The Wada can do with a little more transparency in its studies that are often used to frame sportspersons.
Take the case of Indian sprinter Dutee Chand. The national record holder was banned by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) because she had higher levels of male hormones than the association had prescribed.
The Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS), however, suspended the rules and asked the association to prove that the condition helped women athletes.
Going by the same yardstick, the Wada’s decision also comes under the scanner.
Let the Wada present its case before a medical research team. We cannot let sportspersons suffer at the hands of an agency which is trying to trap them by changing the list of prohibited substances. The Wada is well within its powers to check the use of performance-enhancing drugs but it is not right to prohibit even those drugs used for health reasons.
The International Olympic Committee has to form an expert committee with representation from the World Health Organisation, the International Medical Agency, sports scientists and sportspersons to review the actions of the Wada. After all, the Wada receives half its budget from the International Olympic Committee.
The rest of the Wada’s expenses are taken care of by various countries. India contributes Rs 60 lakh per year to the agency. On the other hand, the Wada does not give a single paise for India’s anti-doping programmes.
(The writer is the president of the Indian Federation of Sports Medicine)
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