The doping phenomenon reflects a relentless desire to win at any cost. As the new documentary “The Dark Side” reveals, the scandal affects more than just athletes. Doping is a well-established underground industry, with quackery, a highly organized and crooked international network, and a regulatory system that cannot keep up.
Produced with deep and harrowing insight by Al Jazeera’s team of skilled investigators, the film draws on the expertise of world champion Liam Collins as he attempts to infiltrate the secret society that allows illegal doping to flourish. Armed with a hidden camera and undercover posing as a potential buyer, he traveled to the Bahamas, where a series of connections led him to Chad Robertson, a licensed pharmacist offering a A list of growth hormones and other prohibited substances.
The drugs have the potential to turn mediocre athletes into sports superstars, according to suppliers. They boast a number of high-profile athletes who claim to have benefited from their services, including internationally renowned NFL quarterback Peyton Manning.
Whether those claims are true or not, the doping epidemic has become a major hurdle in professional sports as more and more athletes fall victim to failed drug tests. But what worries the sports industry more than athletes who fail these tests are athletes who fail them. Chemistry geniuses have found more sophisticated ways to avoid current test sensitivities.
For the fallen athletes themselves, the stigma attached to their misconduct far outweighed any performance-enhancing benefits they received throughout their careers. But some of them try to teach others about their mistakes. The film introduces us to one athlete—Tim Montgomery—whose doping campaign took him from the enviable title of world’s fastest runner to a disgraced icon.
Having lost his early achievements, he now mentors the next generation of young athletes and molds them to maintain clean athletic virtues. The worthy work he does and the exposure a film like The Dark Side affords is an important step in bringing honor back to this controversial but beloved industry.
