Most readers know that I am a keen cyclist. But, professional cycling’s reputation has been tarnished by the issue of performance enhancing drugs.
Of course, I’m all favour of clean sport, but much of the debate is a little hypocritical – after all professionals in many other walks of life can often take whatever they want without sanction if it improves their output. I’m referring to musicians and artists of course, not FX dealers.
But there is a link. Much has been done in recent years to erase drug taking in sport, especially by an organisation called the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada). The agency is led by controversial Canadian lawyer Dick Pound. Wada is engaged in a chemical arms race – constantly perfecting a test for one performance-enhancing drug before athletes move on to the next wonder pill. According to a report on Bloomberg, however, Wada might now have to cut back on its research and stop out-of-competition testing next year. The reason is not because of legal challenges by athletes, but because of the weakness in the dollar.
Wada is based in Montreal, but it is funded in dollars by the International Olympic Committee and governments worldwide. According to Bloomberg, Wada is now considering changing its financial arrangements to have less exposure to currency swings. If only it had received funding in pounds, Pound must be thinking.
Following on from the recent story about super models wanting to be paid in euros and talk of the Gulf countries abandoning the dollar peg, I can’t help but think that the greenback must be approaching a new nadir if the drugs industry wants out now too.
