doping

Will the Olympics ever be politics-free?

20 July 2024 9:00 am

Despite Baron Coubertin’s ideals, nationalistic friction at the Paris Games in 1924 had already prompted a Times headline: ‘Olympics doomed’

Why Russia’s Olympic punishment backfired

9 August 2021 5:13 pm

The Tokyo Olympics are over and fifth place in the medals table went to the ‘ROC’, the Russian Olympic Committee.…

The straight dope

16 September 2017 9:00 am

It’s not easy to get hold of Ángel Hernández, the legendary Mexican chemist who for a decade provided illicit performance-enhancing…

Survival of the sneakiest

8 July 2017 9:00 am

Could there be a better metaphor for the corruption that now pervades all top-level sport than the use of motors…

Portrait of the week

14 November 2015 9:00 am

Home David Cameron, the Prime Minister, outlined four changes he sought in Britain’s membership of the EU. He wanted to…

It’s not just the Russians – there is no morality in top-level sport

14 November 2015 9:00 am

Why do transgendered people need separate toilets? I thought, according to the prevalent orthodoxy, that the new gender they had…

Cycling is about much more than winning — and David Millar’s The Racer is quite a ride

14 November 2015 9:00 am

In 2004, French police officers searching the home of the professional cyclist David Millar found some syringes and empty phials…

Seb Coe is a fine man... who deserves to feel uncomfortable

14 November 2015 9:00 am

So Smiley was right all along: the bloody Russians were the baddest of the bad. The Pound report on the…

Paula Radcliffe is a victim of our hypocrisy and confusion about drugs and sport

19 September 2015 8:00 am

Do you want to see Paula Radcliffe’s blood? If so, you’re not alone. Radcliffe, three-time winner of the London Marathon…

Christmas racing reading

7 December 2013 9:00 am

In one of those old Mae West films a girl admires her friend’s jewellery: ‘Goodness, what lovely pearls,’ only to…