Irish olympian’s claims on doping in the GAA are damning, but they’re annoyingly hard to argue with

She makes sense

Niall McIntyre

Irish olympian’s claims on doping in the GAA are damning, but they’re annoyingly hard to argue with

European 1,500m medallist Ciara Mageean has called on the GAA to wake up to the possibility of doping on the back of Brendan O’Sullivan’s positive test, referencing a “naive” response to the Kerry footballer’s case.

The Portaferry athlete, who represented Ulster’s camogie team in the past claims Brendan O’Sullivan’s case has brought double standards to light within Sport Ireland’s anti-doping procedures.

O’Sullivan served a 21-week ban for testing positive for methylhexaneamine (MHA) after the National Football League final in 2016. O’Sullivan’s failed test only came to light 13 months later, however.

That is something the former European 1500m medallist takes issue with. She has called on the GAA to put in more of an effort to ensure our players are educated about what they are taking, and to ensure that there will be more testing.

“For an athlete to be like: ‘Oh, I didn’t know’, it doesn’t wash with me,” she said to Independent.ie. “Maybe there is a naivety in the GAA where the athletes aren’t aware, but that’s the responsibility of the GAA to educate their athletes and for athletes to educate themselves,” said Mageean.

“You like to think people are clean but you also have to ask: why did you take that?”

It’s hard to argue with Mageean’s comments.

Doping is a topic that rarely rears its ugly head in GAA circles. That is something we should be hugely thankful for.

It’s wishful thinking to assume that all of our GAA players are 100% clean, however.

GAA players make a savage commitment to the game, between winter training, extra gym sessions and so on. Their lives revolve around the game. They live and breathe the game.

Drug testing in the GAA is not as common in the GAA as it should be, as Conan Doherty claimed on The GAA Hour Show recently.

“The Irish Anti-Doping Agency in 2015 only tested 97 times in GAA,” said Doherty

“When something like this comes up, we shouldn’t be so quick to say, ‘ah nonsense, it doesn’t happen here’

When testing is so rare, and when there is a strong likelihood that a player won’t be tested, it is inevitable that the possibility of taking performance enhancing drugs will tempt players.

The GAA has an obligation to ensure that our games are clean and that what we’re competing in is fair.

Increased testing should be welcomed in the GAA by players and by everybody else.