End of a Long Hot Summer of Doping Scandals

Sept. 8, 2006 — -- The summer that brought a steadily louder drumbeat of doping scandals -- Jason Grimsley in Major League Baseball, Floyd Landis in the Tour de France, Justin Gatlin in track and field, six Carolina Panthers in the NFL -- has ended with a soft thud.

Wednesday night's announcement that Marion Jones tested negative for EPO on her "B" sample has cleared her of using the endurance enhancer.

That development underscores the huge challenges faced by those who police athletic doping, despite the recent spate of high-profile busts and some severe ensuing sanctions -- Landis stripped of his championship, Gatlin suspended for eight years.

The newer performance-enhancing drugs like EPO are tougher than anabolic steroids to detect reliably. Positive test results are more easily challenged, as Jones and her attorneys successfully did.

They are the wave of the doping future.

Nonetheless, while Jones gets a reprieve and the doping police absorb a setback, the drumbeat of drug scandals very likely will resume soon. There are two good reasons for that, according to Gary Wadler, a New York sports doctor and a consultant to the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).

"Doping continues to be more prolific. But, on the flip side, our diligence and detective work is better," he says, noting several specifics:

"I met recently with World Cup officials, and they're doing a first-rate job," says Wadler. "They're an example of a professional sport that can buy into WADA's anti-doping code."