The World Anti-Doping Agency urged governments and sports bodies to accelerate the fight against drug cheats Wednesday, warning that recent high-profile cases may be only “the tip of the iceberg.”
WADA said the recent positive tests involving Tour de France champion Floyd Landis and Olympic 100-meter gold medalist Justin Gatlin underline the need to act decisively.
“With these recent cases, we may only be seeing the tip of the iceberg,” WADA chairman Dick Pound said.
The Montreal-based organization urged governments to ratify the UNESCO convention, which makes the terms of the World Anti-Doping Code enforceable by law.
So far, only 15 countries have signed the convention. The treaty will only come into effect when 30 countries have signed. The next opportunity to ratify the convention will come at a meeting of European sports ministers in Moscow in October.
Pound also wrote a column in the Ottawa Citizen urging Landis and Gatlin to come forward, admit their mistakes and identify those who encourage or assist doping.
Regarding Landis, he wrote, “Tell it like it is, like it really is. Give everyone who has been subverted into the conduct that has exposed you the chance to clean it up, or take the risk that … your sport may be flushed down the toilet.
“Go after the enablers. You will never, ever, have more credibility than you do today. They are the ones who wrecked you and who wrecked your sport. … Mr. Landis, exposed as he is now, could become the savior of his sport. Continued denial will only consign him to a life of ridicule and obscurity.
“As for Mr. Gatlin, I would give him the same free advice. Accept the consequences of your actions and use the experience to make your sport – and, in the process, yourself – a better man.”
Landis’ urine samples showed high levels of testosterone, as well as synthetic testosterone, after his remarkable Stage 17 victory. The American, who denies wrongdoing, could become the first Tour champion stripped of the title for doping.
Gatlin, who also tested positive for testosterone, faces a possible life ban. He also is contesting the results.
Pound scoffed at the “customary flow of denials.”
“Who knows,” he wrote. “USADA (the United States Anti-Doping Agency) may subscribe to a suggestion that both athletes, in separate sports, were ambushed by a roving squad of Nazi frogmen and injected against their will with the prohibited substances.”
Meanwhile, the chief of cycling’s world governing body says the sport may need to be overhauled to overcome the stigma of recent doping scandals.
“The Landis affair carries in this sense a clear and strong message for those with the intelligence to decode it,” Pat McQuaid said. “For UCI, the time for easy excuses or for pardoning is definitely over. It is an unconditional war against doping.”
McQuaid said the Swiss-based organization would carry out a review of professional cycling to identify the sources of the problem.
“If the results require it, we will overhaul all our rules and the ways we work as of the 2008 season,” he said. “All elements will be taken into account.”
In another matter, McQuaid said Jan Ullrich’s blood samples won’t be turned over to Spanish police investigating a doping scandal.
Ullrich, the 1997 Tour de France winner, and Ivan Basso were among the riders excluded from the Tour de France because of alleged links to the doping scandal in Madrid.
Ullrich was fired by the T-Mobile team, which announced a new blood test to determine if its riders have been doping.
“All riders will be required to undergo a newly developed test which will be able to determine whether the individual has transfused his own blood,” T-Mobile doctor Lothar Heinrich said.
