it's about time

It only took a couple of years, but it's nice to see the media beginning to take notice of the absolute travesty that the WADA-led crusade against athletic doping has become. This includes a rare example in the L.A. Times today--in a story about disgraced American cyclist Tyler Hamilton--of journalism based on actual research, not simply the regurgitation of prepared sound bites. For example, finally we have a reporter who got it right: Olympic gold medalist Hamilton did not test positive during the 2004 Games in Athens; his "A" sample was merely flagged as "suspicious" and his "B" sample was thus destroyed per protocol, not due to some "lab error" that has been mythically reported since Hamilton did test positive in another competition, that Fall's Vuelta a Espana. Hamilton's case is old news, and I can't honestly claim to know if he was really guilty of blood doping in 2004 or not. But his case, along with so many others in cycling and other sports, demonstrates to me that WADA's "war" against doping has proven as disastrous as the U.S. war against terrorism: well-intentioned efforts to combat a major problem, but efforts undertaken under the "war" metaphor that wind up doing more harm than good, precisely because of the corresponding mindset that we must win the "war" no matter what the costs. Perhaps it's time society reminds itself of every medical student's first lesson: "Primum non nocere (First, do no harm.)" Like many fans around the world, my interest in sport--especially cycling this year--has been severely reduced by the doping scandals. But this has little to do with the drug-taking athletes; I'm far more disgusted by the various authorities who should be governing sport with an even, judicious hand, not the vindictive, capricious witch hunt currently being conducted.