Consensus on doping policy may be legacy of Nagano games

CMAJ 1998;159:438

© 1998 Janet Brooks

Canadian snowboarder Ross Rebagliati was allowed to keep his gold giant-slalom medal despite testing positive for cannabis in a routine postcompetition drug test because no agreement on testing for the drug existed between the International Ski Federation and the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

"[The situation] is very confusing to the athletes, there are a lot of mixed messages and it needs clarification and I'm sure it will receive it," Canadian chef de mission Carol Anne Letheren said after an arbitration panel overturned an IOC decision to disqualify Rebagliati.

The IOC has long aimed to standardize antidoping policies among its member federations, which currently test for different substances and impose different sanctions against offenders. A new medical code that would require all federations to administer effective antidoping programs and impose common penalties against drug cheats will be presented to the federations for endorsement before the end of the year.

"There is an absolute need to get greater uniformity both in terms of the substances and the sanctions," says IOC executive board member Kevan Gosper. "We've been working hard at this since 1994 and there'll be a further big push this year, which has been signalled to both the summer and winter sports federations."

Contentious issues such as marijuana and gender testing may be dropped from the redrafted code. Most federations, for example, do not conduct sex testing at their own world championships, although the current code requires all Olympic athletes entering women's events to undergo a precompetition chromosome test to verify their sex. Many experts, including IOC medical commission member Dr. Arne Ljungqvist of Sweden, consider the chromosome test outdated and unethical.

In its battle against performance-enhancing drugs, the IOC is also funding research for tests to detect blood doping and the use of erythropoietin and human growth hormone; the latter substance was found in the luggage of a Chinese swimmer en route to the world championships in Perth, Australia, in January. No foolproof tests currently exist to detect the use of blood doping or these substances.

A new frontier in doping research was reached during the Nagano Olympics. For the first time in Olympic history, a carbon isotope machine was used in an attempt to distinguish between endogenous testosterone and synthetic testosterone from plant sources, which athletes take to boost performance. And a new frontier in cheating was crossed in August, when the world swimming federation suspended Irish swimmer Michelle Smith for attempting to foil a drug test by spiking her urine sample with whisky. The suspension effectively ends her career.

Send a letter to the editor Envoyez une lettre à la rédaction