WADA Report on "Lack of Effectiveness of Testing Programs"

WADA has posted a Working Group report on the  "Lack of Effectiveness of Testing Programs" for stakeholder comment. It's quite a good report in my view with many good recommendations and observations.

One important recommendation regards having the WADA focus most of its budget and efforts on enforcing Code compliance "WADA shall fundamentally recast its budgets to reflect its primary focus on Code compliance and the efficacy of testing and other means of detecting doping practices." I fully agree with this recommendation. In my view, WADA has been far too soft on enforcing compliance and assessing the effectiveness of anti-doping programs by its signatories.

The Report has a significant list of recommendations for others in the anti-doping game, including international federations, national bodies, athletes, entourages, and governments as well as testing in general.

The report also points out weaknesses in the current regime, including the "Reluctance to assume the costs of effective anti-doping efforts" by International Federations (e.g., the ITF) and that for many International Federations the "Focus is limited to technical Code compliance only, not to the effectiveness of anti-doping efforts." 

Definitely worth reading (it's only 27 pages long).

In other news: The New York Daily News investigative sports team reports "Skier Lindsey Vonn, Olympic star, saw notorious doping doctor in Germany at Red Bull clinic"

ITF to Work with AFLD? (Update)

Stories are emerging in the French press that the ITF will be entering into talks with the French anti-doping authorities (AFLD), following the appearance of Stuart Miller and Francesco Ricci Bitti at a French senate investigation on doping in sport.

Two stories (in French):

Dopage, l’ITF défend son bilan

Roland-Garros 2013 - L'ITF prête à collaborer avec l'Agence française de lutte contre le dopage

Sounds like Bitti and Miller got a rough ride...very, very different treatment from what they get from many in the media.

Thanks go to Asterix for the tip in the previous post.

Update: Here is the video of their appearance...

Lutte contre le dopage

Fernando Romboli: Singles Ranking 452 (Updated)

Update: A somewhat related, and important read. (Thanks, Moonax)

***

Note that Romboli's sample was taken on July 11, 2012, that he started a provisional suspension on September 1, 2012, and that his suspension expired today...the same day the ITF announced the decision (and today's release is first public announcement regarding Romboli's suspension and positive test). In total, that's about 10 months between the sample being taken and the final decision being rendered. And remember, if Romboli had been exonerated no public announcement would been made. Instead, he would have simply returned to the tour after a very long, unexplained absence.

It is worth comparing the ITF's disclosure protocol with that of cycling's UCI. For example, today the UCI announced that French rider Sylvain Georges tested positive for a banned stimulant last Friday (May 10, 2013). Also today, UCI announced that Venezuelan rider Miguel Ubeto Aponte was under provisional suspension for an out of competition test taken on April 16, 2013.


15 May 2013
The International Tennis Federation announced today that Fernando Romboli has been found to have committed an Anti-Doping Rule Violation under Article 2.1 of the Tennis Anti-Doping Programme (presence of a Prohibited Substance in a player’s sample).

Mr Romboli, a 24-year-old tennis player from Brazil, provided a sample on 11 July 2012 at the ATP Challenger Event held in Bogota, Colombia. That sample was sent to the WADA-accredited laboratory in Montreal, Canada for analysis, and was found to contain two diuretics, furosemide and hydrochlorothiazide. Both furosemide and hydrochlorothiazide are Prohibited Substances under section S5 of the 2012 WADA List of Prohibited Substances and Prohibited Methods, and are therefore also prohibited under the Tennis Anti-Doping Programme (the “Programme”). Mr Romboli was therefore charged with an Anti-Doping Rule Violation under Article 2.1 of the Programme.

Mr Romboli asserted that the furosemide and hydrochlorothiazide, for which he did not hold a valid TUE, had entered his system through a contaminated supplement that had been prescribed for him by a doctor. He denied any intent to enhance his performance as a result of taking that supplement.

