Two-time World Athletics Championship medallist Mo Katir has been provisionally suspended today after missing three drug tests within a twelve-month period. As is often the case when athletes are suspended for this breach, there has been a mixed reaction on social media, from those convinced that this is clear-cut evidence Katir is doping, to those who believe Katir has unfortunately fallen foul of harsh whereabouts rules but is entirely innocent. The Katir case is the latest in a series of embarrassments for Spanish anti-doping – more on that here.
This article will give a brief explanation of the allegations against Katir, the Whereabouts System, and where we go from here.
What do we know so far?
Katir missed three tests – this has been reported by the AIU and is the reason for his suspension. We don’t know when the tests were, other than that they must have all occurred in the same twelve-month period, as that is the requirement for this kind of suspension.
Katir has been quick to respond, putting out a statement on the same day as the provisional suspension was announced strongly denying ever using any performance-enhancing substances. His initial statement also alludes to his planned defence for the missed tests, blaming faults in WADA’s Anti-Doping Administration and Management System (ADAMS), where all athletes must submit their whereabouts data for out of competition testing. Katir appears to be arguing that ADAMS has made mistakes with his location data, and that he was where he said he would be at the time of the missed tests, but the testers did not go to the correct location.
To argue this, Katir will likely enlist the help of a top lawyer to persuade the CAS that one or more of the tests are actually ineligible on the basis of mistakes on ADAMS (I’m sure Christian Coleman can make some recommendations).
One thing we can be certain of is that, if this suspension is upheld, it will be argued by Katir and his team to be the devastating consequence of an unfortunate error of judgement, rather than anything more sinister than that. Three missed tests has never been a gateway to doping admission, and there is no reason to assume the Katir case will break new ground here.
Do three missed tests always = doping?
No. Athletes have long been critical of the slow and glitchy app connected to ADAMS. It is possible that an athlete could miss three tests by innocently failing to input the correct information on the app and therefore not being present when the testers arrive, or even inputting correct information that the app fails to log. This is clearly Katir’s defence of choice.
However, just because something is possible does not make it likely. For a complete summary of the Whereabouts System in athletics, I highly recommend this piece by Jonathan Gault of LetsRun. The most important quote in it comes from former World 1500m Champion Jenny Simpson: “If you miss three tests, it’s either because you’re cheating or because you’re an idiot”. Simpson emphasises that the testers do their best to find you, and that most athletes would be incredibly conscious of making sure their information was correct at all times if they had accidently missed one test, let alone two.
In the aftermath of the Christian Coleman missed test saga (more on that here), British 400m hurdler Dai Greene posted a great Twitter thread refuting Coleman’s (now deleted) complaints about the system. It’s worth a read for a first-hand understanding of why we have the Whereabouts process that we have, and how athletes manage it. Suffice to say, Greene is not especially sympathetic to Coleman’s argument:
So if it’s not an accident, why might an athlete consciously miss tests?
Because they are cheating. As the common doping aphorism goes, ‘never take a test you won’t pass’. This was explained in detail in a 2008 letter by Victor Conte, the disgraced nutrionist/scientist whose drug trafficking was revealed as part of the BALCO doping scandal. Conte wrote that athletes who are doping on a cycle deliberately miss tests as follows:
“[They] provide incorrect information on their whereabouts form. They say they are going to one place and then go to another. Thereafter they start using testosterone, growth hormone and other drugs for two to three weeks. After the athlete discontinues using the drugs for a few days and they know that they will test clean, they become available and resume training at their regular facility.”
Clearly (middle-)distance runners who are missing tests won’t be on testosterone and growth hormone cycles, but the principles remain the same (for the avoidance of doubt, this article is not accusing Katir or any other athlete of purposely missing tests, it merely serves to explain how choosing to miss certain tests could benefit an athlete who is doping). On this basis, Katir’s protestations that, “Over the last few months and years I have been subjected to a large number of out-of-competition doping controls in both urine and blood samples, without the slightest problem on my part” is highly irrelevant. It’s not about the tests you took, it’s about the ones you didn’t.
Is there a solution to the debate?
The Whereabouts System is generally felt by athletes, coaches, anti-doping officials and fans to be pretty good. It means athletes can be tested beyond just when they are competing, and the three missed tests rule means that unluckiness, mistakes or incompetence can strike once or twice with no consequences, but the third time raises suspicion and leads to a two-year ban from the sport. Whilst the shift from zero consequences for two missed tests and a two-year ban (and tarnished reputation) for a third seems harsh, the line has to be drawn somewhere.
On this basis, it is difficult to see how there would be a better system. Arguments could be made for three missed tests to lead to a four-year ban (equal to the ban for a positive test), but it seems exceedingly harsh for those who have not been proven to have cheated to be held to the same standard as those who have.
So how can we navigate this as athletics fans? We have to stick to the information we know. Mo Katir has missed three drug tests in twelve months. We know that this is very difficult to do, and that those who have missed three tests should be treated with a heightened level of suspicion compared to those who have not. But this is as far as we can go. Katir has never been directly linked to doping, and thus cannot be tarred with the same brush as those who have tested positive for banned substances. If this ban is upheld then a question mark will hover above Katir’s head for the rest of his career, but in the absence of any further evidence, we cannot say with any degree of certainty that Katir is doping.
Gold Medals & Grey Areas 