"My war against cheaters", behind the scenes of the fight against doping by Jean-Pierre Verdy

Lance Armstrong, former American cyclist, forfeited his 7 Tours de France.

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Text by: Farid Achache Follow

7 mins

Jean-Pierre Verdy, founder and director of the control department of the French Anti-Doping Agency (AFLD) since its creation in 2006 until 2015, tells the behind the scenes of the fight against doping in a work worthy of 'a thriller.

It highlights the protection that some athletes enjoy, the networks and especially the devastation of doping substances on the health of athletes in the long term.

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RFI: When you close your book, you get the impression that high-level sport does more harm than good on health.

What do you think ?

Jean-Pierre Verdy

 : What worries me the most is that amateur athletes use the same products as top athletes, and in a completely anarchic manner. It is a real public health problem. And among professional athletes, there are such a number of

TUEs

(therapeutic use authorization) that it becomes frightening. The number of asthmatics at the start of a marathon is mind-boggling. In a marathon world championship, about 45% of participants have asthma. In the world population, the figure is 10% at most. Do you have to be asthmatic to run the marathon? All these products authorized under the guise of TUE, I say it, it is really a great danger for the health of long-term athletes, amateurs as well as professionals.

In your book, you situate the seriousness of the fight against doping in France around 1998, a year which was marked in cycling by the Festina affair, on the Tour de France.

At the time, the Minister of Sports was called Marie-George Buffet and you say that she took the doping problem head on.

Why has France waited so long to tackle the doping problem?

I believe that it was international affairs that came out at the time that made France wake up.

But Roger Bambuck (Minister of Sport from May 1998 to May 1991 under the government of Lionel Jospin, Editor's note) had already lit a little wick and Marie-George Buffet was present and made progress on the subject.

She always stood up for us and was at the forefront of the fight.

We also remember that she was violently attacked in 1998 for having carried out checks on the French football team when she was preparing for the World Cup at home ...

Oh yes, she had been

under incredible pressure back

then!

We talked about it recently.

She was (assaulted) for having the boldness to set up controls in football.

As I explain in the book, at the time, other athletes were also checked and nobody said anything.

It was a crime of lese majesty to control football and the French team!

It is well known, in football there is no doping… how to explain such denial in this sport?

Quite simply because there is no positive.

If there is no positive, then there is no doping.

More seriously, I explain that at a certain time, there was an epidemic of Nandrolone (anabolic steroid derived from the male hormone or testosterone, Editor's note).

But since then, they have certainly moved on.

The more resources you have, the more you have the possibility of protecting your logistics and the "big ones" never get caught in these conditions.

"My war on cheaters".

© Arthaud

So rich sports like tennis are immune to the fight against doping?

Your anecdote on Rafael Nadal's control at Roland Garros is an example.

It had gone very badly with his entourage and it was also a crime of lèse-majesté to control him.

(In 2009, the International Tennis Federation refused the control of

Nadal

and the AFLD had to go through the World Anti-Doping Agency to obtain the authorization, Editor's note).

The International Tennis Federation, when it organizes a competition, anywhere in the world, does what it wants.

She searches for the products she wants and controls who she wants.

Each player has his staff and this escapes the supervision of his national federation.

People are mobile and we don't really know where they are or what they are doing.

It is a closed environment, a bit like team sports, football, rugby, where each club is independent from its federation.

(Rafael Nadal's uncle had insulted Jean-Pierre Verdy by phone, Editor's note).

But what also raises questions is that certain actors taken hand in the bag as former athletes now manage other athletes. There is the example of the former cyclist Alexandre Vinokourov, currently general manager of the Astana team, tested positive for blood transfusion in 2007 on the Tour de France and suspended for two years. How to explain that this medium still accepts to have people in function with such a liability?

Yes, it annoys everyone.

Starting with me.

I believe the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) is looking to fight this.

This is something that should be banned.

There is a problem of inbreeding in this environment and everyone is held by the goatee.

If the athlete is weakened and he has someone in his environment who says to him "

take this, you are not risking anything

 ", it is a huge problem.

We need a healthy environment to prevent athletes from falling into doping.

What do you think is the biggest breakthrough in the fight against doping?

Without hesitation, WADA.

She really organized the fight.

But the financial means are below what it would take to be more efficient.

WADA's budget is ridiculously low.

For example, it had been proposed to give WADA a percentage of TV rights, and that had always been refused.

Sport must pay for sport.

Not just the taxpayer.

The number of checks is derisory for financial (questions).

And anywhere in the world, we have to arrive without warning.

Otherwise, the organizer arranges with the athletes.

We need an anti-doping task force that would be part of WADA.

But the money is lacking and yet it is the sinews of war.

What about prevention?

From experience, I know that prevention is not enough.

Deterrence works better.

You have to control everything, even pétanque and at all levels of practice.

For example, we controlled the disabled sport and we were massacred by the press.

I heard: “But you control people in wheelchairs, it's shameful!

".

But it was the disabled sports federation that asked us and we found positive athletes!

We have to be scary.

For now, athletes are having fun.

And I repeat, this is a big public health problem.

Sport must convey a different image than cheating and doping.

Fortunately, not all athletes cheat and not all athletes dope.

“

 Doping: my war against cheaters

 ”, by Jean-Pierre Verdy.

Published by Editions Arthaud.

€ 19.90. 

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