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| A finisher at the 2015 UTMB; photo BeatPitch – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0 |
Today’s post is going to be a little different in the fact
that it’s an opinion piece on doping in trail running, and a bit more broadly,
on doping in sport. A word of caution, I obviously have no experience in
journalism or writing so if this seems a bit simplistic, its because it is.
First, what is doping? For this case I define it as taking
a substance that dramatically increases an athlete’s performance. This could
mean recovering a lot faster than normal or achieving a level of performance in
a short period time that otherwise couldn’t have been achieved through physical
training.
The reason I have decided to voice my opinions on this now
are due to a couple of things. 1. The IOC today has decided not to ban the
entire Russian team. 2. An athlete; Gonzalo Calisto, who completed the UTMB in 2015 has,
within the past week, been tested positive for EPO in his blood.
Doping has no place in any sport, and I’m disappointed to
see that it has started to creep into trail running, but I can’t say it’s a surprise.
Here’s why. Doping has really hit the headlines within the past decade or so
due to athletics and cycling (in this case I’m going to focus on Le Tour de France), where it’s been
found that many athletes have taken some form of illegal athlete enhancing
drug, with probably the most famous being Lance Armstrong. There are many
reasons why someone would choose do it, and I’m not here to write about their
many and varied reasons but I reckon the core of each of those reasons is
money. Track and field and the Tour
is flush with corporate sponsor cash, and the better an athlete does the more
money they get.
Trail Running is getting more popular, that is undisputable.
This means more brands are sponsoring the races and there is more cash up for
grabs by the people that win, which might mean trail runners will go to greater
lengths to stand on the podium, like Track and Field and the Tour. Which is a shame; I like to think
people run in Ultra’s for the challenge to cross the finish line and to spend
more time outdoors, not just to stand on the podium.
Doping has no place in sport, which was why I was
disappointed that the IOC didn’t ban the Russian team outright from the
Olympics. Russia has been proven to have a systemic doping problem and needed
to be an example to the rest of the international community, even if that meant
the Russian athletes who did the right thing were punished as well. This would
send a clear message to everyone across all sporting codes that doping isn’t
the right thing to do and there will be ramifications for doing so.
Trail running is in infancy in terms of corporate
sponsorship and I really hope the ITRA (International Trail Running
Association) will learn from the mistakes of the other sporting codes and not
make the same ones. After Calisto had tested positive by the IAAF the response from
UTMB and the Ultra Trail World Tour, of which the race is a part of, was
disappointing. It took over a day for a response from either, where it
should’ve been swift and decisive. As it stands, he’s been banned for 2 years,
but then the next question arises; should he be banned for life? For a much
better discussion on doping in trail running (and Russia in the upcoming Olympics) then I implore you to read these
articles but one thing is for certain, trail running has lost its innocence.
The TRN
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