While I’m on the subject of drug use in sport, I want to write a little about the Dwain Chambers court case. For those of you who don’t know about this, he’s a 100m sprinter who was banned a few years ago for steroid use.
Since completing his ban, he’s been running clean, and wants to compete in the British team at the Olympics this summer. But the British Olympics Association (BOA) has a blanket ban on anyone ever caught using drugs representing Britain at subsequent Olympic Games, which includes Chambers.
Having failed in his appeals to the BOA, he has now gone to the courts to adjudicate on the legality and enforceability of this BOA ban. More background here.
Personally, I hope he fails and that he is never allowed to represent Britain again. When it comes to drug use in sport, once a cheat is always a cheat, to my mind.
My reasoning is that the use of steroids is not like using nitrous in a car. It’s not an instant boost with no long-lasting effects. Steroid use (over many years) actually changes your physiology. It makes your bones stronger, your muscles denser, can increase blood flow and generally make you harder, better, faster, stronger.
[Aside: Wow, that Daft Punk song has just had an extra layer added to it]
And these things don’t instantly go away when you stop using drugs, unlike the effects of nitrous. You remain stronger, with your insides irrevocably altered. So even if you’re clean five years later, you still have the benefits of having used drugs previously.
As such, it’s unfair on other competitors who have always been clean, and use training to improve their natural physical abilities. For this reason, I don’t see why drug cheats should be allowed back into any sport, especially one such as athletics where 1/100th of a second can mean the difference between winning and losing.
It’s this 1/100th that can be gained by the alterations in your physiology thanks to drug use years before, giving steroids a lasting effect on results and competition.
I sincerely hope Dwain Chambers is not allowed to compete at the Olympics next month, and my support for athletics (especially British athletics) will be at an all-time low if he does.
