Abu Dhabi: British sporting hero Jonathan Edwards says doping in athletics is akin to fraud and should be punished with jail sentences, which he believes would be “a good deterrent” for would-be cheats.
Edwards, who has held the men’s triple jump world record since 1995, also believes his compatriot Seb Coe can save a sport in “real crisis” from further decline after being engulfed by a series of doping convictions and allegations.
Coe was appointed International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) President in August and immediately vowed to address athletics’ sullied image through the implementation of independent anti-doping units.
In August, Lord Colin Moynihan, the former sports minister and chairman of the British Olympic Association, said that Britain should emulate France, Italy and Australia by criminalising the use of substances which are prohibited under the World Anti-Doping Code.
Edwards, who won a host of gold medals during his illustrious career, including at the 2000 Olympics and the 1995 and 2001 World Championships, is fully in favour of this. The 49-year-old, who accepts that doping cheats such as sprinter Justin Gatlin should be allowed to run after serving bans currently in place (the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) doubled these from two years to four in 2013), said: “I think it [doping] is essentially fraud. I don’t see how it is different to fraud in business and athletics is big business now.
“I think the criminalisation of doping in sport should be very seriously looked at.”
Speaking to Gulf News after compering a ceremony to announce the nominees of the inaugural Sport Media Pearl Awards at Abu Dhabi’s Rosewood Hotel on Tuesday, the Englishman added: “I understand that, legally, there are difficulties with implementation, due to different laws across continents and across countries. But nonetheless, I do think it’s something that should be given serious consideration.
“I do think it would be a good deterrent.”
Edwards went on to extol the virtues of Coe, the middle-distance running legend and leading sports administrator, saying: “If anyone can clean up the sport, Seb can.”
He added: “I know Seb very well. We worked together on London 2012. “I think he’s absolutely the right person to do the job. It’s what athletics needs. But he’s under no illusions, like everyone else, that he has a very tough job. He’s inherited the sport in a real crisis, with all the recent doping allegations.
“He has to establish the credibility of the sport and the credibility of the doping activities that the IAAF have carried out. He’s had amazing credibility as an athlete, as a sports administrator for what he did at London 2012. He’s very good at gathering talented people around him.”
But Coe’s ambitious plan to create an independent doping strategy to avoid perceived conflicts of interest could be hamstrung by a lack of funding, Edwards admitted.
“UK Anti-Doping is under threat of 20 per cent budget cuts, they have warned,” Edwards said. “That’s the reality of the world we are living in at the moment.
“Money is not as free-flowing as it used to be. But you have to understand that, money spent on anti-doping in one sense is not going towards building up the sport, but if you lose the credibility in the eyes of the public, then you’ve lost the sport.”