There is an old law in Vermont that states women must obtain written permission from their husbands to wear false teeth. No one ever sticks to that rule of course, but it exists nonetheless.
It’s a bit like the Euro Meetings recommendation not to invite athletes who have tested positive to their meetings – none of the meeting organisers seem to be applying that rule to their competitions. Or they uphold the rule for some athletes, while letting the majority of other drug cheats compete in their meeting without even a second thought.
Tomorrow 2004 Olympic champion Justin Gatlin will be making his comeback to competitive athletics. Because of the Euro Meetings ruling, Gatlin’s first race back will not be in the Samsung Diamond League series, nor will it be in any of the World Challenge grand prix competitions. Instead he will be lining up at a low-key meeting in Rakvere in Estonia.
In theory, the Euro Meetings decision makes sense. Many fans feel that a two-year ban is too short and isn’t enough of a deterrent. If potential dopers know that it will be nigh on impossible to make a living after coming back from their ban, then maybe it will be enough to steer them from going over to the dark side in the first place.
On the other hand, there is probably a strong legal argument to be had on the basis of restraint of trade. If an individual’s ability to earn a living – especially in a niche industry – is overly limited, then the individual will usually have a strong case in an employment tribunal. But at the same time, grand prix competitions are invitational meetings and meeting directors are entitled to invite any athlete they want.
However, if meeting directors are prepared to invite some drug cheats, then why not others?
The Euro Meetings agreement originally came about in the winter of 2007, when Dwan Chambers was preparing his second comeback after temporarily trying to forge a career in rugby. Even though he actually returned from his drugs ban in 2006 and competed in some of the biggest meets on the circuit that year, for some reason his return in 2008 was met with much more stern opposition (no doubt in part due to the way he conducted himself in some interviews around that time).
Initially it seemed as though the ruling was some sort of personal vendetta against Chambers – especially when just months later other drug cheats popped up in the indoor season competing in Euro Meetings competitions. But later that summer even Chambers found a lane in one of the Euro Meetings competitions in Kalamata, Greece. Of course, drug cheats of lower ability than Chambers have competed in much higher level competition in the Euro Meetings competitions, but it was a break in consistency nonetheless.
At the Golden League and Samsung Diamond League competitions, meeting promoters are a bit more strict in trying to abide with the Euro Meetings decision, but high-profile drug cheats have still managed to get in. Perhaps the most notable – and farcical – example of this happened last summer when American hurdler Damu Cherry snuck into the Berlin Golden League and was a surprise winner. Such was the nature of the Golden League – where athletes tried to remain undefeated across the series – Cherry’s victory in Berlin earned her a lane in the following competition in the series. And so Cherry was given a lane in Oslo, and duly won again. It was third time unlucky for her though as she finished sixth in Paris, her third Golden League meeting – by which time she had doubtless earned thousands of dollars in prize money; thousands more than what the other drug cheats earned who were blocked from competing in Euro Meetings competitions.
But Cherry is not alone. Despite this ruling, there have been dozens of appearances by drug cheats on the European circuit between 2008 and 2010 – more than 150, in fact. The tables at the bottom of this page show a list of Euro Meetings competitions that have featured drug cheats. The ones highlighted in gold are Golden League or Samsung Diamond League meetings. With so many athletes slipping through the net, it begs the question – what is the point in having this Euro Meetings recommendation?
Whether drug cheats should be allowed – or even invited – to compete in the biggest athletics meetings in the world is a debate in itself that could rumble on forever. I still don’t know where I personally stand in the debate. As I said earlier, I think it’s a good deterrent, but at the same time if I were a meeting director I wouldn’t want to find myself in a legal battle.
Part of me thinks that if the likes of Chambers or Gatlin were to compete in lower-profile events, then they would probably have an easier time finding their way into the higher tier competitions, in the same way that Olympic long jump champion Maurren Higa Maggi has, or former European 400m champion Vania Stambolova.
But my main gripe is that there should simply be some consistency with the application of the Euro Meetings recommendation. If they’re going to stop the high-profile drug cheats, then they should stop the lower-profile cheats too. Similarly, if they are going to let some cheats compete and not others, then they should explain why they choose to do so.
Given the sheer number of former drug cheats who find their way into competitions, perhaps it is easier to simply scrap the ruling altogether? Either way, a little consistency would go a long way, because at the rate things are going, there will soon be more men in Vermont giving written permission for their false-teeth-wearing wives than Euro Meetings directors refusing to allow drug cheats into their competitions.
Euro Meetings competitions that have featured drug cheats.
