EDUCATION AND TESTING IS THE WAY TO GO TO SAVE FACE

Since this doping issue became a really big deal a couple weeks ago when five of our athletes including the beloved Asafa Powell, the former 100-metre world record holder, and Sherone Simpson returned adverse findings of their ‘A’ samples, the discussion about doping has been vigorous.

Once more the myth that Jamaica athletes don’t consume performance enhancers has been debunked because no one can say for sure that many of the 18 or so cases since 2008 were not deliberate attempts by our athletes to get an advantage over their rivals. No matter how one tries to spin it, to believe that every single one of those cases was inadvertent would be naive. This is not to say that the two named athletes were intentionally cheating. We have to wait for all the information surrounding their respective cases before we can come to some form of a conclusion.

The discussion has now turned to whether or not we should test our world class teenagers who do so well at Champs, CARIFTA and the respective global meets in which they compete each year. At the recently concluded World Youth Championships, for example, Jamaican student athletes set two world records, one athlete came within 0.01 seconds of another and others produced world best performances that saw Jamaica win six gold medals to finish atop the medal table for the first time in a global event. Ironically, it was that same day that Jamaica secured it’s fifth and sixth gold medals to secure that top ranking that news broke that their senior counterparts had seemingly run afoul of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) code.

In response to proposals that our high school athletes get tested locally, a proposal that had been ignored previously when first mooted years ago but now returns as a viable solution now that our athletes have once more been shamed in the global spotlight, many stakeholders are voicing resistance. How can they test our kids? Kids, they argue, already have enough to worry about like their schoolwork, exams and such, how would it be fair to ask them to study the list of banned substances, the more than 1000 substances on the banned list.

The response was expected, especially in a country where it is virtually illegal to expect anyone to be accountable for anything.

The truth is testing high school athletes and couple that with a rigorous education programme is the only way in which we can kick this drug problem we have. We have a tendency to not want to follow rules unless someone is standing over us with a big stick. It speaks to the general indiscipline that runs amok within all spheres of Jamaican society. So until we can learn to police ourselves at an individual level perhaps it is best to have the system police us.

There have been rumours circulating for years that high school athletes do engage in some form of ‘suspect’ practices that result in the guilty having a competitive edge over their rivals. Perhaps that is where it starts. Practice makes perfect, they say, and if a high school athlete is able to get away with it at that level what is to say that he or she won’t try to get away with some form of cheating once they make the transition to the senior ranks where the competition gets even tougher.

I am all for getting into the kids’ faces and those of their parents and support staff as well, with the information they need, exposing them from very early about what they choose to ingest and what they should not be doing once they choose to become world-class athletes. That and testing the very best of them to ensure that Jamaica is spared the embarrassment of having to explain why so many of our athletes are running afoul of the rules, is the direction we need to take.

Heck, they are already being tested when they travel overseas to compete. Where is the harm if they undergo those tests here at home? Children live what they learn and we definitely need to teach them from early that cheating is not an option because if they cheat they will be caught.

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5 Responses to “EDUCATION AND TESTING IS THE WAY TO GO TO SAVE FACE”

Lannate says:

July 29, 2013 at 11:08 pm

I say education is the better way to go. Probing and pricking these kids at such a young age is just too much. Who is going to bear the cost of all this? How often will they be put through this testing?

Most of these kids are from poor family structure, heck most of them parents barely finish high school if any at all. How are these parents going to keep up with these banned substances when most of them can’t barely read to even comprehend. So what if one or two kids test positive once? Does that mean their names will be blasted over the media? And, if they test positive a second or more time does that mean the end of their aspiring track career?

What happen when they get sick? Does this mean granny can’t mix up the usual concoction,Vicks, bush tea, the “Herb” etc? No Linseed porridge to get back the little body strength.

All this is just too much to ask of these kids. Leave them alone and let them enjoy themselves.
Paris Taylor says:

July 30, 2013 at 11:40 am

As someone who has been teaching Physical Education for the best of 24 years I endorse the current movement by the Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller in tandem with Jamaica Administrative Athletics Association (JAAA) head Mr. Warren Blake to test young aspiring athletes. Many of these young aspirants are not clean and are only practicing the illicit practice until there undone by the relevant authorities. We have to be proactive instead of reactive to the current things which are happening in the glorious sport. One junior has been found wanting in recent times but this is not the first time this has happened to our junior because a few year ago a young man was found guilty of taking an illicit substance while competing for a school in central Jamaica. From such time I was fully aware and cognizant of the sick state of our junior athletes and the strict austerity measures needs to put in place to counter these occurrences. Many persons are complaining that these young innocent athletes need not to go through the rigours of the adults to ascertain if they are engaging in cheating. If these draconian measures are not implemented many of our highly talented youngsters will lose their way and surrender to the whims and fancies of some of cunning devious practitioners of their craft. I implore the relevant authorities to take care in the implementing of these kind of plans of action because it can have a deleterious effect on many youngsters. Still, we have to avoid the occurrence of adverse analytical findings and create a clear path of honesty for up and coming prospects.
Aldene says:

