On Paula Radcliffe
Paula Radcliffe has been implicated in cheating by words spoken by the leader of a Parliamentary Commission, Jesse Norman MP, on Tuesday 8 September 2015. This based on leaked access to the results of 12,000 blood tests from 5,000 athletes between 2001 and 2012. These documents were obtained by The Sunday Times and German broadcaster ARD/WDR from a whistle-blower.
Obviously Radcliffe is innocent until proven guilty and a committee of politicians or newspaper journalists without good understanding and with stolen information are not equipped to come to any conclusions. They have effectively blackmailed and successfully implicated her without using her name. A smear which cannot be undone, especially since the Jesse Norman MP is protected by Parliamentary Privilege.
To suggest that Radcliffe made a knee-jerk, over-the-top reaction to words “taken out of context” when she wasn’t actually named is nonsense too. There hasn’t been another British winner of the London Marathon since 1993. Blood doping wasn’t banned until 1985 and WADA wasn’t even formed until 1999. Then WADA-approved testing wasn’t even used for it until the Sydney Olympic games in 2000. It couldn’t be anyone else.
One of her comments is important: Giving out data goes “against the advice and the request of governing bodies of our sport”. In spite of potential doubts and loss of reputation she’s holding this course with them. It’s not just her own conviction to not give out her data, it’s that of the sport’s leadership as well.
While I’m glad to see cheats uncovered and punished and understand why athletes have been taking it upon themselves to ‘bare it all’ by just publishing their own data, I don’t want to see convictions coming down from the kangaroo court of public opinion. I’ll wait out and hold judgment until it’s all done. Perhaps she has cheated and perhaps she has not, but that is for WADA and the governing bodies of the sport to decide.
Extra reading and image:
http://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1029975/marathon-world-record-holder-radcliffe-issues-statement-categorically-denying-any-link-to-doping
Originally published on 10 September 2015 at www.dcxiii.com.
