Ban the WADA

[Quick Silver]

If the WADA can't fight doping without trampling on basic human rights

-presumption of innocence
-self incrimination
-unreasonable searches and seizures
-due process

then a drug-free sport is not worth having. Human rights should always trump the WADA's practical problems.

The WADA recognizes no higher authority who might reprimand them, but the national associations are subject to national laws, and national governments should prohibit them from enforcing WADA protocols and judgments.

Quick Silver
Hong Kong

[meninblack]

Re: Ban the WADA

If the WADA can't fight doping without trampling on basic human rights

-presumption of innocence
-self incrimination
-unreasonable searches and seizures
-due process

then a drug-free sport is not worth having. Human rights should always trump the WADA's practical problems.

The WADA recognizes no higher authority who might reprimand them, but the national associations are subject to national laws, and national governments should prohibit them from enforcing WADA protocols and judgments.

Quick Silver
Hong Kong

Not to mention how completely ineffective they have been.

An organization in any other sphere with this kind of track record would have been disbanded years ago.

[Quick Silver]

Re: Ban the WADA

And now they're resorting to guilt by association. It was wrong when the Un-American Activities Committee used it, and it's wrong today.

If drug-free sport cannot be attained without abusing basic human rights, drug-free sport is not worth having.

Quick Silver
Hong Kong

[tandfman]

Re: Ban the WADA

Most clean athletes believe in what WADA is doing. They are not happy about some of the intrusions on their privacy that are part of the system, but they are more than willing to play by WADA's rules in order to help assure that they can compete on a clean level playing field.

Nobody thinks that WADA is catching all the cheats. But they're obviously catching a lot of them, and in doing so they're deterring a lot of them. The fight must continue. Again, most clean athletes believe this.

[shivfan]

Re: Ban the WADA

The problem I have right now is that while they might be catching a lot of them, recent sentences - such as the lenient one-year given to Gay - are not a deterrent....

If it was a Jamaican getting let off by JADCO the way Gay was let off by the US, the foreign press would be full of accusations that Jamaica is not serious about PEDs.

But might is right...in Jamaica, we have a saying - donkey say the world no level.
8-)

[gh]

Re: Ban the WADA

Most clean athletes believe in what WADA is doing. They are not happy about some of the intrusions on their privacy that are part of the system, but they are more than willing to play by WADA's rules in order to help assure that they can compete on a clean level playing field.

Nobody thinks that WADA is catching all the cheats. But they're obviously catching a lot of them, and in doing so they're deterring a lot of them. The fight must continue. Again, most clean athletes believe this.

which doesn't answer the most important question: are the clean athletes the majority or the minority?

[tandfman]

Re: Ban the WADA

I honestly believe that in most countries, including the US, the majority are clean.

[norunner]

Re: Ban the WADA

You'd have to limit the question to top athletes, because who cares if a 10.30 sprinter uses drugs?

Back to the original topic, you have to assume that almost all athletes support the strict WADA system, otherwise it wouldn't exist anymore. In Germany systems that allow constant tracking of someones movement are illegal, and that is exactly what the WADA requires from athletes, so all it would take is ONE athlete to sue against the system and at least over here it would break down. But nobody ever has.

[tandfman]

Re: Ban the WADA

You'd have to limit the question to top athletes, because who cares if a 10.30 sprinter uses drugs?

Maybe the 10.31 sprinter whom he's beating.

The point is well taken, though. Most fans don't care about 10.30 sprinters and even if they did, WADA does not have, and is unlikely ever to have, the resources to extend its program below the international elite level.

[AS]

Re: Ban the WADA

You'd have to limit the question to top athletes, because who cares if a 10.30 sprinter uses drugs?

Maybe the 10.31 sprinter whom he's beating.

The point is well taken, though. Most fans don't care about 10.30 sprinters and even if they did, WADA does not have, and is unlikely ever to have, the resources to extend its program below the international elite level.

In most countries in the world a 10.30 sprinter would be in the national top 5-10 and would be subject to all of the protocols and reporting that a 9.80 sprinter is. Indeed there have been slower sprinters than that caught and banned on 'absences' and 'failure to appear' grounds in Australia in recent times.

I agree it's invasion of privacy on several fronts, but you'd have to show me that competing in the sport is some inalienable right before I get too up in arms.

[26mi235]

Re: Ban the WADA

The WADA recognizes no higher authority who might reprimand them
Quick Silver
Hong Kong

Will, CAS has a higher authority; I do not know if they can reprimand WADA. However, if they raised issues often enough, WADA would lose its necessary backing from the countries (they do bow to pressure, as noted in the inclusion of marijuana on the WADA list).

[Quick Silver]

Re: Ban the WADA

Even is we suppose the athletes favour having their own human rights abused, governments should not allow it. They should prohibit the sporting bodies under their control from enforcing WADA sanctions.

Quick Silver
Hong Kong

[mrbowie]

Re: Ban the WADA

When an athlete signs on to compete at the elite level in athletics, they temporarily agree to give up their human rights for the betterment of the entire sport. If you cannot understand that you have no business in the sport. We are talking about sublimation for the greater good, a time worn tradition in battle.