2008
|
|
Berlin | Florence Ekpo-Umoh |
Brussels | Ndiss Kaba Badji |
Athens (i) | Damu Cherry, Dragutin Topic |
Athens | Ndiss Kaba Badji, Dragutin Topic, Aziz Zakari |
Barcelona | Ndiss Kaba Badji, Alberto Garcia, Andrea Longo, Ali Saidi-Sief |
Cork | Florence Ekpo-Umoh |
Dubnica | Andrey Mikhnevich, Aziz Zakari |
Filothei | Ekatherini Thanou |
Gotzis | Lyudmila Blonska |
Jerez de la Frontera | Alberto Garcia, Ibifuro Tobin West |
Kalamata | Dwain Chambers, Dragutin Topic |
Karlsruhe (i) | Damu Cherry |
Lausanne | Ndiss Kaba Badji, Torri Edwards, Anastasiya Kapachinskaya, Maurren Higa Maggi |
London | Torri Edwards |
Luzern | Aziz Zakari |
Madrid | Maurren Higa Maggi, Aziz Zakari |
Monaco | Ndiss Kaba Badji, Torri Edwards |
Ostrava | Martina Hrasnova |
Prague | Jamel Ahrass |
Rethymno | Maurren Higa Maggi, Ioan Vieru |
Rieti | Ndiss Kaba Badji, Anastasiya Kapachinskaya |
Stockholm | Torri Edwards |
Tallinn | Svetlana Pospelova |
Thessaloniki | Dragutin Topic, Aziz Zakari |
Valencia (i) | Abdelkader Hachlaf, Maurren Higa Maggi |
Zagreb | Damu Cherry, Katalin Divos, Torri Edwards, Milan Haborak, Martina Hrasnova, Anastasiya Kapachinskaya |
Zaragoza | Alberto Garcia, Milan Haborak |
Zhukovskiy | Anastasiya Kapachinskaya, Gulfiya Khanafeyeva, Svetlana Pospelova, Natalya Sadova |
2009
|
|
Berlin | Ndiss Kaba Badji, Damu Cherry |
Oslo | Damu Cherry |
Paris | Damu Cherry, Florent Lacasse |
Rome | Abdellatif Chemlal, Torri Edwards, Steve Mullings |
Zurich | Steve Mullings |
Athens (i) | Dragutin Topic |
Athens | Ndiss Kaba Badji, Hind Dehiba, Dragutin Topic |
Barcelona | Andrey Mikhnevich, Steve Mullings |
Chania | Vania Stambolova, Dragutin Topic, Aziz Zakari |
Dubnica | Martina Hrasnova, Steve Mullings |
Hengelo | Maurren Higa Maggi |
Heusden | Khalid Choukoud, Andrey Mikhnevich, Abdeljebbar Sihammane |
Huelva | Sergiu Ursu |
Kalamata | Dwain Chambers, Vania Stambolova, Dragutin Topic, Venelina Veneva |
Karlsruhe (i) | Ali Saidi-Sief |
Lausanne | Ndiss Kaba Badji, Torri Edwards, Dragutin Topic, Steve Mullings |
Luzern | Steve Mullings |
Madrid | Ndiss Kaba Badji, Martina Hrasnova, Lyubov Kharlamova, Steve Mullings |
Milan | Ali Saidi-Sief |
Monaco | Ndiss Kaba Badji |
Moscow (i) | Anastasiya Kapachinskaya |
Prague (i) | Ali Saidi-Sief, Aziz Zakari |
Prague | Steve Mullings |
Ostrava | Martina Hrasnova |
Rethymno | Damu Cherry, Steve Mullings, Vania Stambolova, Aziz Zakari |
Rieti | Anastasiya Kapachinskaya |
Stuttgart (i) | Ali Saidi-Sief, Ioan Vieru |
Thessaloniki | Ndiss Kaba Badji, Steve Mullings, Aziz Zakari |
Turin | Steve Mullings |
Zagreb | Anastasiya Kapachinskaya, Andrey Mikhnevich |
Zaragoza | Jamel Ahrass, Torri Edwards, Hezekiel Sepeng, Venelina Veneva |
Zhukovskiy | Andrey Mikhnevich, Natalya Sadova |
2010
|
|
Lausanne | Vania Stambolova |
Monaco | Hind Dehiba |
Paris | Hind Dehiba |
Rome | Ndiss Kaba Badji, Steve Mullings |
Athens (i) | Konstadinos Filippidis |
Barcelona | Dwain Chambers, Latifa Essarokh, Liliana Popescu, Vania Stambolova, Venelina Veneva |
Chania | Vania Stambolova |
Hengelo | Ndiss Kaba Badji |
Heusden | Abdellatif Chemlal, Damu Cherry, Khalid Choukoud, Steve Mullings |
Kalamata | Vania Stambolova, Venelina Veneva |
Madrid | Steve Mullings, Vania Stambolova, Venelina Veneva |
Ostrava | Tatyana Lysenko |
Rethymno | Robert Fazekas, Steve Mullings, Vania Stambolova, Sergiu Ursu, Venelina Veneva |
Stuttgart (i) | Ndiss Kaba Badji |
Valencia (i) | Hind Dehiba |
Zhukovskiy | Latifa Essarokh, Tatyana Lysenko, Darya Safonova |