The Ongoing Internal Battle Of Drug Testing Athletes

Say what you want about The Kremlin, but they certainly know their way around a computer. While much of the media, lame stream and otherwise, wraps its head around all manner of revelations concerning Hillary Clinton and her private email server – at least some of which have been connected to Eastern intelligence operatives – the sports world has been busy evaluating the work of Fancy Bears.

They might work under a name that sounds like street slang for some class of dancefloor drugs, but the group – anonymous thus far, but presumed to originate in Russia – have been trying to spoil the party for athletes the world over, hacking the details of Therapeutic Use Exemptions, granted to some of the world’s best-known competitors.
TUEs are essentially given when an athlete needs to use a banned substance for legitimate reasons. The most frequent relate to asthma inhalers, which made the publication of files on the likes of GB hockey medallist Sam Quek or cyclist Laura Trott seem wildly sensationalist. Even the most contentious leak, relating to Tour de France winner and eight-time Olympic medallist Bradley Wiggins, details applications that have followed legal procedure to the letter.
While there are valid concerns over TUEs and the abuses the facility may allow, to equate their use to the systemic doping the Russians were accused of in the McLaren Report is farcical. Why, then, has this latest news so dramatically changed the conversation? Because there’s never been less trust in the rules – and a startling instance of apparent self-sabotage demonstrates why.
The International Olympic Committee held a think tank recently, at which they entertained notions of setting up their own integrity unit which wsould be responsible for issues to do with corruption, match-fixing and anti-doping – which would effectively sideline the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Most independent observers see the suggestion as attempt to silence a disruptive presence; the fact that WADA recommended a comprehensive ban on Russian athletes in Rio ruffled more than a few feathers.
Julio Maglione, head of world swimming body FINA, declared that the McLaren report calling for the ban “lacked credibility” before it was even published. But Maglione was behind the decision to present Vladimir Putin with the highest honour the organisation can give, the FINA order.
Are there legitimate questions to be asked? Most certainly. And should the use of TUEs be included in the terms of reference of any inquiry? Why not?
Last year, one international competitor told me that the issuing of multiple TUEs would be both incredibly rare and highly questionable. A case like Wiggins’, then, where TUEs were granted on the week leading up to three successive Grand Tours – rejected headline: Three Outta Three Taint Brad – has to be worth a closer look.
But if the administrators of world sport are so split, then what hope is there? When trainers, teams or sports people themselves aren’t committed to transparency and honesty, then it’s a problem – but when the authorities appear to turn a blind eye on the fight, all sense of legitimacy is gone.

His manager might be unhappy with the “Einsteins” of the media, but there’s finally some demonstrable, scientific proof of where Wayne Rooney’s best position might be; not tucked in on the flank, or sat behind the strikers, or even leading the line – but tucked in on the bench, sat behind the manager, leading the cheering.
Of the great many qualities that Jose Mourinho has demonstrated throughout his career, a willingness to make major decisions is one of them. Indeed, he seems to relish the notion of putting himself in the firing line, as though channelling his inner Neo and evading a bullet at point blank range is part of what makes him The [Special] One. Ask Iker Casillas, the Real Madrid lifer who found himself warming pine at the Bernabeu. John Terry, a similarly revered presence at Stamford Bridge, was likewise demoted last term, even if the move was no more than a high-profile band-aid on the gaping cracks that would lead to Mourinho’s undignified Chelsea exit. Kaka can attest to it too. Mourinho seems to enjoy casting superstars aside to benefit the cause.
Thus the club captain, just three goals behind Bobby Charlton’s Manchester United record of 249 goals, finds himself not only benched for the game against Leicester, but facing a decidedly uncertain future. His side played with significantly more vibrancy in his absence, with Paul Pogba and Juan Mata finding the sort of form that had eluded them so far this season. Rooney has plenty left to offer as a player – still shy of 31, he’s not ready for the scrapheap yet. But his time in a United shirt could be coming to an end.