Roman Kreuziger has posted a picture of himself on his personal website taking a lie detector test, claiming that results from the test show that he didn’t dope.
In June 2014, Tinkoff-Saxo announced that Kreuziger was being temporarily suspended from racing after the UCI questioned abnormalities in his biological passport from 2011 and 2012, when he was with the Astana team. On 22 September last year, it was announced that the Czech Olympic Committee had cleared him of any anti-doping violation and that he was free to compete again.
The UCI and the World Anti-Doping Agency appealed against the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in October 2014. A date for a hearing has yet to be confirmed by CAS. Kreuziger has been training with his Tinkoff-Saxo teammates and could make his season debut at the Tour of Oman.
Kreuziger states, “I took a lie detector test. I answered three key questions and for all of them the detector confirmed that I told the truth. I repeat: I am not a cheat or a liar and I have never doped.”
He listed the three questions and answers:
1. Have you ever doped? NO!
2. Have you ever had a blood transfusion to enhance your performance? NO!
3. Have you ever used EPO? NO!
He continued, “Some might say that it’s already been said. But for me the test was important. I don’t have anything to hide and I am doing everything in my power to clear my name. I am now concentrating on the upcoming hearing at the Court of Arbitration for Sport. I am not working with assumptions or probabilities, but with facts. The arguments are on my side. Wish me luck, it will soon be over!”
However, according to a research paper entitled The Truth About Lie Detectors (aka Polygraph Tests) which has been published by the American Psychological Association, “most psychologists and other scientists agree that there is little basis for the validity of polygraph tests. Courts, including the United States Supreme Court have repeatedly rejected the use of polygraph evidence because of its inherent unreliability.”
The paper also states that “Evidence indicates that strategies used to “beat” polygraph examinations, so-called countermeasures, may be effective. Countermeasures include simple physical movements, psychological interventions (e.g., manipulating subjects’ beliefs about the test), and the use of pharmacological agents that alter arousal patterns.
Numerous other papers have been written which question the accuracy of these tests. Another paper, entitled, Charlantry in forensic speech science: A problem to be taken seriously, states “Given the absence of scientific support for the underlying principles (of lie detectors) it is justified to view the use of these machines as charlatanry and we argue that there are serious ethical and security reasons to demand that responsible authorities and institutions should not get involved in such practices.”
He’s not the first cyclist to take a lie detector test to try and prove his innocence. Tyler Hamilton also undertook a test a number of years ago. The American passed and later revealed that he had researched ways in which to beat the test.
It seems that Kreuziger may be clutching at straws with this latest move, and it’s difficult to see what the purpose of the test was.
