Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/970089
P136 CN III EMPIRE OF DIRT BY STEVE COX W ay back when the FIM, AMA and the promot- ers of Supercross, now known as Feld Motorsports, introduced the World Anti-Dop- ing Agency (WADA) drug-testing program for Supercross, during the press conference (this is more than 10 years ago now), everybody kept talking about it being "good for the sport," but I think I was a little bit too simple- minded to understand how. Because as I saw it, and still do, we have a need to police doping. I do believe doping—as in actual use of performance- enhancing drugs (PEDs)—has been an issue, and very likely still is, in supercross. And when I'm talking about PEDs, I'm talk- ing about three specific drugs: EPO (Erythropoietin, which increases red blood-cell counts), HGH (Human Growth Hormone) and Testosterone ("steroids"). It's those three we need to worry about, with EPO chief among them. So, if we're talking about test- ing for those things, as often as possible, I believe it's a very good idea to do so. But here's the issue: Back when this press conference took place, announc- ing that WADA was contracted to randomly test AMA Supercross racers' urine, my main question was about why we didn't just test for drugs that definitely help supercross racers, rather than also testing for things that would not help a supercross racer, but would help a boxer, a gymnast, a javelin-thrower, and any other thing that WADA thinks brings some sort of an advantage to athletes in any particular sport? The answer I got from WADA was that they weren't worried about sport-specificity, because their drug tests always held up in court. Which, obviously, wasn't the answer I was looking for. I don't care if it stands up in court. I care if it's good for the sport. After this press conference, I predicted that we would be unlikely to catch people who are actually cheating, especially considering it was urine-only, and considering they only tested a couple times per season (largely due to the expense). I predicted, instead, that we'd end up catching racers for "failing a drug test" for things that are not actually cheating (as in "gaining an unfair advantage over your competition") and ruining their careers as a result. And now it's happened twice. First, it was James Stewart who was tagged a few years ago for taking a medically necessary ADHD medication, with a valid prescription. He didn't tell the FIM ahead of time, because he valued his privacy (and this is another subject, but I don't want to digress here), but regard- BAN WADA Cheating? Really!?