The ITF accepted Mr Romboli’s account of the circumstances surrounding his ingestion of furosemide and hydrochlorothiazide, and that he (a) met the requirements to satisfy article 10.4 of the Programme (Elimination or Reduction of the Period of Ineligibility for Specified Substance under Specified Circumstances), and (b) bore No Significant Fault or Negligence.

Mr Romboli’s commission of an Anti-Doping Rule Violation under Article 2.1 of the Programme was confirmed, and it was determined that he is suspended from participation for a period of eight and a half months, back-dated to commence from 1 September 2012, the date on which he accepted a voluntary provisional suspension, and so ending at midnight on 15 May 2013. It was also determined that Mr Romboli’s results at the 2012 Bogota Challenger event should be disqualified, with resulting forfeiture of the ranking points and prize money that he won at those events.

Money Talks: Fuentes Says Names Up For Auction

Via The Guardian:

"The convicted sports-doping doctor Eufemiano Fuentes is threatening to reveal the dirty secrets of the world's major sporting events as he offers to sell his story to newspapers after being convicted on public health charges in Spain for his role in helping top cyclists to cheat.

"Fuentes, considered one of international sport's leading dope doctors, has sent out a list of subjects that – for a price – he is now prepared to talk publicly about. It includes Spanish Champions League football teams, London marathon winners, Olympic medallists and a long list of cyclists he was involved with..."

Apropos Of Nothing

May 9, 2013

USADA announced today that, Tyler Flanagan, of Mammoth Lakes, Calif., an athlete in the sport of snowboarding, has accepted a two-year suspension for an anti-doping rule violation based on his refusal to submit to a sample collection.

On March 14, 2013, Flanagan, 20, refused to provide a sample as requested by a doping control officer during an out-of-competition test. Under the USADA Protocol for Olympic and Paralympic Movement Testing and the International Ski Federation (FIS) Anti-Doping Rules, both of which have adopted the World Anti-Doping Code, an athlete’s refusal to provide a sample when notified that he has been selected for doping control constitutes a rule violation...

Read It and Weep (Updated)

Operation Puerto decision is out (from Shane Stokes at VeloNation):

"Judge Patricia Santamaria sentenced Fuentes to a year in prison, with Labarta to serve four months. Under Spanish law prison terms of two years or less are automatically suspended unless those concerned have been found guilty of other offences...

"However a formal request from the agency [WADA] and others to take possession of the blood bags was refused today by the judge."

Update

An interesting piece on doping by Steve Tignor: "Dancing Around It"

Open Thread: Fans With Typewriters (Update #2)

Courtesy of David Walsh:

"There was a time when it wasn’t cool to be a fan with a typewriter. When you went to a stadium you went as a journalist, and you didn’t express any partisanship for one team or another...

"You look at the BBC’s coverage of the Olympics, and it seems to me that the more it went on the more commentators didn’t try to hide the fact that they felt they were fans, not serious journalists working at a very serious event. In the cycling that happened to a degree...

"Who wants to be the one to say, ‘hold on, it may not be what it seems’. Journalists then begin acting like fans with typewriters."

So, among tennis journalists, who are best described as "fans with typewriters"? More importantly, who are not?

Discuss among yourselves.

Update #1: 

Anyone surprised that this story has not been picked up by the tennis media? "Former US Postal Service doctor del Moral’s clinic closes down," that would be in reference to the same Dr. del Moral who worked at the TenisVal Tennis Academy for "approximately 14-15 years..."

Update #2

Will anyone in the tennis media ask Stuart Miller why the ITF can't come to an agreement with the French anti-doping authorities regarding testing at Roland Garros? After all, cycling and the AFLD just agreed to "combine their resources and expertise on events such as the Tour de France and the Critérium du Dauphiné."

Article: "Sport Nutrition and Doping in Tennis"

From the Journal of Sports Science & Nutrition come the article "Sport Nutrition and Doping in Tennis: An Analysis of Athletes' Attitudes and Knowledge." The results are based on a sample of "65 high-level tennis players."

