Catching drug cheats a marathon — not a sprint

Are belief, advocacy and perseverance enough to save sport from cheaters or should Olympians be looking for alternative methods to be heard? 

As athletes from around the world are set to overtake Calgary for the first-ever Global Athlete Forum beginning on Sunday, sport leaders will be unifying their voices, hoping to affect change. The forum, collectively hosted by the Canadian Olympic Committee and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), is designed for participants to have input on how to better protect Olympic sport from the black cloud that continues to overshadow it: doping.

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The fight against doping, and really any fight within the barriers of the Olympic sport system, always seems to be an uphill battle. Seemingly, even when athletes are given a seat at the table, the change they lobby for is too little, too late. 

At the heart of the movement is WADA athlete chair Beckie Scott. She originally earned a bronze medal at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics before being bumped up to gold two years later after two Russian athletes were disqualified for doping.

But Scott isn't the only Canadian to be robbed of an Olympic medal moment. It took shot putter Dylan Armstrong seven years to officially receive his bronze medal from the 2008 Beijing Games and Christine Girard is still patiently awaiting the arrival of her Olympic medals (a retro-active bronze from the Beijing 2008 Games and most recently, an upgrade to Olympic gold in London 2012).

"The power differences between professional sports like the NHL and MLB, and non-unionized sports like the NCAA or Olympic sport, is the amount of leverage," said Steven Fehr, who acts as special counsel to the National Hockey League Players' Association. 

"A union affords athletes legal rights, it entitles them to bargain. It's far more than just a seat at the table. The difference is without it, decisions aren't made with the same representation of the athlete's best interest."

Weightlifter Christine Girard to be awarded Olympic gold medal

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Girard initially won a bronze medal at the 2012 London Olympics, but the two athletes who placed ahead of her, Maiya Maneza of Kazakhstan and Svetlana Tsarukaeva of Russia, were both disqualified after they tested positive for doping.

Is creating a union the leverage Olympic athletes need? 

"Athletes would need to establish a clear employee-employer relationship to obtain the right to collectively bargain.  I don't know if that employment relationship would be clear enough between any provincial, national or international governing body," said Bethan Dinning, a lawyer specializing in labour and employment matters with Borden Ladner Gervais LLP in Toronto.

"Not to mention, it's also uncertain which governing body, if any, would be the proper respondent to efforts at collective action by Olympic athletes. Adding to that complexity is the fact there is a great deal of diversity amongst athletes, most notably by sport, but also their bargaining interests and priorities. It begs the questions — could one bargaining agent effectively represent those interests? And would a critical number of individual athletes really agree to give up their individual bargaining power?"

'Fighting for bigger roles'

Retired Olympic silver medallist and past WADA athlete commission member Andreanne Morin doesn't envision the topic will be addressed over the next few days.

"Instead of trying to force a system that doesn't fit the current governance structure of Olympic sport, we're looking at the current structure and fighting for bigger roles for each respective athlete commission within it."

But as evidenced by the long standing Russian doping scandal, change seems to be more of a marathon, not a sprint.

Morin hopes the forum will further unify the athlete voice and advance the momentum on finalizing a WADA Athlete Charter of Rights. The goal is to have the Athlete Charter ratified into the WADA Code (the Code essentially being the broad rules athletes, nations and sport bodies must adhere to) by 2021.  It will then serve as a formal document within the code and most importantly, it will be enforceable. 

"As a former athlete, I can sympathize with athletes that deal with cheating in their sport," said Morin.  "But we can't just lose faith and just give up. We need to keep fighting.  We need to continue unifying the athlete voice and mobilizing for change. Progress is being made, even if it's never fast enough."

Even if a legal right to bargain is likely to remain elusive for Olympians, cleaning up doping in sport remains a priority for athletes like Morin. And like so many other Olympians, adversity and disbelief are just common obstacles she's willing to overcome.

Olympic sport needs this forum to be successful. It needs athletes working together against those cheating the system, with as much perseverance and dedication as they did in pursuit of an Olympic medal.

They won't have a legal right to bargain and they still lack leverage, but when the voice for change becomes collectively unified and louder, it can be a powerful tool.