LETTER – Sports world tied in knots over conundrum of legalized doping

A letter to the editor by Jon Heshka, an associate dean of the Faculty of Law at Thompson Rivers University, published Oct. 26 in the New York Times:

David Millar’s excellent article “How to Get Away With Doping” (Sunday Review, Oct. 16) sheds some light on the gray area of therapeutic use exemptions in sports law.

The world of sports has tied itself up in knots over the conundrum of legalized doping. Anti-doping proponents hide behind the shibboleth that doping is either extremely dangerous to the user or is cheating and destructive to sports by conferring an unfair competitive advantage to the user. Regardless, the doping horse has already left the barn.

In the meantime, the world of sports struggles with how to square the circle of permitting the therapeutic use of performance-enhancing substances that would otherwise be banned — while preventing their abuse by fraudulent athletes — and figuring out how to properly deal with Russia’s state-sponsored doping system.

JON HESHKA

Kamloops, British Columbia