Sports Illustrated ran an article about anti-doping testing in Jamaica. Five conclusions:

1. It highlights the problem of how poorer countries should allocate resources to anti-doping. One cannot possibly claim that funding that is more important than funding basic needs.
2. At the same time, this is of no concern to the athletes competing against the Jamaicans. And the fact is that JADCO is responsible for out-of-competition testing of its athletes even when they are abroad.
3. If they wanted to, Jamaica could fund the world’s best anti-doping program with just 10% of the proceeds of their millionaire sprinters. So install a testing tax on the athletes, and the problem is solved. Note that if this is a fixed tax that applies to all their athletes indiscriminately, it is not comparable with the Armstrong donation to the UCI. Simply the costs of being a pro athlete.
4. One would think that for the athletes, this would be a great opportunity to lend credibility to the claim that they’re clean. As it stands, with 1 OOC test in the two most important months of 2012 (when it comes to doping to prepare for the Olympics), suspicion is cast upon all Jamaican athletes. They simply were not tested in a way that any credible statement about them being clean could be made.
5. Fans of Jamaican sprinters react the same way as Lance Armstrong fans did in the BO-era (Before Oprah)

This entry was posted on August 22, 2013 at 14:30 and is filed under other.