usoc position on anti-doping

the united states olympic committee recently published a new position on anti-doping. the position statement is only short and certainly worth reading. there are a couple of key points i wish to extract and discuss here.

first: "this enhanced fight against doping requires increased investment. the ioc, the nocs and the ifs should all contribute on a fair and equitable basis, complementing governmental support." this sentiment was then reiterated later in the bullet points : "in order to do these first two things, wada needs more funding from more governments, as well as from the ioc."

this position should certainly be something that anyone who has a mild interest in enhancing anti-doping programs could get behind. we are currently in an arms race, where one side has only a fraction of the wealth and resources relative to the other. this situation is not sustainable, and something has to give. the one point that i disagree with is the 'equitable' basis for this funding given to an independent anti-doping body. why, for example, should russia contribute the same to anti-doping efforts, compared to a country like canada, even after per captia or olympic medals are accounted for? it is simply a fact that russia and russian athletes have historically placed a much greater strain on anti-doping resources and should therefore be required to contribute more to the efforts. this serves to both balance out funding, as well as acting in a punitive and prodding mechanism for these nations.

second: "investigative work to uncover systematic doping must be robustly supported in balance with other forms of detection. whistleblowers must be encouraged to share what they know and protected against retribution."

this second point is more controversial. clearly we need more whistleblowers; and these athletes, coaches, or administrators should be encouraged to do so. however, there is a situation where some may use the protections of 'whistleblower' to evade retribution after a career of doping related offenses. one can certainly imagine this happening if a pattern of doping violates becomes apparent. we should therefore develop an appropriate method of assessing risk and reward of whistleblowers, and allow an adjudication of the whistleblowers motives and actions by independent bodies.

when it comes to anti-doping, there recently seems to be some buzz coming from the united states. let's hope they continue, and that other countries continue to develop more modern stances to enhance the global anti-doping efforts.