International Sports Exec: Athletes Should Be Microchipped

'We're prepared to chip our dogs ... so why aren't we prepared to chip ourselves?'

One sports executive wants to make international sporting into a sci-fi blockbuster.

According to The Guardian, Mike Miller, who is the chief executive of the World Olympics Association, says the best way to fight doping in international sports is to microchip athletes. “We’re prepared to chip our dogs and it doesn’t seem to harm them, so why aren’t we prepared to chip ourselves?” said Miller.

He went on to suggest that while some might feel chipping athletes to be “an invasion of privacy,” sports is made up of teams and not everybody has to join them—or abide by their rules (i.e. by not doping).

Microchips are a foolproof way of testing athletes in a system that’s currently flawed, explained Miller. “The problem with the current anti-doping system is that all it says is that at a precise moment in time there are no banned substances,” he notes, “but we need a system which says you are illegal substance–free at all times and if there are changes in markers they will be detected.”

As Total Recall–ish as Miller’s idea may sound, he may actually have a point. The 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea, is just around the corner, and doping will again take centerstage. In recent years, Russia, Turkey, and the United Kingdom have all had athletes test positive for banned substances, with maybe the most famous case being American cyclist Lance Armstrong, who was stripped of his international accolades and now awaits trial for related offenses.

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