‘It taints the entire sport’ – Mark Allen on Collin Chartier

Kona king Mark Allen has underlined the damage that Collin Chartier’s use of performance-enhancing drugs has done to his fellow pros and the sport as a whole.

Chartier tested positive for EPO in an IRONMAN out-of-competition test on 10 February 2023 and was suspended for three years by the International Testing Agency (ITA), the body appointed to independently handle the results management and intelligence and investigations on anti-doping rule violations on behalf of IRONMAN. 

‘So disheartening’

A legend of the sport who won the IRONMAN World Championship at Kona six times, Allen would normally have spent his ‘Mondays With Mark’ discussing many superb performances from a busy weekend.

But as he acknowledged there was only one topic to focus on in the video, Chartier’s suspension – and admission of guilt which is the reason for a three-year, rather than the typical four-year, period of ineligibility.

Allen said: “This kind of thing is just so disheartening because if an athlete tests positive for performance-enhancing drugs out of competition like that, it taints the entire sport.

“I mean, the pros, they have value out there in the world because they inspire people. They do things that are amazing. They inspire other athletes who are trying to be their best. They inspire people to get off the couch and just do something when they see what a top athlete can do, a world-class athlete.

“But then when you find out that maybe part of that performance was done through drugs, illegal means, it just sucks. It taints everybody’s reputation in the sport.”

‘You play by the rules’

Alluding to Chartier’s own statement which referenced “feelings of intense pressure and expectations,” Allen added: “I don’t care how much pressure you are under. You play by the rules.

“When you line up on the start line of a race, you have agreed to a number of things. You’re going to complete the full course. You’re not going to cut it short so that you can outrace everybody else. You’re not going to take performance-enhancing drugs. If it’s a non-drafting race, you’re going to try the best you can to not draft.

“I mean, there’s all these things that you agree to when you line up on that start line. And when you just decide that, okay, I’m outside those rules, I’m going to do something different than everybody else, something that is considered illegal, it cheapens everybody.”