Christie to flex muscles in the war on steroids, By: John Goodbody
06-22-06
LINFORD CHRISTIE, branded a drugs cheat by the international athletics authorities, yesterday called for a four-year ban for competitors found guilty of serious doping, a sentence that would have led to him serving another two years of his own suspension and also barred Dwain Chambers from representing Britain at the European Cup this month.
In his first lengthy public discussion on drug-taking since he was suspended in July 2000 for taking anabolic steroids, Christie told MPs about his uncompromising attitude to doping. He protested his innocence and was cleared by UK Athletics, only to have a ban imposed by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF).
The former Olympic, world, European and Commonwealth champion over 100 metres dismissed suggestions at a parliamentary seminar on Human Enhancement Technologies in Sport that some drugs should be permitted, pointing out that some “could shrink your testicles”.
Instead, he called for better education of the young, particularly in schools. “In Australia, there are graphic images on television of the results of youngsters in drink-driving accidents,” he said. “This is what to do to stop guys taking anabolic steroids.”
Christie, who has been prohibited from ever being an official with the British Olympic team, but will be an accredited coach to three sprinters in the European Cup in Málaga, also said that several athletes were wary of competing in some meetings abroad.
“Certain athletes feel that certain countries will want to make a positive [test result]. We do worry,” Christie said, but did not specify which countries he was referring to.
Speaking before the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee, Christie gave warning of the dangers of taking performance-enhancing substances, saying: “I would not like to be in a sport where people are taking drugs and allowed drugs.” He later added that he did not think that doping in British sport was “widespread” and blamed the media for publicising some illicit products, which are then tried by competitors.
Christie said that he could not understand why caffeine had been taken off the banned list. “If it was illegal then [when he was competing], why is it not now?” he said. Until 2004, there was a threshold level for caffeine of 12 milligrams per millilitre of urine, above which an offence was said to have occurred.
Christie underwent scores of drugs tests throughout his career. The one adverse finding came at the 1988 Olympics and was for a small amount of pseudoephedrine, apparently from drinking ginseng tea. He was exonerated.
However, he unexpectedly returned to sprinting in February 1999 in an indoor race in France and was found to have traces of nandrolone, an anabolic steroid, in his urine. The UKA panel cleared him because it “could not be proven beyond reasonable doubt that the substance present in the sample was derived from a prohibited substance”.
At the time, it was believed that several adverse findings of nandrolone had been caused by competitors taking food supplements. However, the IAAF adopts the “strict liability” policy and banned him for two years.
