Left field

Drugs no help in surfing, says world champ

Mark Meadows

Feb 23, 2012 16:42 UTC

World surfing champion Kelly Slater is happy to abide by new doping regulations being implemented in his sport but he doubts whether performance-enhancing drugs would make anyone surf better.

Surfing’s image has always been clouded by images of wild lifestyles, of cashed-up athletes treading a fine line between partying and performing.

While the modern professional surfer is a super-fit athlete, the Association of Surfing Professionals still wants to clean up the sport for good.

Slater, speaking at the launch of a world surfing tour that will have its first series of formalised drug testing this year involving standards prescribed by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), said he had no problem with the tests.

Armstrong re-retires, says no way back this time

Kevin Fylan

Feb 16, 2011 15:50 UTC

It’s been a sad week in sport in some ways, with two modern greats announcing their retirements with immediate effect.

Admittedly, we knew long ago that we’d already seen by far the best of both Ronaldo, who called it a day on Monday, and Lance Armstrong, who announced on Wednesday his “retirement 2.0″.

Contador provisionally suspended, cycling holds its breath

Mark Meadows

Sep 30, 2010 07:22 UTC

Tour de France winner Alberto Contador returned an “adverse analytical finding” for clenbuterol following an analysis of a urine sample taken during an in-competition test on the second rest day of July’s race, the International Cycling Union said on Thursday. 

The concentration was “400 time(s) less than what the antidoping laboratories accredited by WADA must be able to detect,” the UCI said in a statement. 

Gatlin’s return throws up 100 metres quandary

Mitch Phillips

Aug 7, 2010 14:09 UTC

If Justin Gatlin, back in action this week after a four-year doping ban, were to line up alongside Jamaican Usain Bolt in the 2012 Olympic 100 metres final in London, who would American fans want to win?

Having served his time, is former world and Olympic champion Gatlin worthy of his place or, as some have suggested, should all convicted dopers be forced to pin a massive asterisk on their vest to remind the world of how they made it to the top?

Rules support loss of medals for Cox’s U.S. relay team

Rules in place at the time of the 2004 Olympics make it increasingly likely all members of the U.S. women’s 4×400 metres relay team will lose their gold medals because of last week’s doping suspension of alternate Crystal Cox.

Rule 39.2 of IAAF Competition Rules 2004-2005, which governed athletics participation at the Athens Games, clearly calls for the loss of medals if a team member violates anti-doping rules. 

McGwire the latest in line for smooth rehabilitation

Simon Evans

Jan 14, 2010 13:26 UTC

America knows how to ‘do hype’ and the Stateside public lap up a good scandal but when it comes to cheating by use of performance enhancing drugs, the appetite for mass media coverage seems to vanish.

At the end of 2009, there wasn’t a website or newspaper in the States, whether celebrity gossip, high-brow politics or sports-obsessed that wasn’t delivering real-time updates on the infidelities of a golfer. America couldn’t get enough of the Tiger Woods story which, in the end, consisted of little more significant than a sorry list of rather mundane affairs.

Five defining moments from a decade of sport

As the decade draws to a close, we pick five sporting moments which have defined the last 10 years.

1. Cathy Freeman lit the Olympic flame at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, a Games set in a country which embraces the outdoor life and punches well above its weight in most sports.

Agassi’s confessions could have knock-on effect for Serena

Andre Agassi’s decision to open his soul and tell the world he took drugs and then hoodwinked his governing body, the ATP, into believing his failed drugs test in 1997 was a mere mistake could not have come at a worse time for Australian and Wimbledon champion Serena Williams.

While Agassi has been condemned by players and pundits alike for tainting the image of his sport, tennis authorities have come under fire for not investigating the matter thoroughly and believing Agassi’s lies.

from The Great Debate UK:

Gates closing for commercial partners in sport

- Professor Simon Chadwick, Director, Centre for the International Business of Sport, Coventry, UK. The opinions expressed are his own. -

This summer’s Tour de France was truly historic: the race finished without anyone having returned a positive dope test. Monumental! In a sport seemingly beset with drug problems, professional cycling appeared to have turned the corner, started over, seen the error of its ways, cleaned up its act etc.

Let’s identify those who’ve doped to make the booing fair

Mitch Phillips

Aug 21, 2009 19:12 UTC

British sprinter Dwain Chambers played the role of pantomime villain at the world championships, suffering some pretty half-hearted boos from some of the crowd unhappy at his doping past and his bid to overturn the British Olympic Association’s bylaw banning all convicted dopers from the Games.

Chambers, who served a two-year ban from 2003 and confessed to his “crime”, has also been absent from most of the big European meetings this year thanks to a decision of the cartel of organisers not to invite him.