August 2, 2013 at 3:02 pm

In addition to education and testing, we also need not employ foreigners to work with our athletes. We have people that are able to do a good job at home. Those athletes were ok until that man came with his “supplements” . Jamaicans always believe that things/people from abroad are automatically better.
lorenzo bartlett says:

August 6, 2013 at 4:54 am

People we do not need to do anything to save face. What we do need is more education and transparency from the various Anti-Doping testing Agency. To me it seems like these agencies are acting like a “de facto Agency” or a “Phantom Agencies”. And what I mean is this, WADA appear with a
“Boggey Man List” when it suits there nefarious needs, to say yes that individual is using ban substance. Therefore, its incumbent on such agency to be transparent and fair to the athletes by publishing a list of all ban substances and stimulants in a catalogue that the public can purchase. At this juncture the public can judge the athlete in a fair discussion.
Even the U.S. Government publish sensitive information to the public, so why should (WADA) the World Anti-Doping Agency be any different. Under the Information Act the public has a right to know, as well as having access to the information.
WADA should publish each year or whatever time frame they want to use a list of ban substances and stimulants, so if an athlete use any of those substances they the burden of proof would be squarely on the shoulder of that athlete or athletes how he come in contact with the drug, and who administer such drug.
If a pharmaceutical company used any ban substances that is on WADA list as proprietary ingredients that that company should be sued by the athletes and his/her agents for failure to disclose proprietary reagents in a health food product or products.
Its is tome to hold the pharmaceutical companies responsible for getting away with using ban reagent in health food, which they call proprietary secret ingredients.
WADA should be promoting themselves like an FBI agent, In fact they should be helping the athletes in doing the right thing to compete clean, with transparent guidelines, and if those guidelines are clear, and the athletes breached them then they should be ban for life from the sport.
As a sport fan I want to be able to walk in a bookstore of go to any online bookstore and purchase WADA Handbook and Catalogue of band drugs. The public can go to WebMD and research a drug prescribe by a doctor and find out all the side effects so why can’t WADA be so transparent.
I am very skeptical of these Anti Doping Agencies in terms of their so call list.
lorenzo bartlett says:

August 6, 2013 at 5:02 am

People we do not need to do anything to save face. What we do need is more education and transparency from the various Anti-Doping testing Agency. To me it seems like these agencies are acting like a “de facto Agency” or a “Phantom Agencies”. And what I mean is this, WADA appear with a
“Boggey Man List” when it suits there nefarious needs, to say yes that individual is using ban substance. Therefore, its incumbent on such agency to be transparent and fair to the athletes by publishing a list of all ban substances and stimulants in a catalogue that the public can purchase. At this juncture the public can judge the athlete in a fair discussion.
Even the U.S. Government publish sensitive information to the public, so why should (WADA) the World Anti-Doping Agency be any different. Under the Information Act the public has a right to know, as well as having access to the information.
WADA should publish each year or whatever time frame they want to use a list of all ban substances and stimulants, so if an athlete use any of the ban drugs and substances they should be held accountable, and the burden of proof would rest clearly squarely on the shoulder of that athlete or athletes how he come in contact with the drug, and who administer such drug.
If a pharmaceutical company used any ban substances that is on WADA list as proprietary ingredients that that company should be sued by the athletes and his/her agents for failure to disclose proprietary reagents in a health food product or products.
Its is tome to hold the pharmaceutical companies responsible for getting away with using ban reagent in health food, which they call proprietary secret ingredients.
WADA shouldn’t be promoting themselves like an FBI agent, In fact they should be helping the athletes in doing the right thing to compete clean, with transparent guidelines, and if those guidelines are clear, and the athletes breached them then they should be ban for life from the sport.
As a sport fan I want to be able to walk in a bookstore of go to any online bookstore and purchase WADA Handbook and Catalogue of band drugs. The public can go to WebMD and research a drug prescribe by a doctor and find out all the side effects so why can’t WADA be so transparent.
I am very skeptical of these Anti Doping Agencies in terms of their so call list.