Does Drug Culture Effect Gay Games Anti-Doping Policy?

From This Week In Texas

Gay Games
Does Drug Culture Effect Gay Games Anti-Doping Policy?
By Dylan Vox

Nov 2, 2006

At the 2000 Olympic summer games in Sydney, 16-year-old Andréa Raducan won the gymnastics All-Around gold medal, bringing the championship home to Romania, besting a packed field of talented athletes.

After the competition each medallist was tested for performance enhancing drugs. Raducan had been prescribed an illegal cough medicine and was subsequently stripped of her medal. She joined three members of the Bulgarian wrestling team who had also been disqualified from the Games because of steroid use.

Punishing an athlete for using a cold medicine in the same way you would punish them for steroid use may seem to be strict, but the rules of the games were clearly defined and applied to each athlete at the event.

The Gay Games, which was established on the same basic principles as the Olympics, seems to apply a different standard when choosing to exercise its anti-doping policy. After considerable research and careful consideration, The Gay Games committee decided to adopt the World Anti-doping Agency (WADA)s list of banned substances, testing sample collection procedures, laboratory accreditation, sample handling and storage procedures as part of the Gay Games Anti-doping Policy, the same standard used on the world competitive level. However, the discretion for the application of the rules seems to be very arbitrary.

The Federation of Gay Games (FGG) has stated that it does not condone the use of banned substances to enhance athletic performance in the Gay Games or for recreational purposes, and indeed believes that the use of such substances is contrary to its principles of participation, inclusion and personal best as well as to the self-respect and self-empowerment that athletic training and participation in the events can foster.

Although this is what the FGG claims, it has yet to apply the standards to all of the participants across the board. As of this year, there are only three sports that have mandatory testing procedures - physique, power lifting, and wrestling, leaving other athletes on an honor system.

It seems hardly fair to single out just a few athletes when the purpose of the games is to promote unity and harmony among the competitors. The FGG offered an explanation for the seemingly unfair discrepancy stating that while (it) discourages drug use, (it) understands that because the Gay Games do not include only elite athletes, many of its constituents participate under special circumstances such as asthma, cancer, diabetes, HIV, etc

However, for these special circumstances, the WADA already has a safeguard set up to protect athletes by allowing waivers for documented medical conditions that require otherwise banned substances. So why instead of using these predetermined safeguards does the FGG instead choose not to apply the rules to all participants?

It seems like a serious oversight on the part of the FGG to arbitrarily apply the anti doping policy, but for now, no plans have been made to change its practices. As for Raducan, the substance pseudoephedrine was taken off the banned list in 2006 and the Romanian Gymnastics Federation launched a protest to return her title, but again, no plans have been made to reverse the decision. Perhaps not making a definite decision is the only constant in the anti doping world.