ITF adopts new drug testing regime, since cheating by atheletes is far too easy

[PCXL-Fan]

MELBOURNE, Australia -- Depending on which tennis player you ask, the new drug-testing regime for top international athletes is either too intrusive or a necessary evil.

The main issue of the system, which became effective in tennis on Jan. 1 after being adopted by the International Tennis Federation at the Beijing Olympics, is a provision requiring players to say where they are going to be for an hour each day, every day.

That doesn't mean they will be tested every time. But if officials show up to conduct a test and the player isn't there, it's one strike. Three strikes is considered a doping violation.

The 28 Summer Olympic sports federations accepted the code before the 2004 Athens Games, but not all have fully complied with the rules. Compliance is required for inclusion at the Olympics.

The ITF manages the program on behalf of the Grand Slams and the ATP and WTA Tours.

A number of cyclists, soccer players and volleyballers are pursuing legal action in Belgium, calling the code an invasion of their privacy. Top-ranked tennis player Rafael Nadal has said he plans to join in. Spanish journalists quoted him as calling the system a "disgrace" and "intolerable," saying many players believe they are being treated like criminals.

But second-ranked Roger Federer and Serena and Venus Williams say that while they may not like it, it's critical to tennis' integrity to prove that its athletes are clean.

"It's a tough system, no doubt," Federer said Saturday, a day before he will play Nadal in the Australian Open final. A win would pull him even with Pete Sampras' record of 14 Grand Slam titles. "It's a significant change to what we were used to before, so I think it takes some getting used to it."

He said doping seemed to have become so sophisticated that anything less stringent would leave cracks for offenders to slip through.

"I feel like this is how you're going to catch them, right?" Federer said. "You're not going to catch them ringing them up and saying, 'Look, I would like to test you maybe in two days.' The guy's cheating and they're smart, right?

"It's an hour a day. I know it's a pain, but I would like it to be a clean sport, and that's why I'm OK with it."

Integrity was also cited by the Williams sisters, who have 17 Grand Slam singles titles between them.

"We think that drug testing is good for sports," Venus Williams said. "That's really how we feel. Any details of that that may need to be worked out or that are a little bit confusing for the players, we continue to work on that as Player Council members."

Some players have already run into problems. Mike Bryan, who teamed with twin brother Bob to win the Australian Open doubles title Saturday, has two strikes after what he called innocent mistakes. One would come off in mid-April; another missed test in the meantime would likely result in a suspension.

"You got to communicate ... where you're going to be at all times," Mike Bryan said. "They even want to know when you're flying in, the day you arrive, if you're going to be at the hotel for an hour. We missed a couple. Just weren't thinking. Just down in L.A. One time I got a flat tire. You just got to be ready for anything."

"I think once someone gets banned for missing a few tests, then you hear the stories -- and they're kind of ridiculous stories -- then I think we'll probably have a problem with it," Bob Bryan said. "If it's one of our friends that goes out, if Mike gets banned ..."

Still, they agreed that in an era when failed drug tests in some sports seem to be in the news every day, something has to be done.

"It's fair across the board," Mike Bryan said. "You don't want doping in tennis. It's good. I think we just got to get used to the strictness."

http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/tennis/news/story?id=3874733

Too strick or a nessesary evil? Discuss.

Fact is beating detection is easy if you are careful and smart.


And now a scarier form of doping has arrived, gene doping (gene therapy)......

Finding the Golden Genes

View an animation that shows how the process works (Flash req'd.).J. Korenblat, istockPhoto/MPabild, A. NandyThis month — 8/8/08, to be precise — the curtain rose on what many experts believe could prove to be the first genetically modified Olympics.

For the unscrupulous or overdriven Olympic athlete, the banned practice of “doping” by taking hormones or other drugs to enhance athletic prowess may seem so last century. The next thing in doping is more profound and more dangerous. It’s called gene doping: permanently inserting strength- or endurance-boosting genes into DNA.

“Once you put that gene in, it’s there for the rest of that person’s life,” says Larry Bowers, a clinical chemist at the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency in Colorado Springs, Colo. “You can’t go back and fish it out.”

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/feature/id/34225/title/Finding_the_Golden_Genes

While gene therapy research has begun making great strides, the science of detecting illicit use of gene therapy in sport is only now finding its legs. To confront the perceived inevitability of gene doping, Friedmann and other scientists have started in recent years to explore the problem of detecting whether an athlete has inserted a foreign gene — an extra copy that may be indistinguishable from the natural genes — into his or her DNA.

It’s proving to be a formidable challenge. Genetic makeup varies from person to person, and world-class athletes are bound to have some natural genetic endowments that other people lack. Somehow, gene-doping tests must distinguish between natural genetic variation among individuals and genes inserted artificially — and the distinction must stand up in court.

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/feature/id/34225/title/Finding_the_Golden_Genes

 

[PCXL-Fan]

2 weeks later more articles in syndicated newspapers about the complaint from various players, including Nadal who is planning to take legal action over the more intrusive drug monitoring regime.
Nobodies interested in discussing this new drug testing regime?

Comeon people.

Murray attacks 'draconian' anti-doping rules

• Scot savages need to tell testers where he is every day
• 'Almost impossible to lead a normal life,' he says

Mark Kolbe/Getty Images

Andy Murray has launched an outspoken attack on anti-doping rules which require athletes to inform testers of their location every day, describing the regulations as "draconian".

Britain's No1 tennis player is deeply unhappy with the out-of-competition testing system put in place by the World Anti-Doping Agency and his concerns are shared by Rafael Nadal, the Australian Open winner, who has said it shows a "lack of respect for privacy".

