www.iol.org.ukFEATURESIn addition to a level of specialisation,journalistic texts on doping use regularlycombine the approach of popular scientificwriting with procedures also known totranslators, such as addition, paraphrase,explicitation and the translator's note.When science marries lawAnother feature of texts on doping is of a legalnature. Translation involving material for courtcases, documentation for sports associationsor national sports federations, and contractsfor athletes (which usually contain stipulationsconcerning the consequences of gettingcaught using performance-enhancing drugs ormethods) will have more in common withlegal translation than with translatingjournalistic or scientific texts. In a more legal take on doping issues,translators will often be confronted by amixture of styles and registers: 'the legaleseof the professional lawyers, the everydaylanguage of the witnesses and litigants', the slang of the athletes and 'the oftenextremely technical jargon of the reports' and testimonies.4Translators need a solid workingknowledge of the legal systems concerningthe field of doping use and anti-dopingviolations of both the source and targetculture. Furthermore, they are often out on alimb, vulnerable in their choices regardingattributing equivalence as well as nuances inthe translation (take the possibly emotiveaddition in the Riccò text). Luckily, for that reason, translations used inofficial and legal documents are very oftenaccompanied by labels such as 'unofficialtranslation' or 'provisional translation'.5Notonly do translators of texts on dopingbecome invisible, but they also gain a moreredundant pivotal language stature, insteadof a key mediator one.A 'divorce' between culturesWith disinterested yet legally sensitive textson doping, the possibility of translatorsoffering phrases that are not entirelyequivalent seems too troublesome for manyofficial bodies to deal with. The main anti-doping agency in the world, WADA (WorldAnti-Doping Agency), publishes a glossary ofdoping terminology in various languages.However, the glossary clearly stipulates: 'TheEnglish version shall prevail in the event ofany conflict of interpretation.'6Despite all theefforts to design an elaborate glossary ondoping in Chinese, French, German,Japanese, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish,the most important organisation in the worldin combating doping use restricts itself to thesafe haven of English if the need arises. English then acts as a 'get out clause'. Assuch, the translation moves from a merelyprovisional intermediate step in thecommunication chain to a near redundantone, an act of assimilation only. Distributionis no longer essential, let alone publication. Both WADA and the French Minister ofHealth, Youth Affairs and Sport took part inthe UCI's 2007 Conference on Doping inCycling. The language to prevail in case ofpossible misunderstanding was not Englishbut French. This was quite a move away fromthe front-end multilingualism of the event,with a monolingual legal core maintainingEnglish as the one key language. If a transparent language policy is in place,establishing a cross-organisationaland cross-cultural anti-doping fightmight very well be flawed at itscommunication and informationcore. Proof of this can be found inthe fact that, although it providesa 20-page bilingual French-English glossary, the UCI doesnot specify what happens in the case of a conflict.Also, the UCI's cyclingregulations elaborateon the procedure ofthe analysis of Bsamples, stating:7The opening and analysis ofthe B Sample may be attendedby the Rider, an expertdesignated by him or hisNational Federation, arepresentative of the Rider'sNational Federation, a representative of theUCI and a translator.Other than that this profile suits aninterpreter more than a translator, it must beemphasised that the translator's task shouldnot be taken lightly, as many possibleconflicts of interpretation abound. Flirting with disasterWhereas definitions of scientific and/ormedical concepts traditionally effectuate aframework of confidence within whichtranslators feel comfortable to work, theabsence of a definition of what in factconstitutes doping convolutes the entire field even further. The lexicographical issue of not being able to pin down what doping effectively is,is also demonstrated in the often conflictingapproaches of official anti-doping bodies andin different national approaches. What usedto be a threshold for an athlete's haematocrit(red blood cells count) and was stillconsidered 'healthy' in cross-country skiing,would trigger doping cases in cycling. One well-known Spanish cyclist implicatedin the Operacion Puerto doping ring wascleared by the Spanish judiciary due to lackof evidence but convicted on the basis of thesame material by the Italian OlympicCommittee (CONI). The rider was bannedfrom competing in Italy but went on to winthe 2009 Vuelta d'Espana.8Besides the specialised terminology andtranslation procedures used in any branch ofscience or medicine, such as paraphrase andaddition, texts on performance-enhancingdrugs are characterised by the incrementalencyclopaedism of the genre. Arguably the major doping trend of thelast two decades concerns blood doping, inparticular blood boosting drugs known aserythropoietins, such as EPO, Aranesp andCERA. These products constitute three'generations' of erythropoietin, whichstimulates the production of oxygen-carryingred blood cells. The difference between Translators are oftenout on a limb,vulnerable in theirchoices regardingequivalence© ISTOCKPHOTO

Vol/51 No/1 2012FEBRUARY/MARCHTheLinguist21FEATURESNotes1Although this concerns the source texts initiallyit also applies to target texts.2Van Maerken, T, Dhondt, A and Delanghe, J R,2010, 'A Rapid and Simple Assay to DeterminePegylated Erythropoietin in Human Serum' inJournal of Applied Physiology, e-publicationahead of print, 21/1/10. Available at http://jap.physiology.org/cgi/reprint/01102.2009v1.pdf3'Tour de France Faces More Controversy afterRicardo Ricco Tests Positive' in The Times, 17/7/084Alcaraz, E and Hughes, B, 2002,Legal TranslationExplained, Amsterdam, St Jerome Publishing, 14 5This is not uncommon. See, eg, Wathelet, M,2007, 'Sport Governance and EU Legal Order:Present and future', available at www.ielaws.com/Wathelet_EN.pdf, whose footnotes refer to'unofficial translations' from French into English6'WADA Glossary: Translation of common termsused in the field of anti-doping in sports',available at www.wada-ama.org/rtecontent/document/glossary.pdf7UCI Cycling Regulations, part 14 Anti-Doping,2011, 39, available at http://tinyurl.com/cva9wvj 8This happens on an intranational level. Eg, inItaly a cyclist was convicted in one judicial districtfor an infringement but not in another. ALEXLEE, 'RICARDORICCO', 1/6/08 VIAFLICKR, (CC BY 2.0) TESTING TIMESRiccardo Riccò rides the 2008 Giro d'Italia asteam leader for Saunier Duval. He later testedpositive for the banned substance CERAthe various generations is that the drugs havebecome more and more refined, with fewer injections required and longerlasting effects. Communication is keyAlthough translating texts on doping posesmany peculiar issues, the realisation that clearcommunication is key for the future -forcreating new cycling events for instance -is a major step forward. This is asserted byAlain Rumpf, Director of Global CyclingPromotion, who has stated that avoidingmisunderstanding is key. When participants' English is not up to afunctioning level, a local language consultantis brought along. The Lausanne-basedorganisation SportAccord (formerly theGeneral Association of International SportsFederations) is also promotingcommunication and cooperation amongvarious international sports federations, andhas an ever growing number of members.To sum up, while translating texts ondoping, the translator is put in an awkwardposition. He or she needs a solid scientificbackground in the substances involved aswell as in the medical consequences.Translating texts on doping includes twoother important layers: one of legalsensitivities and another involving possiblecross-cultural differences, as well as thecultural context, which may be construed asnear superfluous. This can be seen as adifficult situation, with the translator applyinga truthful relationship to a particular andchallenging field.The absence of adefinition of whatconstitutes dopingconvolutes the entirefield even further