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[Definitie:] "An ergogenic aid is any substance or phenomenon that enhances performance."
(Wilmore and Costill) 
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1 8 - 0 2 - 2 0 0 6 WADA will drive athletes out of sport
Deborah Condon The current approach of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), which is responsible for fighting the use of drugs in sport, will drive innocent athletes out of the forthcoming Olympics, it has been claimed. WADA was established in 1999 by the International Olympic Committee. It is responsible for publishing the list of banned substances and monitoring drug use in sport through random testing. However in a review of some of the practices and procedures used by WADA, a sports scientist from the US and a marathon coach from the UK have identified major problems, which they believe will lead to innocent athletes paying the price for a flawed anti-doping system. Key to their finding was a lack of scientific evidence and protocol at the heart of WADA's operations. "Drug testing and classification should be a scientific affair. Unfortunately WADA appears to have little or no understanding of the criteria for science. It is inevitable that if WADA continues its practices, professional athletes will be driven out of the Olympic Games", said Dr Brent Rushall of San Diego State University. Some of the problems identified were: -Substances included in WADA's banned list are based on speculation rather than scientific evidence. -WADA's sample collection procedures appear to ignore basic scientific guidelines. -The way WADA lists banned substances does not conform to usual scientific practice, leading to confusion among athletes and coaches. The authors cite the hysteria surrounding anabolic androgenic steroids (AAS) as an example of WADA's poor use of science. There is no consistent evidence to suggest that AAS directly enhance sports performance, they insist. Yet these drugs remain a key feature of the WADA banned substance list.
"WADA's procedures for collecting and analysing samples do not usually follow the minimal guidelines for preserving the integrity of samples", Dr Rushall noted. He pointed to the example of British runner Diane Modahl, whose urine sample was left at room temperature for more than 48 hours - allowing bacteria to change the nature of the sample.
"Sport will change, possibly forever, because of the actions of WADA. Its activities, having gone unquestioned for so long by governments, the media and the public, need to be exposed and a better anti-doping agency installed in its place", said co-author, Max Jones, a record holding runner who has studied the drugs in sport movement.
Their article is published in the International Journal of Sports Science and Coaching. |
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