Wertheim recently
wrote about doping. It's somewhat lengthy, but in the middle of a larger piece, so I'll paste it here:
There was a lot of chatter about doping this week, given the news involving ATP players Viktor Troicki and Marin Cilic. I'm not sure where to begin and I'm not sure we'll accomplish much in one session, but I'll try to summarize three main frequently asked questions.
1. Was Troicki treated unfairly?
For those who missed it, Troicki declined to provide a blood sample at the Monte Carlo Masters in April because he didn't feel well. After a hearing, he was issued an 18-month ban that he is appealing to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. You can read the independent tribunal's decision here. The gist: The tribunal didn't accept Troicki's argument that the doping control officer had assured him that he could skip the test without being sanctioned if he wrote a letter of explanation to the International Tennis Federation.
As I read the ruling, I felt alternately sympathetic toward Troicki and sympathetic toward the authorities. From the facts, it seems like there was some level of misunderstanding here. From the facts, an 18-month suspension seems brutally harsh. On the other hand, if you want a credible anti-doping program, you can't allow players to delay their testing and set their own schedules. It's a mystery why Troicki, in the era of iPhones, didn't somehow memorialize this exchange with the testing agent, which he had to know was potentially problematic.
2. What was up with Cilic reportedly failing a drug test and then lying about why he withdrew from Wimbledon?
Again, this anti-doping is messy business, filled with damned-either-way scenarios. After reportedly learning at Wimbledon that he had tested positive in April, Cilic allegedly accepted a provisional suspension, meaning he essentially sidelined himself until his matter was resolved. (The 24-year-old Croat attributed the failed test to an over-the-counter supplement, according to his former coach and reports in the Croatian media.)
The pros: In the case of exoneration, theoretically anyway, no one would have found out about his failed test. In the case of guilt/fault, he is already accruing time served. Also, it avoids the Wayne Odesnik situation, where a player is continuing to compete while he fights a charge.
The cons: You're forfeiting points and money you could have won. (If, say, Cilic is exonerated -- especially if there's potential negligence -- does he not seek to claim any of the prize money he left on the table?) Also, you are necessarily lying about your absence and the ITF is complicit in this ruse. Here's a transcript of Cilic's Wimbledon news conference after he withdrew from his second-round match because of what he said was a knee injury. We now know that this appears to be fraudulent.
3. Shouldn't we now be skeptical of every player's absence?
Yes and no. An absence could well be a provisional suspension. But I don't think that while Player X is off allegedly nursing an injury, he or she is really serving a doping suspension that has been suppressed. This is where I disembark the Conspiracy Train.
For a positive test to get buried, here's who would have to be complicit: the player, the ITF, the testing lab, the player's national anti-doping agency and the World Anti-Doping Agency. This isn't 1997, when Andre Agassi and the ATP could be in cahoots. The notion of WADA's covering up a positive test -- i.e., risking complete loss of credibility -- to protect a tennis player is just not believable.
Can players beat tests? Absolutely. And the infrequency and various holes in tennis' system all but encourage it. But the notion of a player's testing positive and then quietly "disappearing" until a secret suspension is served? I don't see it. As one source -- with no agenda -- put it to me, "If anything, this is a system that sees cases that have less merit taken forward to satisfy political purposes."