INTRODUCTION

  I am submitting this evidence to the Select Committee Inquiry into HET in Sport as an individual expert with significant experience of elite sport, management of anti-doping policies, procedures and outcomes. My fundamental belief is that sport should not require athletes to cheat to perform and win. I intend this evidence to raise questions about current as well as future capacity to enhance performance in sport and about the mechanisms for minimising the use of illegal HETs at the 2012 Olympics.

BACKGROUND

  1.  Presently sport has agreed a regulatory framework to control the misuse of defined doping substances and methods. This regulatory framework, the World Anti-Doping Code is obligatory on all sports and all athletes, Governments have agreed to accept the Code and its operating standards through a government to government convention under UNESCO. Whilst some governments have enacted legislation to address the issue of doping in sport, others including the United Kingdom have adopted policies and procedures to comply with the Convention and Code.

  2.  The World Anti-Doping Agency is currently consulting on revisions to the Code which was originally published in 2003, it is anticipated that the revised Code will be presented at the World Conference in 2007. With this cycle of review it is possible that a further revision could take place before the 2012 Games. However certain aspects of the Code were hard fought for and are unlikely to be changed, for example the principle of strict liability (which places primary responsibility on the athlete for anti-doping rule violations), a system for therapeutic use approval, standard sanctions, a common prohibited list and the authority of WADA to appeal decisions by sports federations to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

  3.  On the one hand the Code has been a major step forward in harmonising certain aspects of drug misuse management across different sports and countries of the world. In particular sports now adopt one consistent list of doping substances and methods. The prohibited substances and methods are defined by the Code according to their ability (perceived or actual) to meet two of three criteria, performance enhancement, damage to health, spirit of sport. In reality some doping substances or methods are not necessarily performance enhancing or supported by evidence of their performance enhancing capacity in published scientific research.

  4.  On the other hand Code compliance has significantly occupied the sporting agenda. Debate about what should and should not be allowed in respect of performance enhancement is led by the World Anti-Doping Agency, who determines what should be added to the prohibited list. Ability to detect substances or methods is not a prerequisite of inclusion on the prohibited list. Consequently the performance systems have evolved around the development of enhancement techniques and anti-doping systems have looked at what is being used to enhance performance, determined whether it should be prohibited and whether it can be detected by the testing programme or identified through accepted ways of obtaining evidence.

  5.  Enhancement of human performance is dominated by the need to avoid techniques being identified as prohibited under the Code and detected by the Code's control procedures. In such a climate it is clear that this has created potential weaknesses in the sports and anti-doping systems.

POTENTIAL FOR DIFFERENT HETS TO BE USED TO ENHANCE SPORTING PERFORMANCE

  6.  Legal and illegal HETs are being used now, and will continue to be used by athletes. The potential for using HET to enhance sporting performance is influenced by access athletes have to enhancement techniques, pressures to perform and the rewards available for sporting success. Outlined below is a summary of the potential opportunities for use of HETs.

  7.  The pressure upon athletes to win, to deliver a world class performance is immense. Some athletes will do anything to perform well, simply to be a world class athlete requires a level of commitment above the norm. Athletes are used to making personal sacrifices and compromises in pursuit of their objectives, this includes using HETs.

  8.  Athletes continually search for techniques that may assist their performances, from coaching to supplements. Athletes consider medical and sports science support services as a necessary part of their lives to maintain performance. Promoting medical treatments and sports science techniques to athletes contributes to a culture of acceptance of assisted performance, making it more difficult to determine what is acceptable.

  9.  For many in sport, the anti-doping rules are regarded as a limiting factor to the achievement of greater sporting performances and a negative side in the provision of performance support systems. Many of the currently prohibited doping methods were actually introduced to sport as medical treatments or techniques to assist performance or speed up recovery and injuries. (Example blood doping, hypoxic chambers, intra-articular corticosteroid injections, blood cell treatments at injury sites.)

  10.  Use of methods to determine potential performance capacity in young athletes (ie talent identification programmes) provide a starting point for the early introduction of techniques to improve performance, whether this be diet or training regimes. For the most part these techniques are permitted under the Code. Talented athletes are expected to be tracked through performance pathways in their respective sports and encouraged to engage in support programmes to improve performance. Most young athletes are encouraged to work with performance coaches and attend elite training centres; hence the culture of assisted performance (use of techniques to improve performance) can be established at a very early age. Consequently in the sporting world there is often a confusion of the message, we want you to win but not by any means, the limitation is written in doping regulations; unless specifically defined as doping it is permitted.

