Anti-doping fight goes on in evergrowing battle

“I’m a cynical realist, so optimism doesn’t really fit in,” says David Howman, revealing how he feels about the war on drugs in sport after 13 years as director general of the World Anti-doping Agency (Wada).

Howman will step down from that role in June, although that doesn’t mean he’s giving up the good fight: there’s no turning your back on an issue of such integral magnitude, and he’ll continue to have some input into the framing of anti-doping strategies. The obvious fear is if those strategies can ever fully cope with anti-doping.

‘The enticement’

“What does fit is the taste of realism,” he adds, “which is during those 13 years, the amount of money in sport, and with that the enticement to take short-cuts, has vastly, vastly increased.

“When I started out [in Wada] we were on around £20 million, and now we’ve gone to £28m. That gives you a bit of a sign of what’s going on.

“I just don’t think, yet, the world wants to address all these issues of integrity in a way which they can be dealt with practically. So regrettably, no, sport may never get there. But we can cut it back. But you have to have commitment from the countries, and the sport. You can’t just expect us to do it.”

Another part of his fear right now is that anti-doping strategies need to shift from the elite and professional level to the amateur and even schools level: if anything, says Howman, that temptation is even stronger at the amateur end of the sport, or those younger athletes trying to break into the elite.

“Our job is to address doping at elite level. What about the level of those kids who are trying to get a contract, or get into an academy, when they’re still maybe in highschool? Only that’s the area where there’s no testing.

“Rugby, and other team sports, where those contracts are going to be available at age 18, that’s the level I’m worried about. Because there is more enticement, if you like, by agents, and so on, to those kids, because the agent can see the dollars.”

Howman was speaking in Dublin at Sport Ireland’s anti-doping review for 2015.According to the review, there were 1,028 anti-doping were carried out in 2015 (295 of which were blood tests), yielding three positive samples: Monaghan footballer Thomas Connolly received a two-year ban for the use of anabolic steroids, while in motorsport, driver Gareth Hayden was banned for 15 months for use of a stimulant. The third case, involving a League of Ireland soccer player who tested positive for cocaine, is pending.

Dr Una May, director of anti-doping at Sport Ireland, also agrees with Howman that doping in amateur and recreational sport is now “a really big concern, across the world” – but again it’s not exactly their responsibility right now.

‘Huge increase’

“We are seeing a huge increase,” she says, “But we certainly don’t have the resources to tackle that problem. We tackle it within organised sport where we can reach out to governing bodies and all their members, but there is a problem outside of organised sport, definitely.”

It was also announced that Sport Ireland is now carrying out anti-doping within the UFC despite the sport not yet recognised for governing matters by Sport Ireland.