Drug cheats still prospering, says expert

A leading anti-doping expert has claimed that athletes that use performance-enhancing drugs still prospered at the London 2012 Olympics, despite an unprecedented drug testing programme.

Dick Pound, the chairman of the World Anti-Doping Agency from its formation in 1999 to 2007, explained that Olympic sports "lag way behind" in the fight against doping.

His comments came after Belarusian shot putter Nadezhda Ostapchuk was stripped of her gold medal, and British 1500 metre runner Lisa Dobriskey complained that athletes found doping in the past were able to compete again.

"We know that with all the tests we're doing, 1.5-1.6 per cent of them are positive. There are far more people out there using drugs than we're catching, so why is that? We know there is more doping going on, so how come we're not getting it?"

The expert revealed that Victor Conte, who was imprisoned for his part in the BALCO scandal, where he supplied performance-enhancing drugs to athletes, is valuable when it comes to finding people who are cheating.

Conte has revealed that athletes now use small doses of testosterone, so-called micro dosing, so that they fall within the accepted ratio of testosterone allowed by drug testing.

A WADA spokesman said: "The issue of micro-dosing is nothing new to WADA. It presents a challenge to the anti-doping movement as cheaters have become more sophisticated.

"Micro-dosing can involve a range of different substances and not just synthetic testosterone. We have alerted all to these matters so that science can deal with the challenge."

A host of athletes found guilty of doping offences in the past, including Britain's Dwain Chambers and David Millar, were allowed to compete at the Games, and gold medals were won by Kazakhstan cyclist Alexandre Vinokourov, Kazakhstan weightlifter Svetlana Podobedova, Belarusian swimmer Aliaksandra Herasimenia, Russian hammer thrower Tatyana Lysenko and Alptekin, who have all had positive drug tests in the past.

The IOC conducted more than 6,000 blood and urine tests during the Olympics, catching out nine athletes, which pales into insignificance with the 117 athletes who were caught doping in the run up to the Games.

Posted by Ben Evans