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Discovery of young sportsmen guilty of doping and cheating ought to set alarm bells ringing for sports public at large. This concerns every federation and coach, as well as any parent of children seriously involved in sports. Whoever has let things come to this will have to bear full responsibility. Somebody somewhere has missed it real bad. Or left something vital undone.
At Estonian-Finnish swimming competition, a 17 years old athlete was caught having used doping. B-test published yesterday contained the anabolic steroid stanozolol. Considering the background and hazards of the substance, the chain must surely contain adult links. The drug cannot be purchased at any Estonian pharmacy or store; over the web, however, it is easily confirmed that among body builders and other power athletes the substance is known and somewhat available – in big enough quantities, apparently, to not be considered difficult to obtain. The question arises: why and how will such knowledge reach a young person? And, knowledge aside – the quality of this being questionable, no doubt – whence the idea, the temptation?
Last week, an Estonian championships football game was cancelled due to suspected betting fraud, between the Tallinn clubs FC Levadia and Kalev. Yesterday, the suspicions proved true: the Kalev president announcing he had enough evidence to kick two players out of the team, one of them being a national youth team member. The money moved in global totalizators is huge and, these past years, betting frauds have caused heaps of trouble for large international football organisations. Again we ask: why and how does a young person come to this? Why would anybody risk the Russian roulette endangering a promising career and undermining the reputation of both league and football, and companions’ chances to make it big abroad?
Answers to these questions are eagerly expected indeed. Obviously, federations – and not only the swimmers and footballers linked to these cases – will have to treat any suspicion with utmost seriousness, demonstrating utter diligence and transparency in investigation. If deserved, penalties have to follow. Analysis is expected on how to avoid such problems in the future.
By the above events, we are not only losing a couple of promising sportsmen. The impact is far wider than the scandal. Cheatings harm public attitudes towards top sports and training as such. Partly, this is financial – who would like to sponsor sports linked with dark dealings? Also, this will make a parent hesitant: is it safe to have one’s kid involved in sports, seeing all manner of temptations stalk at early stages?