Olympics needs to target coaches of drugged athletes, says O’Rourke

Banning athletes because of doping is like picking the low-hanging fruit, former Olympian Derval O’Rourke said yesterday, suggesting that the authorities also need to go after their coaches and managers.

The hurdler from Cork, who hung up her spikes in 2014, said she did not lose heart when she heard about another drugs scandal at the Olympic games. Ms O’Rourke said she was never naive about doping in sport and always felt there was more of it going on than the public realised.

“I found that frustrating, at times, because I was often quite vocal,” she said during an interview with Ryan Tubridy on RTÉ radio yesterday. However, without athletes testing positive, it was hard for the media to highlight the situation and she realised that.