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FT. LAUDERDALE, Fla. (12-Oct) -- In a wide ranging and often spirited discussion, a group of U.S. race directors debated how their events could help combat doping in road running, but ultimately ended the session with more questions than answers. The debate was part of the second day of the Road Race Management Race Directors' Meeting here.
"Most people felt that between 10% and 20% of distance runners are using drugs," said Road Race Management editor, Phil Stewart, who conducted a survey of race organizers, elite athlete coordinators and agents earlier this year. "There seems to be a mood amongst the athletes... that they want action."
Not surprisingly, race organizers were unified in their opposition to performance enhancing drugs, but said that the cost of implementing testing at their events was the key impediment to their assisting USATF and the USA Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) in catching cheaters.
Attempting to address the cost issue, USATF distance running programs manager, Jim Estes, explained that the national federation was considering a mandatory licensing program for all athletes competing professionally in the United States. Athletes would be required to purchase a license, effectively registering with the U.S. federation, before they would be permitted to run professionally in the States. This would help USADA to locate and test foreign athletes many of whom would never be tapped for out-of-competition testing in their home countries because they don't fall into the world top-25 athletes in their event, the target testing group of the IAAF through the World Anti-Doping agency. The fees collected from the licenses (a figure of $500 per year was mentioned) would help pay for the additional testing.
"We're looking at a licensing program for all athletes," explained Estes, who emphasized that there was "no easy quick fix." He then added, "Basically, this is another level of scrutiny that they have to go through."
Scott Keenan, who directs Grandma's Marathon in Duluth, Minn., said that he wanted to have drug testing at his event every year, but his race couldn't afford it. He suggested that USATF and the events could split the cost of testing 50/50 with USATF possibly making its contribution from the revenues from the licensing program.
"We do have to clean the sport up," said Keenan.
Speaking for both the World Marathon Majors and the ING New York City Marathon, New York Road Runners' president and CEO, Mary Wittenberg, said that the time had come for serious and swift action on the part of race organizers.
"I think there is no more important issue in front of our sport," said Wittenberg. "If we lose on this issue we're going to have lot of trouble in front of us."
The five marathons of the World Marathon Majors have instituted a more strict policy than the IAAF. Any athlete who has served a doping suspension of at least three months at any time during their career will not be invited to their events, nor will they be eligible to win prize money. The idea is to greatly increase the disincentives of cheating. Wittenberg said that right now, the potential financial rewards making doping worth the risk.
"Where we are right now, there is much more incentive to cheat than not to cheat," said Wittenberg who qualified for the 1988 U.S. Olympic Team Trials Women's Marathon. "That being the case... the beauty of being private races is that we can move quickly."
Wittenberg said that race directors simply had no choice but to pay for testing in order to assure that their events were clean. "It's now a cost of doing business," she said. "Anyone who is getting prize money of substance, you should be getting drug testing."
Bob Ingalls, the race director of the Utica Boilermaker 15-K which is part of the Professional Road Running Organization five-race series, said that his event had testing for the first time this year and that they had no problems working with the USADA personnel who were assigned to his race. However, he was disappointed that it took so long to get the results, delaying the distribution of his $50,000 prize money purse.
"USADA came in and it went well," said Ingalls. "The problem is that it took two months to get the results in. For me, that was the only negative thing."
Another issue faced by several races was the lack of support from their boards of directors for implementing testing. Most of the big U.S. races are set up as not-for-profits to benefit charities, and money spent on elite athletes and drug testing is seen as cutting into the amount which is available for charitable giving. That prompted at least one race director to just eliminate her prize money purse; she didn't want to offer prize money if she couldn't pay for testing.
"We just put the money back into the race," said Wendy Johnson of Motion Sports Management whose firm manages the Maggie Valley Moonlight Race in North Carolina.
The Road Race Management Race Directors' Meeting concludes tomorrow with a keynote address by Julia Emmons, the outgoing race director of the Peachtree Road Race and executive director of the Atlanta Track Club.
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