Doping is a Fraud

In the latest news in media as well as in people`s discussions sports’ cleanness has taken lots of hits, and the whole reputation of sports has in some way experienced inflation and in most cases rightly so. Almost every week there are athletes who are being crucified in the news and media for doping. Some cases it is because of already failed doping tests and some other it is because some athletes are believed to be users of performance enhancing drugs. Rightly so again.


I have wanted to write on this subject for so long. For one I have had the privilege to get an insight look to the topic through my own professional career in badminton. And as in Finland there currently is an on-going campaign called "Puhtaasti paras" against doping it seemed like a perfect timing to write this post.

When I was younger I believed that completely clean sport existed, maybe mostly because of lack of knowledge and because I was still naive. At least when it came to my own field, badminton, I believed there was no role to be played for doping. In relation to some other sports it was already then much harder to believe that all athletes were clean as speculations had been circling around them for years. With great regret I can now say that my beliefs about my much loved sport, badminton, have changed too. It must, however, be said at the very beginning that relatively there has not been many doping cheats been caught in badminton.

However, considering the character of our sport as being very physical, it would be only childish to think that there would not be any doping at all. After all, the doping testing comes always one step behind users. With pure conscience I can say that I have never even been offered performance enhancing drugs of any kind. I can also say with great certainty that in Finland or in the European leagues, in which I have played for many years, doping is not being used and transparency prevails. On the contrary, clubs, associations and players themselves are making a great effort on anti-doping work. Still it would be naive to think that doping didn't exist at all. If we deny the problem and turn discussion on doping and suspicions of doping users into a taboo, we are actually doing a favor to doping and its users.

                     They had forgotten the word "anti" in front of doping in Korea some years ago

I recall my first visit to Beijing, China 12-13 years ago. That visit really awoke my understanding and awareness in doping matters. We had a training camp there with a small group of Finnish players. We were practicing with a local junior team so the Chinese players were young lads as were we at the time. Good players, no doubt about that, but considering the level of badminton players in China, they never even got the chance to perform on world stage or even outside China. At the beginning we were struggling a bit with language issues but finally we made some kind of a friendship with those young boys. At some point one of the guys told us that they were getting vitamins injected straight into their veins every week. It might be that vitamins absorb better in to your body when injected, but I remember wondering myself why on earth players at this level are getting treatments like that. Today looking back I wonder even more. Then in China my curiosity rose and I asked what the vitamins, which they got injected with, were. Surprisingly these young Chinese had no idea what they were injected with, doctor just walked in and gave the doses.

Obviously I have no clue what the injections were about. Maybe it really was vitamins maybe something else. But the actual problem, and the reason why anti-doping work is so difficult in China, is the lack of transparency. Most important thing in anti-doping work is obviously that banned substances are not being used, but it is also important that you won't give an image to the world that doping might be used. In addition anti-doping work cannot be only the responsibility of the doctors but also athletes themselves. For me it was totally unthinkable that these young boys didn't know what they were getting. I couldn’t help but to think that if this is what they do with middle level players, what is the reality on the highest level? When talking about transparency, it is not really increasing my trust to their anti-doping work, when China's national team travels to unknown secret location for practice camp before every major tournament for a month or so.

The fact that there haven’t been many doping cases in sport of badminton doesn't necessarily mean that our sport is clean. I have read numerous books and documents related to doping and the known fact is that only careless or arrogant athletes are getting caught for doping. And of course badminton has experienced its share of doping cases. Latest was when world number one that moment, Lee Chong Wei got caught after using banned substance called dexamethasone. I have not read through the whole lengthy document regarding LCW’s case but the outline of the document was that Lee Chong Wei had been receiving unmarked cordyceps capsules, the content of which he didn't know, already for years “from the wife of an influential man in Malaysia”. The BWF’s panel opted for a softer sentence because they found Lee negligent but was convinced that there was no intention to cheat.

Even though I respect Lee Chong Wei enormously for his playing skills and for his achievements, it is very hard for me to understand and believe such carelessness in this matter when you know how much thought and care players at this level put into training, resting or eating overall. Accidents or ignorance is not acceptable when it comes to use of doping. If we start to believe in the lip balm explanations or ignorance, we accept doping by doing so. 


