A group of 65 footballers, volleyball
ballers and cyclists will challenge the Flemish
Community for the court. They find
that their privacy is violated by
the new rule of the "whereabouts".
That system required athletes to announce where they are three months in advance, so they always and everywhere
can be monitored for doping.
According to the 65 athletes that
system goes against their right of privacy.
If the athletes succeed in their
protest at court, it may undermine the World Anti-Doping -
agency. Which also invented the system of the "whereabouts".
The 65 athletes (the football players of KV
Mechelen, the volleyballers of Roese -
lare riders and a number of Quick -
Step cyclists) have Kristof The Saedeleer as a lawyer of their case.
"The athletes want to be treated like human
beings, "says The Saedeleer." They feel they are being watched and do not really feel it makes any sense to say where you are three months in advance, for 24 hours a day. "
"In addition, every day they have 1 hour
house arrest, where they have to be home to be able for the doping doctor to reach them. These are draconian measures, slightly exaggerated, "reads the statement.
I hate google translate, and took the worst errors out, it's a Dutch message and I'm too lazy to properly translate it, but I think now it should be readable.
Anyway, interesting.
I heard Thomas Dekker complain about it at the 6-day Rotterdam at breakfast ( ) that the new system, which they have this year, is even worse then the 3 months system, since the new system gives error messages all the time. He is sometimes even afraid at night that he somehow doesn't hear his doorbell and misses a control that way...
Gert Steegmans complained about error messages as well in an interview. Steegmans said he doesn't know what to fill in when he is at a long flight, so he just filled in "Plane" as location for 1 day... It's horrible, they are taking it a bit too far maybe?
I don't think it's overdone, I think it's not properly done, simply.
It has to be demanding, but not complex, as opposed to how it is now (demanding but complex) and how it used to be (not demanding and not complex)
Jaksche says that the way it used to be, he simply told whoever rang the bell "Jörg's not here now, I'm his brother", and this way he was never actually tested...
Edited by issoisso on 27-01-2009 20:24
same as isso..system isnt perfect but there is hugh reason to do at least something.
Ofcorse there is many diffrent ways to handle it and also even more ways to avoid it.
As 2008 shows there is still plenty of people who just dont care.
...ok system isnt perfect ..but stop wining..you get payed for this job.
Human rights, and court case..America has arrived to Europe.
The riders are human beings after all but the antidoping police has to have an effective program to fight cheaters.
As discussed before this two sides clash in their interests and so for this struggle to continue being sustainable something has to be abdicated. In this case it is the rider's confort... it isn't ethicaly correct but there's no perfect scenery for this picture I guess...
) that the new system, which they have this year, is even worse then the 3 months system, since the new system gives error messages all the time. He is sometimes even afraid at night that he somehow doesn't hear his doorbell and misses a control that way...
It's horrible, they are taking it a bit too far maybe?