  11.  Competing athletes may be subject to physiological testing to identify fitness parameters and to target improvements. This emphasises the culture of reliance upon assisted performance. For injured athletes medical support programmes are available to work intensively on returning the athlete to fitness as quickly as possible. Use of advanced medical interventions to accelerate injury repair is available to those with access to the expertise and necessary finance. It is sometimes unclear whether these techniques are recognised by the medical profession, are supported by evidence of efficacy or are known to the anti-doping authorities.

  12.  That is not to say these techniques are wrong simply that they establish the culture of human enhancement and an expectation that assisted performance is acceptable unless otherwise prohibited. Medical interventions push the boundaries of athlete treatment and training as far as possible. Where medical interventions and physiological testing are directed and controlled by organisations who may have vested interests in the improvement of or rapid recovery and return of athletes to performance, this provides opportunities to exploit HETs and weaknesses in anti-doping systems.

  13.  Reports from the United States indicate that parents obtained growth hormone to assist their children meet the minimum height requirements for college basketball, following premature deaths of young athletes education campaigns warn of the signs and dangers of steroid abuse.

  14.  Where athletes rely upon funding based upon their performance targets, they may be more receptive to performance enhancement technologies as a means to improve. This situation was identified by the extensive inquiry in Canada following the disqualification of several Canadian athletes for doping offences at the Seoul Olympic Games 1988. The recommendations and conclusions of this report continue to be relevant to the Select Committee's inquiry:

"As a society we have created a climate of sport in which the only good is perceived to be winning and the manner of doing so of no consequence. If winning a gold medal in Olympic competition is the only achievement worthy of recognition, then everything is permissible in order to win."

Commission of Inquiry into the Use of Drugs and Banned Practices intended to Increase Athletic Performance Hon Charles Dubin 1990


  15.  Dubin also concluded that the degree of government involvement in sport in Canada at that time was neither healthy nor appropriate for sport. Comparisons may be made with the current arrangements for the UK's elite sports system which has a strong emphasis on elite sport and international success using performance objectives that have been agreed with Government and which determine funding for the national sports organisations, thus reducing their independence to administer their sport. Today measures of success for government funding in the UK are closely linked to the winning of medals.


  16.  At an Olympic Games, an athlete needs to be able to produce peak performances. The Games are held once every four years but hosted maybe once in a lifetime in your own country. Financial incentives to perform well are greater. Athletes are under immense pressures to perform well and be injury free at an Olympics, many take the risk of using performance enhancing drugs even though they are fully aware there will be testing. Evidence from the test data from the last 10 Olympic Games demonstrate improvements in testing, as well as an increasing abuse of the doping rules.

—  some cases still be to be concluded.

  17.  Gene doping presents the biggest threat to sport, although the technology is not as readily available as other HETs. Anti-Doping programmes are reliant upon testing and detection of genetic manipulation is not within the capacity of current testing systems. Perhaps the biggest challenge will come from research into gene therapy, to correct defective genes responsible for disease as the potential exclusion of one group (athletes) from the benefits of this form of therapy would create social discrimination. Treatment of somatic cells could provide effective treatment of diseases and conditions without altering the human species. However would treatment of germ cells manipulate inherited characteristics and lead to long term risks, developing unknown abnormalities in future generations? Certainly genetic manipulation could help produce the ultimate athlete. It is debatable whether such assisted performance would become acceptable in sport, although it would not be detectable by current testing procedures. Athletes would have to be subject to full body cellular scans, a technology yet to be developed, if specific genetic manipulations of certain athletic performance characteristics are to be identified.

STEPS THAT COULD BE TAKEN TO MINIMISE THE USE OF HETS AT THE 2012 OLYMPICS

  18.  HETs referred to in this section are defined as those substances and methods prohibited in sport.

  19.  Some HETs are controlled under the Misuse of Drugs Act; however no mechanism presently exists to follow up findings in the sports drug testing programme with investigations that may lead to prosecutions under this legislation. This legislation classifies amphetamines as Class A, controlling possession and supply and steroid substances as Class C, and illegal to supply. No published guidance exists to determine the quantity of steroids that would constitute supply. Unless this is rectified before 2012 it leaves a loophole in the legislation that could allow steroids to be imported to the UK during the Olympic preparation period and Games with impunity, the carrier would simply claim personal use. Furthermore strengthening legislation to allow seizures of steroids and other performance enhancing drugs to be made, as undertaken by the French police around the Tour de France would also demonstrate the UK's commitment to control these substances.

  20.  Steps should be taken to reduce the availability of steroid substances including legislation to control the availability of these substances via the internet, and the regulation and licensing of gymnasia where steroid substances can be easily obtained.

Improvements to Testing

  21.  To minimise the use of HETs in 2012 significant improvements should be made to the current UK anti-doping policy and programme. There is heavy reliance on the drug testing programme to deter athletes from using prohibited substances and methods and to catch those that do. Therefore testing must be of the highest quality. The UK's testing programme must include routine testing of blood which is a basic pre requisite for detection of certain prohibited substances and methods, such as growth hormone and EPO, presently it does not routinely carry out blood tests.

