Leaked IAAF files rekindle argument to legalize doping in sport

To many Canadians, there's no more memorable case of doping in sports than Ben Johnson's too-good-to-be-clean performance at the 1988 Olympics. But in the quarter century since that infamous sprint, it seems doping itself has never slowed down.

From baseball's persistent problems to cyclist Lance Amstrong's disgrace, the scandals just keep coming. And this past weekend — just ahead of the World Athletics Championships in Beijing — fresh allegations are once again rattling the world of amateur sports.

A whistleblower at the International Association of Athletics Federations (track and field's world governing body) is alleged to have leaked a decade's worth of athletes' blood test results.

The IAAF says allegations that it did not test athletes properly are "laughable"... but given the pernicious history of doping in sport, it's increasingly difficult to be surprised at new revelations of illegal performance enhancement.

Today, in addition to digging more deeply into the new allegations, we're asking whether sport needs to rethink its attitude about doping in the face of such an unrelenting problem and look seriously at the idea of legalizing doping in sport.

We speak to Robert Silverman, contributor for The Daily Beast, and Doug MacQuarrie, chief operating officer for the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sports, for two perspectives on the issue.

Is it time to legalize the use of performance-enhancing drugs in sports? Send us your thoughts on Twitter @TheCurrentCBC, Facebook, or by email.

This segment was produced by The Current's Leif Zapf-Gilje, Pacinthe Mattar, and Nicole Abi-Najem.