Understanding Biogenesis: how professional sports deal with drugs
Major League Baseball is poised to announce a flurry of player suspensions involving high-profile athletes linked to Florida-based wellness clinic, Biogenesis, and the use of performance-enhancing drugs or PEDs. Writer Gavin Au-Yeung asked Professor Bruce Kidd of the Faculty of Kinesiology & Physical Education about the history of professional athletes doping, the World Anti-Doping Code, and the responsibilities of those who run today's sports industries. When it comes to PED regulations, American sport industries play by their own rules. I think the good news is that it means the American corporate sports industry (like the MLB, NFL and NBA) appear to be getting more serious about monitoring and cracking down on use of performance enhancing drugs. However, American corporate sports never adopted the World Anti-Doping Code, which require a credible and independent third party regulator for sample collection, testing, result management and arbitration processes. That's the big issue for me - it means they are still a long way from the world standard. Widespread drug use among athletes led to the creation of the World Anti-Doping Code. In terms of corporate sports in the United States I would say the abundant, completely unregulated, use of steroids by sluggers and pitchers all during the 90s was way bigger than the Biogenesis scandal. Doping was a much more widespread practice in the 80s and 90s. The International Olympic Committee faced a crisis of legitimacy - how could the Olympics present true sport when everyday it was clear that athletes were doping?
