What If Nobody's Actually Clean? - With James Witts
About this episode
James Witts discusses the complexities of doping in sports and the factors influencing athletes' decisions to dope.
We called them cheats. The reality is far more complicated. There have been plenty of books written about drugs in sport. Confessions, memoirs, exposés. But this one is different. James Witts is a sports journalist and former editor of 220 Triathlon Magazine — someone I've known for well over a decade. His new book, Dope, isn't a first-person account of falling from grace. It's a proper state-of-play analysis of where the battle between dopers and anti-dopers actually stands in 2025 and 2026. Who's winning? How are athletes sidestepping detection? And what's driving people to dope in the first place — because it's rarely as simple as wanting to win. We talk about Colin Chartier, David Millar, Team Sky, TUEs, blood bags, the Enhanced Games, AI, and why this issue reaches much further than elite sport. Including age-group athletes who will go to extraordinary lengths just to qualify for Kona. This is a nuanced conversation that will change how you see this subject. 5 KEY POINTS Doping is rarely just about winning — identity, imposter syndrome, financial pressure and team dynamics all play a significant role. TUEs are widely exploited — therapeutic use exemptions are legitimate in…
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