                                  Me and Lee Chong Wei in London Olympic Games 2012

As small curiosity, I would like to mention that up and coming cycling star from Malaysia got caught from same substance as Lee Chong Wei. His ban from sport lasted 18 months, instead of Chong Wei’s ban that only lasted 8 months, because in LCW’s case he was able to give an explanation by saying that he didn't knowingly take banned substances. It makes me think where we should draw the line of careless eating of medicines or food supplements. Athlete must always know what he puts into his mouth or veins. There is no space for coincidence or accidents in this matter.

These days sport at the highest level is very raw and brutal. Level of skills, power and condition of athletes is getting higher and it is harder and harder to reach the world top in each of the sports. This added to the amount of money up there available for top athletes makes the temptation worse. When evaluating the reward compared with the risk, many athletes unfortunately choose the way of cheating. Dwayne Chambers wrote in his book "Race against me" (which is by the way brilliant book written by a former drug cheat) that reward was just so huge with all the glory and financial benefits that temptation became too great. In a pure logical way of thinking this makes sense. As in life generally one must evaluate the risk/reward ratio. In his book mister Chambers describes how not to get caught when you are under the influence of banned substances. Mainly this is possible due to the fact that many of the banned substances are not giving you inhuman powers or speed to perform well in the actual competitions but giving you power to practice inhumanly hard. This makes it possible to avoid being tested while doing drugs only on practice season and being clean while on competition.

 Is there anything we could do about this then? In my opinion there are two efficient ways to fight against doping users. Increase the possibility of getting tested outside of competition season and longer bans for drug cheats so that using is no longer so tempting. In my opinion bans should be nothing less than lifetime ban from competitive sports and use of doping should be also criminalized. If you make a fortune in stock market with illegal insider trades, does someone even think about only banning you from stock markets for two years or even less? As there is lots of money involved in sports we have to understand that doping is a fraud, which gives you financial benefits.

I have been tested roughly 50 times in my career including tests that are made in training seasons, competitive tests and some random test at awkward times like one during Christmas holidays. I still remember like it was yesterday one particular test that took place on the second Christmas day. I was sitting very comfortably on my couch and watching a movie. I heard the doorbell rang, opened the door and met two anti-doping officials with their testing equipment. Test can be required at anytime, anywhere and obviously first I was little annoyed about their timing during Christmas. For the athlete it feels kind of weird that when those two anti-doping officials appear on your door, you have no choice but to let them in and have the test taken. In that specific Christmas night I was not able to give the test sample straight away and needed to get some hydration first. As I wanted to watch that movie as well (at that time there was no Netflix that you could just pause and continue whenever you like) so I ended up watching a 2 hour movie together with the anti-doping officials. On commercial breaks we set up all the paper works and test bottles and at some point I was finally able to give my test sample after which they left.

Talking about movies and doping, document called Icarus crossed my mind. It is a very interesting document about a guy who was cycling and practicing just as a hobby. Out of curiosity he wanted to know and test how much better he could perform in the annual competitions if he was using doping. After some eventuful phases he ended up in a situation where he was being lectured how to use doping without getting caught by no-other than Grigori Rodchenkov, who at that time was the chairman of Russian anti-doping agency. Mr Rodchenkov also was the chairman of anti-doping panel for Sochi winter Olympics. As the document progresses the viewer gets to learn that while working as an anti-doping chief Rodchenkov also orchestrated the systematic doping use of all Russian athletes. A fact which in the end led to the situation that international Olympic committee shut almost the entire Russian track and field team from Rio Olympics. The number of athletes scoring medals while being on doping Rodchenkov is revealing is outstanding and shocking even. If use of doping is this systematic, how is it possible to fight against it?

Most of you have probably seen the image of the 30 best times ever run on 100 meters. In that sheet there is a list of all the athletes’ names and the ones that have being caught of doping are being over crossed in red while the clean atheletes names are marked in green. If you are not familiar with this sheet, I can tell you that the only one name marked in green is Usain Bolt. This is of course sad and shocking itself but it also leaves one with a doubt: can it be that only one athlete is clean and all others are doped?



