Stop getting doped, spare us the embarrassment

Okay, here’s what we will do. Switch on your computer, go to google.com, type “wada list of banned substances 2011.” The search throws up about 254,000 results in 0.18 seconds. The first result points to WADA’s home page for ‘Prohibited List.’ The second result allows you, me, my nephew, every junior athlete around the world, every senior athlete around the world, every coach around the world to download that list of prohibited substances. The point of the entire exercise is simple. It takes 0.18 seconds to find the list, a few more minutes depending on your internet speed to download the PDF. That’s how easy it is for an international athlete, coach or federation to update their records and put their house in order. [caption id=“attachment_35082” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Two of India’s quartet of golden girls, Sini Jose (R) and Mandeep Kaur (2R), whose heroic runs had helped the country clinch the 4x400m relay gold in the Commonwealth Games and Asiad last year, have tested positive for steroids. William West/AFP”] [/caption] Two of India’s quartet of golden girls, Mandeep Kaur and Sini Jose, whose heroic runs had helped the country clinch the 4x400m relay gold in the Commonwealth Games and Asiad last year, have tested positive for steroids as the dope cloud over Indian athletics grew darker on Thursday with four more athletes —  sprinters Tiana Mary and Jauna Murmu, shot putter Sonia Kumari, and long jumper Hari Krishnan — the only man among the six - failing the tests. Like Mandeep, who had tested positive two days ago, Jose was found to have used anabolic steroids, a class of banned substances that are hard to find in any legal food supplement. If only the athletes had bothered looking at the list, they would have discovered that anabolic steroids are first in the list of prohibited substances. However, the way things are going, it seems that rather than spending 0.18 seconds looking for the list, the athletes and federations prefer bringing shame to the nation and to themselves. It can’t be easy coming up with the same ‘I didn’t know what I was given’ excuse over and over again. This is not to suggest that everyone who is caught is guilty of doping, sometimes mistakes genuinely happen, but this is to definitely say that at the root of the doping mess is ignorance. And neither the athletes nor the federations can deny that. Former athlete Milkha Singh believes that the role of the coaches must be  brought under scanner. He said, “The same girls who have brought honour to the country by winning the Commonwealth medals have now shamed the country. The girls will not take drugs without the support of the coaches, doctors and federation officials.” “Action must be taken on the coaches and doctors who are responsible for the shame. We must take this issue very seriously so that the country doesn’t get embarrassed like this in the future,” he added. The coaches from the former Soviet Union are the ones who are often blamed whenever a doping controversy hits Indian shores but once athletes start competing internationally or even nationally, they have to be doubly sure of their diet. If reports from SAI are to be believed then these coaches carry around suitcases full of medicines. They are the dope doctors but that is why athletes need to be even more careful and the federation needs to look beyond them. Some of them fear that the coaches will put them on a wrong training programme or put something in their food and at least, in athletics, if your coach doesn’t like you, you are in big trouble. Another reason to be careful, very careful. Meanwhile, another athlete Ashwini Nachappa said that the Federation is just not concerned and doping has been taking place for a long time now. Speaking to NDTV, Nachappa said: “If you go to the junior tournaments, you can find half a truckload of syringes. They all know that doping is happening but nothing is done about it. And it isn’t even anything new.” The word on the athletics scene is that doping happens not just internationally or nationally but even in inter-school events. And if that is indeed true then the system needs an urgent long-overdue overhaul. The blame game has already begun but it isn’t going to throw up anything new — the athletes will get suspended, the coaches will go their own way and the federation won’t care. It happens all the time but when it happens on the international stage — it humiliates India and everyone who lives in it; it makes us hang our heads in shame and leaves us speechless. So please, stop getting doped, spare us the embarrassment. The 2012 Olympics are just a year away and hopefully, we can come clean there — in every sense of the word.