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UCI, cycling’s governing body, ban Armstrong for life
Marion Jones would store steroids in the refrigerator
I have no one to blame but myself
Over the years scientific progress has made it easier...
...and faster to detect athletes who dope
But it’s also helped make it easier to dope
Few are caught
So what’s the real story behind doping in sport?
Just explain to me what...
...anti-doping agencies are up against
So they have an impossible task, essentially...
...which is looking for a huge list of substances...
...and then looking for the invisible
The classic ways of doping are using anabolic steroids
That’s really what it started with
But it’s not the most refined way of doping
On top of that you have human growth hormones are still being used...
...and it’s gotten a lot more sophisticated now
Blood doping—we were talking about it
Blood doping—we were talking about it So EPO, which is a drug that thickens your blood and so...
So EPO, which is a drug that thickens your blood and so...
...increases the number of red blood cells in your system...
...and that oxygenates your muscles
Everyday, essentially, there’s a new set of drugs that are being designed...
...or a new set of combinations and cocktails that are being designed
Science has always played catch-up to the ways...
...athletes and coaches avoid detection of drugs in sport
For most of the history of anti-doping...
...the focus was on trying to identify particular chemicals...
...in urine
We went to talk to James Tozer...
...who writes about on sport here at The Economist...
...to find out how the science has moved on
About ten years ago...
...they introduced something called the ‘‘athlete biological passport”...
...and the aim there is not to find specific substances...
...but rather to look for unusual changes...
...in the composition of an athletes’ blood
For as long as the Olympics have existed...
...athletes have cheated
But it’s only since the International Olympic Committee...
...started testing for doping in 1968...
...that the cheaters have been officially caught
The game changed in 2004...
...with the introduction of a bio-bank...
...allowing the storage and re-testing of athletes’ samples...
...over an eight-year period
Then in 2009 came biological passports
Since then more than 200 athletes have been caught doping
But that’s not the full picture
The passports were sort of seen as this silver bullet...
...you know this magic solution
And it hasn’t delivered that
You’re still getting you know, maybe 1-2% of tests are positive
And there are lots of athletes who have continued to compete...
...during the era of the passports and haven’t been caught
In an anonymous survey...
...at the 2011 World Athletics Championships...
...an astonishing 44% of athletes admitted to doping...
...within the last year
But typically only 1-2% of samples test positive
And most doping has in fact been detected…
…years after it happened
And had it not been for the admissions of two Russian whistleblowers…
…and other intelligence…
…many of those cases could still be unknown
Ali Jawad is a British Paralympian…
…and former world-champion weightlifter
I’m an athlete first and foremost…
…and athletes deserve to have clean sport, fair play…
…and they deserve to be protected
As an outspoken critic of doping in sports…
…we wanted to hear Ali’s take on how big the gap might be…
…between doping and its detection
Right now the system’s still not optimal for athletes
WADA catch maybe 1 or 2%, right?
I honestly, honestly think...
…that we’re looking at maybe 30-40%
That’s why I think they’re so backwards in the way they…
…test out data as well
But that’s why I keep pushing about…
…if you’re only catching 1 or 2%…
…then how many clean athletes are missing out on these medals?
So why have biological passports not lived up to their promise…
…as the way to stamp out doping?
And what’s the alternative?
There’s a scientist in the south of England...
...who seems to have an answer
So we headed to Brighton to meet him
The athlete-biological-passport system is a very clever concept
Its weakness at the moment is that it’s based on a handful of biomarkers…
…compounds within the body that reflect…
…the fact that there’s been a change…
…in one’s red blood cells, for example
But it’s very, very clear that a large number are evading detection…
…because the markers can also be easily manipulated
Yannis Pitsiladis is on the Medical and Scientific Commission of the IOC…
…the International Olympic Committee…
He’s spent more than a decade honing a new method to…
…spot blood doping
It’s an approach that might eventually be used to test…
…and help stamp out, doping of any kind
Will they have stored it as whole blood?
– Whole blood
But how much do they have?
So what we are pioneering here in this laboratory...
...is trying to utilise newer technologies like these gene-chip technologies...
...where we can look at every single gene...
...that’s switched on and off in the human body...
...to see whether we can use this approach to the detection of drugs in sport
Yannis plans to add thousands of biomarkers...
...through genetic sequencing
There are around 21,000 genes in the body
Several hundred switch on when an athlete takes a blood-thickening drug...
...or has a blood transfusion
And this changes the athlete’s genetic signature
By analysing these changes, which can be detected weeks…
…possibly even months later…
…Yannis can spot blood doping, the method used and…
…even roughly when it took place
But the final stage of Yannis’s research could be the most challenging
It’ll be labour-intensive, and time-consuming...
…require access to a DNA sequencer and a supercomputer...
…and it will cost an estimated £4m ($5.2m)
I must acknowledge that I am one of the most-funded scientists...
...in anti-doping...
…and I’m extremely frustrated
So far Yannis has secured over half a million pounds from sponsors…
…and WADA, the World Anti-Doping Agency
And a Chinese company has agreed to lend him a sequencer
Let’s demonstrate, even in a small way, that we can detect…
…one athlete scientifically
I’m confident that this is the way forward
Yannis’s struggle to secure funding is typical of the wider challenge…
...facing anti-doping researchers
It’s very clear to me that WADA needs more money
And the question is, where is that money going to come from?
What really struck us when we talked to Yannis wasn’t just the science…
…it was this funding gap
Organisations that say that they want to rid sport of doping...
...haven’t always put their money where their mouth is
So we’ve made another film to find out why...
…and to untangle the politics around…
…the world’s foremost anti-doping agency
We need to understand that WADA...
...as an institution, is weak
There was resistance from the Olympic movement...
...where there was a desire to have more control
It’s basically a naked legislator
It produces rules that it has absolutely no power...
...and capacity...
...to enforce