RTE’s Primetime programme looked last night at questions surrounding doping and corruption in sport.
There was no implication that Irish athletes are involved or organisations complicit, though there was file footage of Michelle Smith and Cian O’Connor, two Olympic medal winners that have had a shadow cast over their achievements.
Professor Niall Moyna from DCU, Catherina McKiernan and Rob Hartnett of Sport for Business all contributed to a seven minute package which looked at the corrosive impact of the allegations that have surfaced again in recent months over athletics and tennis.
Hartnett pointed to the fact that governance does need to improve to match the more stringent standards now required in business but that the fact the problems are being exposed shows that progress on the policing side is being made.
McKiernan spoke of how she could not follow the sport of athletics with the same passion because of the questions that arise over whether a performance was really achieved as the result of just hard work.
The conversation then came back to the studio where Kieran Mulvey, Chairman of Sport Ireland mounted a defence of Ireland’s anti doping programme as being of world class standard.
He summed up the essence of sport being based fair competition under equal circumstances based on talent, ability and the oath of the Olympic spirit.”
Tara Magdalinska from UCD raised eyebrows among many with a suggestion that not all sporting drugs might necessarily be of the same dark status and that performance enhancing drugs today are being viewed no differently to how coaches were viewed by ‘corinthian’ sporting administrators of 100 years ago.
History does indeed change the way that certain practices are viewed but this was perhaps a step too far in terms of credibility.
You can view the full 15 minute segment on the RTE Player below from 14 minutes into the show.
