PUNISHING SPORTS CHEATS

Treating athletes as criminals may be an overreaction.

THE response of the president of the Australian Olympic Committee, Mr John
Coates, to the vexatious problem of drugs in sport was better, at least,
than the response of the president of the International Olympic Committee,
Mr Juan Antonio Samaranch. Mr Samaranch recently expressed the opinion that
performance-enhancing drugs should be tolerated as long as they do not
affect athletes' health.

Mr Coates has effectively asked for the problem to be transferred from
sporting bodies to governments, calling for criminal sanctions to be
introduced against athletes caught using performance-enhancing drugs.

Both attitudes are, in different ways, defeatist.

The use of performance-enhancing drugs cannot be tolerated, not only
because it is highly injurious to young people's health but because it is
rightly seen as a form of cheating.

But imposing criminal sanctions against Olympic Games competitors who test
positive to drugs also raises problems. What if, for example, an athlete
tests positive in Australia for a drug he or she took in another country,
where its use is not only not banned, but encouraged by his or her
government? Might not it lead to an international incident if that athlete
- - or the coach who ``dealt'' in that drug - were to be punished under
Australian law?

Steroid abuse among athletes has increased 20-fold over the past five
years, and there is every indication that the Sydney Olympics will be the
most suspicion-riddled and drug-saturated Games yet. The AOC is right to
pursue a tough line on drugs.

But there are already strong sanctions against athletes who cheat in this
way: shame, international condemnation and exclusion from competition. The
AOC will need to provide more arguments before criminal sanctions can be
supported.

Checked-by: Mike Gogulski