The recent comments by fellow competitors have again brought up the issue of drugs in sport. A subject that has been around for many years. It’s a subject that is able to divide people in to two different opinions. Some people say all sport needs to become more professional and don’t worry about drug usage and others think it needs to be banned altogether so sport stays clean and fair. 

Tamsyn Lewis has come out and shared her opinion. I have to say that every athlete at one point in their sporting career would have had the same doubts as Tamsyn. There was so much talk about drugs and athletes being banned that of course it makes you think how many drug cheats are out there and how many you have competed against. But the point is having these thoughts days before the Olympics is not the best frame of mind to be in.

For any athlete the Olympics is a massive competition and they should be focusing on the performance and the job that lay ahead of them. There is a lot of pressure as they are representing their country, their institute, their families and themselves. The less you concentrate on what is happening around you the better for the athlete. All of the focus should be on the performance. 

I very strongly believe that they need to be presumed innocent unless someone has been caught and it has been proven they have been using performance-enhancing drugs. It is a very big call to accuse someone on suspicion only. So unless people have been caught and have been disqualified, I think it is very unfair to the clean competitors to say that “I will look left and right and know the other girls aren’t clean.”

Plus we do have a body that has been put together to control and monitor drug usage in sport. They do it for a living so I think it would be better to leave it to them.

Saying that I would like to mention people who have been banned like 100m Hurdler Damu Cherry of the USA who is going up against Australia’s Sally McLellan. She served a two year ban for doping violations. In my opinion these people need to be banned from the Olympics. I believe that once you have used before you would never go back to being clean. Those athletes who have been banned in the past should not be competing at the highest level.

Being in sport you always hear about people being tested. We got tested every single competition whether is was a major competition like the Olympics, Commonwealth or World Championships or smaller-scale meets like the Golden League. It is part of our daily routine when you are an athlete. The fact that people are getting caught sure it makes me sad. I would like to see sport be as pure as it can possibly be but during the big competitions I would never ever let these thoughts get to me. There is no point worrying about things you can’t change. All you can change is your own performance. Everything else in my opinion takes focus off what needs to be done. In a big competition we are trying to conserve every bit of energy to get you a better shot of getting into the final or getting a medal.

When you are competing going through the drug test procedure is normal. In the beginning it is quite shameful having to go to the loo in front of someone you don’t know and will probably never see again but it is part of it. I never minded because the drug agent needs to do their job. It’s five minutes of shame and then it is all over.

But the focus needs to stay on the performance. This is the competition when we will see amazing performance and new stars. I am looking to this type of Olympics not one filled with scandal.

T x