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Wise up BBC journos, Bolt versus Gatlin is not a case of 'good versus evil'

By Chris Lewis - posted Monday, 31 August 2015


It has also been suggested that the use of carbon isotope ratio testing to distinguish between natural and synthetic testosterone, which has resulted in athletes being caught even when passing the T/E ratio of four to one (including Gatlin), may not be detected in urine because of low concentrations.

Given an estimate that the use of illegal PEDs can aid sprint times for men by around 3 per cent, it would be brave (perhaps naïve) to declare that someone could win without using illegal PEDs against competitors where races can be decided by the barest of margins.

Second, Gatlin is one of the most tested athletes in the world, having been tested 9 times by USADA alone in the first half of 2015 after 15 tests in 2014 and 14 during 2013.

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So if Gatlin is cheating the system, then the possibility exists for all athletes to do the same, notwithstanding the advantage that athletes may have in nations with a much less stringent national testing regimes.

While JADCO has vastly improved its testing regime, after it was revealed during 2013 that there had been a virtual absence of out-of-competition testing by JADCO for six months before the London Games, blood tests only began in Jamaica during 2015 under the guidance of the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport.

However, JADCO has vastly improved the extent of its testing, conducting 119 out-of-competition tests on its track and field athletes in 2014 after just 23 in 2013 and 35 in 2012.

Third, notwithstanding the continued dominance by Usain Bolt and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce who have both won five global 100m championships since 2008, other Jamaican male sprinters ran much slower when comparing results at the 2013 and 2015 World championships. Allowing for best times in different rounds, Nickel Ashmeade ran 20.19 for the 200m semi, yet 20.00 in 2013 (semi); while Warren Weir ran 20.24 (heat) after running 19.79 in the 2013 final. In the 100m, Ashmeade ran 10.06 (semi) in 2015, yet 9.90 (semi) in 2013.

To conclude, wise journalists can do much more than provide a cheer squad for one athlete over another for the sake of creating heroes and villains to support a good versus evil context.

Perhaps they can actually do some research, in line with the demands of national and international drug testing regimes, to try and link the pieces together in order to possibly provide a more sophisticated story than merely promoting a good versus evil story which is clearly much easier to write about.

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It may be that microdosing synthetic hormones remains a real problem, which allows athletes from both rich and poor nations to cheat, at least for those in the know.

Or it may be, given a tougher testing in recent years had led to some decline for Jamaica at the 2015 world championships when compared to previous years, that perhaps a story is being told that the sport can be cleaner if other poorer nations also adopt a tougher testing regime just like Jamaica.

As Dan Bernstein (CBSChicago) argued in 2012, independent minds 'have a responsibility as healthy skeptics' with regard to 'the dirty landscape of the Olympics and sprinting in particular', and need to express 'a clear mind' rather than 'wasting words extolling the greatness of Usain Bolt'.

To describe Justin Gatlin as a villain in such a sport where many global sprint medalists have been banned for illegal PED use, and to imply that Usain Bolt is clean just because he has passed every test, borders on naïve journalism that is clearly guilty of downplaying all possibilities surrounding the realities of the drug use in sport debate.

Having said the above, I applaud both Bolt and Gatlin for being champion sprinters and putting on a great show in 2015, but let us not allow sentiment to get in the way of telling a thorough story by raising all possibilities about the battle to address drugs in sport.

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About the Author

Chris Lewis, who completed a First Class Honours degree and PhD (Commonwealth scholarship) at Monash University, has an interest in all economic, social and environmental issues, but believes that the struggle for the ‘right’ policy mix remains an elusive goal in such a complex and competitive world.

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