Doping widespread in Australian sport: probe

It is very black day for everyone, says WADA president.

SYDNEY: Drug use is widespread in Australian sport with growing links to organised crime, according to a damning official probe yesterday that points to ‘clear parallels’ with the Lance Armstrong case.

The Australian Crime Commission inquiry identified common use of prohibited substances including peptides – a type of stimulant – hormones and illicit drugs, across multiple sporting codes.

The findings from the year-long investigation shatter Australia’s reputation as a predominantly drugs-free sporting nation, although specific players, teams and codes were not revealed for legal reasons.

“It’s a very black day for sport,” said the World Anti-Doping Agency president John Fahey. “The enormity of what we’re hearing, that surprises me.”

The report indicated that sports scientists, coaches and support staff as well as doctors and pharmacists were involved in the provision of drugs, which were often supplied by organised criminal gangs.

In some cases, players were being administered with substances that have not yet been approved for human use.

The report said there were “clear parallels between what has been discovered in Australia and the Usada (US Anti-Doping Agency) investigation into Lance Armstrong”, referring to the disgraced Tour de France cyclist.

This “underlines the transnational threat posed by doping to professional sport, both from a ‘fair play’ perspective and as a broader integrity issue”.

“It is also clear from the findings of this project, the Usada investigation, and previous high-profile doping cases in Europe and the United States, that it is not only athletes who are involved in doping, but athletic support staff, organised criminal groups and complicit doctors.”

While the probe did not name specific sports, Cricket Australia chief James Sutherland and his Football Federation Australia counterpart David Gallop said their sports were not implicated in the report.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 8^th, 2013.