To: All Members Of The Media, The Sporting Public, And Any Other Interested Parties.
As most of you know, we all woke this morning to a Soap Opera / "Made For TV Movie" inclusive of Sex, Drugs and Lies, from the USADA/Landis hearings at Pepperdine University, Stage-4. Please, lets try to stick to the facts of this case as they pertain to the Anti-Doping process. I, like many others are more interested in the facts of this case, than the sensationalism of "bombshells." The end result of this case will manifest itself with a huge impact on ALL Olympic athletes that have been declared "cheaters", as well as future generations of potential Olympians that are turned off by the current Anti-Doping process that is extremely 1-sided, and does not allow for a reasonable defense against a system that has been constructed with the aim of being the Police, Prosecutor, Judge, Jury and Executioner.
I have been following this case very closely, as it is a topic that is very close to my heart, and one that I have very strong opinions about. The reporting (and analysis) of yesterday's testimony should be focused on the other, and even BIGGER "bombshell" (in my opinion), the fact that the most basic tenets of the Anti-Doping process are flawed. We (Administrators and participants of Olympic sports) have been told for many years by the Anti-Doping Agencies that:
a) The science behind the testing is un-impeachable.
b) There are strict "standards" that the labs must adhere to when searching for adverse-analytical-findings.
c) The sample testing is performed "blind."
As for (a/b): after yesterday's testimony by the two lab technicians (USADA's own witnesses), we now know that although the science itself may be solid, the application of external influence to the samples is AT BEST a personal decision by the individual performing the analysis. Contrary to WADA's own lab standards, manual intervention is routinely used to "clean up" the data that the instrument spits out, if the analyst believes that the machine made an error. To further allow indiscriminate modification of the results, no internal standards exist to the extent that "clean up" or manipulation is performed, nor is it even a process that all technicians perform. And here's the kicker: they don't even have to document what they have done to the raw data, and to what extent. To make matters worse, the data files for each of the "sequences" performed by the technician is overwritten with each iteration. The final result of the analysis, in the opinion of the technician, is all that matters!
This would be the same as you or I receiving an exorbitant finance charge on our credit cards, and upon challenging the bank have them tell us "We can't justify the charges, nor can we show you how we arrived at that figure, but that's the amount that you owe us." This would be a concern to many, if not all of us. How do you think this makes an Olympic athlete feel?
Another MAJOR concern is the fact that the lab technicians apparently know the source (name of the athlete) of the sample that they are testing. In this case, part of that may be due to the publicity surrounding the testing. However, lets keep in mind the fact that "blindness" should be a built-in part of the process, taking into account the fact that the lab (LNDD) itself was the source of the leaked publicity. To remove even the appearance of impropriety, All "B" samples should have been, and SHOULD ALWAYS be analyzed at a different laboratory. To me, it would be the same as losing a race by millimeters and requesting an additional look at the film, only to have the same Commissaire perform the follow-up review. What's the point?
Great care and effort (isn't this the "scientific method" that I learned in High School?) is supposed to be taken to ensure that "blindness" of the analytical operators is paramount to the process. It is in fact the basis for everything that follows. It concerns me greatly that there was absolutely NO consideration given to this aspect of the original testing, as well as the follow-up testing. If this can occur in a high profile case such as this one, how much of a chance does the average 3rd place finisher or random (randomly selected) control have for impartiality? If such important tasks are merely "ho-hum, rote, quasi-standard operating procedures", I can only wonder what else is going on that we don't yet know about?
Although I am not a scientist (i did have 2 semesters of Organic-Chem in College) or an attorney, I have listened to a lot of this testimony and have read quite a bit of it also. It is very clear to me that major changes need to be made; not just in the process of reporting and challenging an AAF, but also in how an AAF is actually determined. The creation/manipulation of the raw data used to even determine the existence of an AAF doesn't appear to have the same level of importance as the legal battles that routinely ensue. This is backwards, in my estimation.
To me, these are the real "bombshells" from the stage-4 testimony. They shouldn't be overshadowed by the personal, and tragic, admission of Mr. LeMond or actions of Mr. Geoghegan. (I'm still not sure of what "facts" USADA was gleaning from LeMond's original testimony). Their testimony, statements and actions have absolutely no bearing on the scientific and procedural issues at hand, and have only served as a distraction.
There are a lot of things that the Anti-Doping Agencies can (and should) learn from this hearing, and a lot of questions that will still need to be answered at the conclusion of this case. I believe that we are all better served if we focused on the real bombshells, not the sensational ones. There have been several others, and I'm sure there are more to come.
Ray Cipollini