Covid-19 coronavirus: How pandemic could fuel elite sports doping epidemic

New Zealander David Howman, former Director-General of the World Anti Doping Agency. Photo / Photosport

The coronavirus pandemic could have severe implications for the global fight for clean sport, says the former head of the World Anti-Doping Agency.

New Zealander David Howman, who served as Director-General of Wada from 2003 to 2016, admits the Covid-19 situation has provided an unprecedented window for athletes who want to cheat, as testing has been shut down across the globe.

Wada suspended its programmes last month, and the majority of countries around the world are in lockdown.

Internal travel for testing purposes is either difficult or near impossible, while border controls mean international journeys to monitor athletes are out of the question.

That could continue for months.

Since testing programmes became widespread in the mid-1980s, there has surely never been such an extended period where potential dopers knew they wouldn't be receiving a knock at the door.

"It is as opportunity for people to dope, if they are totally certain they are not going to be tested," Howman said.

"There is a downside to that. If you dope too much, you might be picked up when doping tests resume but it creates an issue for people organising sport and trying to say that the sport you are going to see after Covid-19 is going to be clean. It's a major challenge."

Howman is one of the world's foremost authorities on drugs in sport. His time at Wada coincided with a marked increase in testing capability and diversity, and many high-profile cases.

Howman also put together Wada's anti-doping code and was a key figure in the drafting of the Unesco International Convention against Doping in Sport, since ratified by all but six countries.

The Wellington-based lawyer says the anti-doping agencies still have some weapons — particularly the biological passport — "there will be markers that stand out to scientists" but concedes the situation is a worry.

"I used to put the cheats into two categories," said Howman. "There were the 'dopey dopers', who were silly in what they were trying to do. Then there were the intentional dopers, who have a huge armoury of people behind them, sometimes with a lot more money to pay for doctors, lawyers and scientists that Wada has itself."

"Those people will, for sure, be thinking about how they are going to do things [at this time] and planning their doping exercise, no doubt in my mind at all."

Howman is also concerned about athletes "on the fringes", those achieving national level success, without yet making international breakthroughs, who may go under the radar.

But Howman, who is now chairman of the Athletics Integrity Unit (which replaced the IAAF's ant-doping unit in 2017) says it won't be completely open slather for potential dopers.

"Apart from the testing, there is a lot more reliance on artificial intelligence now, so that you test at the right time," said Howman. "You can use the information that athletes provide, both on social media and also in their whereabouts data.

"We will be doing things that they won't be aware of, making sure this AI is gathered in a different way."

Drug Free Sport New Zealand CEO Nick Paterson shares Howman's fears.

"It's a unique set of circumstances and there is no way of getting around it," Paterson said. "There is no testing going on, so the doping risk isn't being managed right now. We would be naive to think otherwise and we have to recognise there is a window for people who want to do it."

• Covid19.govt.nz: The Government's official Covid-19 advisory website

DFNZ has 20 contracted testing officers, who conduct about 1300 tests annually on nearly 800 elite sportspeople.

Prominent athletes can be tested three or four times a year.

But all testing in New Zealand has been suspended since the lockdown.

Paterson has confidence there won't be a swing in this country — "the vast majority of New Zealand athletes are clean and there is no reason to believe that will change" — but he is worried about the global landscape, given the different testing landscapes across the world.

"It's a window, and hopefully we can counter it as best as we can," he said. "We are still looking. We've still got intelligence and investigation units that are still working, same for my international counterparts."

New Zealand Olympic Committee chief executive Kereyn Smith says the issue has been a major burden for athletes worldwide, and regularly raised with the International Olympic Committee.

"There is a real risk — a real risk in what goes on in countries behind closed doors — and global athletes have been expressing their concerns about that," said Smith. "It has been a prominent in discussions between the IOC and athletes".

There have been several cases of New Zealand achievements at Olympic Games being wrecked by drug cheats.

Probably the most notable was Bruce Biddle, who finished fourth in the road race at the 1972 Olympics by the width of a wheel, only for the third-placed Spaniard to be subsequently disqualified for doping.

Biddle has never received his bronze medal.

Kiwi Olympian Nick Willis running in the Cooks Classic at Cooks Garden. Photo / Stuart Munro

In 2008, Nick Willis finished third in the 1500m but the top two finishers have both since served bans for doping and Dame Valerie Adams was beaten to the gold medal by Nadzeya Ostapchuk in 2012, only to be awarded the gold medal months later after the Belarusian failed a drugs test.

"There have been assurances to our athletes from the IOC athletes commission that the international bodies are gearing up for post-Covid testing and doing significant testing, storing those samples for up to 10 years," said Smith. "And during the Covid time, they will be gathering intelligence. But it's a live issue and we are waiting to see what advocacy might be required from us."

Howman says Covid-19 could also make for a seminal time.

"For the anti-doping community, it's an opportunity to look at different ways to do things scientifically, medically and legally," he said.

"There has been a lot of talk about a re-set and a re-boot happening to make sure sports survives after this but we need to do the same at the anti-doping level to ensure the integrity of sport survives."