Fairer than the evening air?
Dwain Chambers' .
Just as Christopher Marlowe's magician sought knowledge and power, so Chambers is using Conte to educate him in the dark ways of the hypoxicator.
Well, perhaps that's an analogy too far, but are at the contentious end of the scale of legal aids to performance.
Put simply, they can shortcut an athlete's way to the benefits of altitude training, or indeed living at altitude, should you happen to come from say, , or .
On a basic biological level, humans are rather clever at adapting to altitude over time: the body compensates for the lack of oxygen in the atmosphere at higher altitudes by , This, (as far as I recall from Mrs Birkin's O-level biology classes,) stems from the increased production of haemoglobin. When you return to a lower altitude, there's a residual benefit.
Distance runners particularly notice this in terms of increased stamina. Paula Radcliffe for instance is a . There was a school of thought that artificially manipulating oxygen levels would only benefit endurance athletes, but that's changing.
to try to speed up his return to fitness from a broken metatarsal a couple of years ago. The English Institute for Sport has a full-scale acclimatisation chamber at Bisham Abbey in Berkshire, which was used by the Comic Relief Kilimanjaro team to give them a taste of walking at altitude before they set off.
It's used by athletes from all sorts of sports for all sorts of reasons... So what's the problem? Why did the spend so long considering whether ? Why are they banned for use in Italy, and not permitted by the International Olympic Committee during the Olympics in the athletes' village? It's a question of ethics. has three tests for a substance or method before it can be considered to be doping:
Essentially,
1) Does it chemically enhance performance?
2) Is it potentially injurious to health?
3) Does its use contravene the spirit of sport?
Anything that fails two of those three tests is banned. It's the third of those tests which causes the most problems in the case of the use of hypoxicators and .
Athletes in developing countries are unlikely to have easy access to them on cost grounds, so they tend to make the playing field less even. You could argue that sport is already skewed to the more developed nations because advances in sports science happen first among the usual suspects in Europe, the United States, Australia and Japan, and you'd be right, but the more sophisticated of these machines are particularly cost prohibitive.
For Wada there was also the issue of whether the illegal use of synthetic (EPO) was being masked by the use of hypoxicators, as they encourage the natural production of EPO in the body, making the detection of the lab produced kind more difficult. Wada had not ruled out making the use of these devices illegal in the future.
So where does that leave us? Dwain Chambers isn't doing anything wrong. In fact one expert I spoke to said he doubted there'd be in using Chambers' type of hypoxicator. Yet somehow, all of this sits uncomfortably with me at least.
"Tis magic, magic, that hath ravish'd me," as Dr Faustus declared. No-one told him it's all smoke and mirrors.
I've been Radio 5 Live's Sports News and Olympics Correspondent since 1998. I'll be looking at the events behind the headlines in all sports but especially on the road to London 2012. 
Comment number 1.
At 13th Mar 2009, FarquharsPEteacher wrote:Mrs Birkin's O level Biology lessons indeed.
Good job you redeemed yourself with the Faustian references.
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Comment number 2.
At 13th Mar 2009, gbshaun wrote:This subject is such old "news". Dick Pound's personal crusade was looked at and found to be without medit. www.altitudeforall.info
>>Athletes in developing countries are unlikely to have easy access to them on cost grounds, so they tend to make the playing field less even.
This is a ridiculous statement. Altitude sleeping systems cost less than US$4000 and last forever, so many many athletes who could never afford repeated overseas trips to the mountains can now ALSO enjoy the benefits of altitude training. It now costs the same wherever you happen to be born.
Dwain's rebreatehr is even cheaper, but offers far less (if any) performance gain for an athlete, so i quoted a tent system which does give similar benefits to going to the mountains.
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Comment number 3.
At 13th Mar 2009, thegillsguvnor wrote:This just seems another poorly-scribed dig at Dwain Chambers.
Why don't you delve deeper into the career of David Millar a little more? He's served his time for drugs offences as well and has made a comeback. There MUST be something there too, no?
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Comment number 4.
At 13th Mar 2009, ukathleticscoach wrote:>>Athletes in developing countries are unlikely to have easy access to them on cost grounds, so they tend to make the playing field less even.
This is a ridiculous statement. Altitude sleeping systems cost less than US$4000
Do you know how many years it would take to earn that in a developing country!!!
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Comment number 5.
At 14th Mar 2009, highthief wrote:gbshaun is correct. The Alto-Lab product Chambers is using starts at about $200 US for the starter kit. For an athlete from a poor nation, that is certainly a lot cheaper than flying to Colorado or Kenya for several weeks prior to competition.
If anything, it evens the playing field for poor nations without access to true altitude training.
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Comment number 6.
At 14th Mar 2009, JobyJak wrote:FFS, why can't we just leave Chambers alone once and for all?
If he fails another test, then he is out of the sport for good. Until then, all this nitpicking will get everyone nowhere fast!
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Comment number 7.
At 14th Mar 2009, JobyJak wrote:Why can't we just leave Chambers alone once and for all?
If he fails another test, then he is out of the sport for good. Until then, all this nitpicking will get everyone nowhere fast!
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Comment number 8.
At 14th Mar 2009, KeepitReal wrote:Conte in the days of the Wild West would have ridden around on a wagon setup stall did a whole song and dance selling 'wonder strength products' made a killing with the sales and quickly moved on to the next town.
ZMA and now this
he is using Chambers for marketing with the American principal, there is no such thing as bad marketing
Who had heard about the product until the ´óÏó´«Ã½ bleated on about the Conte link?
Oh boy, will we ever learn
sheep the ruddy lot of us
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Comment number 9.
At 14th Mar 2009, ShuBob wrote:In a way, the ´óÏó´«Ã½ have been the biggest advertisers for both Dwain's book and now Conte's breathing apparatus! I can almost guarantee that other athletes will be scrambling about now to get this product! Well done, ´óÏó´«Ã½!
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Comment number 10.
At 20th Mar 2009, ³¢ÃƒÂ©±Ê°ù´Ç´Ú wrote:Chambers must be laughing his hearty head off. the ´óÏó´«Ã½, through the errant spoutings of their bloggers, especially Herr Cram, have provided the ultimate in market saturation when Chambers would have wanted it most.
The poster who talked about david Millar has made a most valid point. it seems that contrition is more important than individuality if you are a previous drugs offender, to the ´óÏó´«Ã½ at least. Or maybe Millar just has a wonderful personality, which Chambers seems to lack? or may there be some other, darker bias present?
whatever it is, i doubt Chambers minds it either way any more. it keeps him in the spotlight when he desires to be there most.
i salute him, drugs or not.
without mistakes there would never be redemption.
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