Doping Allegations Overshadow Swimming Championships

American swimmer Michael Phelps completed an astounding week, winning seven gold medals at the FINA World championships in Melbourne, Australia and breaking five world records. He tied fellow American Mark Spitz for the most gold medals earned at an international competition. Spitz won his seven gold medals at the 1972 Olympics. Phelps surpassed Australian, Ian Thorpe, who won six gold medals in the 2001 world championships and was an international sensation at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney.

Overshadowing Phelps’ accomplishments, however, is the news that a report had been leaked to a French newspaper that Thorpe is under investigation for a doping test before the swimmer was notified of the result. According to a published statement, Thorpe said he was “deeply alarmed” that the test result was made public before he was informed of it. “The press receiving this information before an athlete jeopardized the whole integrity of the testing process,” Thorpe said.

Thorpe, who retired from swimming last fall, has been an outspoken critic of the procedures used by FINA, the sport’s governing body, to catch drug cheats. He was once reprimanded by FINA for claiming that the organization was naïve in thinking that all swimmers at the Athens Olympics were drug free. Thorpe also expressed suspicion of the timing of the leak, which occurred the same week as the world championships in his home country. “I don’t think it was a coincidence that it happened here,” he said in a statement.

Doping allegations are nothing new to this sport -- I remember the East German and Soviet women being under suspicion of steroid usage in the 1980s. While I believe that Thorpe is not involved in doping – any athlete that is openly critical of the dope testing procedures isn’t likely to be involved with drugs himself, in my humble opinion – it may have a reverberating effect on other swimmers and the entire sport. After witnessing Phelps’ performance at the world championships, one wonders if there is going to be a carryover effect. In other words, if some people suspect Thorpe to be guilty of doping, would they also suspect Phelps? Will this investigation mar what has become one of the most surprising and incredible sports stories of 2007?