Doha: Eric Boyer, former professional road racer, said that athletes exist to win but don’t have to win at any expense while taking part in a discussion at the Doha Goals Forum on the Crisis in Cycling.
In an onstage conversation with Francesca Rossi, Director, Cycling Anti-Doping Foundation, Italy and Andrey Kashechkin, former professional cyclist, he explained that the pressures to win come not only from an athlete’s competitive nature but also from the enterprises that provide sponsorship, the financial problems they encounter, and the health of the athlete.
Kashechkin, founder of an academy for young cyclists in Belgium, told the session that cycling is one of the most popular sports despite the issues surrounding the sport but that we need to change the values of this sport by our words and deeds.
“It is essential to have a programme that is well structured and that has to take into account the professionalism of the sport. The cyclists have to be helped by people outside of the sport,” he said. Acknowledging that we have seen some great improvements in the technologies used to put an end to doping, Francesca Rossi believed that the focus should be on education to prevent doping.
“We also have to focus on education to prevent doping. We need to create leaders who can say no to cheating, and education is the key to doing just that.”
The Peninsula
