For the majority of professional athletes, being in the agreed place at the right time does not cause any problems. For some, it is still – oddly enough – insurmountably difficult, writes Atte Husu.
Atte Husu Sports journalist
You have only one job.
The classic saying has meanings everywhere in the world, but in professional sports it is easy to connect it, especially to doping testing.
In order for a top athlete to be able to fulfill his profession at all, he must be available to doping testers for one hour every day of the year. The athlete can choose the time and place where the doping tester can perform the test if he wishes.
When the schedules change, the athlete only needs to update the new place in the mobile application. When the athlete is at the agreed place at the agreed time, there will be no problems.
It sounds easy – and it is, for the vast majority.
The way to the hearts of doping testers
The absolute best in their sports know that as the medal count accumulates, the probability of visits by the doping tester increases. A similar test blanket can fall on an athlete whose performance improvements are exceptionally hard.
When the two things mentioned above come together, the spirit of the game should be clear to every athlete.
Last year’s most tear-jerking athletic performances were witnessed at the World Championships in Oregon.
Even if it is 400 meters away By Sydney McLaughlin and a stick charm From Armand Duplantis dazzling world records were seen, one ME rose above the rest.
Quick beeper Tobi Amusan arrived at the competition venue as a runner of 12.41, but stopped the timing already in the World Cup semi-final to 12.12.
In the final, it was even harder than the semi-final, 12.06, but the ratification of the Nigerian record was only prevented by the tailwind that blew a breath too much.
When an athlete improves his record in one competition by 29 hundredths, or 2.4 percent, it is at least a world record for virtue signaling, if someone claims that the word beginning with d would not have entered Amusan’s mind even by 29 hundredths.
The stars are no longer sheltered
Athletics has done respectable work in the field of anti-doping since 2017. At that time, the Athletics Integrity Unit, which coordinates the international doping control of the sport and is responsible for discipline, was established.
If, in previous years, getting out of the carts was a normal commodity for athletics bosses, during the AIU, whereabouts failures alone, i.e. bans from competition due to whereabouts violations, have reached even the fastest man in the world.
One hundred meter world champion Christian Coleman was banned for a year and a half after doping testers failed to reach him three times in a 12-month period. The third fire came just a couple of months after Coleman had won the 100-meter World Championship gold in Doha in 2019.
Since then, the 400 meter world champion has been banned for the same reason Salwa Eid NaserOlympic long relay champion Randolph RossOlympic shot put silver medalist Raven Saunders and the world number one in the decathlon Garrett Scantling.
The sentence of Amusan, who asserts his innocence on social media, has not yet been announced.
In previous cases related to whereabouts information, the judgments have not turned in the athlete’s favor at the AIU or in higher courts.
It does no honor to Amusani and the others mentioned above that the athlete and the federation of the country he represents receive a written notification of every missed test. Not a single “huti” can go unquoted.
It is therefore appropriate to ask how it is possible that three fires can accumulate during the year, accompanied by written warnings.
At least there has been no pity from AIU – and it is easy to sympathize with the policy in question.
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