Changes in swimming's drug testing rules, drafted by officials in Seville last week, could cause a damaging split in the sport. Under proposals to be put to the congress, Fina the international governing body, at the World Championships in Perth next January, swimming could bring itself in line with recent changes in athletics.
If the proposals are accepted, the mandatory four-year ban for a steroid positive test will be reduced to two years. Swimming's new rule would also provide for swimmers who are caught to also be banned from the next Olympic Games.
According to Harm Beyer, the German who chairs Fina's doping commission, "all right-minded nations" will support the proposal, instigated because of difficulties in sustaining a four-year ban against challenges in some European courts.
However, Beyer is aware that those "right-thinking nations" may exclude the United States, Canada, South Africa, Australia and probably Britain. "It will just encourage everyone to take drugs," John Wright, a South African team coach said, while John Collins, head of the US women's team said, "we feel very strongly that anyone who gets caught should be penalised for four years."
There is particular concern among professional American coaches that middle-class parents may stop putting their children into the sport if it is perceived as drug tainted. After the scandals of East Germany and Chinese swimmers, some coaches have even suggested forming a breakaway governing body, with its own hard-line drug rules.
It was American coaches in 1995 who saw to the exclusion of China from that year's Pan Pacific championships, purely on the basis of suspicion.
More moderate voices suggest that the timing of such a rule change is unfortunate. Last week, at the European Championships, blood tests were being taken in competition for the first time. It was a voluntary experimental scheme.
Among the moderates, Don Talbot, Australia's chief coach, feels that if suspensions cannot be upheld, then the penalties for drug takers should be financial. "I think it will be a strategic error to reduce the ban from four years," Talbot said. "But if we are going to be a professional sport, it may be that we have to hit the cheats in the pocket."
