Usain Bolt and Anti-doping Policy

The name and person of Usain Bolt, needs no introduction, as since the year 2000 and below, the country Jamaica has been a regular manufacturer of amazing professional athletes, mostly flash like sprinters and Usain Bolt has to be or is definitely the icing on the cake for them. He first gained recognition, when he became the youngest gold medalist ever at the 2002 junior world championships. His fame was further established as a proper professional sprinter, when he won 17 out of 18 professional races, within the years 2007 to 2016, securing 17 gold medals and rewriting world records along the way. However, this is now all but history to Bolt, as we all know that in 2017, Bolt announced his retirement from professional athletics, and his established interest to become a footballer.

To this, Usain has over the years trained and played on trial with multiple football clubs, for furthering his aspirations of being a professional footballer. Currently, Bolt is on trial with the central coast mariners, a football club up in Australia, who play in the A-league. However, Bolt isn't officially signed to the club as a professional footballer, to reiterate, he is merely training with the club. Over the past week, a moment of joy came for the eight-time Olympic gold medalist as he scored twice on his first start in the club's friendly match against the second division club of Macarthur South West United. However this joy was short-lived, as recently bolt took to Instagram to showcase is shock from a notice he received. The said notice was for a drug test, and it was from the Australian football federation. However, bolt's shock is from the fact that, he being no longer a professional athlete and a mere trainee, who hasn't even been signed as a professional footballer. To this, Bolt stated that he had asked why he was being subjected to the doping test when Bolt isn't a professional footballer yet, and according to the football federation, it's because he is an elite athlete.

Naturally, the given reason for the doping test by the federation might not seem so straightforward, hence Bolt's displeasure towards it, which is quite understandable. However, proper screening at the Australian Sports Anti Doping Authority (ASADA) guidelines, would suggest that Bolt is eligible to be subjected to the test. If you come across the ASADA's website, you'll notice it states that "We maintain a Registered Testing Pool (RTP) and a Domestic Testing Pool (DTP) to implement, coordinating, administering, monitoring and enforcing effective doping control measures. " Furthermore, it reads "If an athlete is selected to be part of the RTP or the DTP they will be informed by us or their sporting organization. Athletes in the RTP and DTP, in addition to any other athlete who meets our definition of ‘Athlete’under the ASADA Act and ASADA Regulations, may be subject to both in-competition and out-of-competition sample collection. " To this, based on the definition of an athlete, in within the ASADA legislation, which is, a “person who competes in sport” if “the sport has an anti-doping policy. "

Consequently, being that the Australian football federation possesses an anti-doping policy and Bolt Can be said to have competed, via the friendly match with a team of the same federation, he can be supposed to be eligible.