The time has come to speak about the twelve positive results of doping tests taken during the European Armwrestling Championships 2013.  

I let myself write about it although I’m not an athlete.

When I wrote about bodybuilding some of my friends would say “You work for the juiced up, freaky.”

When I began writing about Mixed Martial Arts, many would say “You’re writing about mindless thugs who pummel each other like animals in a cage!”. When one of my schoolmates (a journalist dealing with social and political matters) saw me on the TV next to a cage, he refused to shake my hand saying something insulting.

Now you know why I decided to speak about doping. I’m personally involved!

After this necessary (in my opinion) explanation I can get to the point.

§ 1.

This case cannot be hushed up or “swept under the carpet”.

The case of TWELVE positive results of a dope test after a single European championship in any sport is highly likely to make all the headlines, whether we like it or not. There’s no doubt that it will leave its mark and get on our nerves, no matter what the authorities of our sport would do about it, no matter what we would write about it!

 As an armwrestling community, we can be attacked by everyone.

We all have to realize that:

NOT EVERYONE LOVES armwrestling, like we do!

It does not mean that we have specified “enemies”. It means, however, that EVERYONE, a person, an institution or organization may become our “enemy”.

For instance:

Any journalist, any media (not necessarily a sports one) may “bring up” the case of twelve positive results and reveal it in Poland or any other country. Why? Because it’s a topic that makes all the headlines, similarly to athletes’ earnings and their private lives.

What harm can this do to our sport? This may tarnish the image of armwrestling!

§ 2.

Image

Similarly to a porcelain cup, the image is a “fragile” matter. Losing one’s image means specific “losses” which would be felt by all of us, from the highest WAF and EAF authorities to regional authorities.

Example 1:

Imagine such a situation. We turn to a city’s authorities to help us organize an armwrestling competition. We need a hall, patronage and medals, or trophies. Any city authorities have budget reserves to be spent on such purposes. It might be a district of a big city, a village, or a small town, it does not matter. At the same time, representatives of another sports discipline, let’s say table tennis, have asked the same city authorities for help in organizing a tournament. The city authorities have to decide whom to help as they don’t have enough money to support everyone. In addition, the dates of both competitions may coincide with each other as everyone wants their event to be held on a day off.

What will the mayor or president of the city do? For sure, he’ll start to wonder. Then someone may show him an article about twelve positive results of a doping test.

The mayor may think to himself: “They are juiced up! I won’t promote them!” As a result, he will reject our application and grant the money and take another competition under his wings. 

Will it be a loss to us? No doubt about that!

After all I know that some of our requests submitted to local authorities have been rejected because of our reputation. We can’t forget that our reputation is based on our image.

You know which cases I mean.

Example 2:

An armwrestling club, or section has been receiving help from a school or local authorities for several years. For example, the club hasn’t have to pay for a training room and have got some money to hire a coach, or buy training equipment. Kids have been training, taking part in competitions and winning medals. And all of a sudden, the school’s principal, or the head of local authorities learns that “all armwrestlers use performance-enhancing drugs”.

So he calls a teacher or coach to his office and puts it bluntly: “The armwrestling section has to be closed. From now on I won’t give a penny to promote armwrestling in our school and I’m taking you away the training room!” That’s it. All because of our reputation!

It’s not a figment of my imagination! Very often I’ve met with such reactions of authorities, either local or national.

Martial arts – hoodlums! I won’t agree to them having an event in my city! Powerlifting – steroids! I won’t rent even a basement for them to train in!

We may meet with such violent reactions, as described above, any time! It may happen in Sochaczew, Warsaw, Kiev, or in Paris. There’s nothing we can do about it!

Does that mean that we have to give up?

Does that mean that we don’t need any “defense plan”?

I don’t know…

I’m writing about that, I‘m pointing out possible dangers, because maybe there is someone in our community who has greater knowledge as to how the media work, who can predict possible consequences, who has a vision. If there’s no such a person, we have to think “collectively.”

Let me emphasize that once again, this case cannot be “swept under the carpet”!

§ 3.

Sponsors and media partners

„Tarnished” image may have a bad influence on our relations with sponsors and media partners. For example, a local bakery, family business that has so far been funding pastries, as a reward for athletes taking part in small competitions may not want to be associated with “those on dope”. It may happen in Poland as well as in other countries, like Spain or Mongolia.  A local newsletter, distributed for free, may refuse to publish advertisements of armwrestling competitions on its area. The board of a large media company may react similarly.

Do you think that I should “let sleeping dogs lie”?

Shall I not write about it?

Shall I pretend that nothing happened?

