Doping is said to be as widespread among amateur athletes as it is among pros -
© Jorono / Pixabay
If the fight against doping is now widespread, it is "futile to hope to prevent athletes from cheating", according to a study published by our partner The Conversation.
In sport, doped people - or "fake performers" - divert therapeutic means to boost their results.
The analysis of this phenomenon was carried out by Fabien M. Gargam, Associate Researcher at the University of Paris-Saclay.
It is commonly accepted that thieves are always one step ahead of law enforcement.
Sport is no exception to this reality since “fake performers” are always one step ahead of the fight against doping.
Usually, we focus our attention on the means deployed to confuse cheaters.
In this article, I adopt the opposite reasoning by conceptualizing the way in which “fake performers” and their entourage proceed to lead the business of the shortcut.
The expression means a misguided process allowing the production of athletic results more quickly or beyond naturally.
This contribution calls into question the traditional means used in the fight against doping and values the indirect approach at its true value to unmask the most seasoned among them.
Runners before the start © Free-Photos / Pixabay
First component of the formula: the diversion
The World Anti-Doping Code stipulates a fundamental basic rule.
"It is the responsibility of each athlete to ensure that no prohibited substance enters his body and that no prohibited method is used."
The prohibited list lists the substances concerned from S0 to S9 and the methods concerned from M1 to M3.
These pharmacological substances are literally available in human and veterinary drugs.
The TLFi (Computerized French Language Treasury) defines the term
drug
explicitly: "Substance used for therapeutic purposes to restore balance in a disturbed organism".
Cheaters use these drugs and / or methods (blood manipulation, chemical and physical manipulation, gene and cell doping) for performative purposes to artificially boost their system.
Acting in this way is strictly prohibited except in the specific context of an authorization for use for therapeutic purposes (TUE).
In short, the fake performers divert therapeutic means and use them illegally.
Some substances are so widespread among cheaters that they are directly associated with a prohibited use when they are basically used to treat pathologies.
For example, synthetic erythropoietin (EPO) is prized to increase the oxygenation of the blood of certain athletes while it is intended to treat anemia in certain patients.
Consult our "Doping" file
The diversion of drugs is a massive phenomenon, cleverly camouflaged, both among amateur athletes and professionals.
Recently, several individuals, including a doctor, have gone so far as to want to be reimbursed by health insurance for diverted drugs.
In addition to physiological means, fake performers can also divert technological means to their benefit, which greatly complicates the preservation of healthy sport.
For example, cyclists have already been caught in the act of fake performance of mechanical origin.
This consists in diverting electric assistance to motorize a bicycle and thus benefit from an overwhelming advantage, prohibited in competition.
The specter of tech fraud still hangs over the pelotons today.
Second component of the formula: bypassing
Fake performers try to get around the fight against doping so as not to be exposed.
Those who achieve this over time know the rules inside out.
The circumvention takes place mainly before the controls.
Nowadays, the observation is clear: the traditional anti-doping fight is proving ineffective and costly.
Indeed, very few cheaters get caught compared to the number of samples analyzed.
More precisely, anti-doping reports state that positive cases vary between 1% and 2% and that the cases actually sanctioned vary between 0% and 1%.
These very low percentages are appalling in view of reality and to the extent that a benchmark scientific study estimates that fake performers among high-level athletes fluctuate between 14% and 39%.
8 Years Ago: The Overwhelming USADA Report Against Lance Armstrong https://t.co/o3ryeDjMR4 #cycling #doping pic.twitter.com/5SNXgVZHpx
- cyclisme-dopage.com (@cyclismedopage) October 10, 2020
Cheaters rarely bypass controls on their own because it is a subtle and perilous exercise.
The most sophisticated of them therefore rely on a clandestine organization that includes at least one doctor.
In his day, Lance Armstrong was already a role model.
In addition, some athletes make themselves unavailable at certain key times because their bodies are artificially loaded.
The regulations allow them two breaches in the space of a year but beyond that the penalty falls.
In a technological register, Nike has sown discord among athletics equipment manufacturers.
The high-performance sole of his shoes gave athletes who benefited from them a disproportionate competitive advantage until the International Federation got involved.
Moreover, circumvention also takes place to a lesser extent after checks.
Even tested positive, some athletes do not admit defeat so far.
The latter may invoke food or sexual contamination.
They can go further by creating evidence from scratch or by legally challenging the validity of the facts for which they are accused.
Finally, the use of corruption remains the ultimate for them.
Hijacking without bypassing, it's probably lost
It is futile to hope to prevent athletes from cheating, but it is vital to identify and punish those who do.
Athletes who exclusively use hijacking run the enormous risk of getting caught in the bag both in and out of competition.
This scenario greatly facilitates the task of the fight against doping because it is generally a matter of artisanal “fake perfs”.
Nevertheless, his fillets here mostly only contain small fish.
Diversion with bypass, it's probably won
When athletes use the full formula of cheating, they powerfully minimize the risk of being exposed.
In this case, the business is tough for the fight against doping because it is often about fake industrial performance.
However, the game is worth the candle since its nets can contain large fish here.
Fight indirectly to fight indirect acts
By limiting itself to the analysis of freshly taken samples, the traditional anti-doping fight identifies very few cheaters compared to those who are actually rife.
This persistent situation allows fake performers to maintain an overwhelming advantage over clean athletes, de facto relegated to the rank of unrecognized victims.
To counteract this scourge, it is necessary to adapt and develop the indirect approach to play on an equal footing with cheaters and their entourage.
Certainly, there is a panoply of tools and methods to surprise and confuse them, but it is still necessary to deploy and generalize it massively to all sports at the world level.
Analyzes of old samples reveal that some realities of the past were irrelevant.
Biological passports uncover obvious abnormalities in some athletes over time.
RT @lequipe Kevin Mayer to release his biological passport to “put pressure on those who dope” https://t.co/ip8S9h4BFV
- Jean-Denis Coquard (@jdcoquard) May 21, 2019
The three localization defects observed in the space of twelve months betray sport illusionists from time to time.
Whistleblowers rarely sound the alarm bells about artisanal or industrial fake perfs.
Police investigations occasionally dismantle networks trafficking drugs and other prohibited products.
Long-term investigations sometimes lead to great catches.
As proof, the investigation and intelligence department of the French anti-doping agency (AFLD) caught in its nets, not without difficulty in Morocco, a couple of big fish, Clémence Calvin and Samir Dahmani.
In the end, how many national anti-doping organizations (NADOs) have a specialized department to fight indirectly?
Among those who have the appropriate structure, do they really have the means to achieve their ambitions?
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This analysis was written by Fabien M. Gargam, Associate Researcher at the University of Paris-Saclay. The original article was published on The Conversation website.
Science
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