Most elite sports take the use of performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) quite seriously.
If you are at the top of your game, you accept at some point someone in a brightly coloured vest with the word ‘doping’ emblazoned upon it will approach you and take you to the doping tent to watch you have a pee.
You will also know that at some time there will be a knock on your door at home and once again you will be asked to provide a sample.
It is just a part of top level sport.
In the pursuit of sporting success, dealing with doping control is a fact of life, but when does it become too much of a burden?
Imagine you have just completed a personal best in your event. The excitement, the euphoria is palpable. You simply do not want that feeling to stop.
Right at this moment, someone taps you on the shoulder and says, “Excuse me, could you follow me to the doping area?”
Of course you do what you need to do, but it would be a buzz kill, would it not?
Emil Hegle Svendsen is one of biathlon’s top male competitors – the 28-year-old Norwegian is currently in second place in the 2013/2014 Biathlon World Cup.
As an elite competitor he is used to providing regular doping samples.
In biathlon, like many other sports, each competitor that climbs the podium is tested, plus there are the usual random tests – both in and out of competition.
Svensden recently tweeted his frustration at the amount of testing:
The last 14 days I have completed no less than 7 doping controls. 4 competition tests and 3 out of competition tests. Good work @wada_ama !
— Emil Hegle Svendsen (@SuperSvendsen) January 12, 2014
With seven tests in 14 days, how different could each sample be?
It is a part of sport that these controls must be in place, but when does the number of samples taken become too many?
When does the push for ‘clean competition’ start to be simply a procedural burden?
Rabbitz
Roar Guru
Hi Dr G, I can't and won't argue about testing - I believe it is needed but the "randomness" doesn't always appear to be random - if you get what I mean?
Dr G
Guest
Interesting question Rabbitz but I think that drug testing is going to have to remain. It is not just sport, I live in a mining town and I know of people who have been tested 5-6 times on one shift roster just through random chance and this is to go to work. At the end of the day it is for the welfare of all that it is done and this is the price of being good enough to perform at the elite level. On another note I also hope the biathalon is well covered, it remains one of my favorite sports to watch at the winter olympics
Rabbitz
Roar Guru
James, to answer your question about other athletes, I asked Australia's lone World Cup Biathlete Alex Almoukov about testing. He said he gets tested 3 or 4 times a year.
jameswm
Guest
He's only had one meltdown this season I think. He's taking his time - he's no Simon Eder (who we call the Simonator). Biathlon is done by those not good enough to do XC! Only kidding. Some countries specialise in it and train their best XC athletes at it (like France). Should add that I like the ski-cross too. Hope we get decent coverage. Hadn't thought of that.
Rabbitz
Roar Guru
The final quota spots will be finalised by the IOC on Monday (20th). In Men's Biathlon both Alex Almoukov and Dylan Harmer have posted qualification times - so fingers crossed. In the Women's Lucy Glanville is still on the 'hopeful's" list. Nordic Combined will see Australia miss out on places. Cross Country - the AOC is confident of two men and one women getting spots. Who will fill those spots is unknown, the XC squad currently has four men and three women as "hopeful's". Both XC and biathlon get SFA funding - Almoukov funds his training, travel, World Cup, IBU Cup and Universiade commitments essentially on his own. The joys of competing in what is a niche sport here...
nickoldschool
Roar Guru
Oh didn't know fox/eurosport didn't have the rights for the Olympics! Plus double bad news if its the Ten network who has it. Yes, disciplines like biathlon, Nordic combined or cross country might be overlooked and deemed not fun by 10 (plus there is no aussie involved). not good news at all!
Rabbitz
Roar Guru
I don't disagree with you, but like all things, marketing is king so this begs the question, are the clean athletes being "over-tested" to get the numbers up safely? I have no evidence of this and would hope the federations and WADA were above this but who knows? I mean Qatar got the Soccer World Cup...
Rabbitz
Roar Guru
Hi James Fourcade is in form (with his usual meltdowns on the range :) ) I am concerned that since Eurosport (i.e. Foxtel) aren't covering the Olympics, that sports like Biathlon, XC and the like will be forgotten by Ten. I think Ten will pitch the coverage at their teenage demographic so the snowboard and other "grunge" culture sports will get all the coverage. As for the doping I imagine that all of the first tier athletes would be getting a similar treatment. Some years ago Cross-Country had a fairly big doping crisis - Mostly the Fin's and Russians from memory and as there is a large cross over in the disciplines I think that the IBU. FIS & WADA are really clamping down on both.
jameswm
Guest
I can understand Svendsen's frustration. I wonder how much the others are being tested. However I don't really care. If they have the facilities, test them every day if you have to. It needs to be clean. Svendsen is in awesome form too. Martin Fourcade has put in extra altitude training lately. Hard to think he won't take home a few medals, including a gold or two. I'd say I'm looking forward to the Biathlon events more than anything else at the Winter Olympics. This is a seriously fascninating sport once you get into it, and if you have Fox/Eurosport, it is covered extremely well, with knowledgable commentary.
Troy Murray
Roar Rookie
Integrity is the most important aspect of any sport. The number one goal for all sporting officials, fans and players (who are clean) should be ensuring that all are competing on a level playing field. Are the testing procedures at times inconvenient or invasive? Undoubtedly but this is all necessary to uphold the integrity of the sport. Therefore in answering the question, how many doping controlls are too many? I would suggest that none are too many.
Tom
Guest
In their books, David Millar and Tyler Hamilton detailed how they would avoid detection - basically it revolves around being aware of the half lives of the various drugs, and hence, the time they will take to become undetectable in the system - they knew they could take some drugs in competition because they would be undetectable within a couple of hours, whereas others were only for out of competition use where they would have a few days warning of tests. The riders also employ tactics like having a saline drip after a blood transfusion to essentially water the blood down and decrease their hematocrit levels. So, in answer to your question "With seven tests in 14 days, how different could each sample be?", I would say 'very'.