Drugs in sport - Chemists or athletes?

THE Olympic movement has struggled to retain credibility and its centrality in the society of world sport but that challenge gets more daunting as each year passes.

Despite a marathon battle with drug cheats, one lost as often as it is won it seems, winning an Olympic gold medal retains a cachet that very few sporting achievements can match.

Yesterday’s announcement by golfer Shane Lowry that he will not go to the Rio games because of the Zika virus threat can hardly be described a hammer blow for the event, which opens in a matter of weeks.

However, coming so soon after Rory McIlroy’s decision not to compete either, it certainly feeds into to the idea that Baron de Coubertin’s Olympics are dying a death by a thousand cuts.

The decision to ban Russian athletes from competing under the Russian flag because of state-sponsored doping abuses represents a threat of an entirely different order.

Kenya’s participation is also in question — just as, tragically, the integrity of every medal winner at the games will be.

Civic society has struggled to control illicit drugs for many decades but has failed dismally. It has often been suggested that drugs be legalised to disempower the criminal gangs behind the multibillion-dollar business.

Is it time to do the same in sport and, in parallel, organise events where participants do not use drugs, where athletes rather than chemists are the real competitors?