In the wake of a Chinese doping scandal, Michael Phelps doubled down Monday on his support for tougher sanctions — including a lifetime ban for anyone who tests positive for a banned substance.
“If you test positive, you should never be allowed to come back and compete again, cut and dry,” Phelps said. “I believe one and done.”
The World Anti-Doping Agency and World Aquatics have acknowledged that 23 Chinese swimmers tested positive for a banned substance ahead of the Tokyo Olympics. The results were not made public until media reports surfaced this year, with both bodies accepting the Chinese explanation that the positive tests were caused by tainted food.
Nine of those swimmers won medals - several as part of relay teams - n Paris, leading British star Adam Peaty to gripe that the playing field was not even.
While interesting, I’m not convinced it would stop pressure from an athlete’s home country. Just increases the personal conflict against those pressures.
Consider a 4 year ban for the country instead. Make it a serious offense.
If you have a situation like Russia where there is a provable government doping program, agreed. But if an athlete makes the personal decision to use performance enhancers that happen to slip through the initial screening but then get caught by the Olympic testers, I wouldn’t hold that against the rest of the athletes from that country.
I would. Well not against the individual athletes but against their country of origin. Countries screening would need to be better than the IOC ones or en par.
The basic framing is: “your boss fucked up, you’re part of the fallout”.
An alternative would be to allow all doping.
But at the moment the approach is to reward the smartest cheaters and at least for me removed all interest for most sport events.
Just keep in mind, a lot of countries are not the US/Europe/China. There are small island nations and city states sending a number of athletes you can count with one hand. They many not have the technical/financial resources to pre-screen and rely only on the Olympics’ own testing process.
That is a very good point which I haven’t considered!
Thanks :)
Also none of the countries is Europe.
And? The fallout of losing access to the games is much smaller, so it balances out.
If you fuck around, be ready for what your own country does to you when they find out.
How about lifetime for the athlete, 4 year for the country.
Make it 20 years, but only if it proven to be a team issue and not individual.