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"Naïve" to expect clean Olympics, UK Sport says

24/07/2008

Andy Parkinson, the acting head of UK Sport's Drug-Free Sport department, has said it would be "naïve" to think that the Beijing Olympics will be clean.

Speaking on the latest UK Sport podcast, Parkinson said he fully expects some athletes to be caught cheating at the 2008 Games.

And he claims if no one is caught then it could be considered a failure of the drug-testing programme that has been put in place.

"By the end of Beijing we will see that there have been positive tests during both the Olympics and Paralympics - we would be naïve to think they would be a totally clean Games," Parkinson said.

"Indeed, from an anti-doping perspective, if they were totally clean, particularly given the current climate, you might even say that the system has failed those athletes who are competing drug-free."

He continued: "We have to acknowledge, as do the public, that there will be positive tests in the future but that this isn't necessarily a bad thing for anti-doping as it actually demonstrates that we are catching the cheats."

Parkinson's comments come as UK Sport published results from the first quarter of its 2008/09 national anti-doping programme.

The results, from April to June this year, showed that more than 2,000 tests had been carried out across 42 UK sports, including pre-Games testing on British athletes going to Beijing.

Among the sport governing bodies to receive the most tests were the Football Association (400), UK Athletics (196), FINA (176), the Amateur Rowing Association (158) and British Cycling (158).