“Doping,” Sebastian Kienle said, “destroys everything.” In the fallout from US triathlete Collin Chartier being banned for a positive EPO test in April, the 2014 Ironman world champion can be forgiven the hyperbole.
Kienle hands in his pro card at the end of the year, and perhaps, as 42-year-old, fellow long-distance pro Tim O’Donnell stated – having witnessed his own wife, three-time Kona champ Mirinda Carfrae, retire in March – he’s glad he’s in the twilight of his career, too.
A pariah for admission
Chartier has become a pariah for his partial doping admission, perhaps even more so than had he plead the ‘BS burrito’ defence (as he called it in his statement), claimed tainted supplements, and left a shred of doubt.
There’s an irony in that by saying he took the blood-booster without help, but didn’t start until two months after a career-defining $100k race win, he’s faced more opprobrium than had he said nothing at all.
Still, it’s a narrative that struggles for plausibility. Collin knows this, too.
Suspicious minds
Cheating robs clean rivals of celebrations, profile and prize money. Yet it goes further, bringing the entire elite sport into disrepute, casting a cloud over coaches, training partners and those who choose the same training environments. Admiration turns quickly to suspicion, even paranoia.
That’s what doping does. It tears away trust. When an athlete withdraws from a race for ‘personal reasons’, we doubt. When they cite injury, we doubt.
When organisations pledge increased rigour to weed out cheats, we doubt motives. Do they want clean sport or to minimise reputational damage?
As Lionel Sanders, Collin’s training partner, said: ‘You’ve thrown us all under the bus’
The emotional toll shouldn’t be discounted. Scoff at that if you like but I’ve heard from athletes who, minds racing, have had sleepless nights.
Germany’s Frederic Funk even told the How They Train podcast his heart-rate variability in the days after Chartier’s announcement read as if he was overtraining. Funk was recording a podcast series with Chartier when the news broke.
It’s why there shouldn’t be expectations on athletes to always speak out. This is their life and livelihood. It’s not just Chartier’s talk of depressive episodes leading to poor choices, but the emotions other pros have to process in the aftermath.
No answers
It feels as if there are no answers. Cheating is human nature, the motivations are multiple. Confounding to most, morally conscionable to those who cheat. If the scales fall from the eyes, the history of sport was always thus.
So move forward, try to find answers, learn lessons, educate and improve the culture within a sport. While restating that athletes have no obligation it was heartening to see an outpouring of anger and disappointment.
As Lionel Sanders, a training partner of Chartier, said: “You’ve thrown us all under the bus”. Sanders is a passion-filled orator. We share his sentiments.
But, of course – as the Canadian himself says – we now doubt Sanders’ sincerity, too. Doping really does destroy everything.
Illustration: Daniel Seex
