Sport and drugs - where to draw the line?

If I had a lifestyle that was unconventional, but if that lifestyle didn't impinge at all on my ability to do my job, then I would hope that those who pay me would mind their own business about my lifestyle choices.

So why is it that our sporting stars sometimes have to accept that all aspects of their 24/7 lives are fair game for the sporting authorities?

Martina Hingis's premature retirement

Martina Hingis has just announced that she is retiring from tennis because she has failed a test which revealed traces of cocaine in her blood. It's a strange story because Hingis denies that she has ever used cocaine, so quite how the drugs test showed that she did is unclear.

And why, if Hingis is innocent as she claims, doesn't she want to fight the test results? But the real issue in this case is the principle of what I see as the inappropriateness of the sporting authorities being bothered about recreational drug use at all.

Now let me be clear - I believe that the whole issue of drugs in sport is one of the greatest current problems that all sporting authorities have to deal with. The 'Tour de France' is no longer a credible event because of endemic drug abuse by competitors - and the ongoing fêting of this year's World 400m champion Christine Ohuruogu (who missed three drugs tests) I find offensive. But in my view recreational drug use is different.

Recreational drugs hinder performance

If you are an athlete to smoke pot or snort a line of cocaine is a pretty stupid thing to do because it will damage your performance and, if you do it habitually, it will be likely to finish your career.

But daft though it is I don't think that it is a matter for sports bodies to concern themselves about because there is no way that such use gives a competitor an unfair advantage - the reverse applies. Recreational drug use may, of course, be a matter for the police if such use is against the law in the country where the athlete does it.

In the same way that it is no concern of the 'International Tennis Federation' or the 'Swiss Tennis Association' if Martina Hingis breaks the speed limit in her Ferrari it should also not be their concern if she uses cocaine. The Swiss police might be bothered in both instances of course - but it is not the business of the tennis authorities.

Sports stars as role models

There is an argument, a fallacious one in my view, that because sports starts have celebrity status therefore they should be behavioural role models for their fans. There are a few squeaky clean sportsmen around - and a pretty boring lot they are as well! But whilst the alleged infidelities of a David Beckham or the drunkenness of an Andrew Flintoff maybe good fare for the tabloids it is not a matter for the authorities - unless it affects sporting performance.

Sports stars are role models on the pitch but not off it. So if Flintoff gets plastered out on the tiles with Sir Ian Botham then it only matters if he is 'on duty' at the time. Turning up to a training session on tour hung-over and incapable, as Flintoff did in Australia, is unprofessional and unacceptable - especially so if you are the Captain at the time and Flintoff was treated far too leniently when he did this.

Hypocrisy and cant

Ian Botham, of course, has 'previous' when it comes to substance abuse. Back in 1986, whilst still a player, Botham said in a newspaper column that he often smoked marijuana.

England's cricket suits quickly gave him a three-month suspension saying that he '…set a wrong example for the young cricket fans'. Botham responded by attacking the 'gin-swilling proclivities' of the men who had suspended him!

It is pure hypocrisy, the worst from of cant, for a sporting administrator to create a behavioural template for any sportsmen away from the field of play - albeit that there must be nothing in a sportsman's behaviour that means that their ability to perform is enhanced or impaired when 'on duty'.

The 'Swiss Tennis Association' has said its '…association makes it very clear that drugs is not, in any way, part of our sport' - it is important that they and others in the currently murky world of tennis take this commitment very seriously indeed.

But these authorities should confine themselves to rooting out instances of players trying to boost their performances with drugs like nandrolone and not be trying to catch out players who smoke the odd joint or snort the odd line in their 'off duty' leisure time!

See also:
The Tour de France has finally lost all credibility
Missing a drugs test means you're guilty