2008 Ironman World Champion Chris McCormack, recently spoke with Australia's Herald Sun Newspaper and expressed grave concerns about the future of the sport of triathlon if the European Cycling Doping culture continues to spread and takes further hold in triathlon.
According to heradsun.com:
"The Australian star says drugs are "everywhere" in Europe, and easily accessible.
McCormack, 35, warned the sport to learn from the mistakes of cycling and clamp down hard on cheats.
"It is there but if you start getting caught up in thinking about it, it does your head in," he said.
"The testing in triathlon is more stringent (than cycling). We don't follow the (cycling governing body) UCI, we follow the IOC testing.
"I think we are going to be the lucky generation and just see the cusp of it, but over the next 15 years, if it is anything like cycling, it will tear the heart out of the sport."
It was the time he spent training in Spain that made McCormack aware of the size of the battle drug-testing agencies faced.
"I was a naive guy living in Europe, and was shocked. It's everywhere," McCormack said.
"It happens in the States but you don't see it. In Europe it is out in the open. I was in shock, especially in Spain. You can walk into a pharmacy and it's right there.
"If you ride a bike, you get asked if you need 'some medicine'.
"It is so blatant (in) Italy and Spain. Italy has a genetic blood problem, so they have the best blood people in the world. And in Spain it is rampant."