People have explained Bolt’s success with his lengthy step and his remarkable talent shown already in junior years. But going through the list and knowing the reputation and history of Jamaican running team it is not surprising that people are getting doubtful. Bolt is running under Jamaican flag in the same team as for example Johan Blake (caught 2009, for 4-methyl-2-hexanamine substance) and Asafa Powell (caught 2013, for Oxilofrine substance). The list of doped Jamaican athletes seems endless. Is it really so that in a team in which athletes are being caught many times for doping and use of it seems very systematic, Bolt kept his head cool and decided to run clean believing in his abilities so greatly that even when he saw on a daily basis his team mates using banned substances and getting big advantage by doing so, he stayed clean. I really would like to believe so. I would like to believe that he is just so great of an athlete; the best ever run on the face of earth.

In one way or another Bolt is still affected by this reputation around numerous other fraud sprinters. Like I mentioned earlier when talking about my experience in China, it is not only important that doping is not used but also that within a certain athletes’ association, a team or a field of sport the general attitude is against doping. Certainly you don’t want to give public a picture that without doping it is impossible to perform on the highest level. Ones positive doping test will not only affect himself/herself but blows the smoke of doubt over all the athletes in that sport. Top athletes’ continuous positive doping tests are planting a seed of doubt in juniors head if it is even possible to reach the top level without using.

 For me personally it seems very absurd how cycling can be part of the sports of Olympic family today. With all the doping cases during the years, isn’t the whole basis of this sport completely against everything that Olympic spirit stands for? After reading a book of Tyler Hamilton who used to be Lance Armstrong’s co- driver, it seems to me that there are hardly any clean athletes in cycling. The book is explaining in detail the difference of using doping to the performance level of the cyclist. Tyler Hamilton is telling how he believed he was extremely talented and could succeed without doping. However the pressure from the team management, "speed up or get fired", made him cross the line. In the end he had only two choices: use performance enhancing drugs or find yourself a new job.

As long as young athletes find it almost impossible to climb the letters to the top without using banned substances, it is very difficult or even impossible to get rid of the doping in sport. That is why extended bans, not only for athletes but also bans that include athlete’s team, doctors and other participants are in place. Shutting out some of the Russian athletes from Rio Olympic Games was a step to right direction. In my opinion in this matter rules could be even stricter. If a certain country doesn't allow neutral anti-doping officials to enter the country whenever they need to, it should lead to immediate ban for that country`s athletes all together. In addition if some country has continuously several athletes, who have been caught of using doping, should the international anti-doping committee supervise the actions of that country’s national anti-doping committee, and have a closer look of things happening. Obviously the biggest responsibility must remain on athletes, but we cannot think that this alone would be enough.

I am lucky that I played my entire career in Finland and in Europe where the attitude for doping inside badminton is heavily judging. Athletes are been taught and educated very well about matters concerning doping, our doctors are aware of the list of banned substances so that no mistakes are being made. Our association is also fighting fiercely for our sport to be clean. Cynical person could say that in badminton there is not so much money involved in Europe (unlike in Asia) yet, thus temptation is not so great. Well, even more so we have to make sure that when our sport is now growing in Europe, the attitude towards doping and its users remains as judging as it is today. Doping should not even be considered as an option. When no-one is using and everybody is judging, the chances to indulge doping are very limited and it will be easy to say no to dope.

Thinking back to that Christmas evening at home when, to my annoyance, the anti-doping officials were standing at the door, I know now that this is the only effective way to stop doping. Athletes must feel that they are being watched and tested time and time again. Testing must be done from Christmas tables in Finland, to unknown location of badminton camps in China and sunny tracks of Jamaican sprinting team. Rules of testing should be same to every country that sends its athletes to international competitions. Athletes who compete in same competitions must obey same rules all over the world. Fight against doping might sometimes feel like fighting against windmills, but in my opinion we have no other choice but to fight for clean sport. "When there is a will, there is a way." We must just find that way.

What do you think are the best measures to prevent doping? Should it be criminalized when related to professional level sport?

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