PyeongChang’s Olympic flame will be ignited underneath the cloud of the Russian doping scandal. Just because the International Olympic Committee has banned Russia, the doping debate is far from over.
Roger Pielke Jr., director of the University of Colorado-Boulder Department of Athletics Sports Governance Center, thinks the messy and lengthy investigation process starts with flaws in doping regulation — internationally administered by the World Anti-Doping Agency.
As a professor at the University of Colorado, Pielke studies the role of science and technology in decision-making. Although WADA achieved global success in harmonizing the work of 600 agencies that participate in the Olympics, he says WADA’s rulings, like which substances should be banned, aren’t sufficiently rooted in evidence.
“There’s not good science on the performance-enhancing effect of all of those substances,” he told SportTechie.
Pielke notes the quantity of WADA’s prohibited substances has doubled in just 10 years.
“If you put too many substances on a list, it becomes a challenge to regulate because you need more money, you need more scientific tests, there’s more challenges, there’s more arbitration proceedings, and the system is at risk of collapsing under its own weight.”
With better investigation of substances, he argues the bans and suspensions of top tennis stars Maria Sharapova and Sara Errani may have been avoided. Additionally, with better policies to sanction institutionalized doping and not only individual athletes, the Russian investigation would have progressed more successfully.
Pielke was a speaker at a workshop for the Smithsonian Institution’s Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation in September. SportTechie and the Smithsonian are collaborating to study invention, sport, technology and society.