It was a tearful confession. Last year, racing cyclist Erik Zabel admitted to having used blood doping in 1996 to enhance his performance during the Tour de France. He was not the only one. At the end of the 1990s there had been an increase in cases of doping in popular sports. The world public was shocked – and sporting federations initially at a loss. How can you prevent increasing numbers of sportsmen and women using prohibited substances and methods to enhance their performance and gain a competitive advantage, thereby violating the fundamental values of sport and even society as a whole? An international debate ensued that led to the IOC organizing the World Conference on Doping in Sport in 1999. This gathering created the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), which lays down a set of rules, the World Anti-Doping Code, which is implemented by national organizations. This responsibility has been assumed in Germany by the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA). In summer 2006, Germany also ratified the International Convention against Doping in Sport, which was agreed in October 2005 at the UNESCO General Conference in Paris.
Certainly doping has not decreased in international sport in the intervening period. “Just as there’s no society without crime, there will hardly be sport without doping,” NADA spokeswoman Ulrike Spitz outlines the scale of the problem. Nevertheless, doping controls have been strengthened in Germany and prevention reinforced. Founded in 2002, NADA has so far conducted 4,500 doping tests a year outside competitions. In this Olympic year the number will reach 8,000 to 9,000. In the process, NADA works with PWC, an enterprise for medical test procedures in sport. Its employees arrive unannounced – even worldwide – during athletes’ training or free time and take blood or urine samples which they then analyze. The number of positive analyses among the roughly 1,500 monitored team athletes was recently less than 1%. German competitive sport has become cleaner.The 18 employees based in the Heussallee, Bonn – from secretaries and lawyers to medical scientists – are currently working flat out. It is their job to independently, credibly and professionally conduct tests, promote prevention, provide medical and legal guidance to German athletes and also strengthen international cooperation. Despite all their efforts, however, the NADA team are frequently brought to a halt: not all substances can be detected – for example, in the case of blood doping – and some forms of EPO can still be contested in court. Furthermore, NADA can only conduct tests during training or in athletes’ free time. During sporting competitions, this is the responsibility of the respective sport federation or event organizer.
As a former sports journalist, Ulrike Spitz has known the problem long enough and well enough not to cherish grand illusions. “It will remain impossible to detect many substances.” And she also knows that if someone is caught, the search then begins for another substance. That is why NADA is strengthening its effort in the field of prevention. Since December 2007 the anti-doping agency has been organizing information evenings at top German sports schools that debate not only the medical, but also the social consequences. This makes it clear to young people that athletes who use performance-enhancing substances lose their credibility – among their family, friends and society as a whole.
A great deal still remains to be done: for example, the development of a totally universal testing system or the establishment of an independent sport arbitration court, an idea that is currently being promoted. In any event, the German NADA has gained an international reputation during the last six years. It is on an equal footing with the Scandinavians and the French – and that despite a relatively low budget of 5.5 million euros. Cooperation with other national agencies is being strengthened to further improve the system.
