Doping scandals are gradually becoming a sporting routine. In fact, not a single major competition is complete without them, despite the tougher penalties applied to violators. And now it has reached us.
The Russian national weightlifting team is threatened with disqualification for a year and a heavy fine: Dmitry Berestov, Evgeny Pisarev and Natalya Sadova “got caught” in taking illicit drugs. If even one of our weightlifters is caught doping, the participation of the national team in the Beijing 2008 Olympics will be called into question. What at a press conference yesterday and recalled the head of the anti-doping service of the Russian Olympic Committee (OCD) Nikolai Durmanov.
Durmanov does not see any anti-Russian conspiracy in the scandal connected with weightlifters, however, in his opinion, this event is not accidental: “I listen to fairy tales every time: someone was added, someone mixed up, someone bought medicine in the pharmacy that turned out to be fake. I admit any possibilities, but in 90% of cases, doping is taken intentionally. "
“Doping must be fought not at the level of big sport, but at the level of society. World drug trafficking exceeds drug trafficking. Doping is a social phenomenon. Bodybuilders, visitors to fitness clubs, lovers of weight loss - they all often use dope. People are too preoccupied with their appearance. ”
To combat doping effectively, Durmanov said, several conditions must be met. First of all, to improve legislation. In Italy, for example, the use of doping is punishable under a criminal article, including imprisonment. In France, eleven federal laws have been amended to improve the fight against doping.
Now, the domestic anti-doping laboratory will fight the proliferation and use of illicit drugs in conjunction with the Federal Drug Control Service of the Russian Federation. Inspectors of this service will begin to take doping tests in the constituent entities of the Russian Federation, where its regional branches have been established since 2007. Doctors also intend to cooperate with the customs and border services of the Russian Federation. The basis here is the French experience. Successful work requires people who are committed to their work and a well-functioning internal security system that minimizes the likely pressure on employees. In addition, anti-doping campaigns should be pursued in an effort to create the most negative aura around him.
And of course, laboratory equipment should be constantly upgraded. Although it is believed that laboratories are working to the limit, currently only 5 thousand samples are taken in Russia, and next year it is planned to take 11 thousand, while 30 thousand samples are needed annually. For comparison: 15 thousand are investigated in Cologne, 37 thousand samples a year in Los Angeles.
Durmanov said that a technique has been developed in Germany that allows detecting traces of doping after a long time after taking the drug, which undoubtedly increases the efficiency of laboratories.
As acknowledged by the main Russian doping fighter, so far little attention has been paid to social research on this issue. Therefore, we do not know the exact number of people taking doping, the data is fragmentary. Nevertheless, Durmanov believes that the peak of taking illicit drugs in Russia has not yet arrived and will come in three to four years. Perhaps then the situation will even reach the current American scale (in the United States, about a million college students take anabolic steroids).
Toward the close, Nikolai Durmanov touched on the important topic of gene doping. Its application promises truly fantastic results, but at the cost of the health of athletes, which no one thinks about when it comes to millions of profits. The peak of the use of gene doping is also ahead, his research is still at an early stage, but the results of experiments on mice are staggering. For example, the removal of one of the genes allows the mouse to overcome the distance three times longer than the one that its unmodified relatives are able to run. Manipulations with another gene give the animal the opportunity to build muscle with a fabulous speed and in a huge volume - up to 20% of body weight. The Anti-Doping Committee (not only Russian) is afraid of data leakage from these studies, after which any decently equipped laboratory will be able to carry out experiments with gene doping. To prevent this, it is necessary to combine the efforts of the anti-doping services, customs services and sports federations at the international level.