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Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2013-02-20 Daily Xml
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DRUGS IN SPORT

The Hon. R.P. WORTLEY (15:32): I rise today to address the matter of doping in sports. We are all aware of the recent media coverage of the Australian Crime Commission's report in organised crime and performance enhancing drugs in sport. Before I embark on a discussion of the report and the consequences of its release, I would like to offer a bit of historical context.

Members may not know that the use of drugs to enhance sporting performance is far from a new phenomenon; in fact, it is almost as old as time. According to National Geographic, even the athletes at the first Olympic Games, which started more than 700 years BC, used lizards which when eaten in a certain way resulted in magical physical improvement. The consumption of raw animal testicles was also favoured. Meanwhile, in Rome, ashes mixed with water were believed to protect gladiators against cramping and bruises.

Moving well ahead but still as long ago as 1896, when the first modern Olympic Games were held, morphine, heroin and cocaine were used to mask pain and increase performance. My research indicates that the winner of the 1904 Olympic marathon was injected with strychnine to improve performance. During the Berlin Olympics nitroglycerine was apparently used to dilate athletes' coronary arteries. At the 1956 World Championships in Vienna the Soviet weightlifting team was observed being injected with testosterone. According to journal International Sports Studies, their American counterparts also experimented with testosterone but then moved on to the next new thing of anabolic steroids. I gather that the Tokyo Olympics were described in some quarters as the 'Steroid Olympics'.

At the 1988 games in Seoul, Ben Johnson broke the world record but later tested positive to steroids and relinquished his gold medal to Carl Lewis. Closer in time and location, American track and field star Marion Jones won five gold medals at the Sydney Olympics in 2000. She lost her medals in 2007 after admitting lying about her steroid use. These are but a few examples. Fast forward and Lance Armstrong has been stripped of his seven Tour de France titles. The United States Anti-Doping Agency reported that he was involved in 'the most sophisticated, professionalised and successful doping program that sport has ever seen'. Lately TheSydney Morning Herald has disclosed the use of blood spinning and bovine colostrum injections in unnamed sports in Australia and even the injection of calf blood into rugby league players.

The ACC's report revealed allegations to do with organised performance-enhancing drug use across all professional sports. According to the extensive coverage of the report, it would appear that those who supply such substances have come a long way from strychnine and nitro-glycerine. With high financial stakes for clubs, golden rewards for successful individuals, teams and managements in terms of salaries and endorsements, and the explosion of avenues for sports betting, there has been a worldwide increase in the use of drugs, such as peptides, hormones and other substances to push human performance right off the spectrum of 'normal' ability, not to mention that of extraordinarily fit, elite athletes.

What precipitated the report under discussion was the fact that the ACC, through customs, was alerted to a huge increase in such drugs intercepted at our borders. Where there are drugs, it is undoubtedly the case that there is organised crime and the ACC reported that crime figures have forged business partnerships with major codes. Some drugs allegedly in use have not even been approved for humans—some are apparently undetectable—and the ACC says that there is clear evidence that players are being used as experimental subjects. It found that in some cases peptides and other substances were being administered to players without their understanding the nature of the substance.

On 9 February TheSydney Morning Herald disclosed that it had been informed that a number of individuals from NRL and AFL clubs, and up to 90 individuals across all sports, were under scrutiny. If this information is correct, it represents an appalling state of affairs. I pause for a moment to consider the immediate fallout of these reports. While further investigations continue, ominous clouds have gathered across all the sports we know and love.

The integrity of many sports has come into question. The release of the report in its present form clearly has damaged the reputation of our sporting bodies as a whole. It is argued that only a small minority of athletes and organisations across the codes actively are using these, and it is extremely disappointing (as my colleague the Minister for Sport lately pointed out) that the reputations of all have been tarnished. While justice must be done it must also be seen to be done—and this maxim applies equally to those who are innocent of cheating.

Time expired.

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