When it was announced last week that Wayne Odesnik is to be banned from tennis for 15 years for doping, the news was not hugely surprising.
It was the American's second doping violation within 5 years; in 2010, he was caught in possession of human growth hormone and was banned from the sport for two years and then, last week, it was announced that Odesnik has been banned for 15 years after testing positive on two separate occasions for a number of banned substances including steroids.
The reaction from the top players was interesting. The majority's view, including that of Andy Murray, was scathing. Murray tweeted "Bye bye Wayne... Good riddance" before saying: "It's good for tennis to get him off the tour because we don't want that being part of the tour." However, not every player was quite so unequivocal.
When world number one, Novak Djokovic was asked for his views on the issue he was somewhat more wishy-washy. The Serb did say that there was no place for dopers in tennis but then followed that up by stating: "I think that tennis, in terms of doping, is one of the best sports around. There are not many scandals so that's something that is definitely sending a good message out there". If Djokovic genuinely believes that a dearth of positive doping tests is definitive proof that his sport does not have a doping problem then he is deluded. Or naïve. Or just plain stupid.
If cycling's countless doping scandals have taught us anything, then we all should realise that passing a doping test, in many cases, means nothing. The attitude towards doping in tennis has shifted considerably in recent times though - a few years ago, there was an almost complete denial that tennis players would dope and the level of testing, particularly out-of-competition, was laughable. However, the last few years have seen a considerable improvement in how much testing is conducted both in and out-of-competition.
That tennis has, finally, woken up to the possibility that doping could be an issue is heartening, but the attitude of Djokovic that few positive tests shows it is clean has many parallels with the attitudes in golf. In the same way that golf chooses to ignore the pockets of sexism which undeniably remain within the sport, many in golf still refuse to believe that their sacred sport could ever be sullied by doping. It is an utter fallacy that any sport does not have the potential to be affected by doping; every sport has individuals who are willing to cheat to succeed. The commonly trotted-out reason that golfers wouldn't dope because their sport is skill-based rather than fitness-based is ignorant in the extreme. As soon as Tiger Woods moved golf on to a new level of physicality, the issue of doping became extremely real despite constant claims to the contrary.
Earlier this month, WADA's Director General, David Howman, told Golf.com that he believed there were "gaps" in the PGA Tour's testing programme. He called on the PGA Tour to strengthen its Anti-Doping Programme manual in order to bring it into compliance with WADA's code.
Golf has had to tighten its anti-doping measures in recent years as a result of its inclusion in the Rio Olympics - every sport must adopt the WADA code in order to remain on the Olympic programme. The European Tour already follows WADA regulations but the PGA Tour continues to resist.
A PGA Tour spokesperson defended his tour's drug-testing programme, saying, "just because it's not WADA doesn't mean it's not a quality program". This is true; WADA is not the only organisation which can conduct rigorous drug-testing but it can be seen a mile off that the PGA Tour's testing is nothing short of pitiful. Out-of-competition testing- the most likely method to deter and catch dopers- is almost non-existent. The Tour's transparency on any contentious issues is appalling, resulting in doping rumours proliferating at an astonishing pace as soon as there is a suspicious incident.
As recently as 2013, Woods, Rory McIlroy and Phil Mickelson all revealed that they had never been tested away from a tournament site. Also, the PGA Tour conducts no blood-testing, only urine testing. There are three categories of substances prohibited by WADA which are not on the PGA Tour's list- corticosteroids (anti-inflammatories), certain allergy and asthma medications, and, with limitations, pseudoephedrine (a decongestant). Andy Levinson, the PGA Tour's vice president for tournament administration and anti-doping, said that the PGA Tour did not deem these substances to be performance-enhancing for golfers and that policing their use would have created an enormous administrative burden in the form of therapeutic-use exemption requests, since these medications are commonly prescribed or found over the counter. Eh? The primary reason for not having a stringent drug-testing programme is because it would be a hassle? Yeah, that gives the fans and players confidence in the system. Sooner or later, golf will have to wake up to the very real threat of doping within the sport. Let's just hope that it does not take a major scandal to make it happen.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article