Wada's most recent code has introduced a system whereby sportsmen and women must provide details of their location for one hour a day, every day of the year. Testers are authorised to turn up without prior notice and if the athlete is absent then it counts as one of three "strikes" that lead to a competition ban.

"These new rules are so draconian that it makes it almost impossible to live a normal life," Murray told the Times. "I got a visit at 7am one morning at my home right after I had travelled home from Australia. I woke up not really knowing where I was and suffering badly from jet lag. It seemed ridiculous to me as I'd been tested just four days earlier, straight after the match I had lost in the Australian Open.

"The official who came to my home wanted me to produce identification to prove who I was. He insisted on watching me provide a sample, literally with my trousers round my ankles, and then insisted that I wrote down my own address, even though he was at my private home at 7am."

Tennis players face a particular challenge under Wada's code, a fact acknowledged by the sport's governing body, the ATP. "They are unique in that they don't know when they will leave a tournament, how long a match will last, when they have to appear at a tournament or where they will be headed next," it said.

The ATP has nonetheless signed up to Wada's code, which is being challenged in the Belgian courts by 65 cyclists, footballers and volleyball players in what will be a test case for the rules in Europe. The case swings on Article Eight of the European Convention on Human Rights relating to an individual's right to privacy.

Murray added: "I may miss a flight or a flight could be delayed, yet I have to let Wada know exactly where I will be, even when I am resting. They even turned up at my hotel in Miami while I was on holiday. Tennis has not got a big problem with drugs. I support drug testing and strongly condemn any use of drugs in sport, but there has to be a more realistic and practical way to deal with the problem with tennis players."

Wada has defended its regulations. "Because out-of-competition tests can be conducted without notice to athletes, they are one of the most powerful means of deterrence and detection of doping and are an important step in strengthening athlete and public confidence in doping-free sport," a spokesman said this month.

"As the ambassadors of their sport, elite athletes know that accurate whereabouts information is crucial to ensure efficiency of the anti-doping programs which are designed to protect the integrity of their sport and to protect clean athletes."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2009/feb/06/tennis-andy-murray-anti-doping

 

[saram]

There are already other threads on this and that is why no one is coming to comment. Already been discussed to death...

Comeon...PCXL-Fan....

 

[edmondsm]

Interesting. Nadal is up in arms, Federer is OK with it.

 

[PCXL-Fan]

Interesting. Nadal is up in arms, Federer is OK with it.

Nadal isn't only up in arms, he's going to the next level taking this to the courts, teaming up with many Tour De France Cyclists and soccer players for legal action against WADA (world anti doping agency).

 

[edmondsm]

Nadal isn't only up in arms, he's going to the next level taking this to the courts, teaming up with many Tour De France Cyclists and soccer players for legal action against WADA (world anti doping agency).

I can see tennis players and soccer players being ticked off about this. You could hardly say that doping has been rampent in either of those sports, actually quite rare.

But cyclists? C'mon. That is the dirtiest sport the world has ever seen, and those athletes are just going to have to deal with whatever WADA throws at them. If they are pissed off then they can turn their anger toward Jan Ullrich, Ivan Basso, Festina, and the other 100 or so cyclists who have sullied that sport.

 

[PCXL-Fan]

I could see how this could be a problem for many european sports stars who lead philandering lives with multiple partners. Imagine the concerns of athelete's when they are over at their misteress or side girlfriend's house and they get the phone call or the agent shows up at the door:

Athelete - "Uhhh i'm over at a friends house".
Wada agent - "What are you doing over there?"
Athelete - "Uhh.... We are painting"
*Wada agent pushes past athelete and walks inside and sees no paintings only a gorgeous woman with frazzled messy hair quickly buttoning up her shirt.
Athelete - "I'll give you €1000 and you never saw this"
*Wada Agent considers the fact he/she will make 40x that amount selling this info to the tabloids and reap big bucks


Feminists around the world see the implications of this regime and begin jumping for joy.

 

[TennisFan008]

I can see tennis players and soccer players being ticked off about this. You could hardly say that doping has been rampent in either of those sports, actually quite rare.

Ever heard of Dr. Eufemiano Fuentes?

 

[TennisFan008]

Anyway, an anti-doping programme without unannounced out of competition tests isn't worth the name. All those east german women who were so juiced they were half men weren't on some undetectable steroid. They just weren't subjected to random drug tests.

 

[Datacipher]

Anyway, an anti-doping programme without unannounced out of competition tests isn't worth the name. All those east german women who were so juiced they were half men weren't on some undetectable steroid. They just weren't subjected to random drug tests.

Correct. This is nothing more than showboating for the public which are suprisingly ignorant eg. "they can't be using, they're tested!"...in that sense, it's a hassle for athletes with little benefit.

 

[Serendipitous]

That should finally stop Gilles Simon.

 

[Datacipher]

I can see tennis players and soccer players being ticked off about this. You could hardly say that doping has been rampent in either of those sports, actually quite rare.

But cyclists? C'mon. That is the dirtiest sport the world has ever seen, and those athletes are just going to have to deal with whatever WADA throws at them. If they are pissed off then they can turn their anger toward Jan Ullrich, Ivan Basso, Festina, and the other 100 or so cyclists who have sullied that sport.

SERIOUSLY? WOW. Head deep deep deep down in the sand...Yeah...dAMN Those cyclists....why can't they be upstanding and voluntarily drug-free like MOST of the the soccer and tennis players right? LOL

 

[Serendipitous]

SERIOUSLY? WOW. Head deep deep deep down in the sand...Yeah...dAMN Those cyclists....why can't they be upstanding and voluntarily drug-free like MOST of the the soccer and tennis players right? LOL

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