Anti-doping agencies can't keep pace with the science of cheating

Anti-doping agencies will forever be stuck taking one step forward and two steps back aslong as athletes and their governments are willing to take extreme measures to win, a Canadian pioneer in sports doping regulation says.

• WADA report says Russian government complicit in doping, coverups
• ANALYSIS|Canadian athletes not surprised by Russian doping allegations
• Tricks of the trade: How athletes blood dope

A World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)report released Monday that accusestheRussian government of complicity in doping and coverups in track and field is proof that nothingchanges, said NormanGledhill, who co-foundedCanada's doping control program in the '80s.

"Everything old is new again. This has been going on for years and years and years,"Gledhill, a professor ofkinesiologyand health science at Toronto's York University, told CBC News. "When this all came out about Russia, I thought, 'Duh! What's new?'"

'Chasing your tail'

Greg Jackson, an expert in sports policy fromBrockUniversity in St.Catharines, Ont., said the news didn't surprise him, either. Anti-doping policies have been ineffective since they were first implemented in the '60s, he said.

"A war on drugs approach, which is what the WorldAnti-Doping Agency takes towards doping in sport, I'm not sure it's worked anywhere," Jackson told CBC News.

A war on drugs approach, which is what the WorldAnti-Doping Agency takes towards doping in sport, I'm not sure it's worked anywhere.- Greg Jackson, Brock University

"I mean,they come up with new tests as new drugs and methods to dope are identified, but it's always been this idea that we'll punish athletes who break the rules and doping shouldn't be allowed. And obviously, it doesn't work."

It's a cycleGledhillis all too familiar with.The anti-doping business, hesaid, is a scientific arms race.Every time a moreadvanceddrug test is developed,athletes come up with amore sophisticated way to cheat it.

"It's like chasing your tail, frankly. You think you've closed a loophole and then they find another one," he said. "I mean, they have their own scientists. There's so much money involved in these things. And if it's a political thing, it's a country behind you trying to do it."

Condoms, catheters and the 'Whizzinator'

In the '80s, urine tests were less sensitive and it was easier to cheat.

"Back in those days things were fairly simple,"Gledhillsaid. "[The athletes] would flush all kinds of fluids through their system to try and wash away the traces."

When the tests got better at detecting smaller traces of performance-enhancing drugs, dopersstarted switching out the samples, he said.

Women would insertcondoms filled with someone else's urine inside themselves, he said. Some athleteswould inject clean urine into their bladdersusing acatheter.

Then there's the Whizzinator, a prostheticpenis that can be filled with someone else's urine.FormerMinnesota Vikings running backOnterrioSmith was suspended in 2005 when authorities found one, along withseveral vials of dried urine, inhis home. Boxer MikeTyson has admitted using onethroughout his career.

Masking the truth

As drug testers started to catch on to these cheats,athletes beganusing chemicals to mask the performance-enhancing drugsin their systems, Gledhill said.

A 2009 Bloomberginvestigation revealed that some athletes were usingcommon household soaps to hide their use oferythropoietin, or EPO, a naturally occurring protein that increases red blood cells and boosts endurance.

Many soapscontainprotease, anenzyme that breaks down EPO. Athletes would rub a powdered version of the soap on their hands, then urinate over their fingers.

When drug testers started askingathletes to wash their hands before the tests,some men began storing powder under their foreskin, reports the Guardian.

Transfusions and injections

Blood doping the illicit process ofincreasing theamount of oxygen in the bloodstreamto enhance athletic performance has adecades-long history in the athletic world.

It came to the forefront in 2012 when Lance Armstrong admitted toOprah Winfrey that he used different blood doping methods during his cycling career.

TheU.S. Anti-Doping Agency (UADA)accused Armstrong of using a variety of methods to cover up the fact that he wasinjecting EPO ortaking transfusions of his ownblood, something that is extremely hard to detect.

One of the best methods to check fortransfusions or EPO is to measurehematocrit,the volume percentage of blood made up of red blood cells. But theUADA accusedteam doctors of injectingArmstrong withsaline, or salt water, todilute hisblood.

Biological passport

In recent years,drug testers have taken a different approach,adopting something called the Athlete Biological Passport. Theyregularly monitor an athleteover time and map their uniquephysiology so that doping-related abnormalities can be flagged.

• FINA adopts biological passport program
• Pro tennis to combat doping with biological passport

But already, some athletes havestartedinjecting smaller amounts of drugs over longer periods of time, a process called micro-dosing.Then there's the growing field of gene-doping,transferring genes directly into human cells to blend into an athlete's own DNA.

"So again,you work at it andyou work atit and you come up with another technique," Gledhill said.

New policies, new culture

So how do we breakthe cycle?Jacksonnoted that in recent years, there has been a push for harm-reduction polices in sports.

"The idea would be to focus more on education and allowing certain types of performance enhancement,but to be done through medical professionals and in healthier ways," he said.

The Current20:15Leaked IAAF files rekindle argument to legalize doping in sport - August 4, 2015

Leaked documents from the International Association of Athletics Federations which suggest the world of track and field is rife with doping is adding fuel to those who argue we should allow doping in sports.

Gledhill said wemust work to change adeeply entrenched sportsculture of winning at any cost something he admits is easier said than done.

"Trying to change the ethics,the ethos of wanting to win in sports,it's pretty hard to do. There are always people who are willing to do just about anything."