The Dope on Dope

BALCO II: THE X-FILES

That Balco was not just any other doping scandal was confirmed in May, when details of Conte’s ‘Project World Record’ came tumbling out. At a meeting in November 2000, Conte, Montgomery, track coaches Trevor Graham and Charlie Francis, and strength coach Milos Sarcev hatched a plan to propel the sprinter to a world 100m record within two years. Monty famously made it. Next question: Just how far and wide did Conte’s net spread?

THE WEIGHT OF EVIDENCE

This was India’s darkest year in terms of drug use. Weightlifters Sanamacha Chanu and Pratima Kumari were exposed at the worst possible time, in the full public glare of the Athens Olympics. That doping was rampant in Indian weightlifting was common knowledge but never had any of India’s sportspersons risked so much at such a high level. Much finger-pointing later, Chanu and Kumari (and Sunaina) were handed life bans, as was national coach Pal Singh Sandhu, and foreign coach Leonid Taranenko was sacked by the Sports Ministry. And the Indian Weightlifting Federation was handed a one-year ban from participating in any international tournament.

GODS HAVE CLAY FEET

Still, India’s shame was nothing compared to that of Greece, who had to change, at the last minute, the man who’d light the Olympic flame. There was high drama as 200m champ Kostas Kenteris and 100m contender Katerina Thanou pulled out on Opening Ceremony day after a mysterious motorcycle crash and amid rumours they had deliberately avoided taking a drugs test. The training partners had also missed drugs tests earlier.

PRESCRIPTION, PROSCRIPTION

Ever since Greg Rusedski was caught for using nandrolone, tennis has had to accept the increase in professionals on the circuit using various steroids. The ATP have dragged their feet on the issue (and faced a WADA reprimand for it) though a series of cases have emerged since Rusedski’s ban last year. Part of the problem, as in the case of Leander Paes, is that the ATP’s own tour doctors often prescribe proscribed drugs.

If there was any good news at all from doping it was how two Indian athletes gained — one substantially — their competitors’ indiscretions. At the Paralympic Games, India’s Rajinder Singh Rahelu finished fourth in powerlifting, but was then awarded the bronze after Syrian lifter Youseff Younes Cheikh, who had won bronze, tested positive. Earlier, at the Olympics, Kunjarani Devi moved up to fourth in 48 kg weightlifting discipline after Aye Khine Nan tested positive and had to relinquish her bronze.