Olympic Doping in Beijing

Organized doping controls during the Olympic Games began in 1968, after the International Olympic Committee formally banned certain substances and methods and began testing during the Games. Prior to that time, athletes were undoubtedly using products that later became prohibited, but there were no sport rules which prevented them from doing so. The use may have been reckless and dangerous but, from a sports perspective, it did not constitute cheating.

With the advent of testing there began a cat-and-mouse game that continues to this day. Dopers try to stay ahead of the enforcers of the rules and the sport authorities try to narrow the gap between themselves and the cheaters. Testing during sport events such as the Olympic Games does not provide a complete solution, since the benefits of many drugs and methods can last well after evidence of doping has disappeared from the athletes’ systems. Robust out-of-competition testing programs are required so that athletes can be tested without advance notice, wherever they may be. Targeted testing is needed to be sure that the athletes at the highest risk (normally the best athletes) are subjected to greater scrutiny than those at lower risk.

In the lead-up to the Beijing Games, great emphasis was placed on the state-ofthe- art testing that would occur during the Games, higher standards even than those used at the Athens Games in 2004, when almost 30 cases of doping were identified. National teams were advised to be particularly stringent in their pre- Games testing. This led to suspension of the entire Greek and Bulgarian weightlifting teams for steroid use and to several Russian track and field athletes for manipulation of samples.

The willingness of the IOC to work with the public authorities and police in Torino during the 2006 Olympic Winter Games was a further signal to anyone contemplating doping that the risks of getting caught were significantly higher than on previous occasions. The additional prospect of being found in violation of Chinese law and the possibility of prosecution in China undoubtedly had a chilling effect on other potential cheaters.

The outcome was a much diminished number of positive tests during the Beijing Olympic Games and in the period immediately preceding the Games. While it may be tempting to conclude from the statistics that doping is “down” significantly from Athens, it would be naïve to think that a solution to the problem has been found. There may well be drugs for which no viable tests have yet been devised, or drugs which had cleared the systems of the athletes by the time of the Games. Or it may be that domestic pre-Games testing programs were not able to catch all athletes who were doping.

That said, it was nevertheless something of a relief that so few Beijing Olympic medalists were identified as dopers. It gave the Games more of an Olympic “feel” than has been the case for many years – athletes competing on a level playing field relying on their natural talents.