The failure of many sports governing bodies to treat the drug problem more seriously and to take more effective means to detect and deter the use of drugs has contributed in large measure to the extensive use of drugs by athletes. Added to the laxity of enforcement has been a laxity of investigation.
Sounds pretty current, doesn’t it? It’s actually from the Dubin report from 1989 (the Canadian investigation coming out of the Ben Johnson schandal). He also says:
When an athletes was detected using performance enhancing drugs, only the athlete was disciplined and the incident was treated as an aberration. No enquiries were made about the circumstances under which the athlete took drugs and whether responsibility should also attach to coaches, physicians, or indeed the athletic organisations themselves.
Current as ever. I came across these quotes and much more interesting information while reading “The dirtiest race in history” by Richard Moore (@richardmoore73). I highly recommend the book.
gerard.cc 
September 5, 2012 at 13:57
Should be the ‘Dubin’ report.
September 5, 2012 at 14:39
Yes, of course, sorry about that.
September 5, 2012 at 15:40
It is so true and continues as I type. If you get caught, it should be a lifetime ban unless you tell everything! Who got it, who knew, how you paid, a complete paper trail and disclosure. Also penalize teams when one of their riders gets popped. Finally, you really want the testing done by an outside agency, not the UCI fox watching the rider’s hen house.
September 5, 2012 at 16:42
As we speak the BBC ran an article staying 22 UK attorneys offered pro bono services to the UCI. uCI is talking with two. Their stance is that USADA and WADA have no jurisdiction and cannot sanction internationally and with ni quantitative results.
Gerard how can anyone view them UCI as legitimate and independendent when they take a couple of hundred thousand from LA AND are named as complicit in the current LA matter?
September 5, 2012 at 18:03
Prior to the Olympics SBS here in Australia ran the doco, ‘The Race That Shocked the World’ which looked at the finalists from that infamous 100m race in Seoul. I too thought about the scary parallels and the fact that this came out in athletics such a long time ago.
I guess it points to the insular nature of different sporting disciplines. Heaven forbid that governing bodies would look outside their particular sport for guidance, best practice etc.!
September 5, 2012 at 20:23
For those interested, the full text of the Dubin inquiry is online here: http://epe.lac-bac.gc.ca/100/200/301/pco-bcp/commissions-ef/dubin1990-eng/dubin1990-eng.htm
September 5, 2012 at 23:13
“Learning” is not a word that I would use to describe the UCI. This seems to be consistent across the spectrum of their decision making. Doping and subsequent policing and punishment, technological advances (or ignorance thereof), racing format and structure (axing of the kilo and pursuit??!!!), and their inability to work cooperatively with the key stakeholders in the sport such as teams, race organisers, and rider associations across a range of issues. No, this is not a learning organisation. If they could turn around that one aspect of the organisation, imagine the flow on effect for all these other issues. To highlight the problem, consider this; What is the foundation of the brand Cervelo? Learning. That has been the core driving principle of the company since a certain young fellow decide to design a better bicycle for a PhD project, has it not Gerard? Unfortunately for the sport of cycling, the UCI has never learned ‘how to learn’.
September 5, 2012 at 23:15
Correction: the kilo and pursuit issue is the IOC, not the UCI, isn’t? My mistake.
September 7, 2012 at 15:25
Actually it is both an IOC and UCI issue. The IOC wanted more gender-equality, and then it was up to the UCI to figure out how to do that. IOC was reluctant to give more medals so things had to be axed.
September 7, 2012 at 15:24
Cervelo was based on a Masters project, not PhD, but other than that, yes.
September 6, 2012 at 20:22
Hamiltons book is out today. The level of detail the ring of truth and the scope and nature of revelations is frankly astounding and unprecedented. As a social science researcher we know that memory for highly charged emotional events is remarkably accurate in central details (not in other ways ie eye witness testimony can be very inaccurate peripheral details especially). Hamilton’s obsession with racing is matched by his determination to share everything. If all the players racers staff mauesses wives etc all talk even the senators cannot put Humptey Dumpty together again
The UCI was not lax. They were complicit. The entire operation was corrupt. Accepting money from LA??????????? Really.
September 9, 2012 at 02:11
Gerard and others, here is an amazing article by Ashenden, the doping expert. An example of amazing knowledge and persistence.
http://nyvelocity.com/content/interviews/2012/behind-scenes-contador-cas-hearing-michael-ashenden
September 12, 2012 at 18:43
Riders, and fans, that want to support drugless cycling should simply no longer deal with the UCI. What’s to stop cyclists from starting another sanctioning body whose priority is competitors without PEDs? If that’s the real consideration it should take only days to get off the ground and destroy whatever remaining credibility that the UCI might have. And, once again, since drugs have run rampant in racing for years, simply blacklist any rider that’s held a UCI license. Start over clean. No one that’s raced in the past can be trusted to have never used PEDs.
September 17, 2012 at 19:37
drug use is so prevalent in all sports……. especially endurance sports like cycling that Omerta is alive and well. If Armstrong somehow wiggles out of this one with the (continued) help of the UCI and lawyers I think I’m gonna give up with cycling. Pro Wrestling has more credibility. The entire sport needs a house cleaning. It must be so liberating for you to get the hell out of that fucking circus.