Sports Law

Landis v USADA (Dissent)

Floyd Landis, the elite cyclist (the since-disqualified winner of the 2005 Tour de France) was charged with an anti-doping violation, having a high amount of testosterone in his system. Christopher Campbell again (he wrote a dissenting opinion in the Tyler Hamilton case) referred to serious errors in the laboratory’s processes:

As this case demonstrates, even when an athlete proves there are serious errors in a laboratory’s document package that refute an Adverse Analytical Finding, it will be extremely difficult for an athlete to prevail in these types of proceedings. Therefore, it is imperative that WADA Accredited Laboratories abide by the highest scientific standards.

These doping adjudications can cause substantial harm to a human being financially, physically and emotionally. It can destroy families. If, from time to time, WADA's mission obligates it to inflict such harm, it should be obligated to get it right-all of it. As athletes have strict liability rules, the laboratories should be held strictly liable for their failure to abide by the rules and sound scientific practice.

Because everyone assumes an athlete who is alleged to have tested positive is guilty, it is not fashionable to argue that laboratories should comply with strict rules. However, if you are going to hold athlete strictly liable with virtually no possibility of overcoming a reported alleged positive test even in the face of substantial and numerous laboratory errors, fairness and human decency dictates that strict rules be applied to laboratories as well. To do otherwise does not “safeguard the interest of athletes”.

WADA should be writing rules that mandate the highest scientific standards rather than writing rules for a race to the bottom of scientific reliability so convictions can be easily obtained, as this case demonstrates. Given the plethora of laboratory errors in this case, there was certainly no reliable scientific evidence introduced to find that Mr. Landis c omitted a doping offence.