OPINION: did Drabik cheat?

N.B. The views in this piece are the author’s alone and do not reflect the view of Po-Bandzie as a whole.

The background

Yesterday, Polish rider with Wroclaw, Maksym Drabik was handed out a one-year doping violation which will expire on 29 October 2021. Assuming there is no appeal, this will be the end of a case which started on 22 September 2019 when the then 21-year-old failed a doping control in the Ekstraliga semi-final.

To be clear, the rider, who will be 23 yrs at the end of the month, took a legal supplement, but took five times the allowed amount – 500 ml instead of 100 ml. He says he told people at the doping control he had had the injection from the team’s doctor four days before the event.

Therapeutic Use Exemption

And if we continue to follow Drabik’s version of the story, he has been penalised for breaking the rules, mainly due to an administrative error – that the team did not apply for a Therapeutic Use Exemption (TUE) before the event that would have allowed him to take the vitamin supplement to assist in recovery from an injury. He had his backdated request for a TUE denied by POLADA, the Polish doping agency who have been managing the case. They said this was mainly because it was applied for late. And they seem to have gone for leniency in issuing just a one-year ban (of which he has already served a quarter) instead of the maximum four years.

But is Drabik’s story believable?

At the very least it tells us the seriousness which speedway riders are taking their performance with the physical, mental and biological aspects all being considered part of key to success in elite sports. We also know that others have been caught doping, such as Patryk Dudek (2014) and Grigori Laguta (2017), so everyone is trying to get that edge over their rivals.

But the question remains – did he try to cheat or not?

Drabik on top form

We know that Drabik was having the season of his life and Wroclaw needed him to be in top form as they were six points behind before the home leg of their tie against Zielona Gora. We can at the very least say that it must have been very tempting to cheat as the stakes were high. Drabik certainly put in a spectacular performance for a junior that night scoring 11+2 and being the team’s second highest scorer behind three times world champion, Tai Woffinden.

But let us think about the issue again – why was five times the legal limit of a substance in Drabik’s body in the first place?

Doping or medical treatment?

The supplement was in his body with full knowledge of both the doctor and the rider. So, we can be certain that it was there on purpose not by accident. That leaves us with two options – either the doctor knowingly gave Drabik an illegal amount of the supplement; or he gave him too much by mistake.

Did the doctor make a mistake?

The second scenario is much more worrying for Drabik and, indeed, the whole Wroclaw team as it would be a case of incompetence by a professional sports doctor. The team, at least, have not taken action against the doctor so they do not want the case to focus on his lack of diligence. And they have also stated that they are looking forward to Drabik returning to the team.

The first scenario is possibly better but in which case we have to ask why? Did they intend to cheat and hope that he would not tested, or that by the time of the control it would have washed out his system? Did they take too much not realising it was a banned substance in large amounts? Did they simply forget to fill in the paperwork so show it was a TUE before the match?

In all three cases the doctor and Drabik appear in a bad light. They either cheated but did not cover their tracks properly, or they did good thing for his health but made a mess of it causing huge problems for the star affecting almost two years of his career and affecting future contracts.

POLADA have said they will be investigating the doctor separately and that he could face a ban of four to eight years if found guilty.

Doping controls must continue

It is important that drug testing continues in the sport as people will always be looking for that extra little difference between them and their competitors. It is also important as doctors themselves are employees of the clubs and in other sports, such as skiing and cycling, have been regularly shown to be part a fully fledged part of a doping strategy administering drugs and masking agents to sportsmen and women. Doping will not go away, but everyone in the sport needs to see that there are checks in place and that it is not worth the risks.