…I stand under the spray of a barely warm shower. I’m tired, hungry and very, very uncomfortable. It’s embarrassing because about fifty centimeters away, behind the transparent walls, the attentive eyes of a complete stranger look at me without stopping.
She’s a WADA anti-doping officer and she’s doing her job.
No matter how tired you are during training, no matter how busy you are, you should always fill out and recheck the special ADAMS electronic form. It records everything: addresses and times of training and competitions, details of movements. The most important thing is the exact address of the place. In house/apartment or hotel/room number format. 365(6) days per year.
Usually, AMA leaders come to the hotel, their preferred time being around 6 a.m. But there are exceptions: that day we came to Italy to train.
After training you must wait at least two hours, you cannot donate blood before. But all movements are strictly under the control of a WADA official. Including shower. That’s why a serious female doctor is sitting in the cramped toilet of a mountain hotel, not taking her eyes off me.
I do not want to be misunderstood: such an invasion of my personal space is deeply unpleasant for me, but if such rules are the same for everyone, then I must obey them. But since I sacrifice my time, my comfort and my mood, I want and have the right to know why. So that there is no possibility of winning unfairly? Accept. But what does it mean to “win unfairly”?
Meet my favorite cross-country skiing character, multiple Olympic champion and World Cup winner Johannes Klebo. He is undoubtedly a role model for any skier: he thinks with his head both in racing and in training. But he is a multimillionaire, which allows him to organize training camps all over the world, including those that are inaccessible to almost everyone. He can call an American physiotherapist to his training camp in Livigno, whose visit will cost more than the annual income of some of his teammates. He is the first to receive the latest skis and he can (and does) travel by business plane while others take the bus. Tell me, is this a fair benefit or not?
By the way, about mountain training. It has long been proven that altitude training stimulates the release of the hormone erythropoietin and increases hemoglobin mass in the blood. Is it fair that those who spent three weeks at altitude and those who trained on the plains participate in the same race? Is it right for someone to swallow the latest energy gels specially selected for them from a distance, and someone to swallow ascorbic acid in a pharmacy?
I can continue this list for five more paragraphs, no less. But I think it’s time to ask the question: who decided that this was possible, but that it was no longer possible? And who and on what basis decides that for this violation – six months of suspension, but for that one – four years?
I see the logic in the fact that Austrian skiers are given a four-year blood transfusion ban, “blood doping” – it’s pretty obvious: the guys wanted to improve their results and perfectly understood what they were doing. You can’t accidentally insert an IV with almost a liter of blood. But when the same four years are given to the minor Kamila Valieva for a cardioprotector, which does not affect the result in figure skating, I do not see the logic.
And that makes me doubt the impartiality of WADA and its associated International Olympic Committee.
Who are these people who set out to determine what modern professional sports should look like, what is possible and what is not? I repeat it after Dana White of the UFC, almost word for word. He generally described the approaches and decisions of the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) as “scoundrel.”
I won’t repeat after him here, it’s too hard. But on which side should I have my sympathy: with the man who created and is growing one of the most successful sports in the world, or with some anonymous person who tries to dictate who to allow into his own competitions and under what conditions? As of January 1 of this year, the UFC no longer cooperates with the international doping control system in its current form. And I’m sure I’ll be fine without USADA, WADA and the entire Olympic movement in its current form.
Maybe we also have something to think about?
Source : MatchTV
I am Sandra Jackson, a journalist and content creator with extensive experience in the news industry. I have been working in the news media for over five years. During this time, I have worked as an author and editor at various outlets producing high-quality content that attracts readers from different demographics.
