Noah Would Like To See 60 Anti-Doping Tests Per Year

Written by: Staff on 16th October 2012

Noah Would Like To See 60 Anti-Doping Tests Per Year

epa02919692 Former French tennis player Yannick Noah (R), father of French basketball player Joakim Noah (not pictured), is seen before the semi final basketball match between France and Russia at the EuroBasket 2011 in Kaunas, Lithuania, 16 September 2011. EPA/GEORGI LICOVSKI |

Even though his comments of a year ago that he was suspicious of Spanish athletes doping caused a huge outcry, Yannick Noah has yet to back off his stance. While playing an exhibition in Brazil last week, Noah said he has nothing to apologize for and that he believes things are getting worse.

“I have nothing against Spain . They have great champions there,” the 1983 Roland Garros champion said. “What I do know is that doping and betting are very bad for the sport professionally. I would be very happy to sit at a table with people to try to develop something that would help deal with these problems. I understand that many people are trying to play nice but are paying dearly for it. Look what happened in cycling with Lance Armstrong. It took 10 years to find something that everyone already knew long ago. This is very sad.”

Noah added that he is unsure that the anti-doping testing players six times a year is enough and added that he would be much more strict.

“I’m not sure what we’re trying to do,” he said. “Do we want to have a clean sport or not? If the idea is to have a clean sport, we should be able to do 60 tests per year. If I’m clean, I have no problem going to pee in a pot. Six tests are better than zero, but to have a clean sport we should do six in two days. And if 20 years later we find out that you were doping, you should have to have to return everything you earned. Having a clean sport is very easy. But from what I see, they are pretending it’s working, but it’s not. We cannot waste time talking about it, as important people are trying to make fools of us.”