Seems to me this would reduce some of the incentive to dope by introducing an additional risk. Maybe they already require this? In a way, it’s similar to someone caught stealing or leading a big scam. They have to return the loot and pay back those who they’ve scammed out of their hard-earned money, so why would it be any different in the case of someone cheating and beating clean athletes out of prize money?
If races wanted to, they could include a clawback clause in the race terms and conditions or contracts with pro athletes (including for appearance fees), covering any future (perhaps within a stipulated time period) PED-related suspensions by a regulatory body or criminal conviction.
This is already happening, IF they get disqualified for doping (see Shobukhova and Jeptoo).
Unfortunately that does not go back to the races won (or placed in) before they got popped (see Kiprop and Houlihan). They even get to keep their records and medals.
I am with Flanagan here:
Let’s say someone is working at a bank and they embezzle a bunch of money. The bank says, hey, you embezzled a bunch of money, so we’re going to fire you. You can’t work here anymore. But in, like, five years you can come back. We’re not going to get the money from you. You can keep the money. So you get, like, a five-year vacation. To me, these athletes need to give back the money that they stole from the other athletes and I believe that all the accolades should be erased from that day forward. They should not have any accolades to go with that.