Who Sport What?

You Can Run...

How many times has Dick Pound said it: "You can run, but you can't hide." ?

While nobody doubts that the world of Olympic sport has taken its drug problem seriously for some time, the U.S. Federal government long seemed to be leaving plenty of places to hide. Bush's State of the Union mention of steroids, oft-derided for not having had much of an impact, seems to have changed that. Federal agencies don't turn on a dime but clearly a culture-shift happened a couple of years ago whereby investigations into performance-enhancing drugs moved up the list of priorities. And now we're seeing the results.   They're impressive, international in their reach, and if records have been kept of customers, they are likely to result in many athletes facing serious problems. 143 arrests and 56 labs in the U.S. 26 raids in Denmark. Five labs closed in Germany.

The war on drugs in general is not one that will ever be completely won or lost. For sport though, it's  good to finally have some serious help on the side of keeping athletes and kids healthy.

A Bad Day At The Death Mill

The Federal investigation into leading internet steroid supply house, Florida's Signature pharmacy, has netted 10 WWE "wrestlers". They have been suspended for violating the WWE's "wellness" policy. It seems Signature had also supplied the three most recent wrestlers whose deaths were probably related to drug abuse. Steroid Nation has the details here.

None of these athletes came up as part of any testing programme carried out by the WWE and it would seem fair to surmise that they were only suspended as a PR move once it was clear they would be publicly linked with the drugs. The ratings will tell the real story

Slate's Dope Test

Slate is having a "thought experiment" on doping. The premise is simple: what would sports look like if doping was legal. Try this for an response:

In response to your question:
"What would the sports world look like if every athlete could inject himself with God knows what?"

The short answer is: pro wrestling.

The MLB, NFL, NHL and NBA. would look exactly like they do right now.

Does anyone really believe NFL linemen get to be that big, that strong and that fast just by drinking milk after they lift weights? Thought not.

In the other "Olympic" sports, they don't need to wait to inject themselves with God knows what. They already have human growth hormone, which remains undectable in its available-over-the-internet form and works just great for sports with a real heavy training load. How do you think all of those old Eastern-bloc swimming world records were beaten? Tighter Speedos?

The old fashioned steroids, from testosterone patches to Stanozolol, would see a resurgence in the power sports, leading to athletes dying in their forties just like they do in the death mill.

Dude! TdF, UCI: WTF?

Alexandre Vinokourov has left the Tour de France, as has his entire Astana team, following a positive doping test, pointing to the same kind of homologous blood transfusion used by the disgraced Tyler Hamilton. Last year "Vino" had been banned from starting the Tour on account of his links to the Operation Puerto blood doping ring. This year he was heavily criticized for his links to the infamous Italian coach Michele Ferrari (the one who claimed using EPO was no more harmful than using orange juice and subsequently advised Armstrong's miraculous comeback). Vino's positive came after a performance, like Landis's last year, that simply seemed too good to be true. Questions will now be asked of his whole career. Such as: "How did he go fast enough to take third place overall in 2003"

All of this has been well-covered in other places. Pat McQuaid and Dick Pound are to be commended for avoiding the temptation to chime in with their "I told you so's" until after the B sample. But McQuaid, of the UCI, should also be prepared to answer some tricky tests when he does face journalists. In particular, expect him to be quizzed on the efficacy of the UCI's commitment to a new cycling. The ability of the commitment's deterrent effect for would-be dopers must now surely be in doubt. Vino, like Sinkewitz, had signed it.

So Is That How They Look So Young?

Is nothing sacred? Golf is set to be the next sport under the dope labs' microscopes, with claims today by none other than Gary Player of abuse. The PGA is to introduce dope testing next year and Player, at Carnoustie for the Open, was asked if he would be surprised to see any positives. His response set off the alarm bells: "No, not surprise me because I know - I know for a fact - that there are golfers, whether it's HGH, creatine or steroids, that some golfers are doing it."

"I would say of golfers around the world playing on tour there's 10 guys taking something," he continued. "I might be way out - definitely not going to be lower, but might be a hell of a lot more. And I'm delighted to see that they're going to start having tests at random, if that's what they officially have decided."

Questioned on how we knew "for a fact" that there are drug cheats in golf, Player said: "Because one guy told me." So now every sports journalist in the world is looking for one guy. Or could it be Guy?

Tour De France Turn Off

A truly remarkable thing just happened. Can anyone out there think of a precedent? The German rights holders for the Tour de France, state-owned ARD and ZDF, just pulled the plug on their live coverage of this year's race. Because of doping. Cycling in Germany has been in total disarray for some time. From Jan Ullrich having his DNA linked to bags of blood in Dr. Fuentes's office to Jorg Jacksche telling Der Spiegel how the bloood-doping operation worked. The implication of T-Mobile in systematic doping...

But to pull the plug on the broadcast after paying for the rights, and half way through the race?

Ostensibly, the reason is T-Mobile rider Patrik Sinkewitz's positive A sample (that would be testosterone, Floyd). ARD / ZDF claim they are unwilling to pay to cover a pharmaceutical race to Paris.  If his B sample comes back positive, that's it: the Tour goes completely dark in Germany on network (Eurosport will probably continue on cable, even though it is run by the European Broadcast Union, of which ARD / ZDF are key members).

