Thursday, February 5, 2009
Nadal Blasts New Anti-Doping Rules
No, as classy a champion as Rafael Nadal was during the trophy presentation of the Australian Open 2009, the title of this article has nothing to do with what he said to a tearful Roger Federer standing behind him as the losing finalist. As a matter of fact, even though he said it during the tournament, it had nothing to do with it.
It was a short, accurate, and powerful sentence: "It's a disgrace!"
The new code from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) imposed on professional athletes identified by their international federations is precisely what Rafa called it: a disgrace!
Will WADA hear it? Considering Rafa is currently one of the most popular athletes on the planet, uncontested world number one in tennis, and the vice president of the ATP Players' Council, they should!
According the new rule, Rafa, along with other high-performance athletes from a variety of sports, is forced to designate an hour each day, for all 365 days of the year, during which he must reveal where he will be located.
Or else!
If he happens not to be found where he claimed he would be, oh let's say on September 3rd, and that happens two more times in a designated 18-month period, he is considered, or rather in this Gestapo-like system, he is "assumed" to have violated anti-doping rules and becomes a target of sanctions. How pathetic!
I wonder if WADA people know ahead of time where they will be at each hour of everyday, let alone a day several months into the future. I wonder if they are human enough to face the possibility that their daily schedule that they planned ahead of time, may change by that time, or even as early as the schedule of tomorrow. What if the tire on the car blows and one of them is not at the movie theater for a 2 PM matinee as they planned before? It's perfectly possible, right?
Personally, I may plan to read a book at the local bookstore tomorrow evening, but if my daughter asks me to take her to a kids show at the local park, you bet that I will be changing my plans. Now what? If I was under the same regulations, there goes one of my three chances. Oh boy! I have two left, I better be careful. Do I feel like a criminal, or what?
It does not stop there. The anti-doping agents may surprise you with a visit at the spot you designated for that hour to make sure that you are true to your word, or should we say, to "discipline and punish" as the title of the famous book about the history of surveillance and compliance by Michel Foucault.
Don't take my word for it. Listen to Rafa. He has already had a visit by anti-doping agents once this month at 8 AM on a Saturday morning at his home in the island of Mallorca, Spain. He designated 7 AM for his time because he felt "that is the only time when I am sure I will be there." That morning, he was trying to get some sleep because he had a Friday night out with his friends. The nice and courteous agents made sure that he was there, and that he did not get his sleep!
And during the tournaments, he better be in his hotel room at 7 AM. Oh, and he must also predict which hotel he is staying at, 365 days into the future. What if he decides to change hotels? Or if the hotel previously designated is closed by the time of the tournament? Read on.
Keep talking, Rafa, nobody could put it better: "Even my mother or my uncle do not know where I am sometimes, so having to send a message or to be scared all day in case there is a last-minute change seems to me to be a complete exaggeration." What he is talking about is the addendum to the rule that in case there is a change of plans, the players can notify the authorities by text, e-mail, or fax. Hurray!
Stuart Miller, the head of the anti-doping program of the International Tennis Federation (ITF), says, "This should not be a problem." Yes, Stuart! Easy as stopping by a soft drink machine and getting a Pepsi, right? Can someone ask Stuart if he never, ever forgets to send an important e-mail, if he never forgets to notify someone when he had a change of plans, or if he ever forgot to call his wife at a time that he said he would? And if there does not happen to be an 18-month period during which he repeated the same mistake twice more? Can someone ask him if he is human?
So now, the ATP player, in the middle of his busy schedule and traveling, is supposed to predict where he will be for an hour all the way to the end of the year, notify the authorities of the details, and for each day that he may not be there, he is supposed to notify them again, and in case he has to change his plans several times in the last few days, he has to notify them all those several times. Easy as sticking a few coins in the machine and getting the soda, isn't it, Stuart?
So let's say Rafa, who designated his hotel as Hotel X in Rome during the Italian Open, happens to run into flight trouble the evening before. While he is at the airport and trying to figure out what flight to catch the next day and trying to figure out where to stay an extra night in the current town where he is located, packing and unpacking, is supposed to remember to notify the authorities of his change of plans and give them the name of the hotel in the current town, instead of the hotel in Rome, since he will be there at 7 AM the next morning due to flight trouble. Oh, and if his flight leaves at 7 AM, he is supposed to designate "in the air somewhere on the way to Rome." And he is supposed to remember to do that.
Now, Rafa is a bad example actually because one may say, "Rafa has an entourage, what are they there for?" It's true, but the point is still valid. Not everyone is Rafa, most players travel alone and do all their planning by themselves, and sometimes in the middle of a mayhem, finding an internet connection, a fax machine, or sending a text message is the last thing on their mind.
Well, Mike Bryan, half of the Bryan duo, the best doubles team in the world, happens to be human. The kind that Stuart Miller seems to ignore. He has already missed two dates in January, as of the 28th. He said that the possibility of a third is "a little scary." Long road ahead, Mike. Good luck!
So Rafa seems to share the opinion of 65 other athletes who are already appealing to the Belgian courts about this ridiculous decision. Again, he puts it elegantly, "I think it shows a lack of respect and privacy."
The sad thing is that this decision by WADA is probably triggered by doping scandals in certain sports, tennis not being one of them. Tragically, the pitiful "blanket" practice shows its ugly head again.
An agent of Octagon, a firm that represents athletes, said, "You almost have to think of WADA as your mother, father, girlfriend, and boyfriend." No kidding! Except that as Rafa said, even your closest relatives may not know where you are located, at a designated hour of each day. Let's go a step further; you may choose, in a free society, not to let even your closest relatives know ahead of time where you will be at a designated hour tomorrow, let alone every day for the next 12 months. But the world and the society, as Stuart Miller sees them, do not seem to be free ones.
Never mind a mother, father, boyfriend, or a girlfriend. It seems like the likes of Stuart Miller and WADA want to sleep in your bed! Rafa sent a clear message: it's a disgrace! Again, well said, Rafa!