An interesting article was published in
The Guardian this morning about surfing and the introduction of pre-competition drug-testing at professional events. In 'A natural high?' Patrick Kingsley asks whether these changes are welcomed by the surfing community, if they are necessary and whether it will take surfing from being an 'alternative/minority' sport into the mainstream and consequently lose its 'cool factor'.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/jan/04/surfing-drug-test-credibilityBut can drug-testing really transform a sport and take it into the mainstream in the UK alongside sports such as football and rugby? It depends how you classify sports; are we talking about spectatorship or participation? Image or consumption? And under what circumstances would drug-testing
not be useful for both event organisers (to ensure clean competitiors) and surfers themselves (for safety reasons in an already demanding and sometimes dangerous sport)?
Drug-testing has done much to improve the image of road cycling in Europe where performance-enhancing drugs were rumoured to be rife amongst all professional teams in the 80s and 90s. Nowadays, with a cleaner image, the sport is taken more seriously and given the credit it deserves.
One key issue with drug-testing, in my opinion, is not how they test or for what, but it's the consequences: there is no singular ruling across all sports for those guilty of taking drugs. In British athletics, an athlete who is found to dope recieves a lifetime ban from all Olympic Games participation. Whereas in other countries, such as Russia and the USA, athletes recieve a shorter 'sentence'.
I think this sends out the wrong message and is unfair to athletes and the spectating public. All athletes who dope or take drugs should be treated the same and banned from sport, full stop. This is a contentious issue however, and it would great to hear other people's opinions on the topic of doping.
As far as surfing is concerned, I doubt the introduction of drug-testing will result in the sport's transformation. Surfers are athletes, but they have a 'cool' image, which proving their drug-free states, will not alter.