  22.  Test data is often quoted by organisations as evidence of drug-free status, however the validity of such data is limited and needs improvement. The DCMS Select Committee Report 2004 concluded "we found the information available related to current levels of drug use in sport to be unsatisfactory. We asked UK Sport to set out its drug test data in the context of: the various numbers of sportspeople eligible for testing in each sport; the estimated annual number of competitions in each category; and the split between `public interest' tests provided by UK Sport as opposed to those purchased by sports governing bodies. UK Sport responded that "no data collection system currently exists for the specifics of those questions. Providing such information would entail a considerable amount of time and human resources beyond current UK Sport capacity."

  23.  Improvements to the accuracy and adequacy of test data would give greater public assurance that a sufficient testing programmes are being delivered. Further comparative data should include the level of public financial investment made in each sport, sponsorship available to sports bodies and individual athletes. Much of the data published is incomplete, indicating only tests collected and analysed. Data should include tests that were cancelled (with reasons for cancellation), tests where athletes are not available (presently these are subject to further review by the governing body before the test may be accepted as contributing towards a doping offence, three missed tests constitute a doping offence under the WADA Code). It is apparent that some athletes would prefer to record a missed test than to submit to a test when there was a possibility that they would test positive for a prohibited substance.

  24.  There should be greater transparency of information regarding the HETs used with elite athletes (eg haematological profiling) carried out through the UK's Sports Institute network to demonstrate that these HETs are within current acceptable parameters.

Different Approaches

  25.  Fundamental changes to existing arrangements should be considered to increase the effectiveness of testing.

  26.  Presently laboratories analyse the urine samples blind (ie the laboratories analyse each sample individually and anonymously. This loses an opportunity to create a profile for each athlete which would make HET use easier to identify.

  27.  Athletes could begin their athletic career by registering for a doping control passport, including a full screen. Analytical data could be added from each test so that variations in hormone profiles would be easier to track.

  28.  Rather than the rules prohibiting a specific list of substances and methods, an alternative approach for human sport would be to adopt the principle of prohibiting all substances and requiring competing athletes to seek approval for any substance or method they wish to use in advance. Emergency medical treatments could be permitted and verified. Use of prohibited substances may be considered in relation to eligibility to compete.

  29.  Alternative methods of testing athletes should be investigated and funded. Such methods could address the often quoted limitation of high cost of analysis. Testing methods should be developed to allow for frequent testing of athletes, on a daily basis (as appropriate to the identification of substances and their excretion rate from the body). Samples could be stored and randomly selected for analysis. Retrospective testing of samples could be undertaken where profiles were identified as unusual.

  30.  Alternatives to urine and blood testing that include DNA as a mechanism to verify the identity of an athlete should be investigated. Research from the United States into the collection and analysis of saliva indicates potential. Saliva samples may be stored for over 10 years without degradation and analysis could provide detection capacity for HETs currently prohibited in sport. Such mass testing may be controversial as it offers the possibility of regular testing of all athletes eligible for the 2012 Games from two years before the Games with evidence that could be used up to eight years beyond (the current statute of limitation under the WADA Code).

  31.  Redefining doping offences as a form of sporting fraud would focus attention upon the impact of doping on sport. In keeping with other criminal legislation, athletes should not be permitted to benefit from their fraudulent conduct. The athlete passport could be used to record the financial rewards paid and to establish the value to be repaid when a doping offence occurs. Career penalties would send the strongest message to athletes.

  32.  Formal investigation procedures under a Sports Ombudsman (as recommended by the Independent Sport Review 2005) are needed to investigate allegations of involvement in doping and inadequacies in the anti-doping system. Presently this responsibility is with sports organisations that have vested interests and limited authority to investigate thoroughly especially where this may involve professional conduct issues and sanctions.

  33.  The UK needs tighter controls on the manufacture, supply chain and prescription of HETs to reduce their availability on the black market and increase the accountability of manufacturers.

THE STATE OF UK RESEARCH AND SKILLS BASE UNDERPINNING THE DEVELOPMENT OF NEW HETS AND TECHNOLOGIES TO FACILITATE THEIR DETECTION

  34.  Significant expertise to develop HETs is available in the UK; research is not well funded by the anti-doping authorities, particularly for detection, however in the medical and pharmaceutical industry similar research is being undertaken which could be applied.

  35.  Core funding of accredited laboratories occurs in other countries and could be considered for the UK, as testing purchased by governing bodies is limited by its cost.

  36.  The UK needs greater coordination across government departments to share information and create a coordinated response to prohibited HETs and to seek involvement of expertise that is independent of the national anti-doping system in sport.

May 2006