More lifelong consequences can deter athletes from doping, insists Adeleke
2024 Paris At Ambassador, Olympian Games Making History The Dublin's And Pic: After Adeleke Olympic Finest: Rhasidat Allianz Treacy/inpho Morgan
Rhasidat Adeleke has suggested that athletes tempted down the doping road would think twice about their intentions if more severe bans were imposed by the world’s sporting authorities.
The Dubliner was denied an Olympic medal in Paris this summer when finishing fourth in the women’s 400m final.
Among the runners to make the podium was Bahrain’s Salwa Eid Naser who claimed silver at the Stade de France.
A World 400m champion in 2019, and a silver medallist in the global championships two years prior to that, Naser had served a two-year ban from June of 2021 after missing three doping tests inside a 12-month period.
It emerged after the Games that Naser was one of ten Bahrainis allowed to run in the French capital after the national athletics association was banned from competing in other World Athletics events as of June 1st this year due to serious anti-doping violations.
Naser faced questions about her past in the press conference after that 400m final in Paris. Adeleke was asked about the Nigerian-born Naser that night too, but opted to stick to her own lane while expressing the hope that every athlete would run clean.
She took a similar line on Tuesday afternoon, making the point that anything others do is beyond her control, but she did go further when asked if harsher sanctions should be imposed on those found guilty of flouting the rules.
“I don’t know what sanctions they got, to be honest,” she said of the Bahraini association. “I’m not really sure how that all works. But I think for sure if there were more lifelong consequences to doping or being caught or missing three tests or bans or things like that [then] people would think twice before they make certain decisions.
“I feel like if the sanctions were higher, if there were more significant consequences, it would have a different outcome. But I’m not in a place to make those decisions so it's really up to doping and WADA etc so…”
She is already moving on from her Paris experience, where she also finished fourth in the 4x400m women’s relay, despite the fact that she “got really sick” after the Olympics, with another fourth place banked in the Diamond League meeting in Silesia last weekend.
If being caught down the stretch in Poland was frustrating then she is processing it as yet another building block, and not least because this is the point in the season where the main work is done and experimentation can become the order of the day.
“I think I did a good 300, and I feel like I panicked in the last 100m,” she said in her role as an Allianz ambassador. “I was ahead and I was like, ‘Oh my God, where are they? Where are they?’ And then I soon found out where they were!
It was a good time I feel to figure out things about running a 400. I feel like I definitely need a lot more experience, which me and my coach talked about, probably doing a couple more 400s to really figure out what my style of running should be.”
She only turns 22 this Thursday and talks about having so much to still figure out at this distance whether that be how to run, her style, her positioning, the competition or any of the other myriad factors that can push an athlete on.
One last race awaits, in the Brussels Diamond League meet, before the season winds down and she can retreat to a beach but the focus remains resolute for the LA Olympic cycle and Austin, Texas and coach Edrick Floreal will continue to be her home from home.
“I’ll be in the US anyway. As long as Coach Flo is here, I’ll be here too. That would be a great situation actually with the Olympics being in the US, because I wouldn’t have to adapt to European timings, that would work well.
“I know I’d still be in Europe for Diamond League and different meets, but being out in the US would be pretty optimal performance-wise.”