As an old man with conservative views I’m in favour of hypocrisy. But it’s not about me, it’s about our sport. That’s why I’ve sent this article to professional colleagues asking them for their feedback. 

The fact that I published this article means that I’m not the only person having such views.

§ 4.

A couple of important questions

Are we hypocrites?

Or maybe we’re just about to become hypocrites?

There are voices claiming that:

“There is no sport free from doping!” or “There’s no professional sport without doping”

Others claim that “Nothing happened!”

I myself, like a hypocrite, wrote that “I’ll be waiting for Shrek!”

I cannot turn my back on these athletes and say anything negative about them! I know many of them and like them very much. I cannot imagine myself armwrestling without them.

It’s a serious problem. To me, it’s a matter of “morality”, let’s say.

But for armwrestling authorities it’s an acute problem as they public is following their every move. WAF and EAF as well as national federations have to deal with it!

Let’s forget about professional competitors!

Many people suggest that only amateur competitors should be tested and punished for the use of doping substances.

Seemingly, it makes sense! But only seemingly!

§ 5.

Three models of “PRO”

One of professional armwrestlers is an American mechanic who works full-time for a big company, or runs his own business. His job is more important than his training, so he does workouts after work.

Another professional armwrestler is a resident of a country in Eastern Europe whose only source of income is sport. He’s an athlete taking part in competitions and a coach having classes with young pupils. His life revolves completely around his workouts.

Also a young guy, who combines his career with extramural studies and workouts, would like to compete in professional tournaments (and is likely to succeed).

As far as their sports level is concerned, each of the them stands a chance of winning prize money at professional competitions.  

However…

One of them cannot take performance-enhancing drugs under any circumstances! Because, for instance, he fears for his yet unborn children. Or his job requires from him total concentration, so he cannot take any steroids, which affect concentration.

Is it possible to classify these three athletes as „pro”, who should undergo dope tests?

I don’t know!

All I know is that the people mentioned above really exist (besides, you know whom I meant).

§ 6.

Shall we keep pretending that nothing happened?

I’ve taken part in official and private discussions about “Getting rid of drugs in armwrestling and boosting the image of our sport” many times. Yet nothing would come out of these discussions.

I wish this “shock” would serve as a point of departure for a serious debate about using drugs in armwrestling. I wish we’d take steps to prevent such situations in future.

Otherwise, we’ll be in trouble.

The examples I cited above are just a tip of an iceberg!

Let me quote the statement of one of the leading European athletes, who wrote on his profile that “for many years I’ve been robbed of medals by people with swollen faces”.

Harsh words, aren’t they? Why only one guy aired his views?

Are other athletes of a different opinion?

§ 7.

The geography of doping

It’s enough to take a quick look at the list of athletes who failed the dope test to notice that the majority of them come from the former Soviet Union countries where Russian is an official language.

Belarus, Russia, Ukraine, Georgia – any conclusions?

Some may say that they’ve won most of medals, so they were tested most often.  Of course, it’s true, but is such an explanation enough?

Will Germans, Spaniards, Italians, Greeks or Portuguese be satisfied with such an explanation?

Are we in danger of having a conflict between the East and West?

Are we in danger of having a conflict between competitors, national federations, and national media?

We are all meeting at the World Championships in Poland at the beginning of September.

§ 8.

How will we look at each other?

Will we manage to deal with what happened?

Will the WAF authorities manage?

Will we sweep the case under the carpet, which is very likely?

§ 9.

LOOK INTO THE FUTURE!

I’m sure of one thing!

We need to think about juniors!

The cost…

I’m also certain that dope tests are too expensive!

We have to do everything to considerably lower the cost of tests!

We have to think about screening tests, which are less accurate, yet way cheaper. They should be cheap enough so that each club could afford to have a couple of its athletes tested.

And only when such screening tests have given alarming results in several cases, a more accurate test should be done!

Then, if a doctor finds that “a given person is on dope”, the club should have this athlete officially tested at his own expense.

If the athlete refuses to do so, the club should immediately cross him off their list.

If, however, he agrees to undergo a dope test, and the result would be negative (which means he had not taken any drugs), the cost of the test should be covered by the club, or federation.

In fact, there is no point in caring about adult competitors as they “do things in their own way”!

Some of them, despite having taken drugs, have not yet suffered any damage to their health, other would not admit that. Some of them have healthy children, while others don’t have children. They are grown-ups and there is no reason why we should care about them.

But „kids” – junior competitors are a different thing.

We can create a REAL anti-doping program for them, combined with the care about their health and early detection of many diseases.

These are my suggestions for WAF, EAF and national federations.

If you think I’m right, write to me and support this idea.

Best regards,

PeSzy