How big a threat is genetic doping to clean competition in sportIJ
“It’s a bit like sea serpent,” mythologised, potentially capable of causing serious harm, “but not so present”, said Martial Saugy, former director of the Swiss laboratory for Doping Analyses.
The lab is in lausanne, near the headquarters of the International Olympic Committee, which put Saugy on the frontline of efforts to purge drug cheats from global sport.
In an interview with AFP ahead of the August 5 start of the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, Saugy said anti-doping labs had to keep pace with new methods developed by doping cheats that multiple scandals involving Russia have proved are still a major threat.
Doctors have for years been experimenting with ways to inject synthetic genes into patients, altering an individual’s genome to enhance muscle recovery or stem muscle deterioration, among other benefits.
Should such treatments be taken up by athletes, anti-doping efforts could be set back years.
“We’ve been talking about it since the creation of the World Anti-Doping Agency in 1999,” Saugy said, adding that the goal for labs is to find a way to detect “the indicators of genetic doping.”
But he noted that since the world’s best doctors are struggling to use the technology to treat sick children, athletes and trainers seeking to cheat with genetic doping are inevitably facing similar difficulties. “We need to put things in perspective. Genetic therapy in the medical domaine has difficulty getting its place because it’s very complicated,” he said.
Asked if there was a testing system for genetic doping in place for Rio, Saugy, who stepped down from the lausanne lab last month, said: “There may well be tests but I’m not sure of their relevance. The biggest problem at the moment are microdoses,” Saugy said.