Rather than just wait for viewers to vote with their remotes, the broadcaster has figured out it has a public-service duty to show something less unhealthy than a bike race. "We were in intensive discussion with the German racing teams and they swore that everything would be clean,'' Guenter Stuve, ARD's director of programming, told the station's Web site. It will come as no surprise to lean that Sinkewitz denies everything: "Me? Why me? I don't know anything about it. This can't be," he is reported as saying.

The implications for other sports are huge, demonstrating that some broadcasters still see sport as more than just gladiatorial spectacle. Imagine Disney cutting back on ESPN's coverage of the NFL following Michael Vick's indictment (instead of wall-to-wall SportsCenter coverage of the case). Or then again, no. That's just wishful thinking, isn't it?

Wrestling With Addiction

"People don't realise how addictive these drugs are," said Penny Bordeau-Durham on the CNN show "Nancy Grace", this evening. She's the widow of "Johnny Grunge" Durham, whose death was linked to steroid abuse. The interview and others with former wrestlers, which first aired earlier this week, comes as the U.S. media continues to wring its hands in the aftermath of WWE star Chris Benoit killing his family then killing himself, yet more victims of the death mill.

No, Penny, people don't realize how addictive the drugs are. There's physiological addiction of course, but more powerful still is the psychological addiction. And all the kneejerk laws that Congress pass will serve only to satisfy the vanity of the lawmakers, a soundbite for the campaign trail, doing nothing to curb the pressures to cheat. Just look at the war on drugs. Does anyone really think supply can be eliminated?  Real spending on health education, meanwhile, just doesn't fit the country's zeitgeist.

What the sports world has yet to understand, meanwhile, is the mindset of the doper. The athlete who, pressured since childhood, conditioned to win, doubts his or her ability to do so clean. Whether due to the self-doubt that our society promotes as a key means to encourage consumer spending, or on the basis that at least one opponent might be doping. Hell, I've seen "clean" athletes indulge in utterly adddictive behavior when it comes to legal supplements, succumbing to the artifice of the health food store and ending up only with expensively nutritious pee.

Addictions for athletes, like obsessive compulsive disorder or attention deficit disorder, are symptomatic of the maladies of our times, the trans-fatty fries and sugary soda we have found ourselves saddled with, almost unwittingly, when all we thought we were going out for was a sandwich. The WWE just happens to be a magnified microcosm. Smackdown, anyone?

Chris Benoit, RIP

Chasing Lance

With the Tour de France only a few days away now, the volume on Lance stories has been turned right up. Most seem content to reflect journalists' reading of David Walsh's new book "From Lance to Landis". There is little new investigative reporting. Most of the dark alleyways in this demimonde seem to have been thoroughly explored and clearly there is no smoking gun to be found. Even if shots were once fired, the gun would be pretty cold by now. Thrown in an Alpine lake, perhaps, from the window of a passing camper van.

One thing is certain, though. Walsh's dogged determination still really has Lance riled. Take the opening lines of the statement Armstrong signed off on, serving as rebuttal to the book.

"Predictably, on the eve of the Tour de France, I am the subject of another baseless attack by David Walsh in yet another unobjective book.  David Walsh is a former reporter for a French tabloid..."

David Walsh has as many Sportswriter of the Year wins to his name as Lance has Tour victories. Calling him a former tabloid journalist seems less than entirely objective. But this is par for the course. Cross Lance once, and you've crossed him for good. Enemies for life, apparently. Take this classic dig, from an Outside Magazine interview.

"What about staying fit?
Ex-athletes get soft and they're not as fit as they were, but I've got to be fit. Forever.

No beer gut?
No. I mean, I get a little beer gut in the winter. You know, I'm not going to turn into a Greg LeMond. Forty extra LBs."

Expect another rash of articles once the Landis verdict rolls in, about half way through the Tour. Don't expect a whole lot of unscripted Lance.

Parkinson's Gene Therapy For A Still Shot?

Today's Lancet brings fascinating and encouraging news that gene therapy has been successfully used to calm the over-excited brain cells of Parkinson's sufferers. There's an audio report here. If gene therapy can deliver calm control over a person's movements, one wonders how long it will be before shooters start to look into the technology's potential for performance enhancement.

No Fresh Start For Le Tour This Year

From Geneva today, comes news that the UCI has asked all professional cyclists to sign a letter whereby they will agree to give DNA samples, forfeit a year's salary if they are caught doping and state that they have never doped before. While the UCI cannot enforce signature, it hopes to pressure those who do not sign into not starting this year's Tour de France (due to begin in London on July 7).

The DNA samples are undoubtedly being asked for in order to help identify the remaining clients of Dr. Eufamio Fuentes's Operacion Puerto. There are believed to have been over 200 athletes who took advantage of the the good Dr.'s blood doping and illicit prescriptions. But far fewer than that have been named to date. DNA samples are the only way to categorically match the bags of blood at the center of the operation with individuals.

It's doubtful all the necessary work can be done before the Tour, so this is the second year that le grand boucle will have to run beneath this particular cloud. The slate has yet to be cleaned and there is an excellent chance of any eventual winner being tainted. News of last year's winner Floyd Landis and the verdict on his doping case will also drop prior to the tour. And with the number of journalists now looking into Lance Armstrong's exploits, it is only a matter of time before the rumors and allegations are proven either way. Cycling's fresh start will require a lot more blood, sweat and tears.

Armstrong commented on the allegations from a golf tournament being run in aid of his charitable work.  His approach to shortcuts on the golf course may be the most telling sign yet of how we won those Tours at record speed: "I'm a big believer in mulligans. I'll use as many as they give me."