Like the school field after sports day, London Stadium packed away the athletics World Championships. Hero the Hedgehog has retired, the high jump and hurdles have been dismantled, and home-straight cheers will soon be replaced by West Ham fans’ jeers.
Now the dust’s settling, the athletics community needs to take another long, hard look at its doping issues. Russia is prevented from competing for the foreseeable future, failed drugs tests are still making headlines and some athletes are returning to the fold after serving bans. But is the media focussing blame on the wrong people? And is governing body the International Amateur Athletics Federation simply looking for a scapegoat to deflect attention from the failings of its own jurisdiction?
Doping came into sharp focus again last week in the East London amphitheatre. Brits have loved a good panto since the curtain was raised on them 300 years ago; this summer the stage was set for leading man Usain Bolt to banish villain Justin Gatlin while bringing a glorious end to his own career.
The problem with sporting pantomime villains is that, unlike their Christmas play counterparts, they aren’t always part of a happy ending. Neither are they always completely to blame. There is good reason to believe Gatlin - who has never admitted guilt - and others who pundits place in the ‘cheat’ column are kept in the spotlight long after serving bans to distract us from wider doping laws mismanagement.
The media is culpable, too. During a weekend when the world was technically on the brink of nuclear war between the US and North Korea, Five Live led news bulletins with Gatlin being booed (by a minority) at his medal ceremony. Former Olympic track champ Michael Johnson called out the chest-beating. He chastised fellow BBC commentator Steve Cram for being among those who were readily pinning the woes of an entire global sport on one easy target, rather than laying out the bigger picture. This, Johnson rightly stated, fuelled the public outrage that dogged Gatlin from his first steps into the arena until long after the moment he won, making for ugly scenes.
Some of sport’s best stories come from people who have struggled, successfully or otherwise, to overcome personal demons: Maradona, Tiger Woods, Hansie Cronje; the list goes on. The tales behind the personalities are the reason sport is so compelling, and a complicated and emotional business.
Note that no one booed ‘neutral’ athletes at the World Championships for their medal successes, even though many would have honed their skills under the same regime as banned Russian stars. They’re not as well-known as Gatlin, of course, so it’s harder to persuade people to delve into their stories.
Double standards and scapegoating among athletics bosses and commentators, directing fans how to feel about individuals while turning a blind eye to less high-profile cases, is unhelpful. Like most sports fans, I hate an unfair advantage, whether it’s swan-diving strikers or ball-tampering seam bowlers. But Gatlin should be given a break. He beat Bolt fair and square. Given what he’s come back from, at the age of 35 and in the face of a media-inspired storm, that’s an achievement in itself. Instead, it’s time those at the top of the game spent more time soul-searching and sorted substance regulation once and for all.
