The International Olympic Committee's (IOC) formation of an international task force to combat drugs in sport may well be a little late but is a move that may eventually touch many Irish athletes.
Very often the reaction to weighty proclamations from the IOC is a yawn and the feeling that their high minded ideals rarely filter down to grass roots. But even the IOC baulk at the prospect of spending a reputed $40 million without reason. This amount is their war chest, although, only after next year's world symposium will it be seen just how well it can be spent.
It has been argued that over the past decade the erosion of morality combined with the pressures placed on top class athletes to squeeze better performances out of their bodies has led to a wide scale abandonment of reason and a loss of perspective on what sport is about. Many clean athletes in Ireland have become despondent knowing that they can never aspire to times that are clearly being created by others using illegal means.
Earlier this year Irish runner, Noel Berkeley, travelled to the Algarve for the European Club Championships where the athletes were to compete around a course at the Villamora Golf Course.
"I went into the portaloo after the warm up," says Berkeley. "There was a big queue to get in before the race. There I was doing a pee and what do I see floating on top of all the gunge - two beautifully clean syringes. I kicked open the door and said `here lads take a look at this.' The amount of guys who are coming out of nowhere and running 2:08 for a marathon is incredible," he says.
But it is fallacious to believe that Ireland is entirely clean. Dr Joe Commiskey, Olympic Council of Ireland doctor, points out that only 2 per cent of athletes tested come up positive. He believes the figure is too low but also points out the impossibility of actually measuring the problem accurately. Figures of 80 per cent have been plucked out of the air.
Dr Commiskey's problem in Ireland in the past has been cost. Before the Atlanta games he travelled to the US where many of the Irish team were in training camps. He spent 10 days travelling to various states which involved eight flights, and 500 road miles in a self drive car. In all he visited four different training sites to test 16 athletes. Each sample then cost an additional £350 each to carry out tests.
In the run up to the Sydney Games in 2000, the OCI hope to have an agreement in place with the United States Olympic Council and the Australian Olympic Council so that testing can be carried out more economically.
In November Dr Commiskey will also organise a symposium in Dublin on the subject of doping with eminent speakers such as Wade Exum, director of UCOC Drug Control Administration, the agency which recently caught US sprinter Denis Mitchell and Olympic gold medallist shot putter Randy Barnes. Amongst other things Exum will speak on is the personality types of athletes who abuse drugs. David Cowan from the accredited IOC laboratory in London will also be in attendance and it is hoped that Prince Alexandre de Merode, head of the IOC Medical Commission will also attend.
The Dublin forum is timely as Irish athletes, particularly in recent years, have had problems with both testing procedures and illegal substances. Some of the positive tests can be construed as ignorance, a plea that is becoming less credible by the year.
Cyclist Sean Kelly has tested positive in his career while Irish shot putter Paul Quirke refused to give a sample to BLE in the 1980s and they suspended him. Quirke then successfully sued BLE and reputedly won £16,000.
Long jumper Jonathan Kron tested positive for an ephedrine like drug, a banned stimulant, after an event in Santander in Spain. He bought medication in a shop for a cold which contained the drug. The same problem arose for 5000 metre runner Marie McMahon who also tested positive at the Atlanta Olympics. She consumed an over-the-counter medication, Robitussin, after suffering flu symptoms following her arrival in Atlanta. Again an ephedrine like drug came up in the test. She was admonished by an IOC panel while a number of Lithuanian cyclists were sent home just three days earlier for a similar drug related offence.
Last July Irish cyclist Karl Donnelly was tested during the Tour of the Mournes race and came up positive for Pseudoephidrine which is classified as a lesser stimulant. He was suspended for eight weeks.
Michael Quinn, another cyclist who normally competes and resides in France, was tested in July of last year while racing in the Tour of Alava in Spain with the Irish cycling team. He also tested positive for ephedrine and received a three-month suspension which ran from March 1st to June 1st of this year.
A third cyclist Jason Crowe was tested during the Tour of Armagh in August 1997. His results showed traces of Norandrosterone, a metabolite of the anabolic steroid Nandrolene. He was given a three-month suspension.
With Michelle de Bruin promising to fight her four-year ban imposed by the international swimming federation FINA for tampering with a sample, the whole issues of procedures, tampering and testing have become an Irish as much as an IOC problem.
The Irish Sports Council have promised that their drug testing programme will be up and running by the beginning of next year just as the World Symposium meets in Lausanne. The Irish Olympic Council will also draw up contracts with athletes for Sydney which will oblige them to adhere to whatever Government conditions are laid down by the Minister for Sport, Dr McDaid. Slow progress. But progress none the less.
