Well it has happened, the one athlete that they have been suspicious about since 2005, finally had time catch up with him.
MANAMA, Bahrain — The Bahrain Olympic Committee says 1,500-meter gold medalist Rashid Ramzi has tested positive for doping at the Beijing Games.
The International Olympic Committee said Tuesday that six athletes tested positive for CERA, an advanced version of the blood-boosting drug EPO. The IOC has not named the athletes or the sports involved.
In 2005, Ramzi improved to such a great extent that the whispers and murmers used to follow his every performance, the telltale signs of infrequent racing and then sublime performances at the Helsinki World Championships; where he achieved the 800 and 1500m Double and then Gold at the Beijing Olympics in 2008, had the tongues wagging.
After the double in 2005, he attributed his significant performance improvement to higher mileage and more meticulous training, however this still did not damper the doubters and they will certainly be banging their 'Told You So' drum now and probably rightly so.
There were retests of 948 samples, for CERA (847) and insulin (101), once a reliable test method for the substances was
developed last autumn just after the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
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Sadly, the sport has to take a few more hits before we start winning this battle and it is about time that the athletes and officials plus event organisers work to improve the deter to taking performance enehancing drugs (PEDs) to fighting this scourge which was allowed to become ingrained in far too many sports.
Where there is money and glory there will also be cheats, sadly it is part of human nature, however so too is integrity and this commodity has become a limited quantity in this life.
Big event organisers and the Olympics should introduce the 'capacity' that in order to win the money and glory at stake, that the competitors agree to have their blood stored to allow for when when the tests catch up.
And part of this signed agreement should be the punishment that would be attributed to failing a retest.
This is all very well but how do we get at the managers and agents?
Once we root out the dirt within that lot, who stand to gain the financial rewards, then we begin to win the fight.