Abstract:

"Nutrition and doping issues are rarely studied in the sport of tennis. The aims of this investigation were to determine knowledge on doping (KD) and knowledge on sport nutrition (KSN), and corresponding socio-demographic-, sport-, and sport-nutrition- and doping-factors among an international sample of high-level tennis players of both sexes (43 females; 22 years old on average). In the first phase of the investigation, the KSN and KD questionnaires were studied for their reliability and validity. The consumption of NS [Nutritional Supplementation] is found to be very high, with almost of all the females and 80% of the males using NS at least occasionally. The athletes showed a low tendency regarding future doping usage, although most of them are convinced that doping does exist in tennis. Since athletes declared that their coaches are their main source of information about NS and doping, future studies should investigate what coaches actually know about such problems. KSN has been found to be protective against potential doping behavior in the future. Males are found to be more prone to doping than females. Therefore, in order to prevent doping behavior in tennis we strongly suggest intensive educational programs on sports nutrition and doping-related problems." (emphasis added)

From the full text:

"...most of the studied athletes believe that doping does exist in the sport of tennis, whereas believing in the occurrence of doping in sport has been found to be the key predictor of future doping behavior in several sports and activities, including racket sports (Kondric et al., 2011; Rodek et al., 2009; Sekulic et al., 2010; Zenic et al., 2010). Our findings that less than 5% of the females studied show some tendency towards doping are somewhat lower than results previously reported for Slovenian racket sport female athletes (Kondric et al., 2011). Meanwhile, almost 20% of the males reported some tendency towards doping in the future..."

"Recovery"

Is James Ward out of shape, or just ignorant of modern recovery techniques?

He ended up in a hospital following his Davis Cup run:

"I thought sleep would help me recover from the weekend but by yesterday afternoon I wasn't feeling too good so I went to my local A and E...

"The staff there were great. They put me on a drip and let me go at midnight. I'm feeling much better today and I'm still hoping to make it to the States next week."

Hat tip to Peter Gilson for pointing out this article.

"No one's interested..."

Former French rugby player Laurent Benezech:

"The proofs (of doping in rugby) are in front of our eyes but no one's interested...

"Rugby is in exactly the same situation that cycling was before the Festina affair...

"We went from 20 minutes of effective action to 30 minutes at the end of the 1990s which was the normal evolution due to the players becoming professionals...

"But now we're explaining, even though we're already at 40 minutes, that we can hit 50 and even, why not, 60...

"That's what happened in cycling at the end of the 1990s when logic saw us lengthening the Tour de France's stages and increasing the difficulties without it posing any problems physically to the riders..."

Pardon the Interruption (Updated)

Update #1: Stuart Miller says "There is the possibility of analyzing old samples using new techniques."

Just another hollow statement from the ITF.

And it appears that the ITF has done absolutely no thinking on how to implement bio-passport. Miller says "First we have to figure out what we want to do in principle and then look at the cost and the issues around that, which we haven't done."

How can anyone take the ITF seriously? This is ridiculous.

Original Post

A message from ITF President Francesco Ricci Bitti in the Spring issue of ITFWorld:

"Throughout sport, the start of 2013 has been overshadowed by the Lance Armstrong story. His confession that he had been doping throughout his career and had lied repeatedly, aggressively and, until recently, successfully has unfortunately called into question the quality of every sport’s anti-doping programme including tennis’s. It is hard to reconcile the hero that Armstrong once seemed to be with the man he actually was, but it is also unfair for every sports man and woman to have their integrity questioned because of his failings.

"The Tennis Anti-Doping Programme is something that we can be proud of as the quality of our programme is well recognised. But we can always do more and it is time to do more. What many people don’t realise is that there are a number of testing authorities. In tennis, the ITF (the international federation) is one of the testing authorities on behalf of the sport-wide Tennis Anti-Doping Programme, the National Anti-Doping Organisations (NADOs) as well as WADA. It is a complex system and not easily understood. We need all three bodies to better coordinate efforts at all levels to ensure that tennis remains a clean sport.

