Editorial content for the 2021 Tokyo Olympic Games coverage is sponsored by GMX7.
See full event coverage. Follow GMX7 on Instagram at @GMX7training #gmx7
Athletes have voiced their opposition to those serving doping suspensions and excluded from the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in July this year being eligible for a Games delayed until July next year due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
As the call for suspensions during the health crisis to be extended to take account of a sports-free season cause by the health crisis, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has hinted that there will be no adjustment of suspensions because of the health crisis if “natural justice” is to be served.
Sebastian Coe, head of World Athletics, believes that the issue needs further consideration, and will listen to what the independent Athletics Integrity Unit has to say. There is no such unit in swimming but the sport is among those with cases of athletes who would have missed Tokyo 2020 but may now be eligible for ‘Tokyo 2020 in 2021’.
The 2020 Olympics were officially postponed last month for one year. The opening ceremony is now set for July 23, 2021.
Some are now suggesting that suspension periods should be extended by the length of the sports lockdown once sport opens shop when the World Health Organisation (WHO) and others deem it to be safe.
While that is likely to be challengeable in law, there are also other considerations to be had, including how close an athlete is to having served a full term of a suspension.
Among high-profile active suspensions in swimming, the following athletes could make it back to the sport in time to qualify for a July 2021 Olympic Games should they choose to do so, even though they were not eligible for Tokyo 2020:
- DC 2.1 – GW501516 – Roland Schoeman RSA – 18-May-2019 to 17-May-2020: ends next month and FINA is yet to release the full details of a Doping Panel report in which the swimmer is shown leniency of penalty because the evidence pointed to a lack of intent to cheat and a likely cause of contamination in the trace element of the banned substance found in his anti-doping test.
- DC 2.1 – Testosterone – Conor Dwyer USA – Nov-18 20 months 21-Dec-2018 – 20-Aug-2020 (retired)
- DC 2.4 – Whereabouts Failures – Ruta Meilutyte LTU – 21-Jul-2019 – 20-Jul-2021 (retired)
- DC 2.1 – Methylephedrine – Hiromasa Fujimori JPN – 1-Jan-2019 – 31-Dec-2020
- In the case of Russian Vitaly Melnikov, a six-month extension to the suspension period would rule out any comeback for Paris 2024, though such a move seemed highly unlikely: DC 2.1 – Growth Hormone (hGH) – Vitaly Melnikov RUS – 22-Apr-2016 21-Apr-2024
China, often tardy at reporting cases, sometimes imposes penalties harsher than those that might be handed out if matters were left to international authorities. Coaches Feng Shangbao and Liu Guangtan were banned for life for their involvement in doping cases in 2003 and 2008.
China does, however, have suspensions being served that run out in September this year and February next year, among swimmers and a coach who would not normally have been eligible for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games:
- Four-year penalties imposed on swimmer Li Liuyuxin and coach Xiong Guoming in 2017 after Li tested positive for the blood booster Erythropoietin (EPO) end in February next year. Technically that would mean they could make comebacks in the sport in time for Chinese trials for the Tokyo 2020 Games moved to July 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic.
- The banned diuretic Hydrochlorothiazide was found in Liu Zixuan and Liu Haitao in September 2017. Both got two years, their suspensions due to end this September, which would give them plenty of time to return for a shot at international selection in 2021.
There are seven aquatic athletes from Russia and Ukraine who could make comebacks to the sport in time for Olympic Games and/or World Championships for which they would not be eligible if sporting calendars had stayed where they were before the coronavirus pandemic.
That suspended athletes are serving bans at a time when they’re actually not serving real time out because there is no sport is declared by an Associated Press (AP) report today as “an unintended effect of the coronavirus pandemic”.
The Athlete Voices Wanting Penalties To Reflect ‘Coronavirus Downtime’
Turkish runner Gamze Bulut is cited as an example, notes the AP report, adding “she will now have plenty of time to qualify for a games she likely would have missed had they gone ahead as scheduled”.
“It doesn’t seem like a fair punishment,” Irish race walker Brendan Boyce told AP. “They haven’t really missed the events they were supposed to miss.”
Bulut originally won silver in the 1,500 meters at the 2012 London Olympics but was stripped of her medal because of irregularities in her biological passport, which monitors an athlete’s blood profile. She was given a four-year ban that began in 2016 and expires on May 29 — giving her an unexpected full year to qualify for Tokyo.
“I’m trying my best to (attend) the Olympics,” the 27-year-old runner said. “I hope I can join.”
The independent Athletics Integrity Unit – of which there is no equivalent in swimming – estimates that about 40 of the 200 or so banned track and field athletes who stand to gain from the Olympic postponement are international-level competitors. The AIU maintains a global list of track athletes banned for doping violations, AP reports.
Boyce, a two-time Olympian who has qualified for Tokyo, said restrictions on the number of competitors could make it harder for clean athletes to earn places. He said:
“I wouldn’t be too happy now if I lost an Olympic spot because of an anomaly like what’s going on at the minute.”
The Irishman protested on social media but stopped short of filing any formal complaints. British long-distance runner and Tokyo hopeful Lily Partridge agreed, telling AP:
“I don’t believe in second chances with regards to serious doping offenses unless you provide serious assistance to anti-doping authorities and even then I don’t believe you should have the privilege of being able to compete and earn money from the sport.”
Play True – Photo Courtesy: WADA
However, World Anti-Doping Agency President Witold Banka said the unforeseen health crisis doesn’t mean authorities can “cherry-pick” when athletes have completed their bans. He says:
“While an athlete cannot choose when he or she would like to be ineligible, an (anti-doping organization) cannot either. This is entirely consistent with principles of natural justice and other areas of the law as it relates to sports or even criminal activity. When an offender has done the time, the sentence is considered to be served.”
Sebastian Coe, the Olympic middle-distance track champion of the 1980s and now president of World Athletics, was less sure, telling AP:
“This is something we will need to look at. I know it’s something the Athletics Integrity Unit, and I’m sure all the other agencies out there in concert with our sports, will need to think about, and that will just be another issue in an overflowing inbox at the moment.”
Athletes who have already qualified for Tokyo have been assured that they’ll keep their spots as future qualification decisions unfold.
Among notable athletes due to come off doping bans is Irish boxer Michael O’Reilly. Boyce, a race walker, believed that it would be difficult for an Irish athlete to compete after a doping ban, even though the same ‘Hall of Shame’ standards were not in play throughout the world. He told AP:
“Having a doping ban in Ireland is much more than serving time away from your sport. It’s really crippling for your life because you’re basically seen as a criminal. It’s a form of fraud. In other countries, you see some athletes who are on doping bans just training normally and they’re just waiting to come back and nobody in that country seems to be too bothered.”
Just ban all the drug cheats for life.
Of course they should
If they were ineligible for 2020 than they should be ineligible for 2021 !!! Technically they are still the 2020 games, just postponed, therefore they have not earned the right to participate.
Most country’s athletes have NOT qualified for 2020.
So as long as their Bans end before qualifications begin for their countries.
They can still compete.
Bans are not given, to eliminate for specific events, just time periods, which may coincide with Events.
Absolutely. Any doping ban actually should be for life.
Um, yah!