|
August 24, 2008
Posted: 1026 GMT
BEIJING, China - With just a handful of positive doping cases so far in the Games, professor Arne Ljungqvist, the IOC's Chief Medical Officer is a contented man. Content that the IOC's anti-doping program is catching drugs cheats and that the fight to rid sport of illegal performance enhancing substances is being won.
Arne Ljungqvist: Helping change the attitudes about drug doping in international sports.
"It will take a generation to change attitudes," he says from the IOC's main encampment in Beijing - three floors of an enormous hotel complex that has also been home to the IOC's "Olympic families" for the past 17 days. "People involved in sport from countries where doping used to be routine, like in Russia and Eastern Bloc countries are still around and still working in sport as coaches and working closely with athletes. It will take a generation to create doping-free environments for athletes." As we talk, Jacques Rogge strides past, toward his office and a member of the CCTV crew waiting nearby leaps out of his seat to hail him: "Mister President!" "Mister President" Rogge had said before the Games he expected there to be about 30-40 positive drugs incidents during the Beijing Olympics. Ljungqvist believes their anti-doping methods are working and acting as a good deterrent, which is why the number of positive results so far is so much lower than Rogge's prediction. Between 4,500 and 5,000 tests will have been conducted on athletes by the end of the Games - twice as many as Sydney in 2000 - and despite the contrary opinion of many within sport, Ljungqvist believes that they are effective enough to catch athletes who use human growth hormones that are harder to trace than other substances. Ljungqvist is also charged with making sure the Games are conducted in good health all round - from the city's air quality to encouraging a healthier lifestyle in Beijing even after the Games have ended As for McDonalds as a sponsor, he has no problem with them as an Olympic partner, believing they still have an image problem rather than anything else. He's also hopeful that the work done to make the air cleaner and city's streets more pleasant will continue. The factories that have been shut down since the end of July to help reduce city smog are supposed to stay closed until after the Paralympics. Whether they will or not after most world's media leave Beijing remains to be seen. Posted by: CNN.com's Dean Irvine |
Receive updates from across the world on the 2008 Summer Olympic Games. "Olympics and the World" is a blog offering you the thoughts and observations from athletes, journalists around unique personalities preparing for the Olympics in China. Whether it's from the training field, the newsroom or the homes of everyday people, "Olympics and the World" provides you a global pulse as the Beijing Olympics approach. Special Report: Beijing 2008 Athletes
Categories
Archive
|
Loading weather data ...