"For the future, the ITF with its partners from the Grand Slams, ATP and WTA announced in early March an increased testing programme to include the Athlete Biological Passport which will require more blood testing and a significant investment from all of us. These tests are expensive and unfortunately every dollar earmarked for antidoping is funding that cannot be allocated to tennis development. But we are all committed to the fight and have decided accordingly.

"In the meantime, it is my hope that people will not judge athletes as guilty just because of Lance Armstrong. His betrayal of his sport, his teammates and his fans is one of the biggest scandals in sport but, in our view, he is the exception and not the rule. I believe that our tennis athletes understand the dangers of doping and it pleases me to see so many of them speak out and request more testing and I can promise them that we will do our best to increase the quantity of tests to a level where even the toughest critic is satisfied."

A few comments.

First, Bitti embarrasses himself through his statement "unfortunately every dollar earmarked for antidoping is funding that cannot be allocated to tennis development." Does he really expect anyone to believe this? Does this mean that prize money increases also come at the expense of tennis development? How about Bitti's salary?

Second, Bitti says that he will "increase the quantity of tests." What about the quality of the testing program?

Third, Bitti once again provides zero detail regarding the implementation of the biological passport.

It has never been more clear that the ITF needs a complete leadership overhaul. Anti-doping through press release and talking points doesn't cut it.

Retesting Stored Samples: Dr. del Moral's Tennis Clients?

The IOC has announced that it will retest samples from the 2006 Winter Games in Turin. The IAAF recently retested samples from the 2005 World Championships, resulting in five medalists testing positive.

The International Tennis Federation claims to store samples (they haven't disclosed for how long they store them). And it's unknown if they've ever gone back to retest any stored samples.

Does the ITF currently have any stored samples of tennis players that worked with Lance Armstrong's former doctor, Dr. Luis Garcia del Moral? If so, have (or will) these samples be retested samples using the latest anti-doping technology?

Dr. del Moral worked with tennis players through the TenisVal academy starting "approximately 14-15 years ago." So, if the ITF stores samples for 8 years (as the IOC does), they should have quite a few samples from Dr. del Moral clients that could be retested using the latest anti-doping technology.

If there ever was a reason to retest a stored sample, surely working with a doctor banned by the USADA and ITF for life is one of them.

Paging Dr. Stuart Miller...

Robin Haase on Testing Protocol

Robin Haase gave an interview last week about the anti-doping program in tennis (in Dutch). He made a curious remark (Translation courtesy of a Dutch-speaking reader):

"It's remarkable how few tests are done in non-western countries. I know players from eastern Europe who either barely get tested at all, or don't fill out things correctly. They receive a telephone call from the testers before being tested, because the testers don't want to show up at an empty house. The whole system is not put together very well, because the tests are limited to just a few players."

Haase is saying that some athletes are essentially getting tipped off by testers. If true, it implies there are serious breaches of "no advance notice" testing protocol occurring. Needless to say, Haase's statements haven't received any attention.

What does the ITF think of Haase's remarks? Paging Dr. Stuart Miller...

Don Catlin Slams ITF

Another great piece by Simon Cambers features an interview with anti-doping expert Don Catlin, who hammers at the ITF's anti-doping program.

Catlin has much to say...

On the biological passport:

"They're better off to increase the number of tests they do rather than spend it all on the passport. Doubling or tripling urine tests would be of more value than starting a passport because you need such a long lead-in. You need data over four or five years...

"...A lot of it looks like grandstanding – whenever there's pressure, sport wakes up and looks to do something but then they realise later that it's not really [changed] anything...

"....if you're only taking two steps when 100 are needed, it's not going to work. If you started with the top 100 male players, that would be a good representation and then if you test them five times a year …but [tennis] probably can't afford to do that or doesn't want to. If you don't start with something of that magnitude, you're not going to get far."

A good read. I think Catlin makes some excellent points, especially given how ITF has said next to nothing about how it will actually implement the biological passport.